Sunday 30 June 2013

Just June...

There wasn't a huge amount on the calendar for June, yet it has been so busy that I can barely think straight. July is looking even blanker better though: we break up on the 5th!

Yet, in school terms, it is one of the busiest months of the year.
Reports. (Looong ones.).
Meetings.
Activity week - taking the children away on a five day residential trip to Shropshire has to be one of the most tiring weeks of my year. Good fun, but late nights and early mornings and constant activity all day.
Concerts, sports day...
The busiest time of the year for the school garden: watering, weeding, harvesting strawberries and early potatoes, planting pumpkins...
Creating an amazing Tudor Rose floral display in part of the school garden with, in turn, 140 children. The school - part of Elizabeth College - celebrated 450 years with a day where we all dressed up in Elizabethan costume and took part in Elizabethan/Tudor activities. I was a Tudor gardener...






To top it all off, I am moving classrooms. More importantly, my belongings are moving cupboards. To a cupboard approximately one fifth of the size of my present one.
Meeting new colleagues in preparation for a class move in September.
Beginning to prepare for school inspection next....March.

Late evenings and sleep-short nights. Early mornings and bright dawns. Not enough sunshine and warmth. (Will summer ever come?)

Now it's July. Holidays. Sigh...

Sunday 23 June 2013

Reading again...

Just catching up a little on reading and book reviews: I read 'Heiress of Winterwood' by Sarah Ladd, recently, a Regency romance with a satisfying amount of suspense. Worth the effort. Here is what I wrote for Amazon:

"Although I received this book as a free Kindle copy through Booksneeze, I was fascinated to find the author linked to several other authors and blogs I read regularly. So, it was no surprise to find that the quality of Sarah Ladd’s writing is good (although – and I am not paid to say it – Booksneeze’s choices reliably ARE well worth reading!)


The book is set in Regency England. Although she is an American author, Sarah has, unlike several other historical writers I have read, the ‘voice’ of the period right. The prose is written in credible English with only one or two Americanisms creeping in – normally, there tend to be so many that the language jars on a reader, hindering the plot. This is a tribute to the extensive reading and research the author has done around the period.

Written in a traditional Regency romance style, there is a good amount of suspense, spiced with a little danger and unexpected twists in the plot. We are drawn in to the need for Amelia to avoid an unwanted marriage in order to continue caring for her motherless niece. Recognising early on that the hero she has decided to marry – the baby’s father – is in fact the book’s love interest, the author nevertheless keeps us on our toes as we follow Amelia’s actions. After some skilful interweaving through the plot, the conclusion is satisfyingly heart-warming.

This is a delightful, easy read which I gobbled up at one sitting. More, please, Sarah!"

Tuesday 11 June 2013

View from the other side

Having been born in - actually, in a village just outside where the maternity home was situated, but that's splitting hairs: apart from those first few days, I lived in Rugby until I was 18. And a bit. And lots more bits of inbetween life: inbetween college terms; inbetween jobs; inbetween singleness and marriage; inbetween a Kenyan life and a Guernsey life....

I thought it was 'quite a nice place' but generally wasn't that enthralled.

Still, I returned on a brief visit last month. Caught up with a couple of friends, revisited my parents' old house, now a lovely bed and breakfast. My parents kept the best of the Victorian features and the new owners have upgraded it all beautifully.

Seeing the town on a sunny, warm May morning was probably seeing Rugby at its best.

So it was quite fun to read this from a moved-in-from-the-south Rugbyite.

Interesting. Because I could have written exactly the same about Guernsey, where we now live, though the list of attractions here is CONSIDERABLY longer. After all, what's not to like about clear air, sunny skies, golden beaches, rugged cliffs and an abundance of winding lanes...not to mention one of the prettiest, quaintest towns in Britain?

Small, super friendly, relaxed.

A view from the other side.