Cold Morning, Wet Evening.

It was strange, going out in the pitch dark to feed the hens, who were fast asleep, while a barn owl screeched in the trees. It was a bitterly cold morning but thankfully dry so apart from a heavy frost the roads were safe to drive on and I didn't have to contend with the dreaded black ice. Get that on the road and there's no way my micra is going anywhere. It warmed up during the day and this evening the rain started to fall in earnest so being mindful of the weatherman's warning of plummeting temperatures in the night, I left the micra at the top of the hill. I had to walk back down to the house in the rain and the dark but it was very satisfying to whistle some of our Christmas songs at full volume. 

We are fully occupied with 'The Christmas Production' at school with whole school rehearsals every morning, tinsel being stitched on costumes in every spare moment and frantic practising of songs and dances in the classrooms. Not only did I need to rehearse one of our dances as the children had only just learned it but every child in the class needed to make a coil pot. I couldn't put the clay work to one side as it is part of a literacy sequence where the children are learning to follow and then to write instructions and they need the practical experiences first. But we got it all done and I had time after school to make a vine using big 3-D tissue paper leaves that the children had made. The air went a bit blue as the wide green sticky tape I was using to wind over the string I had attached the leaves to, was of poor quality and kept ripping diagonally. However I got that done and the vine is hanging dramatically over the display in the corridor.