Showers.

After a night of very heavy rain the sun was out this morning. Then just as I was about to go to work a dark cloud appeared, thunder rumbled and down came the rain which fortunately didn't last too long. There were a few more showers during the afternoon but also some bright sunshine. 

At school I did handwriting with the reception children and had yet another observation, this time of my phonics lesson. I think it went okay though I won't get the feedback until tomorrow as the teacher observing had an appointment to go to. After school I went back to the post office section of W. H. Smith's (they closed the real Post Office down) with my parcel. I had carefully taken out one small item which weighed a little over 100 gms and the postage was a reasonable £2.85. As I was in the High Street I dropped into the small Co-Op and Tesco's and got more bargains; stuffed crust pepperoni pizzas, fresh pineapple, conference pears and carrots, all at 75% or more off. When I got home Peter had also been bargain hunting when he went to pick up our prescriptions and got some cooked barbecue spare ribs. My supper tonight will be a salsa type salad with the cauliflower and other fresh veg and some spare ribs followed by fresh pineapple.

Showery weather makes for pretty clouds.

Icy Rain.

There was a dramatic red sunrise this morning which correctly heralded a day of rain. Icy cold, nasty rain it was too. When my year 2 class were being quite noisy getting changed after their PE I stopped them all and told them I would much prefer to stay in a nice warm classroom while they practised being quiet on the carpet which was what was going to happen if they kept on making so much noise. That got everything much quieter. I don't mind normal chatting but the noise was too much. It was very cold and wet outside but with coats on the kids were fine.

After work I went into town as I had a parcel to post. Imagine my annoyance when having carefully made sure the dimensions of the box were within the limits for a 'small parcel' - postage just under £3, the weight was 48gms over and the postage was now £13! As there are several things in the parcel even sending it as 2 'small parcels' would be a lot cheaper and thinking about it there's one small but heavy item that can be left out altogether which is what I shall do. I dropped into the arts' supplies shop but as they don't sell fine coloured italic pens (the one I'm using for my journal is running out) I'll have to get them on line. As usual I did a quick swing through Primark and bought some chocolate flavoured lip balm on sale. I hadn't realised that it would look like chocolate too which will be fine for working in the garden but maybe not so good for school. I also picked up some matt clear nail varnish. Peter has a couple of nails which tend to split and he wasn't too happy when the clear nail polish I put on to strengthen them turned out to be shiny. A matt finish will be a lot more acceptable.

Finally, going past Warren's the bakers at the bottom of the High Street I bought 2 peppered beef pasties for our supper as all pasties are £1 at the end of the day. I shall counteract the naughtiness of the pastry by having some couscous style cauliflower. It's just cauliflower that has been chopped into tiny crumbs so very healthy.

Sunny.

It has been quite pleasant and sunny today. In past years I would have spent the day working outside in the garden but for the time being I had to content myself with a couple of half hour sessions. I managed to finish the initial sweeping of the concrete under the washing lines and cut back some of the very long grass growing over the primroses by the drive. While I was sweeping a robin sat up in the tree waiting for worms but I wasn't digging today. Down in the pond the frogs were croaking but no matter how stealthily I tried to creep up the steps they always spotted me and disappeared with much splashing. 

The daffodils by the stream are flowering brightly but it will be a while before the clumps in the rest of the garden show their yellow trumpets. 

Morning Sun.

The day started off bright and sunny, perfect for Peter's gig rowing on the river. The first time I went out to take some stuff up to the compost heap I picked a few leaves off the plants by the drive and found them frozen together. My fingers were soon frozen too so I left it a while before doing a little garden work. Later on I began the job of clearing the moss from the concrete under the washing lines. I've found that my yard broom which is like a giant scrubbing brush works quite well. Working in several sessions with rest breaks (for my back) in between I've managed to get about 2/3rds done. I also straightened up the white plant markers that were leaning or even lying higgledy-piggledy on the propagation beds. All part of my plan to make the garden look tidy and well cared for. 

Patch being disgusting and eating frog spawn. I wouldn't let him back into the house after that as usually frog  spawn doesn't stay down too long.

Indoors I got another year written into my journal, did some extra housework and ended with a bit of knitting while Peter watched the rugby on the big sitting room TV. He's still watching now, it all sounds very strange to me. A silly game in my opinion, grown men crashing into each other to score points. Apart from immediate injury I'm sure they're building up trouble with arthritis in future years.

The sky clouded over later in the afternoon and icy rain began to fall bringing us back to winter once more.

PS Last night we watched most of a walk from Watersmeet to Countisbury with Julia Bradbury which showed some of the wonderful countryside which is literally on our doorstep. It was interesting to see some of the paths we have often walked. Worth a watch.

Unexpected Viewers.

Right now there's a bit of a storm blowing outside. I only wish it had been like that earlier in the day because I'm still waiting for an opportunity to go down to the sea when it's stormy. Earlier today it was just very wet but not windy.

I was about to go outside to see what I could photograph in the garden when I spotted a shiny new Defender Landrover come down and park just above the garden. I waited to see who it was and eventually a man came out and walked down to the house. It turned out that he and his wife had seen the property on-line and were hoping to get a look at the outside of the house as they drove by. As they were already here I offered to show them around the outside. It was raining but they took quite an interest in the garden and outbuildings and asked a lot of questions. I'm always happy to ramble on. If it isn't really what they are looking for then we haven't had to rush around doing the 'indoor tidy/hide things away' and if they do come to look around with the estate agent then that's surely a sign they're still interested. Peter says he's seen a couple of other vehicles pull up for a quick look from the road.

Walking around the garden there were more signs of frogs in the pond including a big clump of frogspawn that has appeared since yesterday. 

One of my indoor jobs has been to finally get one year's annotated, collated blog notes written into my journal. First I had to practice my elvish-style font using a narrow green italic pen. It's hard to be consistent remembering which way to squiggle the long parts of the letters. I also add extra flourishes which are quite random and more like tiny doodles. Then it gets a bit messy when I realise I've missed something out from a section and either squeeze it in sometimes sideways or draw arrows to show where it was meant to go.

Windy.

Listening to the late night weather report on the radio last night,  one of the warmest places in the country had been Chivenor a few miles away at 12.5C (54.5F) and the night time temperature would drop only 1 or possibly 2 degrees. No wonder we hadn't needed the heating on yesterday. After a night of heavy rain today was a lot wilder but still not too cold.

One garden job I was able to do without too much bending was to pick off the moss growing on the corner of the bank.  

My old garden clogs, so useful for slipping on for quick trips outside to take things to the bin or the recycling box etc. are so old now that holes have worn through the soles. Wearing them outside I needed to walk on tiptoes to avoid wet socks. I intend to get a new pair whenever they appear in Lidl's as I don't wish to pay many times the price for the same thing at the garden centres. I tried a temporary repair with some gaffa (duct) tape but that didn't stick, normal foam insoles wouldn't keep the water out and then I came up with this solution. First making a paper template I cut insoles from a lino tile left over from tiling the floor in the downstairs toilet. It keeps the water out and as spring approaches I'm sure I'll find a new pair at Lidl's.

Having finally worked out how many stitches I need I made a start on my knitted hat. I'm using quite small needles to start and after all my recent crocheting with thicker wool progress seems very slow. The only advantage over crocheting is now that I've started I'll be able to knit at the same time as watching TV as it's only a simple 2 stitch rib.

Warmer.

We've had quite variable weather today. Although it started off damp by the time I went for a quick stroll to take photos before leaving for school the sun was trying to break through the clouds and it felt very warm. The birdsong was echoing through the valley and when I walked up to the pond the splashes and widening ripples were evidence of the frogs beginning to be active.

At school it started to rain lightly as I took my class outside for the afternoon playtime and came down heavily as I brought my class in. We had been the only class outside for the playtime as teachers may chose whether to carry on working, have a wet/ indoor playtime or go outside. As our PE lesson had mainly been fairly static balances and afterwards the children had done some more phonics and then songs on the carpet I knew they needed a good run around. After school, being one of the fortunate ones not needing to stay in school for the first of 2 3-hour first aid sessions I planned to get away fairly quickly. I offered a lift to one of my friends who usually walks home through town as by this time the rain was torrential  and my friend has been working all week with laryngitis. We didn't get away as quickly as we hoped because my car was blocked in by the head teacher's car due to someone parking in her space. Unfortunately she was on the phone, a very long conversation. The school administrator let her know the situation and eventually she came and handed her keys to me while she was still on the phone. I handed over the keys to my friend as I'm not very good with cars and didn't wasn't the responsibility of moving the head teacher's shiny new car. The rain had stopped and we missed the traffic that sometimes builds up in town at that time. After dropping off my friend in Newport I stopped at the Lidl's on that side of town. It was strange walking in there because it's recently been refurbished. Lidl's has always been very basic, not quite the warehouse style of Brian Ford's but no frills. Now things have been moved around and the shelving and fridge cabinets upgraded. It took a little longer to find the things I needed but as do doubt the other Lidl's will be exactly the same it shouldn't take me long to get used to the new layout.