Gardening Day.

I took advantage of a lull in the wet weather and spent a lot of time out in the garden today. I cut back all the buddlia bushes and a large fuchsia bush. Working outside brought to my notice all the other jobs that need doing especially the weeding. Plenty to be getting on with should we have any more dry days. This afternoon I had just enough light left to clear a whole lot of couch grass that was sprawling across the hardy geraniums.  

The mild weather continues and has fooled some of the Spring flowers into blooming early. 

It was a good evening last night. I enjoy going  out with my colleagues as it gives us a chance to relax away from school. There was a certain amount of alcohol involved which accounted for some extra liveliness though I was perfectly happy drinking tap water all evening. I get a bit of a kick out of walking up to a bar and asking for a glass of tap water or asking the sommelier for a jug of water to be brought to the table. Alcohol can give me a hangover headache that lasts for 1-2 weeks so I am a very infrequent drinker and I don't miss it. It was all 'works' Christmas dos and there were a number of other schools there. That and the fact that Barnstaple is not a massive town meant that there were familiar faces all over the place. Although the music was what I would describe as thump thump Ibiza style pop which I was mostly unfamiliar with it was easy enough to dance to and I was frequently out on the dance floor bopping away with the rest of our group. It was noticeable that there were at the most 1 or 2 men on the dance floor, they mainly seemed to congregate around the bar. At one point our youngest member jumped up onto our table to dance until she got told off by one of the bouncers who then stood by our table to make sure we behaved but it was all in a friendly manner. The food itself was a Christmas dinner with a choice of turkey or roast beef (or both) and a selection of vegetables. I had  the beef as I'm not a fan of turkey. As I've given up chocolate until Christmas my dessert choice was limited so I had a toffee roulade which was slightly disappointingly made with sponge cake and not meringue. But having a meal prepared by someone else is always a pleasure.