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.

Holidays! Holidays?

Phew - finished school last Friday. That last week of term was packed. First of all we had speech day. I have a love/hate relationship with this concept, particularly beloved of private schools. I hate that we can't recognise the amazing achievements of all the children - not least, that the children in my class have survived my sense of humour all year.  But I love seeing the joy and surprise on children's faces when they hear they have received a prize. Most notable this year was a little boy who arrived in my class with poor handwriting and literacy. By the end of the year he was producing exemplary work. (Note to self: what a good word exemplary is: wish I'd thought of using it in my reports...) And I love seeing how other children are delighted for their friends and classmates: the smiles, the whispered 'well done', the pat on the back...

Then we had farewell parties - 4 members of staff leaving; farewell assemblies; sorting out, clearing out and packing up as I moved classroom, with the willing help of the children; organising our discarded books to go to Tanzania; and then there was Gardening.

I started the two gardens we have at school, with the help of parents and children, a few years ago. There is a quiet garden with a willow tunnel, a reading corner and a fountain. There is a huge vegetable garden - almost allotment sized. There is an area planted with trees and bushes, set aside for wildlife. And now there is a refurbished flower bed, sporting a Tudor rose, the school emblem.

It all  needs looking after. Every year I am  determined to give up this enormous responsibility, and every year something happens to make me change my mind. This coming year, I will have allocated timetable time to manage it all.
Good. I'm looking forward to clawing back the time I spent recently on organising a watering rota for the holidays. Helping 140 children to harvest the potatoes they planted in March. Encouraging more children to help me plant a new silver birch, to replace a conifer which blew over in the March snow storms, rewarding them with an abundance of strawberries. Going into school in the holidays to water the new willow tunnel which, in the hot weather we are having, is beginning to turn yellow.

The week finished with farewells and a shared staff meal. Lovely. I have amazing colleagues and our staffroom is a supportive little community.

So that was school. But I haven't paused for breath. I'm not hugely houseproud, but the house has shouted its need for cleaning. So far, I have a sparkling oven; cleaned out kitchen cupboards; washed and changed all the bedlinen, including the mattress protectors and so on; washed bedroom curtains; refurbished the bathroom...

I've been into school several times, too - not just to water the gardens, but also to reorganize my new classroom, stowing files and books away neatly into the tiny cupboard. (Quart into pint pot sums it up.) I know I won't have time at the end of the holidays and, in any case, would rather get it over and done with. I'll be in again next week, too, if not before...

That's all good.. But what was better was the coffees with friends and colleagues and a particularly celebratory tea for my dear friend Renee, the day before her birthday. Special, special times...