Glad To Be Back.

Had fun going through all the photos on my camera but first the biggest news is that we have water again. Nearly 2 weeks without any water at all was getting a little tiring. I had to bring home drinking water each day and we used water from the handy stream behind the house to fill the toilet cisterns. At least we had those options but I was relieved when Peter finally pinpointed the problem down to a fault in the electrical system in the outbuildings. He has re-run some wiring but the whole system needs to be re-wired professionally as there are all sorts of fuse boxes, defunct sockets and underground cables involved. Well done Peter. Every day the sun rises 5 minutes earlier so when it is not grey and rainy I get to enjoy the sunrise on my way to school.
I did stop at the pet carrier and take a picture of this mini sales venture. Roadside stalls like this are not a common sight around here but I would rather buy direct from a farmer/smallholder than pay for all the middlemen to take a profit. On the radio last week I heard that the average hill farmer's year's profit was £11,500. No wonder so many are going out of business.

This ornamental feature which now graces all 3 of our chimney pots has put an end to the days of the jackdaws sneaking up and us running outside waving an airgun at them and taking potshots to deter them from nesting in the chimneys.

The cages were put on last Saturday which was a really stormy day. We had thought that the builder (we have neither the roof ladders nor the head for heights to go up ourselves), would postpone his visit but he turned up nonetheless forcing us to leap out of bed where we had been having a lie-in listening to the wind howling through the trees. He did admit to having a few scary moments perched on top of the roof but it was his choice as we would have waited for a calmer day.

Skip on a few days, the weather has been a lot warmer and one morning I was treated to the sight of a great cloud bank sitting over the river valley and covering the town.

The cloud/fog lay there like a fluffy duvet with feathers leaking out of the edges. Not so pretty of course once I drove into it.

Back to last Saturday, we couldn't resist the stormy weather so we wrapped up well, packed a flask of coffee and headed off for a stroll at Barricane beach.

It would have been more spectacular if the tide had been in with the waves crashing against the cliffs but it was good to walk on the beach and blow the cobwebs out of our heads. We found a sheltered spot in the rocks to perch and enjoy a hot cup of coffee. I would do that any day rather than go to the poshest of restaurants.

Today we had some very mild weather so I abandoned my timetable and took my class out to skip for half an hour in the warm sun. We've had so many wet playtimes recently and you never know when we'll see the sun again. Some of my class came up with the most ingenious methods of skipping together including 3 of them all skipping in a line at the same time with 2 skipping ropes linked together. The boys are happy to skip because they see boxers and footballers skipping as part of their fitness regimes though I don't think much of the current fad of WWF(E) which some of my more active boys are into.

That's all for tonight, back tomorrow.