A Stressful Day.

A bit of Eden's peace and tranquility.....

.....which I certainly needed after a chaotic day at school where everything seemed to be going wrong. My first annoyance was turning up to find someone had removed 3 chairs from my classroom. As all our chairs are different sizes and colours I had taken the precaution of labeling all my chairs before we took them to the playground for our wedding celebration last Thursday. By the end of the day I had located all my chairs and put them out as usual ready for a new day. I was almost the last person to go home on Thursday but I do know that another teacher who had not found all his chairs was working in school over the week-end but of course denies any knowledge of my chairs. What a petty thing to do and then lie about. Then last thing on Thursday my classroom printer started to play up and is still not working which is a major problem. I tried to get round it by emailing stuff to myself and printing it from the staffroom printer but everything came out as gobbledy gook. Luckily at the end of the day I managed to print in somebodyelse's classroom which solves the problem for the moment but we have no on-site technician so it may be a long time until I get my printer fixed. I then spent the rest of the day losing things in the classroom and the children were quite noisy (everybody found this today) and I had to speak sternly to them which I dislike. It was also extra rushed today as I had to spend the whole of my lunchtime going into town to do a few jobs. It was a real relief to get home and still have time to spend an hour digging in the veg garden. The clay does not seem to extend all over the plot and the digger broke up some of the soil so it wasn't such hard work today. Hopefully by the time I have finished some of my seeds will have grown and be ready to plant out.

The long spell of warm dry weather has meant that the farmers have started taking their first cut of silage. Mr Lewis has changed his dairy cows from the poor bony holsteins to these prettier ones which are healthier looking. Not sure of the breed, Guernsey or Guernsey cross possibly?

Back to the Eden Project.
As someone who rarely eats out I was fascinated by the cafe which seemed very different to anywhere I had been before.

This side was serving sandwiches (2 kinds only, egg or salt beef) freshly made with locally baked bread (click on the photo to see the wonderful giant loaves) and help yourself salad. Coffee & tea from the girl on the right. There was no paper work but when you had finished you simply went to a till by the door, told the person what you had and paid.

This was the other side of the same cafe earlier in the day. There was a selection of pastries or toast. On the long tables were big bowls of jam and nutmeg to put on your toast. Instead of plates or trays you put your food on wooden slabs. On the far right chefs were rolling out dough to make pizzas and other savouries for lunchtime. The smell of all that delicious food as you walked along the balcony was enough to tempt you down but we had brought our own food with us. Later in the day there was fresh soup and stew. As we won't have to pay entry next time we will treat ourselves then. In the Mediterranean biodome there was a stall where you could buy fish stew or a bean stew which were cooking tantalisingly in enormous open pans, mm.