Poor Pheasants.

There's still plenty of colour in the garden. A few flowers like the roses, left over from the summer and all the autumnal shades as plants close down for the winter. There's even a bright splash of yellow from the winter flowering jasmine which should brighten up the garden through the dismal winter months. I decided that today was finally time to say good-bye to the hanging baskets. All the recent wind and rain had left them looking very scruffy. So down they came and up went the windchimes instead. Once I had done that bit of gardening I carried on, first with some weeding down in the bog garden and then I took the bow saw and trimmed back some of the overhanging trees by the stream. My last job was to cross the stream behind the house and tidy up the cables I took down the other day. The green tv cable runs up into the hedge so I just coiled it up and tucked it down out of sight while I was able to take down the rope completely.

The day had started very wet and in a way I wish it would have carried on being horrible. That's because I could hear guns firing at those silly pheasants up in the top field. I've expressed my views enough times not to have to say more. 

A lot of my afternoon was spent in the kitchen working on my painted wedding card. It's getting there now that nearly all the colour is on. I couldn't get a deep black with the watercolours so I've used black poster paint instead. Possibly another day should see it done.  In between painting and waiting for each colour to dry I've been doing more tidying in the sitting room as after talking to friends at work we've decided to go with the carpet place I had a quote from. They will move the furniture but it will be a good opportunity for me to see what else can be re-homed. 

Lots More Rain.

For once Peter got to spend the day at home while I went off early to work. It's been a wet drizzly day in town while out here on the hills it has been pouring all day long. Even if Peter hadn't told me I could have guessed that by the amount of water on the roads and the brown colour of the lake next door. However it remains warm.

This morning I had half of the Year 1 children while the other half walked in the wet to the War Memorial for a Remembrance Day service. I had been sent a powerpoint to show to the children but when it finally downloaded it then failed a virus scan. Luckily I knew another site that had a powerpoint on Remembrance Day and used that instead. The children, especially the boys, love any conversation about soldiers/fighting so the discussion was quite lively. 

I stayed behind at the end of the day, first to do some marking and then to get some things ready for my art lesson on Monday. Bending over a child height table to cut paper is not good for your back!

I was hoping for a bit of a sunset on my way home but it was just grey clouds.

Wet.

The early morning drizzle made the acer leaves and the beach pebbles shine in the little sun that we had. The drizzle worsened during the day to full on rain. Not a day for climbing up ladders or attempting wiring. Instead I did lots of school work; planning for tomorrow and for Monday afternoon. It's the start of Arts' week and I'm being officially "observed". Unlike most other lessons including the phonics lesson where I had an unannounced drop-in I won't turn into a quivering wreck. Art is something I'm very confident teaching and I should be able to justify everything that I do. As I'm at work tomorrow I'll try and get all the resources ready in advance.

As it's Thursday I did some baking for Peter to take to work tomorrow. Chocolate cup-cakes with, as requested buttercream icing and I added some grated chocolate. For the rest of the time I've been working on the wedding card. I dug out all the odd boxes of watercolours and had a bit of an experiment. I remembered that you have to start with the lightest bits first so it's gradually building up.

Aargh! Peter has come home and reminded me that he's not going to work tomorrow. Oh well, the cup-cakes can wait until Monday.

Being Brave.

Today I was determined to have another try at fixing the lights. Before I even had my breakfast I gathered together the tools I needed and the instructions. Then it was time time to be brave. I left all the lights on as I turned off the various electrical fuse boxes. You would have thought that the biggest one which appears to feed straight from the cable that comes into the back of the house would be the main switch but no, when I turned it off nothing happened. I then turned off every switch in the cupboard and yes all went dark. I still wasn't 100% convinced as I went up the ladder clutching a pair of secateurs to cut the cable leading to the old light as its screws had rusted solid. A big sigh of relief as I survived unscathed. Then came the next problem, the cable had different coloured wires to the diagram on the instructions for the new light. I was pretty sure that the red wire was the live one (now brown) and the black was the neutral (blue) with the bare wire being the earth but pretty sure isn't good enough. So I taped over the bare wires and abandoned that job for the day. It turns out that once I had the electricity back on and could check on the web that I was right. I had to stop at that point anyway because I needed to re-do the assessments I did the other morning as they couldn't be read when I sent them to the class teachers. I had started them in school using Word 2008, ran out of time so emailed them to myself. At home I downloaded them and then completed them using Word 2003. They looked fine when I did them but emailing them onwards corrupted them. By the time I got those done it was time to leave for school.

It was a grey damp morning and when I left I drove up into hill fog. It then rained lightly for the rest of the day but is still quite warm.

In the afternoon I did my first RE lessons with the Reception children. I had planned to read some Hindu stories but the ones in the book I had were too bloodthirsty for 4/5 year olds so I opted to read some stories about Buddha. In order to set the scene I started by playing some gentle Buddhist meditation music and talked the children through some simple relaxation techniques. Only my cobbled together ideas. I felt sorry for the TA who had been assigned to stay with me, there wasn't much for her to do and she had to listen to everything twice including my modified stories.

After school we had a staff meeting on assessment as things are forever changing and no 2 experts seem to be coming up with the same way. I sat where I could see the evening sky and a rather pretty sunset but by the time we had finished night had almost fallen and I drove home through the dark.

Up and Down Ladders.

Last night I decided that I wasn't going to leave putting up those lights any longer. Surely the wiring instructions would be easy enough to follow. So this morning I followed steps 1-5 on the first light even remembering that you shouldn't touch the bulb but used a paper towel to protect the bulb from any grease from my fingers. It was then that I began to worry if turning off the big switch in the fuse cupboard would really turn everything off. I know that normally that should be the case but the way this house was renovated by the last owners some things work in strange ways. (Peter has now assured me that I'll be safe with that switch off.) As it turned out I couldn't have done the wiring today anyway. When I checked where the screws go into the stone wall I found that the rawlplugs had come out along with part of the mortar that holds the stone in place. It's really hard to drill into the stone and even the mortar so instead I mixed up some cement and fixed new rawlplugs in place with the cement.

While I was going up and down the ladders I put the ladders up at the back of the house and took down the old TV aerial cable and the rope across the stream that it was attached to. Then I noticed that the back gutter was full of leaves, no surprise there, so I cleared the gutter all the way across the back of the house. A good morning's work I think.

My wooden cake board got a few coats of paint today too. It's a bit irritating that it's not a perfect circle but Peter says we can call it an artisan cake board.

It was a grey morning and by the time I set off for school it had begun raining lightly. I spent my afternoon with the reception children doing music with both classes. After school I put my art coordinator's hat on and filled out an order form for more art supplies as next week is Arts' Week. I used to love being allowed to do nothing but art for a whole week (once for a fortnight). Now the children do art once a week if that as there is so much English and maths to be done and those are what the school is judged on.

I hadn't planned to go shopping after work but I gave a friend a lift home so I carried on to the Co-Op and what a good thing I did. I got so many things at 75% off; strawberries, grapes, fresh figs, kiwi fruit, Wenslydale cheese with cranberries, some cod which I'm cooking for supper, a ham joint, chocolate & orange buns and fruit scones. All in perfect condition, no soggy or mouldy fruit. I'll be looking forward to a nice variety of fruit with my porridge in the mornings.

Back To School.

Yet another warm day. While the rest of the country seemed to be smothered in a blanket of fog it was nice and clear here. It was only as I drove to work at lunchtime that I saw a fine haze over town though it wasn't so noticeable once you were in it.

I woke early this morning, very early, 4.00 in fact. I'd been dreaming about decorating the wedding cake with big white spots until I suddenly remembered the real design. That's when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I had the radio on very quietly in my headphones which usually sends me back to sleep but not today. I heard the news and weather several times and the farming programme about parsnips so by the time Peter got up at 5.45 I was ready for a cup of tea.

Squeaky found herself a warm spot in the sun where she could have a peaceful snooze. I spent the first part of the morning at the PC filling out and sending some assessment forms for school, something I didn't get round to doing in the holiday. Then, as it had obviously been on my mind, I made a wooden stand for the wedding cake. I cut a 16" circle from some wood and glued 2 battens on underneath to give it a little height and to make it easier to pick up. I didn't have anything large enough to draw round so I had to use a piece of thread stuck to the middle of the board to mark the circle. It's almost but not quite a perfect circle but it should do. I've given it a first coat of white paint and will do a couple more. The cake itself will be on a cake board on top of the wood and I won't put the second cake on top until we're at the hotel.

After work I walked into town as I had a couple of letters to post that I needed to have a printed proof of posting as they were some bits I had sold on eBay.

We've got some new neighbours up in one of the top fields. I guess they were hoping I had brought them some feed. I like sheep with woolly faces. 

So Warm!

Once again it was incredibly warm. The official temperature for here was 14C/ 57F. Another day for working outside in a t-shirt.  

It had been a cold clear night last night so any part of the garden that didn't get the sun, ie most of it, stayed wet with dew all day.  

I got on and did another of those must-do jobs, cutting down all the large sedums. I did a couple of beds before breakfast and then finished off after a break. For once I managed to cut back the plants in the whole garden. Whenever I'm out I see so many plants still to cut back and weeds everywhere. That's gardening I suppose.