Stripes and Phones

 Sometimes, I get ridiculously over-the-top emotional and irrational about things and feel bit bit like I'm going a bit mad. I hate myself for it, beat myself up over it and then realise, my hormones are probably responsible.  Something happened today- something which in about 99% of people's worlds would be a nice thing, a really nice thing.   I reacted to it negatively with exasperation- stroppily (not directly TO anyone but outloud in my house to CBC) and then felt utterly miserable with how much of a horrible person I was/am, how ungrateful and (and please don't tell me, I'm not, because if you knew the details of the situation, you would think I was indeed not good) and then got annoyed again.   Sometimes, I need to just shut up and realise when my hormones are in their bad place and not say anything or do anything- then I won't have these horrible feelings about it.  The only people that know about my reaction are my Mum (who I cried down the phone to and incoherently rambled about it twice) and CBC (who was impatient, then understanding, then impatient again) and my friend Lara (who was the rational voice of calm and reason that made me feel better about the situation and how to react to it).

I wish I didn't get so ridiculously emotional over really stupid things! I remember last July getting totally stressed over something and blowing it out of proportion and it always seems to coincide with hormones but because of the medication I have been taking for the past couple of years, I am a bit hazy with where I am so I don't realise when it might be a time where I am going to get irrationally emotional until it has happened.

I don't like myself when that happens- CBC is a saint to put up with irrational emotion me.  Perhaps that makes up for me being patient with him being an irrational grump bag at times- perhaps we balance it out?

Anyway, that doesn't really segue into the rest of the post at all but I took some photos of an outfit from when we still had snow. I'm not sure when it was but it was before Half Term- possibly the Saturday.

The snow week, I kept cosy all week by wearing mainly cashmere and wool jumpers. It was nice to be able to do that when I wasn't rushing around because I was cosy without getting too hot in my cashmere!

This dark pink jumper was charity-shopped a few years ago and I remember the first time I wore it was for the first rehearsal with one of the orchestras I played with- I had to travel on the rail replacement and I wore this jumper with this Cath Kidston telephone skirt (bought 2nd hand)- I always seem to pair the two together

That day, I suddenly remembered I had these stripy thick tights which sort of went with the top and decided to wear them.  This is unusual because I have been avoiding tights like the plague for the last few years and sticking to leggings and socks as I am fed up with saggy tights having to be hoiked up all the time.  But I'd forgotten that these tights were a delightfully well-fitting pair (from Tescos) and that, in fact, I liked wearing certain woolly tights- it was a bit of a revelation for me because I felt really guilty about all the tights I have but don't wear.  Tights aren't exactly the type of thing people would want to buy 2nd hand from a charity shop and it'd be a waste to cut them up for something if they aren't ripped etc. A couple of years ago, the lovely Ann and a friend Becky did actually help me out by taking some barely worn (as in, as soon as I wore them for the first time, knew they didn't work for my leg length and shape- again tights aren't really something you can try on in a shop!) tights, 

The final items in this outfit were a charity-shopped black velvet Kangol beret and my Clarks Ben's purple Brogue boots.  Adding a pair of earrings and necklace from Esoteric Londonw which I won, I was set for the day but not just a boring jumper and trousers outfit!

It seems hard to think we had all this snow 2 weeks ago and none now!

A bit like the fact that in just over a week's time, we'll go from lockdown with me teaching a class of 10 children back to me teaching 540 different children every week. I'll be glad to see them.  One nice thing from today, despite the crazy hormones and trying get my work done was this message I got from a parent.  I save them here to remember happy things when I look back on posts and remember good things:

"Hi hope you are well just to let you no I’ve uploaded E's music work there is a few lol she really been struggling with not being at school and the work and music really seems to help her and shift her mood so thank you so much x "

And there it is, the ray of sunshine that makes all the difference.

TARDIS Tuesday- Yaz Khan's parting outfit in Revolution of the Daleks

 This week for TARDIS Tuesday, I have something very cool!

The most recent episode shown, Revolution of the Daleks, I featured Yaz's main outfit from the episode in the new year.  Right at the end of the episode, she donned a beautiful floral shirt, along with her ubiquitous All Saints leather jacket as well as her new Alex Monroe Y and Z necklaces, some jeans and, I suspect, her Dune Pacey brogue boots as well as a pink vest top underneath for modesty.

It was a really pretty outfit for Yaz and a few of us really wanted to know where her shirt was from.

I was incredibly lucky, on an eBay search of the rather generic, 'Floral shirt' in that I found this shirt! I looked at it closely and realised it was one and the same shirt, even though the source photos on eBay were terrible and didn't really look like it unless you properly zoomed in!

I ordered it apprehensively and was excited to discover it was correct! It was pretty incredible because one of my friends searched for it after realising I had found out it from was from Whistles, and there are no shop source photos of it to be found on the internet- just the photos of the one I found!

I decided to wear it this Sunday as it was such a beautiful sunny and warm day.  I wore it with a very old but incredibly comfy baggy Cath Kidston red vest underneath and my ubiquitous black trousers.  On top, I wore my All Saints denim jacket and my Dune black Pacey boots on the bottom.  After tying the sides of my hair up (which I like doing as I think it suits me!), I added my home-made (out of shiny silver card) Y and Z necklaces

The shirt will be a good one for going into Spring as it is very lightweight but a good cover up and I can see it going with lots of different outfits in my wardrobe.

So, as far as I see it, I am the first person to recreate this Yaz outfit, which is pretty cool!

Thanks for all your well wishes for the return to school.

The first day was hard.  The dreaded child stayed out with a TA (as it was deemed better to ease him back in) but another child (the sibling of a child who was in my very first class 14 years ago...I still have the family for another 7 years...) was VERY trying. I was incredibly patient with him and managed to get him to do some work but he is so very, very difficult and has already decided he wants to be kicked out of school- so you can imagine it was a little demotivating at times!  The kind TA who was with me was sweet and said that he had responded very well to me compared to other times she was in which was nice of her to say but I did have to give him a LOT of attention.  The nice thing is, I got to know a few of the other children much better than I've ever had time for before (there were 10 of them) and that was really nice. We did some lovely English work this morning and I was really pleased with their work-so that was good.  They also did well in their music lesson which again, was nice!

At lunchtime, I went into Lidl and did a big shop which mainly consisted of masses of vegetables (loose), cheese galore, bread and some flower and vegetable seeds as well as Smoked trout (for Mum as well as us!) How on earth it came to £48, I do not know!

Back to creating the online learning tomorrow- no early train, praise the Lord!

10 things to be thankful for

 Back to school in the morning.  I'm in Year 3 for 2 days which I am apprehensive about since I've not been in this year group at all during lockdown and it is a year group I have not taught non-music subjects in before - so I have to get to grips with topics I'm not familiar with as well as children I'm not familiar with their abilities as well as finding out about 10 minutes ago that a child who is VERY disruptive (as in goes to a special behaviour school at the moment usually for 3 days a week) as coming back to school for the first time in months to my class! I am nervous to say the least as I find it very hard to teach or even have any conversation with this child. Pray for me!

So...to counteract the impending sense of doom I am feeling, I thought it was time to count my blessings and find things that have made me happy or thankful this week.  The things I am happy about may not be those great things that I feel gratitude for in life anyway or be super worthy things, but they are little things that have made me happy this week.

1.  THE TITS!!!!!  The birds really were going for it in our garden this morning and we had an excellent exhibition from the blue tits who seem to be exploring our nesting box on the side of the house!  In addition, on my walk today, I saw and heard Great tits and Blue tits who were determined to flank my whole journey!

2.  I had a wonderful walk with my friend Christina this afternoon.  She is a dear friend from the church choir in my birth town, where I used to live up until 7 years ago.  We shared a lot of things together before I left/moved and I was delighted when she moved to not so far from my about 1.5 years ago.  We discovered a few weeks ago, that we could both walk to the country park from our homes and meet for a walk. It's about 3 miles from my house to the lake where we met and we had such a jolly time walking together, chatting, she showed me where the bluebells will be in a few months and I saw some really extensive fungus, saw and heard lots of fauna in action.  We were both so happy we could meet and I was so grateful she texted to ask if I wanted to meet for a walk as I really wanted a walk on this last day of freedom but CBC was doing school work (I am pretending such things don't exist until tomorrow).

3.  It was SO sunny this morning and today. I had to take my raincoat off and was wearing a light shirt and vest top only! Joy!

4.  I made a batch of Chocolate Cornflake cakes on Friday (or Thursday?) using a bar of Fairtrade chocolate as well as some ancient Nutella that needed using up (and scraping a fresh tahini container too) - I made 19 of them and it has been so nice to have a box of them in the cupboard- they are such a retro nostalgic taste and both CBC and I loved them!

5.  CBC has been really tired, grumpy and not feeling totally well this week but I managed to get him out for a walk on Friday by the river and we both really enjoyed it.  We had lovely walk, it felt SO different to be able to walk with open skies and land on all sides of us with just bird noises, so different from all my other walks this week which have been Surburban (because it being so muddy).  We had some really silly laughs as we walked and we felt really positive. We bought rolls from the bakery to eat (egg mayo!) and sat on the log by the Creek mouth to eat them.  The exercise did us good.  He then got out the next morning for a cycle ride with a colleague and I went for another walk which took me to a nature reserve and it was beautifully sunny and I felt positive.  The final other walk (aside from all the boring Suburban ones this week) which made me feel good was last Sunday where CBC and I walked around 13.5km in the snow - it was such a contrast to today's walk and it felt amazing to be out, even though it was snowy and freezing and really early in the morning to be up! We were glad we had done it!

6.  Sleep! I have been so grateful to be able to sleep as long as I have wanted this week and not to have to get up for school.

7.  No screen time!  I have been really enjoying not having to check my computer and stare at a screen for hours a day. It really made a difference to my sanity! Also, I have given up ScrabbleGo for Lent and actually, has felt quite freeing not to be playing it, as much as I love it!

8.  Arranging:  I got CBC's computer out to put a Hindemith fugue into the Sibelius music program to do an arrangement for Flute trio.  It's nothing I can perform or share with anyone as it is probably still in copyright- but it was just a good exercise for me to do! I love Hindemith!

9.  Getting out into the garden. This week, we've done some clearing up, pruning and tidying in the garden.  It felt really nice to be out there and to be doing positive things.  I've been chopping up banana skins small and throwing them directly onto the raised bed along with coffee grounds and tea leaves. Apparently, bananas skins are good for plants!  I've planted some lettuce seeds, my chilli plant is coming back to life, my leek ends are doing really well!

10.  Both my parents have had the COVID vaccine now, as has my Mother-in-Law.   My Stepmum has also had it as she works at a Dr's surgery and her parents have also had it.  This is a relief.

So many good things going on so remember, when feeling blue about something else, count your blessings in other areas. It always makes you feel better!

There are more things I could write about

Snow

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I recorded this little video on the Sunday when it started to snow, almost 2 weeks ago.

I was watching the church service whilst I filmed this (this was the 'waiting' music) and the music was quite a nice accompaniment to this.

Was very exciting to have snow!

Valentines cards 2021

 This year, for Valentines, I suggested to CBC that it would be fun for us to make cards for each other one evening. He agreed and so on the Saturday night of the 13th February, I set up the dining table in the dining room (grand term for a very tiny room full of my clutter) with a whole selection of crafting materials: papers and cards of plain and patterned varieties, odds and ended salvaged from packaging, crafting hole punches in various shapes, PVA glue, bits and pieces galore.

Neither of us had an idea but both of us started with an identical white base card:

I decided to start with using a Martha Stewart edging punch with a pretty interlocking rings cut out.  I am really chuffed to have this as I admired this very same punch in my Stepmum's craft collection years ago and asked if she could get me one for my birthday that same year.  She tried but that design was not available anymore so got me a different one (also very nice).  Last year, a friend of my mum's got rid of some craft stuff and passed it onto me and lo and behold, here was the very same punch in the box of stuff! It was a £30 punch so I am very grateful!

Once I'd done this, I spied a bird punch I've had for years.  CBC has become obsessed with the birds in the garden this year, he gets up and stares at them out of the window and has bought all sorts of feeders and food, constantly competing with the neighbours. I decided I would make him a bird Valentines card based on the birds in our garden/.

I started by punching some Mister lack birds out of card.  I decided to draw and colour some features on them so added a yellow beak and white eye with my watercolour pencils. I then punched some brown birds from some brown paper and decided those were Missus Blackbirds.  To add the features, I got a load of browns, peaches, whites and yellow pencils and added some details to her body.  Then an orangey beach and a shiny beady eye (with gel pens).   I decided that Missus Blackbird could double up as a sparrow (which we get lots of).  I tried arranging them in various ways and decided on a column of pairs of birds (with love hearts to give a tentative Valentines theme).  At this point, I realised that CBC's favourite birds are the Blue tits which he's trying to lure from next door's garden so I embellished a pair of white punched birds.

It felt a bit sparse putting them straight onto the white so I added a strip of turquoise (to represent a sunny sky) from an old envelope and embellished the join with gel pen dots.

Once I've drawn the love hearts on and painstakingly afixed the birds (with a cotton bud and PVA), I decided to add a message using my leaf punch.

Inside, I used the spare pair of Blackbirds (usurped by Blue tits) to add the central greeting in the card.

My card used sparing materials- just a bit of brown card, black card and turquoise envelope plus pens.

I am a card minimalist.  

CBC is a card maximallist and used ALLLLLLL the materials but I have to say, his card was an imaginative triumph!

The card had a single red heart on the outside... but the inside was an idyllic scene with a lonely squirrel.  The squirrel came from some granola packaging that I had squirreled away to use on a card some time (see what I did there??!)  The 'joke' about Kezzie clutter- our long standing disagreement about me having too much stuff!

He even decorated the envelope.

As well as the squirrel landscape, I had a patterned envelope- 

The 1st stripy envelope was supposed to represent a musical stave and a flute (there are dangling silver notes from the stave of 3 lines rather than 5 but he was fed up with sewing!)

Inside that envelope was a white and blue swirly envelope with a pretty dress inside plus another small spotty envelope with a single squirrel holding a heart.

And there was a pocket in the grass, ready to put the little squirrel in!

It was such a sweet and imaginative card!  He really does have a great gift for something unusual.

It was a great way to spend some hours (about 4!) on a Saturday night and the table is still strewn, ready to make some other cards at some point!

What do you think?

Regrowing vegetable ends

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A while back, I mentioned I had been resprouting vegetable ends and I had a few interested parties wanting to know more.  The basic premise is that you keep the root ends of  certain vegetables and put them in enough water to cover the bottom without drowning the stump and they will resprout new growth.  This growth will not manifest itself in an exact replica of the original plant but you will get some extra food or vegetation out of them. At a certain point, you will/may need to put them into soil but it can begin in just water.

As you can see above, these are the Leeks I have going currently. Since posting these pictures, they have both grown quite a bit.

I have tried this with Beetroot (which grows you new edible leaves, not a new beetroot), carrot TOPS (in their case not roots, you get carrot greens you can make into pesto), cabbage, chicory, Pak choi, Spring onions and leeks.  I have had most success with the leeks and spring onions but I did get some edible Beetroot leaves.  My mum has had lots of success with the beetroot leaves.

Here are a few examples of what I have grown over the year and hopefully you will see various stages.  They are not chronological...

Here is also a blog post about it with more ideas about it.

It may not be glamorous and requires changing of the water and occasionally touching slimy ends but it really is miraculous and fascinating to watch and appeals to my Zerowaste wish! And, at a time of year, where there isn't much to grow, it is a nice project that you can do for free!  I made use of these little glass yoghurt pots from Milk and More but you can use any little ramekin.

 

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This is what there like on February the 6th

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These were what sprouted on December the 13th. Sadly, after I cut the beetroot leaves off, all the rest got a bit soggy and moudly so they didn't go any further

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These above were December the 6th. The Cabbage stump was doing so well. These were in September: The Spring onions looked so healthy!

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HERE ARE SOME Spring onions THAT WERE BIG ENOUGH TO PLANT OUT:

 

And here, we had a full-sized Leek....well, not as fat as regular leeks but this looked proper!

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This was that same one on July the 6th:

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I also used some sweet potato sprouts as well- these looked pretty healthy in July:

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And here's some early Leek and  Spring onion and chicory growth from July 11th:

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Back in May, this Leek grew 2 ears in a completely different way from all the other leeks I have sprouted!

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