Marvellous May

The advent of May heralded a new normal, a good settling into routine and the chance for many celebrations.

The three teachers in the house worked intensively with online teaching and pre-recorded lessons. Jonny and Adele began their days with lessons starting at 6.30 am before moving on in the afternoon to prepping for the next batch. For Angie, hours were spent sitting in front of a computer screen, answering queries from students, liaising and meeting online with colleagues or marking assignments. The latter proved to be an absolute nightmare: multiple documents needed to be opened or downloaded, then deciphered. Work was submitted upside down, sideways, out of focus or illegibly faint. What could have taken a minute or two 'in real life' could take up to 10 minutes onscreen, especially when marking maths. How the children expected their teachers to understand their work when questions were not numbered, ot submitted haphazardly in any sort of random order, was a mystery...

Online teaching, was, however, fun in many ways. Individual 'chats' or actual calls with children, helping them with completing or managing their assignments, were very rewarding, albeit not sustainable in real life. Having spent half an hour working through a variety of problems with one child gave me pause for thought: doing that with every pupil would mean a 10 hour working day just on conversations... Some wonderful work was submitted and parents, too, gave feedback on the lessons. Indeed, my Year 2 RE lessons were some of the best planned and most satisfying, for both my pupils and me, which I have delivered for a long time.

There were many benefits to working at home: most of all, the opportunity to be flexible. So lunch breaks were taken sitting on the patio; a cycle ride before work was possible, or a  midday dog walk; and there were many opportunities to take a brief break and then return, refreshed, to a very challenging work situation.

When not working, we took advantage of the weather, which was tremendous: no rainfall at all during the whole month meant clear, sunny mornings, beautiful cliff walks and stunning flowers.

Shopping became a rare occurrence: we ordered online and ventured out only every ten to fourteen days, early in the morning before the queues started. A new rhythm to life...

Two birthdays - Richard's and Adele's - were celebrated in style with, firstly, drinks with Nicky and Richard over the fence, complete with birthday banner, and then, for Adele, a special meal. Pizza night, with the discovery of gluten-free pizza bases. The end of the month saw the first couple of barbecues - happily, we had unwittingly asked Nicky and Richard over on Nicky's birthday, spending a lovely evening together.

May saw us move out of lockdown: May 3rd, in fact, was the first day with no new Covid-19 cases on the island and by May 27th there were no active cases at all. (Nicky kept notes of all the data in her diary, updating it every day as numbers of active cases dropped.) We moved from total lockdown, where we were allowed out only for essential, infrequent shopping, medical visits, and a maximum of two hours of exercise, first to four hours of exercise and then the possibility of 'bubbling' with another household, where we were allowed to meet up in each others' homes without having to maintain any kind of distance from one another. After that, we were allowed to 'bubble' with two other households as well... and then: no bubbles at all, but unlimited meetings with any one else as long as we maintained a metre distance in our homes and gardens and two metres in public places, gathering in groups of any size up to a maximum of 30. Non-essential shops and businesses prepared to open, and schools were given permission to return after the half term break. But that is next month's story....

April arrives

April suddenly leapt out at us. We had endured the winter so long, but suddenly - with the change in clocks to British Summer Time - the days were longer, lighter, warmer...

Not that I noticed much. The school day is so intense that some days I barely venture outside, unless on duty, for more than a few minutes. We were in the midst of preparing for the school production of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, such a wonderful opportunity to share the Bible story with children and staff alike. A fascinating glimpse into another culture, too. So days were packed with rehearsals and costume preparation. All went well, the children sang, acted and danced magnificently, everyone was happy... and three days later, the end of term. What's not to like?

And with the end of term - glorious, glorious sunshiney weather. The first day of the holidays was like summer: think sunburn, think too hot to sit in the sunny garden; think taking shelter in the shade; think long warm evenings; think GARDENING. Fun.

Phil and Judy (lovely Adele's lovely parents) arrived a day later. They had had a dreadfully circuitous journey, thanks to the vagaries and inefficiences of Flybe. They should have arrived at 9.30 am - instead, it was more like 7.30pm. They were taken to Exeter where, thankfully, they could go into the city and enjoy the sunshine - one of the warmest days of the year so far. But the onward flight to Guernsey was then delayed by another couple of hours... oh well.  They arrived safely and we had a lovely Sunday with them, cycling to church, then via Le Gouffre by the cliffs for a coffee before returning home for a leisurely lunch.

A day later, and we were off to France, leaving them to enjoy the peace of Morningstar.  All the rest of our travels are chronicled in www.travelswithpickle.blogspot.com....

Meanwhile, back at Morningstar, Kareena, Chris and Howie the Boston Terrier (Pickle's best friend) moved in after Phil and Judy had left.They have bravely struggled with renovations but when it came to finishing the floor, there was no way they could continue to live in the house and so stayed with us for around ten days or so.  What fun. It was like having flatmates: casual suppers, some shared, some not; evening chats; a late night glass of wine; putting the world to rights; sharing lives.  Delightful to see how easy it is to have guests, too, as our guest room and ensuite is in a private part of the house on the other side of the main entrance.

It was good to have a friend to share with, too, when I got back to school: this term is incredibly hectic and it started with a bang: the first staff meeting of the term introduced, among other things, two new innovative extra-curricular days with quite a bit of preparation to do for them... more than a little demotivating when there are so many other things going on. For me, it is introducing a 'time travelling' trip to investigate the German legacy from the Occupation, including a spy story resulting from the discovery of a rucksack left at the beach by a British spy on the run... but that is for May. I staggered to the end of a month which had turned rather chilly....

September reflections

Just over halfway through September and the warm weather continues.  Despite - or perhaps because of - the start of term, summer days have carried on as if there is no other way to be. Surely this is Someone's Law? The Law which says that September will be hot and sunny as soon as the children go back to school?  This year, more true than ever. The evenings have been incredibly warm: I have been reluctant to go to bed, sitting on the warm stoop at 10pm, watching bats flitting back and forth in the dark.

The mornings have been so beautiful that I have frequently scampered out of bed and along the cliffs before cycling off to school...

From the bedroom window

Gardening has been a delight: cucumbers galore, butternut squash appearing, leeks, spinach, curly kale, potatoes...

School is a new year's helter skelter: new Maths scheme, new English, new way of teaching writing, new children... the last 'new' is all good: it is such a privilege to get to know these intriguing personalities and journey with them over the year.

Richard has been so busy at home: laying new paving slabs for parking; cutting and trimming trees and bushes; fixing our broken bike barn, after the roof of it blew off in a summer storm; repairing my faithful food processor, which stopped working after 28 years...and celebrating 32 years of married life with a beautiful reminder from Cat:

And every weekend has involved hosting friends old and new, getting to know our lovely neighbours...such a privilege to be able to use this lovely house as a meeting place.

#blessed #contentment  #hospitalityissosatisfying