I Want That Dragon.

It's been a day of sunshine and very heavy showers.

I had to go into town in the morning to drop Romas off, (he's away to Bude for band practice/partying), do some shopping and go and get a new prescription for Peter whose symptoms have now spread to his elbows and foot as well as his hand. He had to see Occupational Health at work and with requests from them, his boss and the GP his appointment has been moved up to May, (from August!) and the GP is asking if he could get into an earlier clinic. It's not nice to be in constant pain though he has been using the time to forge ahead with his OU work and is nearly at the end of the maths module. That hasn't been his favourite but I've really enjoyed the algebra, I might not be a natural with IT but I could just sit and do simutaneous equations for fun.

Several years ago I used to see a pair of dragon roof ridge tiles in the window of an architectural antique shop in town. I loved those dragons, I really wanted those dragons ........ but I didn't even have anywhere specific to put them and I knew they would be far out of my price range. So I never bothered to go into the shop and ask the price. Then they dissapeared. Bought , I presumed by someone with a lot of money. Then, just over a week ago I walked past the shop and there was one of the dragons, still there but with a price tag of £195, ouch! That is an awful lot of money.

Four days later I was driving home from school, looked up and saw .......... the other dragon sitting on the roof of a house on the Braunton Road. It's probably been there for the last 2 years.

I have a plan, shan't say any more at the moment but it doesn't involve breaking and entering or climbing a 30 ft ladder in the dead of night.

Strange Birds.

The weather today has changed to grey and chilly so we decided to make a couple of trips to the dump to get rid of the bags of broken up shed roofing that were lurking about in the yard. As we drove up to the crossroads by the On-a Hill Garage we glanced over to a field which houses a motley collection of birds and goats. There to our amazement we saw these 2 large, very large, white birds. It was only a passing glimpse and having decided that they probably weren't genetically modified turkeys we decided to stop on the next trip and have a closer look.

And this is what we found ....... white emus, not albino but white with dark eyes, very unusual.






There were some other birds around the place including this Australian black swan.

It started to rain just as we were unloading stuff at the dump and has continued to rain gently all day so the rest of the day has been spent writing up the children's reading records from my notes and collating information. I also rang the Dental hospital in Bristol because at last, 7 months after my first appointment there, I got an appointment card asking me to come for an appointment in May. The only thing was that the card said it was for a student appointment whereas I'd been told that I would be treated by a consultant. I rang to query this and was told, 'Oh, but you have an appointment with the consultant on the 24th of April.' That was the first I'd heard of it so if I hadn't rung them I'd have been marked as a Did not attend, and lost my treatment. It's been a year since my dentist first told me I needed a root canal filling though if either I'd been willing to pay £800 or I'd been registered with one of the few NHS dentists that are willing to do those fillings, it would all have been done in a few weeks. Aaaargh ! Oh well, I've already told my headteacher and if I do a bit more research I might enjoy my trip to Bristol. Last time I so hated the city so much that I took an earlier train home after trudging round the same but scruffier shops that are here in Barnstaple.

I took these pictures in yesterday's sunshine.

I don't actually remember planting these daffodils in the bank on the other side of the stream. Behind can be seen our 'ski slope', it's hard to picture it now.


On our way home we stopped at a vantage point at the head of our valley. You can't drive down to our place from here but you can see our neighbours' house and some of their barns and our house is tucked down in the trees.

WARNING - turn the sound off or right down when watching the video. The wind as usual was blowing quite strongly and is making the most awful racket and drowning out my commentary.

Lots Of Sun.

The forecast is for rain so that was enough excuse to make today a garden day. It took me most of the day to tidy the front patio; weed, prune , sweep and generally tidy. The lovely sunshine made it seem like a summer's day, almost. I just had to take some time out to sit by the pond and watch the wildlife. Although the pond has a deep layer of mud at the bottom the top 12" were crystal clear and I could see the little tadpoles darting across and the occasional newt gliding like a submarine from one root clump to another. The little beetles and pond skaters created interesting shadows in the water. Around me I could hear the buzzing of bees in the heather, the constant rushing of a stream tumbling down the hillside and the song of many birds. I could have spent most of the day just sitting there but there was work to be done.

There was a lot of thrashing around of tadpoles feeding in the shallow water at the edge of the pond.

This newt had been found by Romas in the flowerbed he was clearing. It was slowly making its way into the water. Romas also relocated a toad and a frog. The frog could be heard calling from the side of the pond.

Romas is practising for the days when he has to avoid the paparazzi.

But I caught him in the end.

The evening has been spent writing up reading records for school. Two weeks should be enough to get my paperwork sorted out.

This horse was having an exciting time out in the field. Sarah had to take him back in beacuse Paul wasn't too happy about the ground being churned up by skidding horse.

This pretty pony came over to say hello. She's 7 years old and is going off to see a stallion so there may be more foals next spring. (Will I still be here?)

Percy was out in the other field with her babysitter. She has to get used to being away from her mum.

Cleaning And Paperwork.

I woke up at 1.00 and couldn't sleep so I went downstairs and did 3 hours of tidying/ school work/ blogging. I've got so much to do this holidays that I need to not waste any time. When I woke up at 8.00 the sun was shining and tempting me out into the garden but I stuck with school paperwork and sorting the kitchen. While I've been at work full-time, (and some), I've done the minimum of housework hoping that those men of mine might pull their weight. The trouble is they just don't see mess or dirt. I spent hours today muttering darkly while scraping off the baked on grease around the hotplate set in the counter. Just because the metal is dark grey doesn't mean it doesn't need cleaning! Then I discovered that in the rush to get to the pub last night I'd left folders and books at school that I need for updating my paperwork. Luckily my colleague lives across the road and she was able to let me in with her keys. I combined that trip with picking up Romas who had been at MIA for an airsoft game which he seems to have enjoyed.

I had a little walk around the garden to enjoy the sunshine and see how the plants are doing. I made several videos from up the hill the camera is really poor at focusing and now seems to have developed a creak when the zoom button is in use. I so need a new camera.

This was the best of today's video attempts and shows part of the garden in its unweeded glory.

Last Day Of Term.

It didn't seem so cold this morning though there was still frost on the micra's windscreen but as I drove towards Shirwell the banks of hill fog were quite heavy reducing visibility to a minimum. The fog seemed to hang around over Barnstaple and despite the promise of a hot day the sun didn't manage to burn off the fog and there was a chill in the air. The children were buzzing today, it was the last day of term, a non-uniform day (hooray!) and in our Reception classes they had Easter Bunny Baskets to take home filled with chocolate eggs as well as their clay owls and Easter cards that they had made. Chris and I spent the afternoon in the staffroom (PPA) doing our planning and eating yummy chocolate muffins and rice crispy cakes while our kids had an Easter Egg Hunt. It's good having a headteacher who likes baking cakes for her staff.

Some of the kids' Easter cards.

After school most of us went down to The Reform for an end of term drink. This is the first time we've done this but one of our newer teachers (the only bloke) chivied us into going. Chris and I really wanted to stay in school to sort out our role play areas and put up new displays but it was good to chat without constant interruptions from the children. I'm not really a pub person but since the smoking ban I don't leave with my clothes and hair stinking of cigarette smoke which was something I really didn't like.

At school the blossom is out on the ornamental cherry trees.

Work continues on the Secret Garden. The pond and wet area needs to be planted up and we have plans for lots of art work to be incorporated and musical instruments to be built from pipes etc.

The fog was still hanging around but the grass is looking greener. Any day now the beech hedges should break bud and turn green. The May trees (hawthorn) are already covered with fresh green leaves and should blossom in ... May.

Frosty Morning, Hot Afternoon.

'Chilly morning, warm later.' said the screen behind the tv weather man this morning , and that's exactly what we got. Down in our valley we had frost and the water I poured on the micra's windscreen to defrost the thin layer of ice, had frozen over by the time I was ready to leave.

There was a low mist bank rolling in from our neighbouring bit of moor keeping the temperature down.

Once I drove up the hill it was much sunnier and warmer though the morning was surprisingly chilly. By the afternoon it was almost hot and for their PE lesson I trooped my motley gang down onto the (real grass) field and let them loose with plastic rackets and balls. Never mind the somewhat boring, highly structured PE lesson plans we're supposed to be following. They had a wonderful time.

Funny moment in class - I'd put out some pastels along with our usual pencils, crayons and felt pens, for the children to use. One little boy, who doesn't do much drawing, remembered that I'd put out charcoal before and asked if they could have the charcoal as well. No reason why not though I didn't put out too much as I wanted to limit the potential for mess. Some children, (often boys) who really aren't into colouring with pencils or felt pens, really enjoy using the more vibrant and messy pastels and charcoal and today was no exception. My little friend who'd asked for the charcoal was enjoying covering whole sheets of paper with charcoal. After several trips to wash the worst of the charcoal from his hands he decided to colour his nose black. That did actually look really funny and made us all laugh. I went to the door to take a few photos of children being active outside (we have to put lots of photos in their profile documents) and when I turned back to the table, not just his nose but the whole of his lower face was covered with a big black charcoal beard. It was then a quick march to the sink and a few stern words as I scrubbed off the worst of the mess .

Tomorrow is the last day of term. Where has the time flown? I had another reply to my requests for my documentation but I'm waiting for 2 more places to reply and there are a few bits to come from my school but they've been extra busy with the end of the financial year and advertising for a new head teacher.

Spring Flowers.

We didn't have a lot of sun during the day but it was certainly much warmer.
The first of the ornamental trees at school covered with blossom.

The evening sun streaming through the still bare trees across the ornamental pond on the middle level of the garden. Pete was busy doing yet another barbecue!

The aubretia has just started flowering and will be covered with flowers for about 6 months.

The kingcups have just started to open on the little pond.

The colours of the grape hyacinths and the primrose exactly mirror my kitchen colour scheme, white with a little blue and yellow.