Foggy.

It was very foggy today. From yesterday's high of 26C the temperature dropped to a chilly 5C. I'm listening to R4 and the weather forecast is for a mild night and warmer day tomorrow. Good, because my fingers are only starting to warm up again.

 First thing this morning I could hardly see out of the garden. 

I waited a while and did some work for school before heading out into the garden bow saw in hand. First I had to shift the coils of flexible plastic land drain that we had stored at the top of the bank. I felt like Indianna Jones wrestling  a giant boa constrictor as I pulled the yellow pipe from its nest of well rotted leaves and relocated it right behind the outbuildings.

Eventually, after much mental muttering I got the next tree down. Before I tackle another one I'll remove and dispose of the smaller branches. Peter says he should be able to do some chainsawing when the weather warms up and the damp isn't affecting his joints. It was quite relaxing to spend some time afterwards picking up leaves and gently weeding the flower beds. That is until the cold started to freeze my fingers and toes. 

Finally I had a stroll around to take a few photos. Coral was out in the field scratching her bottom on the fence. The ponies are forever breaking the fence doing this so I guess Paul would not be too pleased with her.

Sunny.

Another t-shirt day though there was some talk in the staffroom of snow at the end of the month. Possible but I hope not.

Things that got done this morning were: writing frames for next week's lessons (sort of work sheets but we're not allowed to call them that), one tree chopped down and one bucket of weeds removed. The afternoon was spent at school followed by a quick visit to the Co-Op for milk, fruit and veg. 

I'm at home all day tomorrow so I'll tackle at least one more tree. The idea is to take out the taller trees that block out the sun as it goes down in the evenings. Right now I'm looking at the 2 tallest trees at the end of the row which have to be around 50ft high. We can't drop them down into the neighbouring field as they would take out the wire deer fence and if they go this way they will hit the house. A problem to be solved.

Sunny.

Yet another sunny day, a bit hazy first thing but bright for the rest of the day. I made a start on my tree cutting or rather bow sawing. I am possibly a quarter of the way through so eventually I will get there. The sensible thing would be for me to learn how to use the chain saw but I am naturally clumsy and wielding such a lethal bit of kit while balancing on a bank does not fill me with confidence.

I worked with the Reception children in the afternoon and then we had a staff meeting until 5.45. Discussing the latest expectations for 'outstanding' (according to Ofsted) and how we can apply them is intellectually stimulating and good professionally but eventually tiredness takes over. Luckily my journey home is not being affected by the roadworks which seem to have been going on for weeks and are causing the whole of Barnstaple to become grid locked in the early evenings. An hour to travel one mile is not unusual at the moment.

The sun was setting as I drove home so I made a couple of gateway stops to try and capture the glowing sun. I didn't have the energy to mess around with the manual settings so didn't get the full effect with the automatic exposure. Will try for better another time.

Mostly Sunny.

I was asked to teach all day today so it was an early start to the day. Luckily I had a good night's sleep so it wasn't too much of a shock to the system. The good weather continues and some of the children had remembered to bring their sun hats to school. I have to say that was something I didn't think of it being so early in the year. There were the usual IT gremlins at work again, an attachment that wouldn't open on my ailing pc at home also failed to work on my school lap-top (which I keep in school) or on the class lap-top so I couldn't  put it up on the whiteboard. In the end the class teacher had to open it up on her lap-top in the staff room and we printed off the sheets and enlarged them to A3. What a palaver! That was for a morning of maths which went well. In the afternoon I showed the children a power point about the girl the school sponsors in Kenya with photos from a similar rural life in Uganda. I debated whether to show the brown and white rabbit which looked like a pet but was destined for the pot but did as food is food and if you eat meat then animals are killed. There was a little gasp of horror but I quickly went on to show cows and piglets and I don't think anybody was upset. The thought of 130 children in a class or being hit by the teacher if you didn't behave was more of an eye opener for my class.

I was saved my usual sticking job after school as we have some very sensible and capable students on work experience in school this week and our lass stuck all the work in while I was with the children in the hall for singing. I still had to go through and mark the work but that didn't take long. That gave me a chance to nip into town, change my library books and drop into the health food shop. 

As I drove home it was getting more overcast but there was a subtle pinkness to the evening sky. 

Sunny.

The day started overcast and a little cooler than yesterday but it didn't take long before it brightened up and the temperature in the sun was in the mid-twenties.

The price of all the weekend's weeding was a poor night's sleep so it took me a while before I was able to surface this morning. The weather was too good not to do some washing so I got a couple of loads washed and flapping in the breeze. I've just finished ironing it all and making the bed will be my last job of the evening.

I thought I shouldn't do weeding today so I opted for some stretching instead and got to work painting. Finished the last 2 sections and then gave it all a second coat. I had hoped for a more intense royal blue but the colour range for garden paint is a bit limited. I can't do much with the floor except repair the holes as there is obviously no membrane under the concrete and it gets damp from the ground underneath. I've still got plenty of work up there to keep me occupied.

The primroses and daffodils are making an appearance and lots of other plants have buds on them. Paul was out mowing with his tractor mower but I think the ground is too wet for me to start mowing the lawns.

Sunny.

Another amazingly warm day. It would not be that unusual to have snow in March and I have a few photos of flowering daffodils in the snow so today has been a real bonus. There was no chance of a walk as Peter had to go to the gig club for some training for his new position as cox, he will still be rowing but it gives him a role when he can't row, and then some maintenance work on the gigs. I didn't mind because I was glad of the opportunity to carry on weeding the garden.

It was so nice that I brought down a couple of garden chairs and a small table. After a quick check of FB and a look at Vytas and Sally's photos of the Hue Citadel, Vietnam I had my Sunday fresh coffee out in the sun. 

The birds were singing away and I saw this Red Admiral feeding on the celandines. I also saw a small tortoiseshell and a comma butterfly. The flies had also woken up which I discovered to my annoyance.

Although the celandines are self seeded wild flowers their glowing yellow flowers brighten up the garden and I let them be. 

I paced myself a bit today with breaks to sit in the sun and read. A couple of hours got the rill cleared of weeds, leaves and general sludge and I cleared the beds on either side as well. I was particularly pleased to dig out a tangle of grass roots from under the golden marjoram. Luckily the marjoram is tough and will soon recover from my not too gentle digging. I was only just in time with the weeding as some of the shepherd's purse was already flowering. 

After a break I donned the only pair of wellies that don't leak and new rubber gloves to stand in the pond and fish out the grass that was growing in the water. If I don't get it out the grass will fill the pond by the summer. I also cleared any old beech leaves from the edge of the water. I'm such a softie that I carefully checked each leaf for tadpoles or snails before putting it in my bucket. Silly when I probably squashed a fair few creatures with my boots as I balanced at the edge of the pond. My final job was to partially block the outflow pipe so that the pond level goes up a few inches the next time it rains.

Sunny.

Today was even better than yesterday, more summery than spring-like with the garden thermometer reading 22C (in the sun). Peter went off early to row and as soon as I had got through the morning housework I was out in the garden ready to get to work on the path around the little pond. 4 1/2 hours later the path was clear of leaves and weeds and the same for the planted edge around the pond. I'm hoping my back won't seize up (the physio suggested 20 mins at a time), but I would like to get the garden weeded through before that dreary task of mowing has to be done. And there are a couple of trees I really would like to cut down before the sap starts rising. It will have to be with my trusty bow saw as if I wait for Peter to be free/ have his hands not hurting/ the chainsaw to be working it might be another year or 2. 

As I worked on the path above me the first bumble bees were visiting the winter flowering heathers.  I hadn't really thought of heather as part of my bee-friendly garden plan but little else is flowering right now up in the hills. I have seen some flowering blackthorn by the main road but it will be a few weeks before the May blossom (hawthorn) is out.

One of the bees was a white tailed bumble bee and there was a red tailed one as well. 

After the weeding there was time to get my wicker chair out into the sun by the scree garden, make a cup of tea and relax with a book for an hour. That's the first time this year. The sun had also brought out the ladybirds. I saw a few yesterday and this pair were soaking up the warmth on a bronze sculpture.