Sunny.

It was a bit of a wrench to get up at 6.00 especially as I hadn't got to sleep until after 1.00. I guess if I had to work more full days I would be so tired I would fall asleep earlier. It was a fun day in school. Not being a supporter of school uniforms for small children it was good to see them 'wearing something green' as we were having a fund raiser for the Macmillan charity. The children brought in donations of money and cakes and in the afternoon every child chose a cake to eat at playtime. I fell at the last hurdle and ate a piece of home-made crunchy apple cake and it was delicious. Having an extra day gave the children a chance to do more on their lift-the-flap houses. They also used Google maps to find their own streets. Street view was very popular and they got quite excited when they saw their own house or even car on the screen. The TA who was working with those children even saw herself in front of her house. Street view doesn't cover the countryside so all I could see of our place was an aerial view. For the rest of the time the children could 'choose' and I provided them with lots of different paper and cards for drawing & making which proved very popular.

After work I walked into town to change my library books. I also bought myself a necklace (£10 reduced to £3). 

Primark is always worth a look and there I bought some fleecy lounging/pyjama bottoms for Peter to wear when it gets colder. With energy prices constantly going up, 10% just recently, the news is full of ways to keep warm and how many people can't afford heating. On R4 last night I was horrified to hear that last year 24,000 people died in the UK simply because of the cold! It's all very well putting on layers, which is what we do, but for frail people breathing cold air can be fatal. Somebody from the government suggested that we should save money by just heating our living rooms to 20C and keeping bedrooms at 18C. It would be lovely if our bedroom was 18C in the winter. What kind of world do they live in? We're OK because we are relatively fit and active but there are so many people who simply have to endure this climate of austerity.

I checked on my lonely hen and she is still alive and eating but not really able to walk. I made sure she had food and water close to her and closed the hen house door to keep her a little warmer. 

It has been sunny all day but this evening heavy rain clouds were approaching and we are being told to expect stormy weather on Sunday night.