Sweet Meadowsweet.

Today has been dry, windy and mostly grey. The long range weather forecast is for this all summer with maybe some sunshine if we are lucky. No wonder people go abroad for their holidays. There's nothing like that feeling of incredible warmth you get when you step out of a plane late at night in a hot country.

We are well into the end of term wind-down. Most of the morning was spent going over to the junior school for a shared assembly. It was great seeing so many of my last year's class. Normally I only see those few who come with their mums to collect younger brothers and sisters from our school. In the afternoon we had PPA time and managed to send off the data from those dreaded profiles. We are hoping tomorrow goes well as we walk all 180 children to a local park for a day of fun activities. We have booked coaches for the homeward journey or we'll never get back to school.

Here are a few more pictures from yesterday's walk down on the marshes.

In the background can be seen the sand dunes of Braunton burrows, the biggest sand dune system in the UK and a nature reserve.

A group of sheep checking me out from across the water.

All along the waterways the meadowsweet is flowering, it has the most delicious smell of clover honey with just a hint of grass. I must have looked like a real nutcase with my face in a clump of flowers enjoying the sweet smell.

This particular bramble had much pinker flowers than the ones at home. Tonight I was out with a pair of secateurs chopping back the brambles reaching out across the drive and threatening to scratch my paintwork.

Happy Birthday Peter.

Today is Peter's birthday. Because he has an assignment due in today and he lost time on the weekend because of his knee and the party, we've decided to celebrate on Saturday instead. We don't go in for big celebrations but just have a nice meal. I expect he''ll opt for a kebab feast which is our combination of take away kebab meat ( so full of calories) and lots of home made salads with pitta breads.

Spooky moment at work today - after an enjoyable but stressful sports day (weather fine, not too hot, ) we suddenly noticed that this clock was running backwards. After lots of fun banter about time running backwards etc somebody tried turning the adjuster dial and it started going forwards again. It is a very old clock that runs directly off the mains electricity so there must have been a blip in the electricity supply. Strange !

Romas met me after school today for a lift down to Braunton for his drum lesson. I went for my usual photo walk down on the marshes . It was so peaceful after a hectic day, I almost felt as if I was meditating and I certainly felt a lot calmer. I saw the swan and her cygnet but despite my bread throwing she stayed in the field. I went walking up the road with the sound of skylarks and other small birds overhead.

This time I came across a very friendly pair of swans. It was difficult persuading them to keep their distance so that I could take photos. They kept trying to get close to me for more stale bread.

When I went to collect Romas there was another treat for me. Two 9 week old alsation puppies at his drum teacher's house. It was such a hardship to sit in the garden and play with them for 10 minutes while Romas finished drumming.

Changing Hedgerows.

This morning the local weather forecast contained the words, torrential rain, thunder, lightening and hailstones. It hasn't been quite as bad as that and we've only had a few drops of rain but it certainly doesn't feel like summer. Monday's sports day was postponed till tomorrow when hopefully the weather will be better. We've started the big clean up where every bit of equipment in the classroom is washed or wiped down. I've already started putting pillow cases of lego in the staff room dishwasher. It's a great way to clean small items. The children will have the chance to wash stuff in bowls of soapy water. They love doing this and usually get rather wet. I stopped on the way home to take a few pictures to show how the character of the hedgerows has changed. Gone are the bright yellows and blues and instead there is a lot of white and dusty pink.
Already many of the plants are turning sandy brown as the colours fade and the seed heads appear.

One lovely moment at school today: I was working with a group of children who were using a teaspoon to dig for coins in a pile of sand with a plastic palm tree stuck on top - 'Digging for Pirate Treasure,' and one boy said " This is the most fun activity I've ever done." That made me feel so good because my main aim as a teacher is to motivate the children so that they learn while having fun. The lesson objective was to identify and add coins which they all did with enthusiasm.

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Cool Again.

It has continued to be very wet today. There have been a few moments of sunshine but lots of heavy rain. This evening it actually feels cold. Out in the garden some of the flowers are looking rather windswept. One of the hardy geraniums shedding its petals like confetti.

I think the end of term is catching up with me, I'm feeling quite weary and looking forward to an early night.

Rain fails To Dampen Spirits.

A rather wet retirement party but good fun anyway. Peter strapped up his knee and manged to walk around though I suspect it was with some difficulty. He said it was better once he got moving. It was such a shame that the good weather has melted away and it was an afternoon and evening of sudden, very heavy showers. There must have been about 500 people there and the event took on a festival atmosphere as people decided to ignore the rain and carry on having fun. I treated myself to a Hockins ice cream from the van which was selling these delicious traditional ice creams made with cream rather than chemicals to thicken the mixture. There was a hog roast and burgers as well as the nibbles brought in by everyone. The children were having a wonderfully messy time with the chocolate fountains and I must own up to sneaking a handful or two of the cherries to eat sans chocolate. It was great to talk to ex members of staff and catch up on their news. I wore a jazzy pink, purple and black top supplemented by lots of pink swans down. Live music was provided by a local band and by some of the entrants to the Pilton Stars in Their Eyes Show. Mrs B and the rest of 'ABBA' sang as well and then despite the rain we all sang the rest of the songs on their cd. At least ABBA is something that everyone young and old can join in. At one point somebody on the stage said it was just like Glastonbury but without the mud which put a good spin on the rain. Some of the children got completely soaked playing in the puddles, the bouncy castles had deflated by this time, but it was still warm so it didn't matter.

The sound quality on the clip is pretty terrible, sorry Mike, but it does give an idea of the atmosphere. I could have made a much better video when the stage was full of kids just dancing away to a cd and the boys performing spectacular leaps off the front of the stage but then I wouldn't have been able to post it anyway. We left at 7.00 while the party was still going strong but 5 hours was enough for us oldies.

Disaster Averted.

Phew ! I though I was going to have to report a major disaster, the demise of my trusty camera. I sat down at the pc to realise that my camera was lying on the floor, lens extended at a horrible angle. Peter had a look at it and after we decided that the damage was major he had another go at pushing the lens in while turning on the motor and hey presto it clicked back into place. I won't be leaving my camera on the edge of the desk again.

Poor old Peter woke up this morning with a badly swollen knee making it almost impossible to walk. He's spent the day in bed bemoaning the fact that he couldn't do his on-line OU work. We had planned to go into town first thing but that'll have to wait till next week. We've had a lot of heavy rain today with a few sunny spells. I started doing some of the housework today which basically hasn't been touched since the last school holidays. The men in this house don't notice or care about the mess and the dirt and so it is all left for me to do in my 'holidays'. I got a lot of cleaning done in the kitchen and spent the rest of the day collating all my information on writing CVs and finally I have a draft copy which I'll show to colleagues at work for their input. I've never had to write a CV before as all my jobs have had standard application forms but I need a CV to Email to employment agencies in NZ. Luckily there is a lot of specialised information out on the web which has proved useful.

In one of my brief forays outside I noticed some little black butterflies skipping along in the field. I finally found one that was resting for a few seconds on the long grass. I can now identify it as a Ringlet, a common grassland butterfly.
The scree garden needs a bit of weeding but I didn't have the time for gardening today.
Late this afternoon Romas arrived home rather worn out having walked the 6 miles from town carrying a heavy kit bag full of drum equipment. He had tried ringing home but I hadn't put the phone back properly and he couldn't get through. They had a good gig and there is a possibility they may get to go on tour this summer for a few weeks. He's had the results of his college course, DDM- almost top marks, which is good enough for his university place though he still has to get his drum exam. It's one step at a time with him.

It's Friday !

It's Friday and it really feels like the start of the wind down for the end of term ( & the school year). The temperature is slightly lower and the sun made a welcome reappearance this afternoon. In the morning I and the children had fun with lots of ice and toy polar bears etc and I was able to slip in some addition into the activity. In the afternoon we had a very good theatre group, ( of 3 actors) who taught the children songs before doing an excellent performance of Alice in Wonderland. I suspect our Headteacher will be spending tomorrow turning the school into a pink and purple wonderland for her colour themed retirement party on Sunday. The latest estimate is 1,000 people coming along !

Back home I did my sit ups before having an alfresco meal with Peter. We sat up by the scree garden and caught the last rays of the sun before it disappeared from our valley.

As usual we were joined by the cats waiting for any scraps that might just fall their way. Squeeky sat waiting patiently,

While Smudge attempted to see if there was any way up onto the table without us noticing. Patch and Elwen had already run off with some spare rib bones.
The lavender bushes in the scree garden have started to flower. I think that the grey foliage and purple flowers look good against the grey stone of the scree garden.

The scree garden is more about structure and foliage rather than flower colour and I love the formal shapes of the globe aliums even once they've lost their colour.