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.

Marvellous May

It was somewhat of a relief to end April, filled as its latter days had been with sadness, loss and grief. Yet the passing of days into the next month have, in truth, done little to change my feelings.

Still. Much to be thankful for in May, not least those family members whose birthdays fall in the first half of the month: Richard, then, a couple of weeks later on consecutive days, my nephew Henry, sister Isabel and dear daughter-in-law Adele. Quite a challenge remembering to get organised with birthdays in time...

The weather helped. April ended cold enough for a fire, but May began warmer, excelling itself with the warmest Spring Bank Holiday on record: it reached 24 degrees here...

That first weekend - with a few days added on - was busy. Dear friends to supper on the Friday evening - our summer resolution is to get together, one way or another, on a Friday. Beach, even, if it is warm enough; Healing Rooms on the Saturday morning, afternoon tea later and then a surprise visit from Mags and Lewis, bringing their 'Save the Date' card for their wedding next year...

The Saturday had been warm: the Sunday, warmer still. After church, we whizzed down the road to the Dollman gun battery. We missed the firing of the gun, but the bunkers - with reconstruction of what a bunk room would have looked like - were open: an annual occasion. I had visited with the school just a few days before, but what a difference it made to see it all opened up, with members of the local history group in attendance with a wealth of information.

Blackout warning

Beware - the enemy is listening!  The Germans were convinced that Britain would do everything within its power to recapture the Channel Islands

The reconstructed bunk room

Harley Davidson!  More than 70 years old - complete with rifle holster!

And on the way home: cow jam. #everythingstopsforcowsinGuernsey

A walk the next morning yielded stunning views of flowers on the cliff path and then a serendipitous meeting with friends, driving past, who came in for coffee. We caught up with Martyn and Heather quickly before cycling across to the West Coast to help with marshalling for a charity walk in aid of, among other worthy causes, the Tumaini Fund which works in Tanzania.  We stood at the side of the road for an hour or more, directing walkers and the odd car. I saw quite a few of my students.. always fun seeing them out and about.

Seriously scary for a Small Dog - a robotic lawnmower scaring off canine intruders

Beautiful borage

Sea campion

Lovely thrift.

And what a gift it is to cycle: we meander down unexplored lanes, discovering all kinds of treasures we would never see from a car. On the way, what looked like an ancient traction engine, covered over by creepers. On our return, we discovered the site of an old mill - fallen into disrepair by the start of World War 2 but completely destroyed by the Germans and a bunker built in its place - completely by accident. Up on a hillside, it gave commanding views of the west coast.

Discovery: there are zebras (well, one at least) on Guernsey!

Traction engine? Pre-war?

Site of an old mill, converted into a German bunker, on top of a hill in Castel

Unusually artistic graffiti

The bunker - a tunnel leading out to undergrowth and bluebells

Back home, pottering in the garden, catching up on jobs inside and out... a gift of time. And then... 9th May, Liberation Day in Guernsey. We cycled off to town through a maze of lanes, joining the crowds who wandered the stalls and waited for the cavalcade. Met two Dutch ladies visiting, who told us that their Liberation Day, while not celebrated as much as ours, happens on May 5th with an act of remembrance - a la 11th November - occurs on May 4th, where everything stops for two minutes' silence at 8pm.  And, of course, as this is little Guernsey, we met friends and acquaintances before the military vehicles and vintage cars arrived. (We had, in fact, passed the military vehicles, whose occupants were all in forties costume, having a party in a field a few hundred yards away from our house, complete with music from the Forties as well.)

Two days at school before the weekend seemed rather strange.

And the weekend... lovely evening to kick it off, eating curry with friends; cycled off to Cobo again, doing errands on the way; finishing painting a table and moving it into the spare room; tidying up, in preparation for Chris and Kareena's visit. (They are coming to stay for a week or so while their house is being renovated - 'we will house share or 'flat' together, as they say in NZ.) And then, reconnecting with Delia and Ernest after four years... talking non-stop for several hours.

Then, slowly, we set about preparing our house for our summer absence. Cleaning out cupboards, sorting, storing away winter clothes (at last!), tidying up the garden. We created a wonderful wood pile: very satisfying stacking logs carefully.  #almostartwork  Spring is such a vibrant, energetically busy time...So a daily cycling commute to school; weekends exploring. It is a daily joy to see buzzards wheeling and crying overhead; a little crowd of goldfinches swooping in and out of the hedgerows before me as I cycle along the lane; the early morning sun piercing into the bedroom, dazzling in its brightness. One morning, the car ahead slowed down and swerved to avoid a trio of quarrelling sparrows on the road, so intent on their argument that they flew into safety only at the last minute. The high banks bordering the narrow lanes are awash with pink campion, yellow creeping buttercup and white wild garlic.  Soon, they will be trimmed: but for now, wildflowers and greenery grow high above my head. I cycle as if entirely alone in a tunnel of herbiage....

Lovely lilies scented the house for a fortnight

Early morning summer sun.. still only 6am

Vazon beach to myself...

Saxifrage? On the cliff path

A clifftop valley of cow parsley

Cornflowers emerge as the gorse seeds..

Clematis

Clematis on our patio...

....and then, the last weekend. Blazing summer sunshine, high temperatures... I ventured to Vazon with my board and managed the first swim of the summer before a steep cliff walk. Too hot for Pickle... but we enjoyed tea in the garden with our dear neighbour Nicky and later catch up dinner with old friends...and the first barbecue of the summer.

Wonderful weather. Good friends. Contentment.