Frosty Morning.

Ndebele art.

It felt really cold this morning, 2C on the outdoor thermometer. I had to clear the frost from the car window before I could drive to work and in the shade there was frost on the ground. At school my classroom (hut) was in the sun and so was nice and warm but other parts of the school were quite cold. I had a good day with my Year 2 class. They didn't have much to finish off from the week so we spent the morning creating designs in the style of Ndebele. This is an area in southern Africa where the women create the most amazing geometric designs on the outside walls of their houses. In the afternoon it was Golden Time (free choice activities) and we had an extra long play down on our playing field. For most of the year the field is too wet to use and we are very happy with our NoMow (artificial grass) area but you can't beat running around on real grass. I had thought that with all the bad weather in February, spring would be delayed but the sunshine of the last few weeks has pushed things along. Normally the first beech leaves appear around the 1st of May but they are already emerging over a week earlier than usual. Little patches of lime green are appearing in all the hedgerows and soon the dismal grey/brown of the hedges and trees will blaze into life with that vibrant green of new leaves.

Imperceptibly the garden plants have been increasing in size. I wouldn't mind if these particular sedums (ice plants) stayed this size but once the flower stems shoot up they will cover most of their circle. The aubretia suffered a bit from being shaded last year so I may do a little cutting back. I will also try to remember to cut back the flowering spikes of the central grass as the seeds germinate while they are still on the stalks and just look messy.