Welcome to family, friends and visitors. Here you will find interesting (hopefully) pictures of my part of the world, news of our household and probably, long ramblings about anything that catches my interest.

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Chilly.

We had our first hard frost of the winter. As I wasn't going to work until the afternoon I wasn't too worried about getting up the hill. All was fine until I turned into the road where the car went into a bit of a wobble. Once I had got to Ashelford Corner the road was dry. Naturally everything on the south facing side of the hill was clear and there was not a sign of frost in town. When I returned home I could see that the frost was still there from the morning.
Driving to work each hill in the distance was a different shade of bluey grey. I'm so lucky to drive through such beautiful countryside each day.
My afternoon at school was mainly taken up with the children's first performance of their Christmas production. Apart from babies wailing and parents talking through the performance I found just having to try and maintain a semblance of good behaviour among the children seated at the side of the stage was much harder than teaching in class. One class I didn't know at all so it was difficult to make eye contact and glower when they chatted, sang through other children's solos and generally fidgeted and while I was facing them there was almost as much going on with the older children who were sitting in front of me; shepherds taking off their head cloths which had been tied in a special way that I couldn't reproduce,  another child decided to take off his school sweatshirt and wear it on his head like a wild turban and in the front row right in front of the parents one boy punched another in the stomach. I'm not complaining, just thankful that I hadn't been expected to stay in school for the 6.00 performance. And then they do it all again tomorrow morning but I shall be at home.
This morning I cooked up a big batch of sweet and sour red cabbage. The cabbage is cooked in white wine vinegar with bacon, onion and apples and flavoured with allspice and honey. It's now all in containers in the freezer, part of my cunning plan not to do any actual cooking on Christmas Day.

2 comments:

lea said...

We love "Rotkohl mit Apfeln"here too. My husband is from Germany and that is a favorite dish. I discovered that it was good frozen too, so much easier to make a large batch and then divide it for multiple meals.
I remember when I had to give the silent glower at children when I worked at an elementary school-sometimes it works.

Ruta M. said...

I find it works well with children in my own class. Apparently that group of boys were so naughty at the next performance the Headteacher sat with them for the final show.