Sunny.

The day started off warm and sunny, then turned cooler as the  clouds rolled in then suddenly we were back to blue skies and it actually felt hot, too hot at times especially as I  had chosen my Ugg boots over flip-flops for work. Knowing that I have to leave for work at noon makes the morning seem very short especially if as today I don't get up until 8.00. I had enough time to cut back some of the buddlias and do some weeding as well. 

At school I had the Year one classes for music, listening to part of Beethoven's 5th, using their imaginations and then watching the film clip from Fantasia. Before all that one little girl had to tell me about an important event that had happened during the holidays. She was so serious telling us how she found a bumble bee but it was dead so they buried it, marked the spot with a stick and said a little prayer. (That's the short version.)

When I got to school the first thing I did was to check that I could play the DVD on the class lap-top and get it up and running on the big whiteboard. Had a bit of a panic when the amplifier drowned out everything with a horrible buzzing. I hadn't expected that to happen as the teacher had just been issued a new lap-top. It turned out the jack plug was faulty and only works properly when the perspex block with a scorpion in it is shoved underneath it to hold it properly in place. That's just typical of the IT at school.

After school I dropped in to the Co-Op but was home early enough to spend some time scraping up moss from the concrete in the hens' run. I only did the bits that were in the sun, the rest can wait for another day. While I worked a wood pigeon was cooing in the trees and in the background was the more melodic cooing of my neighbour's doves. 

Sunny.

It's been a lovely sunny day. I was determined to be sensible and not do any gardening, at least any that involved bending or sawing.  I did give the concrete in the hens' run another sweep after poking at some of the moss with a hoe. That has to be done carefully because the concrete is crumbling in places and I don't want to damage it further. I also did a bit of hoeing under the apple trees as the apples are beginning to fall and it's easier to see them on the bare earth. Then while Peter was out rowing I had a lovely long break sitting out in the sun surrounded by the cats. I treated myself to a cafetiere of fresh coffee and read a book. (A big fat pheasant is standing on the back lawn.) I did cut all the grass later because it needed doing and the conditions were perfect. The last job of the day was to iron my favourite duvet cover. 

Painted Lady. 

The bees and butterflies have been making the most of the sunny weather. Many of the butterflies have bits missing from their wings where they have had a lucky escape - birds or dragonflies? Lots of dragonflies around but only 2 swallows left.

 Red Admiral.

 Silver Washed Fritillary.

 Peacock.

Speckled Wood.

Peter checked the wiring to the non-working hall light today. There is no current getting through to the switch or the fitting so there may well be a break in the wiring up in one of the 2 old lofts. Guess who'll be having to go up there to check? The hatches are only 11" x 18" and look too small for a person to fit through but I have made it up into those lofts a couple of times.

Sunny.

With my back twinging a little this morning I thought I'd better take thing steady today. So why was my first act to shovel gravel? I'd noticed that there was too much gravel lower down the drive and it needed moving further up. No fool like an old fool I suppose.

I had meant to just tidy up in the hens' run but there was one branch, bare of smaller branches and leaves, sticking out in a very silly fashion. So back up the ladder I went and eventually down it came. Before doing that I'd had an initial tidy up of the concrete and put the second washing line up so that I could hang the washing out in the breeze. It had been cold in the morning but by the afternoon it was sunny and I was glad of the cooling breeze as I stood at the top of the ladder sawing away.

The sun brought out the butterflies. There were 4 Red Admirals on this buddlia bush. Lots of bumble bees and a few butterflies on the big sedums. I think most of the swallows have left for Africa. There were a couple still flying around today but the main crowd has gone. 

I would have liked to sit out in the sun for a bit like this Comma butterfly but there was ironing to be done. For once I had a couple of shirts to iron which brought back memories of the days when I had 20 shirts a week to iron for Peter and the boys. I quite like ironing but  that many which had to be done for work/school became a chore.

Dry.

It felt quite chilly this morning again but I knew I would soon warm up once I started sawing away with the bow saw. Before moving the roof ladder from its usual place at the back of the house I cleared the back gutters of several bucket of soggy leaves. Then I was ready to haul the double ladder up to the hens' run. It wasn't until half-way through the morning that I realised the single ladder would have been long enough. I was able to set the ladder up nice and securely against the tree trunk and then the long process of tree cutting began. 

It took a long time with the bow saw especially when I had to keep stopping to  rest my hand. Still the view from the top of the ladder was pretty good. Eventually I heard the first cracks as the branch began to give way. I flew down the ladder to safety and then had to wait for a few minutes before the branch fell. This it did covering most of the concrete, I had taken down one of the washing lines beforehand and it only just missed the other line. The branch didn't break away cleanly and stayed attached to the tree. Before trying to get it off the tree I used the loppers to cut off as many of the small branches as possible. 

The robin was back singing sweetly from the hedge. (Is he a one-legged robin or is he just standing on one leg?) 

After a break I moved all the cut branches off the concrete and on to the  soil where they can dry out and at the same time smother any weeds that are trying to grow up through the soil. I cut as much of the big branches as I could and by very cautious sawing and then swinging the big branch from the ground finally got it to fall away from the tree. This is how it looked at the end of the day (7.00). 

Mainly Dry.

This morning it was grey, damp and cold. As it wasn't actually raining I got to work in the garden and soon I was more than warm enough.  

I am quite pleased in that I achieved all I set out to do today; finished digging the strip down by the side, cut down a hawthorn branch/trunk that was leaning into the garden and  started planting up. While I was assiduously sawing away at the tree I could hear my neighbour doing much the same with his chain saw. I did harbour a fantasy of him coming along and offering to cut down the big willow tree branch for me. No such luck, tomorrow I will start by seeing if I can get the roof ladder in position. 

As ever a robin supervised my gardening watching to see if I turned up any tasty worms. Today the plants that I moved were ones that had outgrown their space at the end of the hedge. There was a big clump of something that has white flowers, about half of a yellow flower with big soft leaves and kerria which has bright yellow pom-poms in spring. I also found a clump of day lilies which I moved. They were really hard to dig out with their deep tubers.

We had some sun in the afternoon. I had finished my gardening and after changing out of my grubby gardening clothes I stepped outside to take some photos only to find it was raining. Good for all those transplanted plants. After a much needed shower I baked some chocolate muffins carefully following a recipe. With only 2 tablespoons of sugar I don't think they are quite sweet enough so next time I'll double the sugar. The muffins are for Peter's work tomorrow. As I'm practicing for the wedding I made chocolate ganache for the first time. The ganache was okay though I need to work on my presentation but when I whipped half of it to make frosting, as suggested by the recipe it was too soft to hold a shape. Perhaps I should have left it to cool a bit longer.

Cloudy.

I was back in school for the morning where we discussed literacy, or should I say English (the terminology keeps changing) planning and assessment. We also had some time to carry on getting the classrooms ready. The children are in tomorrow but I don't start teaching until next week.  And I did remember to bring my roses home.

It had been a sunny morning and my car was like an oven when I got in it. Having opened the windows and sun roof for my drive over to Lidl's, dark clouds appeared and it was somewhat chilly in the car. No such luxuries as electric windows in my car so I had to shiver until I stopped at Lidl's. I did my shopping, went to pay and found ........ no debit car in my purse. It was only then that I realised I had taken it out of my heavy leather purse and put it into a light fabric purse when we went down to the beach on Friday. I was just taking out the shopping when tick, tick, tick my brain finally got into gear and remembered that I had taken my trusty black school bag down to the beach and yes my little purse was still in there. We all had a good laugh and I was able to pack my shopping again. Silly old me. At home I attempted to burn some of the branches I had cut down in the hen run but everything is still too wet and all that happened was an autumnal smell of damp bonfire. I carried on with digging over the soil but this time kneeling down as my bad knee had not responded well to me using the garden fork yesterday. I also managed to dig out a tree stump that I had thought might be a problem but wasn't. Fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow so that I can have a whole happy day of gardening.

Back To Work.

I think it's been sunny today, not absolutely sure because I've spent most of the day in the staffroom at school going through lots of documents and policies. Most of the morning we were reviewing our safeguarding procedures including the Prevent (anti-radicalism) document. That's not too likely to occur here in North Devon but you never know. I was given a lovely bunch of roses as a belated birthday gift but despite writing a reminder on my hand I still drove home without them. Luckily I had put them in water. I'll leave myself a big note and leave it on the car's steering wheel so I don't forget them tomorrow. The afternoon was spent looking at Ofsted's expectations and boy they have raised the levels yet again.

Although I only work part-time I still get into a very relaxed, summer frame of mind during the holidays. My world shrinks down to this valley and I almost feel like I'm making an expedition when I head into town. Now I've shifted into a different gear and concepts such as feedback, assessment, and excellence are floating about in my head. There will be 30 new children to get to know in Reception, 60 if I end up teaching both classes not to mention trying to match parents to children. Luckily  the teaching assistants are much better at that or not many children would go home at the end of the day. (Children are sent out one at a time when a member of staff sees the correct adult waiting to collect them.)

The sun was shining when I got home so after I had driven the rubbish up to the road I did some more work in the hen run. It was while I was taking a breather and thinking about what to tackle next that I started thinking I might be able to reach one of the big branches of the tree that shades half-way across the run. That is if I get the double roof ladder up against the main trunk. The branch is at least 12" diameter but I should manage to cut it with the bow saw eventually.

I was pleased to see that the water mint I had transplanted to the bog garden has grown well and is flowering. I had tried planting a couple of times over the years and this is the first time it has taken.