Owl Viewing.

"The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles." I've just read this quote on a friend's Face book page and thought it very apt. I'm dreadful for moaning on about all the things that are going on and making myself more miserable in the process. So today was good in that all my parents turned up on time and I kept each meeting to the required less than 10 mins. Also when I found out that my poor TA (teaching assistant) has laryngitis and won't be in for the rest of the week, I was 'lent' a capable student from another class and was able to get on with sorting out books for the parents to see as parents would be arriving almost as soon as the children left the classroom.

Driving home with the gentle rain obscuring the hills, I didn't even bother to look in the mirror to see what was happening with the sunset. It wasn't until I was on the last stretch that I spotted the break in the cloud cover with the setting sun highlighting the tops of the clouds.

Too wet and a bit too late to finish the mowing tonight. I've eaten some of Peter's sausages which turned out well, will do a simple plan for tomorrow and head for bed. Currently my class are getting very excited watching a pair of Barn Owls on the Internet. I've found a nest cam (Barn Owl Trust nest cam)and for the last few weeks we have been forlornly looking at an empty nest box with just a few owl pellets. Yesterday there were 2 owls in the box which caused a great amount of excitement. Hopefully we'll get to see eggs and owlets in the future though owls do have a tendency to finish off the weakest chick.

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Hare, Hare.

Both my journeys today were very similar. This morning the lack of cloud cover meant the temperature had plummeted and there was ice on the car windscreen but this was balanced by increased light levels. Venus was living up to its alternative name The Morning Star or Eosphus and shining brightly in the deep blue sky. To the east the deep blue was lightening to a royal blue with the first streaks of turquoise on the horizon. It was so good to be able to see where I was going and not be blinded by the car lights bouncing back off the rain or fog. Just after Ashelford Corner I came upon a hare running down the road. I slowed down and gave it the chance to jink sideways into the hedge. Coming home tonight it was another clear night and this time my way was lit by the full moon. Once again the deep blue sky shaded down to a dirty turquoise changing to orange brown shades on the horizon across the sea. Small grey clouds could be seen scattered in the evening sky over the dark hills dotted with lights from homes and villages. Down at sea level the town of Appledore was a mass of orange lights on the far side of the estuary. I stopped by a gateway to take in the view with its subtle beauty. Then blow me down as I continued on my way home what should be running down the road but another hare, maybe only 100 yds from the morning sighting. Same hare or just lots of hares about at the moment?Evening sky at school.

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Play Time.

Evening sun at school looking towards the junior school with the corner of my classroom/hut in the foreground.

The school play is now taking over our lives, long rehearsals started in earnest today and next week's timetable is mainly rehearsals and singing practice. At this stage it seems to be going well, only 2 more weeks and we'll be doing it for real. This year we are doing 2 evening performances to fit in with parents' schedules. It would be nice if we had a couple of hours later start on the following mornings to fit in with our personal schedules. Dream on.

Look blue skies! makes a nice change. This morning I had the Headteacher and one of the Literacy co-ordinators come to observe my guided reading session (where a group of children read the same book not together but at their own pace.) I do my guided reading out in our cloakroom where we sprawl on a couple of PE mats that I have stashed away in there. The fun part of these sessions is that we do a lot of talking about the book, predicting what will happen, looking for information, delving into characters and their motives/feelings. The children enjoy our reading sessions and we have already had 3 1/2 hour sessions on a book they would normally have raced through in one go without taking in what it was all about , and we haven't got to the end yet. I was pleased to get very good feedback as this is a lesson I do enjoy and feel confident in.

By the time I had put up one small display after school (clay cobras) and written notes home about costumes for the play the sun had gone. Tonight's full moon made for some interesting and dramatic cloudscapes. Poor old camera goes back to the shop tomorrow. What will I do without a camera ? Mine accompanies me at all times, it's part of my life. All I can say is they had better repair it quickly ............ or else !!!

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Being Thankful.

I've got into the habit of watching tv late in the evening and generally that means some sort of crime drama set in British cities. This has brought home to me how lucky I am to be living here - simply in visual terms. I lived for many years in the heart of London and the lack of beauty in the environment was one of the things I found so depressing. You could if you narrowed your focus find beautiful things to see but you had to look really hard and develop tunnel vision to filter out all the crap around. There are magnificent buildings but for the most part everything is drab and dirty and the sky is generally only glimpsed above a nondescript sky line. And out in suburbia (which thank goodness I only passed through) there is the added unremitting monotony. Here I am fortunate enough to have beauty at every turn. Tonight the sky was that lovely mix of high cirrus clouds with lower fluffy cumulus clouds.
I wasn't too pleased with the blurry foreground in these shots when I saw them on the pc so I grabbed the camera and took a walk up the hill.

And was rewarded with yet more fascinating skyscapes,

and far reaching views. I love the way the light is constantly changing and only minutes later the sun was dropping and the pink tinge had gone from the clouds.

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An Unexpected Bonus.

I have to admit I wasn't too thrilled at having to leave my cosy home at 9.30 last night to drive into town to pick up Linas from the train station. However I was rewarded with the sight of a blazing sunset, and the pink glow of the sunset reflected on the clouds to the east. Now that I've worked out how to use the manual settings on my camera I have a better chance of capturing the true colours of the sky.

It was still light and warm at this late-ish hour reminding me that we've just passed the summer Solstice. I try not to think about this as now the nights are getting longer. I don't really want to focus on that as it's still another 4 weeks until the school summer holidays. As my life's rhythms have always been dictated by the academic year, ( my school days, uni, the boys' school days and now my work), for me summer starts at the end of July when the school summer holidays start.

Driving into town in this soft light I saw buzzards, rabbits and something that was either a giant hedgehog, small cat or rabbit with short ears sitting on the verge in Shirwell.

On our way back it had finally started to become dark and wisps of mist were streaming over the gaps in the hedges and across the road. This was our valley at about 10.45pm. (Apologies for the blur but it was a hand held 2 second exposure.)
This morning the mist had thickened and one minute I was driving in bright sunshine and the next in swirling mists. That quickly burnt off and the rest of the day has been rather hot.

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Welcome Sun.

It has been a gloriously sunny day today. Cold but sunny. I didn't get a chance to work outside today as the piano tuner was coming to tweek the piano back into shape. It's been 18 months since he last came, (he rings me when he is working locally) , but he knows this piano stays in tune quite well as it is in a cold room. (The far end of the sitting room, well away from the wood burner.) Instead of stomping about in the garden I tidied up the place and even washed all the blue glass on the kitchen window sill as the sun was shinning through and highlighting all the cobwebs in the window. Now the window and all the glass are sparkling in the welcome sun. Well not right now 'cos it's dark but you get the picture. Then it was off to teach for the afternoon and earn some pennies for the bank. A little shopping after school and home with a few stops to capture the afternoon sun.

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More Stuff Gone.

The sun was shining today as I drove into town. I was taking an old armchair and my dead Dyson down to the dump. I love getting rid of stuff. I went to the dump in Barnstaple as I needed to do some shopping as well. Despite being a much bigger facility than Ilfracombe they only have a tiny re-sale area. I tried several of the big DIY stores for a filter for the washing machine hose but they don't seem to make them any more. We'd taken the hose off the machine to clean the filter and clear the pipe and the filter had got damaged in the process. We've managed to fit it back on as the dirty clothes situation was getting out of hand.
The sun was already going down as I came back from town mid afternoon.

Almost gone.

I was able to get on with my spring clean of Romas' room. If he is prepared to move everything out of his room before Christmas I can get him a new carpet from the carpet warehouse. It is such a small room that it should be easy to find a cheap offcut in a plain colour. I'm still very tired after last night so once we've watched the Strictly results it will be an early night.

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A Long Day.

7.30 in the morning was cold but bright with a pretty sunrise to enjoy as I made my weary way into school.Having a scene like this filling your windscreen is so much nicer than the monotonous grey cloud of the last week. School was quieter without the Christmas Play to be fitted into the morning, a lull before the rush of the final week when as well as all the special activities you suddenly find that 1 or 2 children haven't made their card/pot/calendar/wrapping paper and time has to be found to get that done. The children will gradually get more and more excited as the week goes on and by Friday we will all be ready to drop. Chris and I had a hilarious time teaching the whole school to sing 'Go tell it on the mountain'. We didn't have a cd so had to put up with me plinking away on the piano. The music seemed pitched really high which was hard for me as I'm normally an alto and with my cold my voice is even lower. In the end we focused on learning the words and abandoned the piano and sang at a much lower pitch. If they have the words and the tune I'm sure a couple of practices with Janet will get the pitch back up. We were supposed to teach another song but we couldn't find it in the book so decided it was completely beyond us.

Sunset on the way home was even better than the sunrise. I stopped at a couple of places to try and capture the colours.



Looking down towards Barnstaple, across Appledore and out towards Hartland.

I had managed to catch the sunset because I was going home early to get ready for our staff meal out at the Fortescue Hotel in Barnstaple. We chose that venue this year because it was a (carvery) dinner dance which gave us the opportunity to spend the whole evening socialising. Once we'd had our meal, starter a bit basic - soup, prawn cocktail or mushroom vol-au-vent! , main - a carvery with a very good selection of vegetable dishes, dessert again standard hotel fare - pavlova, profiteroles or fruit salad, we then spent the rest of the evening drinking and/or dancing and generally being very silly. The music selection was a bit naff but we all managed to get up and have a laugh on the dance floor, there is nothing like a group of women letting their hair down. We finally left at 12.45 with a contingent going on to one of the town's clubs. My knee was already stinging away so I decided that was enough dancing for me. I don't drink at all and I still managed to walk past my car parked in the High Street and had a moment of thinking it might have been nicked before I retraced my steps and found it hiding between 2 other cars. I didn't have that problem when I drove a Landrover.
And finally the shoes! Everyone at work was adamant that I should not turn up in trainers,( my original plan) so as I had to go to the bank at lunchtime I had a quick look around at shoes. I've got rather wide feet and am past the stage of squeezing my feet into something that isn't comfortable. I managed to find these sandals in Evans, original price £28, reduced several times to £7 and then today there was another 20% off. Final price £5.60! I did try on nearly all the styles of boot they had in the shop but didn't find anything suitable. Considering I live in flat crocs , trainers or flip flops and it has probably been about 25 years since I wore anything this high I am amazed that I managed to walk in these let alone get out on the dance floor. But I did and without a single blister or rub mark.

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Practice Makes Perfect.

It was not quite so dark on my homeward journey tonight as I had left school early to go to the hospital for another physiotherapy session, (some lovely deep massages on my spine have really loosened up my neck and shoulder). I stopped up past the Lewis' farm to take some pictures of the evening clouds and the sheets of rain over the bay. These dark clouds have been releasing nasty hailstorms and I'm so glad the central heating is keeping most of the house warm. I have had to resort to my cosy dressing gown and fingerless gloves to keep the chill at bay in the cold sitting room but now I'm as warm as toast.

Back at school the day has been mostly about the play, another rehearsal - this time on the stage blocks and my class sitting on chairs by the side. I had hoped to have my children sitting more comfortably on pe mats but the feeling was that change wasn't necessary. Then another run through of the dances in the classroom to check if the rats' ears would stay on through the dance and to see if the stars' shimmering wrist bands were not too tight or too fragile. Actually they looked very effective. Tomorrow will be the first dress rehearsal and as we'll be taking photographs they'll need their face paints on as well. It's nothing too dramatic, just nose & whiskers for the rats and possibly teeth if I have the time. The afternoon was more relaxed as the children started painting some clay coil pots that they are making into tea-light holders as Christmas presents for their mums. We don't have a kiln so we use air drying clay for such projects. As I didn't have the chance to set up my classroom for tomorrow I'll be heading in extra early tomorrow so that I can get organised, get costumes set out etc. Maybe I'll even beat Chris who is always the first one in at around 7.30, I'm usually the next - about 10 mins later though I tend to stay longer in the evenings. I won't know what to do with myself in January, only joking!

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Home Early.

For the past week there has been a buzzard either sitting on the fence or walking around on the road as I go up the drive. As generally I am driving around in the dark I'm not seeing quite so many buzzards around at the moment.

It has been very windy today but much, much warmer. We even had a few moments of sun and at one point as I walked across the playground it felt positively balmy. This very pretty acer in the school garden is shedding its leaves like golden showers. The ladies who run the school gardening club wanted to cut it down because it overshadows some of the children's vegetable plots but I think that would be a terrible shame.

The single red branch stands out against the cheery yellow that shines out even on the greyest day.

I left school early tonight to get up to the hospital for a physio appointment so for once it wasn't dark for my journey home. There was a hint of pink and gold in the rather grey sunset at around 5.00. I was also treated to some melodious birdsong as I went out to check on the hens. Normally it is just the silly laughing of the call ducks or the hooting of the owls. Peter isn't home yet, I expect they are making him work extra hours for having the temerity to go to the hospital for an appointment with the consultant.

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Wet Play Today.

A good blogger has her camera with her at all times so even getting stuck behind the dustmen was an opportunity not to be wasted. This was just before I turned into the school grounds at 7.45 this morning.

We've had some torrential showers today and for the first time the children had to have 'wet play' in the classroom. At the beginning of term I found some old stock exercise books which I had given them to use as Rainy Day books and it was lovely to see how many of them choose to do their own writing during the wet play time.

The plus side of a rainy day are the skies that follow. The automatic exposure on the camera makes for some interesting effects. This was on the way home near Upcott Cross.

And I also managed to capture some views of the setting sun over Hartland Point.

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Elwen Goes Crackers.

Definitely colder today. I stopped on the way home to take a few sky pictures and my poor little fingers were frozen by the time I had finished. I was so glad we had decided to put the central heating on yesterday and left it running so that the stone walls can absorb the heat. In a couple of days we'll put it on the timer to take the chill off when we get up and in the evenings. Heating oil is too expensive for us to leave the heating on all the time and there isn't much point when we're out at work.No spectacular sunset tonight but a pretty sky none the less.


There were lots of visitors at school today as 4 applicants were interviewed for the January Reception Class (4 year olds) which will have 30 children in it. This is only a 2 term appointment but there were a lot of strong candidates for the job. They each had to teach a 20 min lesson with a mixture of Reception and Year 1 children and be interviewed by a panel of children as well as a formal job interview with our new Head Teacher and members of the school governors etc.

It looks like swine flu is creeping up, just in time for half-term ! One class has 5 children away,(2 cases with 3 other probables). I had 3 children away, 1 has something else and 2 haven't said why.

Interesting discovery, Elwen likes seaweed wrapped Japanese rice crackers. I threw her one because she was climbing about on my lap and the keyboard and having eaten her 3rd she is attempting to steal more from my desk. Greedy cat!

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Islands In The Sky.

I was lucky enough this morning to catch a pretty sunrise as I drove up the hill. 5 mins later and it had faded to unspectacular pastels. When I looked at the pictures this evening I can clearly see the sun setting over a bay with a few islands scattered around.

The weather has been very variable today, rain pouring down one minute, hazy sunshine the next. I have finally had the Internet fixed on the interactive whiteboard in my classroom. They are great when they are working but there is nothing worse than planning a lesson using the IWB and then a glitch happens and you're trying to fix the problem with lots of little voices giving you advice. At that point I turn to my trusty whiteboard with pens. Nothing to go wrong there. When we were originally sold our IWBs we were assured we could also write on them with whiteboard markers but they don't clean off perfectly so we prefer not to write on them.

The view on the way home was very different. Rain and mist were blurring out the hills putting everything into shades of grey. If the rain holds off tomorrow then I'll be out gardening again.

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Sunrise, Sunset.

A very quick blog this evening as we hope to set out on our trip at 6.00 tomorrow, just 6 1/2 hours away and I do need to get some sleep. Finally Romas has got most of his stuff packed in Peter's car. Only the PC to go as it is currently being rebuilt (software). Don't ask why this sort of thing always has to be done at the last minute. Peter also has a long journey tomorrow as he drives down to Camborne (in my micra) for a CCNA (OU computing study) day. I don't think we'll be doing much on Sunday ! It was another autumnal morning today with banks of mist forming in the valleys.

School was hectic as usual and with staff either being ill or seconded for other duties I've been having to reorganise my timetable each day as a lot of the time I've not had a teaching assistant with me and my class of 31 children though today I did have 5 children away.

There was a lovely sunset tonight and as I drove home golden light was shining in through the back window. From time to time I would catch glimpses of the setting sun shinning like a spotlight in my rear view mirror.



I hurried to my usual 'sunset' spot but the sun was dropping down behind a cloud bank. I still managed to get a few pictures.

The sunset was reflecting off the overhead clouds giving them a rosy glow. The forecast for tomorrow is good thankfully as I expect to be driving for about 9 hours. I'll be stopping at our friends' on the way back to give myself a bit of a break.

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