Storms.

First bit of news - my car is fixed and happy again. It needed a new timing sensor and Alec only charged me for the part which wasn't much at all. At least now I know not to keep pressing on the accelerator when I'm starting up, though that had nothing to do with this recent problem.

It's been a day of heavy showers and sunshine. Peter gave me a lift and I was in school at 7.30. By 8.00 it was pouring with rain and I had swapped my crocs for wellies. By 8.15 we were getting phone calls from parents asking if we were still going and we were trying to decide what to do. In the end we decided to delay our departure until 10.00 and hope that it cleared up. Also, very luckily, a supply teacher turned up who just happened to have the keys to the lifesaving club where we could at least squeeze in out of the rain. Any parents that didn't want their children to go to the beach in the rain were welcome to take their children home but only a few did. Of my class of 30 only one child with special needs and a phobia of getting wet decided not to come. I had a great set of parent helpers so each of us had 4 or fewer children to keep track of. We took pe equipment down with us but our children were happy to simply dig in the sand and play in a tiny stream that ran across the sand. The whole school went down to paddle by which time I was wearing shorts so that I could go further into the water, rescue anybody and generally make sure the children didn't go too deep, ie past their knees. They all got very wet and had a wonderful time. Back up the beach to dry off and change into dry clothes before eating lunch. It was then that we spotted very black clouds approaching though for a time we were in a clear space between 2 black clouds. A phone call from somebody at Ashford which is halfway between school and the beach, informed us that they were having thunder and lightning! As it started to rain we got the kids into the club house but as we began to sort out footwear, having thrown all the rest of their stuff into bin bags, we were suddenly told that we needed to hurry up and get on the coaches. That was a mad scramble but at least it had stopped raining again and we eventually got ourselves settled on the coaches before the next heavy downpour. When we got back to school we were told of flooded roads and the bottom end of the school field was a lake. Then it dried up again, we had playtime followed by singing and playing musical instruments before our tired and sandy children all went home.

 Things are happening in the veg plot, keep away you nasty slugs.

Click here to see the wonderful gardens on Tresco, part of the Isles of Scilly which we visited in 2012 2013. More Italian/Mediterranean than English garden as they never get any frost.