Lots Of Sun.

Summer is here! June can generally be relied upon to be a good month in terms of the weather, just as August is usually awful and July is a bit hit and miss. That's fits in well with the school summer holiday - half of July and all of August.

We only went away for 1 night but when we came back the roses were blooming and new flowers had appeared all over the garden. This morning I tied string around the clumps of the big crocosmia before they start flopping all over the drive. I found some time to sit in the sun and I was back at school this afternoon. It was PE with the little ones and we were able to go out on the field to do lots of jumping and a little bit of relay racing thinking ahead to sports' day at the end of term.

While we were at the wedding the conversation turned to the way we talk. For such a small country the UK has a richness of regional accents and dialects making it almost possible to pinpoint the town a person comes from. Birmingham and Liverpool are less than 100 miles apart but have unmistakably distinct accents while the Stoke accent, that's where Laura comes from, is different again. There the general term of greeting for women is Duck while children are Duck Eggs. (The u is pronounced like the oo in book.) So today I've been calling the children in school Duck Eggs. Down here the equivalent greeting is Love or Darlin'. Peter as a natural linguist picks up the accent of whichever place he is in while my accent went from Cornish to Canadian to standard English and got stuck in a general London accent. More West London than East London (Cockney).

Rachel and Ray's wedding.

It's been a wonderful time, everyone getting together to celebrate Rachel and Ray's wedding. 

Here they are, the happy couple.

The first dance.

 Cutting the cake.

We made an early start yesterday and in spite of dire warnings we made good time, 3 hours 15 minutes including one stop. Peter and I fled grim urban life 20 years ago so didn't know what to expect of Birmingham the second biggest city in the UK. We were pleasantly surprised to find the wedding venue, the Westley Hotel in a leafy suburb that was easy to reach from the motorway. The day itself after a few worrying spits of rain was bright and sunny.

Once settled into our room, which was enormous and well appointed, we changed into our glad rags and joined the other guests in the bar. Most of the men were wearing dark grey suits which made it hard for me to spot Peter in the crowd. Usually he's in his distinctive red and black gig club sweatshirt and cap.

Romas and Laura traveled from Stoke by train and were also staying in the hotel while Vytas and Sally had left it too late to get a room in the hotel so they were staying in a nearby hotel. It was so good to see them all and it was great to get to know Laura better as we've only met her once before.

 Here's the venue set up for the wedding ceremony. 

Bride and Groom with their immediate family.

  

Here's our immediate family; Sally, Vytas, Romas (blending in with the purple accent colour) and Laura, eagerly awaiting the wedding breakfast ie lunch. Apparently the first meal after the wedding which breaks the fast is called the wedding breakfast. The lunch of fresh tomato soup followed by roast chicken with roast and new potatoes and a selection of vegetables was excellent. The chicken was served to us but the vegetables were put out on the table which suited my boys' large appetites. The dessert of profiteroles was also very tasty. 

Then it was outside for the official photos with many calls for 'the bride's family', 'the groom's family' etc. We were touched by being included in 'the bride's family'. The next few hours were spent socialising and napping before the evening buffet and disco. The music got a bit loud so we ended up outside and when it got chilly we took over the hotel lobby. After a long busy day we were in bed by 11.30 and as usual Peter dropped off to sleep immediately. His snoring got so loud that I was worried he would disturb any guests in the room above us so I kept prodding him to quieten him down. Pulling the duvet over his head helped a bit too. I listened to the radio on my MP3 player and didn't get off to sleep until after 3 am. I woke up in good time in the morning but Peter didn't wake until I had turned on the tv, made tea and generally clattered about. Breakfast was buffet style which I thought was a good idea as you could choose exactly what you wanted and in Romas' case go back for seconds. Then it was time to say our good byes and give Romas and Laura a lift to the station.

The traffic was quite heavy on the motorways but we made it home in 3 hours 5 minutes again with one stop. At the tiny service station there was a charging thing for electric cars, a sign of the times.

Today has been another sunny day so after downloading my photos I went out and mowed all the grass. I think we might have an early night tonight.

PS The bride's new married name is her mother's maiden name! No connection between the 2 families.

Grey.

It was all change again with the weather today. It was warm and very humid in the morning and by the time I took these photos in the afternoon we had already had some gentle rain. 

It was good not to be going in to work today so that I had the whole day to potter around getting ready for our trip to Birmingham tomorrow. First thing I loaded up my car and took my old exercise bike and other junk to the dump after dropping off all the videos (Peter did agree to this), some books and frames etc to the charity shop. I love re-homing stuff. Then into town where I bought a hat and shoes, that sounds much grander than the reality. The shoes were fancy flip-flops and the hat a cheap mock straw hat, both for work. I've had a lot of fun over the last few months sorting out my outfits for the wedding though I've just now realised that my usual handbag is on the far side of scruffy and I should have got something cheap and cheerful in town. I cleared out most of my handbags a while back and my smarter ones are too small to put my camera in but I've found one that will do.

Our friends' daughters are like family to us and Rachel is the first of the youngsters to be getting married. An event we are really looking forward to. But this week I haven't been in a good place. Thinking about everyone getting together for the celebrations has also had me thinking about Linas not being there. Each time that thought hits me like a sledgehammer between the shoulders and pushes me into a dark hole. Luckily the extra work at school kept me busy and I'm working hard to let the excitement of the day pull me back into normality. The diet has taken a bit of a hit this week but I'll get back on track soon. 

S'allright, I've cheered up again. I've discovered another bird's nest in our house. There's lots of cheeping from above the ceiling over the piano which is under a small section of flat roof. I climbed a ladder out there yesterday to see if there was a nest on the roof but they must have found a way to creep into the roof space. Sounds like small birds, possibly the  blue-tits or coal-tits that are frequent visitors to the bird feeder.

Sunny.

Lots of sun and very warm today. At least I think so. I've been teaching a Year 2 class all day and while the classrooms have windows along 2 sides I get so focused on the children that the views are incidental. We have a long lunch break but after writing up the reading diaries for the guided reading group and preparing the afternoon's lessons there isn't that much time left. So I was left with marking 60 books at the end of the day. That took me until 5.00 by which time I was glad to be off home.

We've had so much rain recently that the rill leading into the pond is full of water. Without it I think that area would be a boggy mess. 

When I got home I gave my legs a gentle and hopefully even spray with the tanning stuff which gives me tomorrow to scrub it off if it all goes wrong. 

Sunny.

More sun and less clouds this morning. This afternoon and evening have felt positively summery with blue skies and the warmth of the sun. This morning I had a tidy up in the conservatory and did some work on the dilapidated wooden beams over the sliding doors into the sitting room. This was a job I had planned to do in one fell swoop over the half-term holiday but for one reason and another didn't get done. Maybe I was too much in a holiday mood, too tempted to work outside or feeling too sorry for myself over that wretched tooth. Today I worked out a better method for getting the hardener on the wood. Instead of applying it slowly with a paintbrush I poured the liquid into an old washing up liquid bottle and squirted it into every split in the wood. A far quicker and more efficient method. What did take time was removing all the window sealant that I had originally pushed into many of the cracks.  While it did fill the splits I'm pretty sure paint would not stick to the rubbery surface so I had to take it all off agian. Sadly I'm going to have to paint the beams as the water stains and all the bits I'm going to have to fill would look messy if I just varnished the wood. 

I taught the Year 1 classes in the afternoon and then after school we had a staff meeting. Not only are we arranging end of term events but we are already planning the school topics for the whole of the next academic year.

Peter has just come home after a cox training session out on the river and will be rowing tomorrow evening. Because the river is tidal one week they do lots of rowing and the next they can't get out because the water is too low. At least the evenings are nice and light.

Gale Force Winds.

A storm blew all last and through into the morning. By this afternoon there was 1.5" of water in my makeshift rain gauge. That's in just 24 hours. As I drove in to work at lunchtime there were lots of leaves and the occasional branch blown down on the road. Things began to clear up in the afternoon with a hint of the heatwave we have been promised though right now it's grey and windy once more. Luckily I was able to take both of my classes outside for their PE lessons. Lots of throwing and catching beanbags and foam balls. 

Peter was due to go out on the water for some cox training this evening but the strong winds blowing straight in from the sea make it too dangerous and they've had to cancel the session.

Wet.

It's rained for most of the day. I've been teaching the whole day with my morning spent in a Year 2 class and down in reception for the afternoon. Although the children still have their playtimes out in the rain (or under the shelters) I had no intention of teaching PE to 4 year olds out in the rain. Luckily I had some suitable music on my pen drive and with a little moving of tables the children burnt off some energy dancing to a couple of line dancing tracks. 

Only 7 weeks until the summer holidays.