Journeying through July

July began with the end of term craziness and the end of a delightful friendship for Pickle.

With the postman.

She had got to know him quite well. He always seemed pleased to see her, even when, one day when he was sitting doing paperwork in his van, she hopped in the back, ready to come on his rounds with him. He even took to getting her to sign for the parcels he delivered...

Now, we have different posties. All quite pleasant - this is Guernsey, after all, where the community is small and friendly - but none have, as yet, begun to bond with this little Patterdale terrier....but she's working on them. Her friendliness is very hard to resist.... watch this space.

So... end of term. A week so crazy busy that I had each day planned down to the last half hour. Packing and cleaning were, for me, secondary to the demands of school, but Richard worked intensively to get the motorhome ready and the house cleaned ready for guests. Intermittently, I packed for going away and packed away unnecessary clutter, leaving the house clear.

Evenings were filled with prizegiving and concerts, interspersed with catching up with friends. We sat on the roof terrace of Wendy and Nicholas's flat overlooking L'Ancresse beach and common, watching kestrels swooping and hovering. There was even a visit from four goldfinches, who perched on the balcony wall. Wonderful to catch up on news in such an idyllic setting. Then, the night before we left, our wonderful neighbours invited us over. So relaxing to sit in the garden in the warmth of the evening.

Evening sky over Morningstar

And, of course, the week was full of finishing off and goodbyes to our Year Sixes before they moved on to senior school. I had cleared my classroom the week before, so we were able to concentrate on organising a wonderful Leavers' Service at church. The children wrote and read their own prayers: most of the year group stood up in front of 200 people, reading clearly and organising themselves beautifully. We were very proud of them.

Inbetween, I managed to put posies of hydrangeas and ox-eye daisies together for my some of my wonderful, supportive colleagues. Such fun, to write appreciative notes. And to reflect on how things have changed this year, and how far I have been able, with God's help, to come. A year ago, my blood pressure was dangerously high: now, the best it has ever been. And I am stronger in my spirit, in spite of all the attack last year. I can reflect and be thankful for God's strength and my friends' and colleagues' love and support. God is good, good, good - as the children sang, having chosen 'King of My Heart' as one of their songs.

Last day of term was emotional for children: last game of football together (boys AND girls!); last game of 'Empires'; final assembly. Lots of awards, but we finished with a spontaneous performance of George Ezra's 'Shotgun', which Year 6 have been mad about. The school joined in with the actions which the children had put to the song while they were away on activity week.


The end of term is, always, an anti-climax, so I was happy to jump on my bicycle, five minutes after the last child left and all the goodbyes had been said, to whizz down the hill to meet Richard at the ferry. We were off to France...www.travelswithpickle.blogspot.com here we come! In the words of George Ezra:
"I'll be riding shotgun, underneath the hot sun, feeling like a someone - oh yeah"

Of course, the rest of the month whizzed by in a heat haze...but one more thing must be said. Richard bought a SCOBY (which apparently stands for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) and some starter tea for making kombucha, which is, basically, sweet fermented tea. Aarrgh!  What to do with this 'monster' which has to be delicately and carefully nurtured, using precise measurements of tea, sugar and hot water, precise temperatures for brewing and precise instruments and vessels. (No metal AT ALL - remove rings! - and brew in a glass container.)

How to do this in a motorhome?

Well, poor SCOBY. He got shoved into a plastic box, covered with a lid for travelling more often than was supposed to happen, jiggled around for hours in the van, rather than sitting sedately on a countertop; encountered direct sunlight (big no no) and was subjected to temperatures far above those recommended. Oh dear.

But guess what? HE THRIVED!  He grew enormous very quickly, birthing a 'baby' (yes SCOBY should be 'she' but there is no doubt that all its characteristics were, in my mind, masculine: sensitive fussy, needing to be looked after carefully....) and brewing kombucha at an astonishing rate.  It should take 5 - 21 days, at 21 - 25 degrees Celsius, but Mr Scoby manages to produce a delicious brew at temperatures well above thirty degrees in just a matter of hours: 24 - 48, to be precise.

I've separated 'baby' from 'mother' once - and he instantly seemed to double in size. What to do now....?

Whatever. Scoby has been a great travelling companion and I shall do my best to continue to keep him happy.... more updates next month.

Jaunty June

This has to be the best month of the year. Spring has exploded into summer, the air is warm and the sun is shining - most days, it seems. Flowers are EVERYWHERE.

Drooping over the patio from our neighbours' garden.

Tree hydrangea

I am amazed at how quickly June is flying  by. The cycle commute to school has changed, as the hedges and banks which, at the beginning of the month were towering over my head, have been cut. It does make cycling down the lanes safer... I can now see vehicles coming, although the tractors which tear round the island are somewhat daunting....

One day, a magpie hopped insouciantly along the bank by my shoulder, so close I could see its wing feathers; a cock pheasant strutted his stuff at the edge of a field, just a couple of metres away from me, quite unconcerned; then, as I took one of my favourite back lanes near home, I saw a buzzard dive down and land at the edge of the field. He hadn't seen me, so I quietly drifted to a halt and climbed the ban to peep over. He flew up, almost in my face, yellow legs dangling as he slowly flapped white-patched wings towards the nearest tree before continuing on across the meadow. mobbed by two crows who pursued him with tremendous determination until he had safely left the area.

Goldfinches swoop busily in and out of the trees and bushes which blackbirds fly low-level across the garden, assiduously digging for worms in the early morning. Thrushes shriek from our neighbour's tree, almost deafening at times. A baby chaffinch rested thankfully on the bird table, its parent perched anxiously above it while it caught its breath.

There was other wildlife, too. Sawfly larvae emerged and started chomping away at the Solomon's Seal, effectively stripping the leaves. Nature's pruning. I started off the season by trying to remove them, before giving up: perhaps they would be food for the birds... but not before the leaves had been stripped to bare stems...

Inbetween bird watching, I teach; read the incredible World War 2 adventure stories the children have written; help them put together a 'museum' of all the incredible work they have done this term; help a group of girls created miniature Guernsey landmarks for our wheelbarrow 'garden'. Our entry this year for the annual schools' gardening wheelbarrow competition is a living 'map' of our island, surrounded by a beaches of bright yellow tagetes and a sea of trailing blue and white lobelia....  Our school 'garden' has now been converted into an outdoor learning area, so no more gardening club for me...

And lastly: Activities' Week. This year, I was fortunate to be with Year 4, 'supervising' them at the beach while they attended Surf School. Apart from a couple of misty, windy mornings, we sat in blazing sunshine, rejoicing over every successful attempt at standing up on the board. It was a blessing, too, to get to know colleagues who normally pass by briefly in the staffroom, as we don't usually work together. My journey down on the bike afforded me wonderful views of the coastline as I navigated the lanes. 30 minutes freewheeling downhill....40 - 50 minutes back up again....

View from the lookout at Le Grantez: site of a former windmill, a Napoleonic era fort and a German defence fortification.

A jack rabbit rests in the shade...

Vazon bay. #tropical

Then, as if I didn't have enough to do, we started making kombucha: fermented tea. Boy, reading the instructions and researching on the internet took hours of my life, but eventually I combined tea, sugar and hot water, letting it cool before gently inserting the mushroom-like 'SCOBY'. Waited a few days, then decanted the sweet fizzy drink. It was actually quite tasty... Now, can we keep it alive and going over the next couple of hot summer months...?

The SCOBY from above. Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. So there we are.