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...

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!"

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.

Grand Havre

Our house is on the left of the picture further back from the front and with an arrow pointing down at its roof.

Meanwhile in May....

....a month...

Of hard work and a few holidays, including Liberation Day.
Of spring arriving and summer hopeful, but mostly scarves and coats and gloves and boots and winter winter clothes.
Of friends and meetings and kayaking and lovely lovely ladies breakfast.
Of emails and Skype calls.
Of charity walks and cycling to school.
Of hard work.Report writing. Meetings. Discussions. Lessons. Lessons.

And several completely astonishing 'blasts from the past': I bumped into an acquaintance from Kenya while I was on a course in the UK - and someone, too, with a close connection to school here in Guernsey. Then, as Richard was taking the dog for a walk, he was recognized by one of his father's farm employees - having worked on the Pollard farm in Kenya, he had been farming in Devon for many years and was on holiday in Guernsey for a couple of days.  We last met him and his wife at our wedding, nearly 29 years ago!  So astonishing that he recognized Richard - plus beard, plus pepper-and-salt hair (but no weight gain!) - after so many years...

And I listen to the bird song and watch the baby rabbits spring-hare leaping on the lawn. Magpies raid wood pigeon nests and I find the sad eggshell debris. New potatoes appear on the 'hedge veg' and chickens lay too many eggs. And some days the sun is warm and hot on my back and I lie with a book.

May might be here.

Frrrrrog Chasing

Pickle loves the summer. Huge opportunities to spend a lot of time outdoors, discovering all kinds of exciting creatures and unusual smells.
A plump rabbit sitting outside the back door in the early morning is just asking to be chased.
A hedgehog, struggling up and down the pond, invites derision and annoyance. The animal in question is not designed for swimming, however elegant its hedgehog-paddle might be.
Beetles crawling through the grass are a source of fascination. So are ants and bumble bees.
As for the large frog, which had the temerity to leap into the pond right under her nose....well, she couldn't let it get away with that:


Investigating the pond during a playdate with Howie...




...needs a deep and thorough search for that elusive amphibian...



...which ends up really tiring. Aaahh....

Proud

Proud mama.

23 minutes in...