The Teachers Race

 Hello!

I'm enjoying my half term in Hexham. 

Last week's prompt word for the Toy Press was 'Whistle'. I could've gone down the musical route but Instead, I thought ahead to Sports Day at school where we have a Teacher and Parents race. It's fiercely competitive. I wrote 2 versions - one uses the names of our actual teachers. Then I changed the names for anonymous substitutes for online use. The idiosyncracies of the various teachers were used. For example, the Mr McKay of this poem is so competitive, he HATES losing!

Hope you enjoy!

Xx

Fern scrolls

 A couple of years ago, I watched a video that told you how to look after Ferns. The ones in my garden always looked rough and scratchy. The video explained that in the Spring, you would see these tight hairy scrolls/spirals which would then unfurl. He said at this stage, you could /should prune the old leaves. Since I've done this, the ferns are much healthier. I have subsequently noticed ferns when they are growing. 

In Madeira, I saw a couple of examples of Ferns including a mighty tree 

Aren't they beautiful?

Xx

VE day outfits

On VE day, we were invited to come to school dressed in either 1940's inspired outfits or the coluors of the Union flag.

I decided to go with the latter option

I started with the white blouse. It is one I charity shopped a year ago or so. I really like it but I don't know where it originally came from.

Next, I added the red skirt which is my Romana cosplay one- it was second hand.

Next was the blue Monsoon cardigan which I've had for a long time and my Clarks Funny Dream shoes from Vinted.

Add my red beret (Primark charity shopped) and this Collectif nautical necklace (which I ended up lending to our Assistant Head as she was wearing nautical trousers with star fish and lobsters on in these colours!) .

I loved the combo.

At playtime, I was on duty and ended up chatting to M, a lovely, quirky, individual.  I looked at her outfit and admired it.  I then looked at it again and said, "Actually, I HAVE this outfit at home! I could totally come to school tomorrow wearing this outfit!"

And so the next day, I came to school dressed in the outfit (the outfit above!).  I walked past her classroom on my way to the Staff room and the door was open. I hissed her name as her teacher did the register. She looked at me quizzically and I pointed at my outfit.  She looked puzzled at first and suddenly sheer delight and incredulity spread over her face. I waved and carried on with my journey.

At playtime later, I saw her and said, "What do you think!".  She was so sweet and said, "I AM HONOURED!!!"  Haha, it was funny to do this and I think it made her smile!

On the actual VE day, we had an all school, outdoor assembly with poetry reading and sang 3 songs I'd taught.  Of course, despite all my best laid plans, technology failed us and the boombox stalled on the backing tracks I had prepared.  Ah well, we persevered without them!

Hope all is well with you!

x

Rage Against Beige

This week's poem is dedicated to lots of my blog friends, particularly Ann, Vix, Sheila, Anna, Ang, Ivana and Ally. 

Last week's prompt word was Bold. As usual, I thought I might not be able to think of a poem but luckily, the muse came knocking.

I thought about how many of us enjoy dressing in patterns and vibrant colours and that formed the poem. 

The title came last.  Originally it was The Mage of NO-Beige but then became the final title. Which one do you think is better?

Cards from packaging

I always have a spate of June and July birthdays and if I don't get started early, they creep up on me and I'm left scraping around for cards. 

Luckily, the May Bank Holiday was opportunity to make some and I found myself inspired by my After Eight Easter egg box

Made this card from the patterned part of the box. I just drew myself a pod copying a pic I saw on the Internet and then glued pieces together and drew on the patterning and greeting. 

I liked the design so much I decided my Mum would also enjoy the pun and design. This time, I used some of the darker card. 

A wee break from green to make this card using a little label from a Wren Dale designs pencil case I was given. Plus a flower edge punch. 

This one was for my sister and utilised a floral strip saved from my posh Teabag Advent calendar. I used the same flower punch and a butterfly one. 

 Finally, it's my Stepmum's Dad's birthday and he's also a gardener but they live next door so I didn't replicate the peas again but used the After Eight box in a different way! 

What do you think?

Xx

TARDIS Tuesday - Romana Warriors Gate

http://www.4thdoctorcostume.com/2015/06/lalla-wards-time-capsule.html

Hello there! 

Time for TARDIS Tuesday! 

I unexpectedly ended up wearing this for school on Friday so this ended up being my TT outfit for this week. 

I wore it relatively recently for TARDIS Tuesday about a year ago. It is the last outfit worn by Romana, the Time Lady companion portrayed in her second incarnation by Lalla Ward, one time wife of her Doctor, Tom Baker. 

https://aminoapps.com/c/doctor-who-cast-crew/page/blog/romana-iis-outfits-ranked/6qpR_leSzukZwpj3n1ZVGYpKqKDpLlg15

https://doctorwhoworlduk.com/romana-2-gallery

The look is mainly red and black. Here I am :

 I wore the red top with some loose black Seasalt trousers (bought last Summer from their eBay outlet after ripping my regular black trousers in a cycling fall. 

I added these black Rieker ankle strap shoes which I charity shopped last year and then added these red Primary socks plus some red pencil earrings, a present from my current Headteacher well over a decade ago when we used to share a class!

I do love red and black together. I'd love Romana's actual top it looks so soft and flowing - mine is little more scratchy - but it has the effect!

There are so many beautiful Romana looks I'd love to try! Anyone got a grey smock sailor dress at all???

Went to the first rehearsal of one of my orchestras tonight (Monday) - I'm playing piccolo and luckily it went OK and there are no massive scary piccolo moments for the conductor to terrorise me on. 

My main orchestra, Kensington Chamber Orchestra has its concert this Saturday. It's a bit of a Girl Power concert. We have a female conductor, a female violin soloist and we are playing a symphony by French composer Louise Farranc. Very cool! More details available on request! Or you can look at our website!! 

Xx 

Madeira day 4

 On our 4th day, I woke up early to go for a swim in our hotel's indoor pool.  They had swimming lessons at 9 so I was in and out by then. Onto breakfast, having made a roll or two.  Our destination was Ilha to walk up to Madeira's highest point, Pico Ruivo (the infamous place cited in last month's poem!) - the route known as PR 1.1

Interestingly, the guide we received from the Tourist Office suggests you start at the top and walk down but we were doing it in reverse.

CBC drove us in our Fiat Panda as I read my book and we arrived in Ilha which was very quiet.  We parked just by the sign signalling the PR 1.1. Looking at the sign- the elevation indication showed a steep diagonal line going up.

We got out the car and put on our raincoats as the rain had begun.  If only we knew....

The walk began with an immediate steep slope and this set the tone for the entire walk which consisted of many, many, many, many, many steep muddy steps  with wooden joists and then steep sludgy slopes with pretty much constant herbaceous and shrubby vegetation  on either side.

The elevation goes from 485m to 1862m over a total distance 8.2km so you can imagine what an utter melancholic trudge it was.

The rain continued pretty much interminably through the whole journey so there was absolutely no view to speak of at pretty much any point which made it pretty miserable.  The highlight of my journey was seeing a few, fairly boring fungi.

Just a few more extra steps

Just some extra miles,

Just keep walking up this slope,

Be over in a while

You're almost halfway through this trek

I know your muscles ache

You're closer to the end and warmth,

Each extra step you take,

Don't like this hill, don't like this mud,

Don't like this constant rain,

But will the sense of pride at the end

Be worth all the pain?

That guy we met at 7k,

"10 minutes," - what a lie!

I want this hill to bog right off,

Don't want to slip and die

I've climbed a million extra steps,

My way is truly wend,

I'm worn-out, weary, wet and wan,

THANK GOD WE'VE REACHED THE END!

Such was the nature of the path that CBC and I could not walk side by side and he was perpetually ahead of me. By the time we reached about 7k we were completely saturated and pretty gloomy.  We met several walkers doing the walk in reverse through the but very much spread out.  At this point at 7k, we met a man who told us it was only about 10minutes to the Pico Ruivo shelter which turned out to be a total lie, it was much longer than that. I confess to raging at the world at several points and being extremely grumpy!   There were quite a few treacherous places where we had to clamber up rocks with quite sheer drops close to us- it was also extremely windy as well as rainy and slippy. I was very scared!

 Finally, CBC and I arrived to the shelter.  We walked into find wooden tables and a man serving tea and coffee plus cake and some other snacks and souvenirs. We slopped into there and ordered tea and MADEIRA cake, the most enormous slab! It tasted wonderful!!! We took our raincoats off and I sat there all clammy and cold.  CBC decided to continue onto the top of the mountain but I opted to stay in the shelter. It wasn't warm at all, but it was a temporary sit down when I was emotionally, mentally and physically drained!  Annoyingly, the toilet had closed for the day so I had to hold my bladder for yet more hours (there had been no where on the path to make a detour when needed) and somehow managed to change out of my wet t-shirt into CBC's fleece in plain view. 

He came back and we headed for the Vereda Do Pico Ruivo trail, some 2.8km to the car park at Achada do Teixera.  Luckily, most of it was along a fairly level paved path.

When we reached the car park, sadly there were no taxis waiting there so we went into the restaurant/cafe there and asked if they could call us one. We found one who was willing to come and get us for 40 or 50 euros. Expensive but the route back to the car was epic. One thing I should mention is,is that cafes and toilets always seemed to charge in Madeira the one in the cafe was a charge one but I had no coins. Luckily, the man let me in anyway. CBC bought a coffee and quiche and we waited 30mins for the taxi to come. He drove us back to the car. As we were trying to change out of our wet clothes back into clean ones, all of a sudden, the taxi man drove back- I'd left one of my walking poles in his car! I felt so guilty at his having to come back!

We headed back to the hotel for showers and we ended up going to the live music bar  at our twin hotel resort  Sentido Galomar for dinner as CBC could'n't be bothered to walk elsewhere and our restaurant had closed as it was 9ish.  They only had toasted sandwiches with crisps so that was our fairly unsatisfying dinner though the setting of crashing waves outside was pleasing.

A reminder of my poem which may now make more sense after this post...

Somewhere on Pico Ruivo Mountain

Just a few more extra steps

Just some extra miles,

Just keep walking up this slope,

Be over in a while

You're almost halfway through this trek

I know your muscles ache

You're closer to the end and warmth,

Each extra step you take,

Don't like this hill, don't like this mud,

Don't like this constant rain,

But will the sense of pride at the end

Be worth all the pain?

That guy we met at 7k,

"10 minutes," - what a lie!

I want this hill to bog right off,

Don't want to slip and die

I've climbed a million extra steps,

My way is truly wend,

I'm worn-out, weary, wet and wan,

THANK GOD WE'VE REACHED THE END!

The Pico Ruivo shelter

Partytime and the cat

Last week's prompt word for The Toy Magazine was 'Party'. Ha, I could have reused 'At the Fruit Cocktail Party' (that's another week where I could have reused a poem!) but I decided to try and write something new (after all I have reached week 25 of writing a poem for every prompt- next week, it will be half a year!).

I felt like my poems were getting a bit samey (and I still feel that even with this one) but decided I would do an acrostic this week.  I did that in one of my first poems (Stable- remember that one?)

Not my favourite. Feels a bit corny!

PARTY TIME!  

               

People start to congregate,

All excited to celebrate,

Robed in their finery, ready for games & festivity,

They approach a table loaded with food,

Young and old feel the joyful mood!

 

They dance and mingle, chat in glee,

It’s time to dance, who’s first to agree?

Merriment ensues as the evening flows,

Everyone’s sad when it’s  time to go.

 

 

On the subject of The Cat, as several asked.  A colleague of CBC's has a friend who works for Cat Protection and they had had a recent cat who they were looking after.  Poor little love was a Russian Blue cat who had had 10 litters and then was living alone. They were looking for a home for her and the colleague knows we were contemplating a cat at some point.  Well, we had a bit of a discussion and went to meet her. She was beautiful and the guy said that she would probably be snapped up for being pedigree as soon as she goes on their website but we didn't get quite the feeling that she was the cat for us (my heart truly belongs to a tabby!) - she didn't particularly like being stroked and we were worried that we are away quite a lot so although she seemed very independent, the timing just didn't seem quite right. We felt sad about it but it didn't feel quite right.

xx

TARDIS Thursday- Peri from the Mysterious Planet

I thought I'd make a return to TARDIS Tuesday this week but I didn't have time to post what with OFSTED unexpectedly turning up! So it's coming on a Thursday instead!

I was observed by the lead inspector this morning with my year 4's.  Of course, he had to come in at the moment they were all fetching instruments. I apologised and said, "Sorry, it's chaos in here as we get instruments!".  He stayed for about 10 minutes and I hope he saw some good things or what he wanted to see. I think it was fine, just wish he'd stayed for the creative stage, not just the recap! Still, I did show some extension of the highers and offered feedback to one of the kids so hopefully, he saw progress.

On to TARDIS Tuesday/Thursday.   

Last worn in May 2022 on here, it's an outfit I love but don't wear very often which is a shame as I really like it.  Let's look at it:

IMage borrowed from Darren Mooney on Twitter
https://twitter.com/darren_mooney/status/1185955427026165760

Image borrowed from:
https://them0vieblog.com/2013/06/25/doctor-who-the-trial-of-a-time-lord-the-mysterious-planet-review/

IMage borrowed from Darren Mooney on Twitter
https://twitter.com/darren_mooney/status/1185955427026165760

Worn by 6th (and 5th) doctor companion, Peri Brown, it is a departure from her usual combo of short bottoms, tight top.

Here's my 2025 iteration:

The entire outfit was second hand when bought.

The straw boater was one from my grandparents' house.  I do like these Next tailored trousers which I've had a very long time from C.S  The blazer, originally Miss Selfridge was charity shopped and my comfy Rieker shoes were also.

The top is the same vintage blouse I wore last time. I decided to try wearing it inside out so it didn't have its lace strips down the front and tucked the collar in which I think worked fairly well!

As I don't have a cane, I used my 7th Doctor umbrella to recreate the photo!

Hope that you are well.

xx

Some Two colour recent outfits

Sorry, been a bit busy!   We have special visitors to school tomorrow and Wednesday.  Other things going on too.

Here's some summery outfits I have enjoyed these past weeks...

Every item in this outfit was charity-shopped over the years except the jewellery.

I enjoyed the combination of blue and teal.

Red and white this time.  This dress was a happy find in Barnardo's, Hexham. I've wanted one like this for ages!

The earrings were a charity-shop purchase which went nicely with my Swarovsky Star necklace, a present from a child in my first class.

White and dark blue.   The top was White Stuff via Charity shop and only bought last week. I like the scalloped sleeves.  The denim trousers with their balloon legs were also new. Very expensive and I had no intention of purchasing anything but we visited a new independent shop on their first day in a new location and I was persuaded...

Oops, broke the 2 colour rule but wore the new trousers in this sailor combo on the day we almost got a cat but didn't!

Right, I MUST go to bed!!x

 

A magical land

 In the absence of time to put together another Madeira post and having not uploaded the photos for any outfits (camera still not tripod) and forgetting to photograph my TARDIS Tuesday outfit yesterday (wore it!), I thought I'd try and catch up with last week's poem. 

The prompt word was 'magical' and somehow, I tried to come up with slightly whimsical ideas of what might be found in a magical land. Chocolates growing on trees was an obvious appealing prospect for children. I also made a subtle reference and a nod to W H Auden and his 'As I walked out one evening' poem which I loved as teenager. 

The stanza: 

I love you dear, I love you. 

Till China and Africa meet. 

Till the sea is washed and hung to dry, 

And salmon sing in the street. 

Which part of my magical land sounds most appealing to you? 

A magical land

 

There’s a magical land I’ve heard about

Where chocolates grow on trees,

Where Salmon dance a tango

And the stairs are made of cheese.

 

There’s a magical land I’ve heard about

Where trains transport to Mars,

With rivers full of lemonade

And hedgehogs play guitars.

 

There’s a magical land I’ve heard about

Where cars are powered by grass,

Your ride by unicorn to school

And Dragons teach your class.

 

There’s a magical land I’ve heard about

Where marshmallows are beds.

Where bees are spotty, blue and green,

Birds poo on bullies’ heads.

 

There’s a magical land I’ve heard about

Where children can grow wings,

Your birthday’s ALWAYS sunny,

And your dinner’s cooked by kings.

 

There’s a magical land I’ve heard about,

Where snails wear silver shoes,

Where down is up and up is left,

And monkeys read the news.

 

There’s a magical land I’ve heard about

Where fish fart rainbow light,

Brussel sprouts taste of sherbet

And dinner time’s midnight.

 

There’s a magical land I’ve heard about

Let’s go there on vacation!

You can fly there easily,

In my imagination!

 

Madeira Day 3

On our 3rd day, we got up for Breakfast and CBC went to go and pick up the hire car.  We decided to make sandwiches from the buffet to take on our walk.  We got in the car and drove to do walks PR10 and PR11.

The first walk was a mere 3km total called Vereda dis Balcoes. It was super easy and accessible on a wide path that was pretty flat. 

It led to a viewing platform with wonderful views of the mountains around. We soon noticed people feeding chaffinches from their hands. Clearly The Madeiran Chaffinches love a Picnic. 

It didn't take long for me to lure my own chaffinches with a bit of sandwich. A few of them are from my hand whilst fluttering and the more audacious and greedy ones sat on my finger hoovering up every morsel. 

Despite them being comfortable if anyone with food held out a hand, it felt very special to have a tiny bird on the hand. 

Once we'd stayed here a little while, we walked back to start of the route. There was another route in the village. Pr10 which was longer.  Around 11km. It went along the Levada Do Furado.  It is one of the oldest public levadas, acquired by the state to irrigate the agricultural fields of Porta da Cruz.

Many of the walking routes follow the Levada, historic water ways. The routes can be quite narrow in areas and you will be next to a sheer drop but they have metal railing erected. 

The walk was pleasantly shady as it was overhanging with trees, however, the walk did not feel particularly varied as the view was hard to spot, there was little variation in ups and downs. 

A highlight of the journey was reaching a waterfall with a mesmerising clear pool. A man was swimming in there and we were tempted to go in too. In retrospect, we regret not doing this. 

Levadas. The walks are very safe as they have railings. However, a lot of the walk was the same.

Possibly the most exciting part of the walk was walking through the rock face!

The final 1.5km of the walk was downhill (finally some variation!) We ate our picnic lunch in some lovely shade before the descent.  It ended at the Portela belvedere in the municipality of Machico.

The views were beautiful from there.

We found a yellow taxi waiting there at the who drove us back to the car in Ribiero Frio! We were very thankful he was there!

Once we got back to the car, we decided to drive to Santana to have a look around. It was said to have examples of a typical Madeiran traditional house.

There were a few of them.

In one of them, they had a small shop selling a few things including ice-lollies from a natural company.  CBC had a pineapple and mint one.  I had a Strawberry and chocolate lolly. It was covered in a thin layer of crispy dark chocolate and had a fruity inner of real frozen strawberry pulp.  It was really tasty. We stopped for a cool drink in a nice cafe/restaurant. I had a non-alcoholic version of Poncha (punch with passionfruit and orange) and CBC had a bear.

As we sat there, I was admiring the beautiful archictecture of the hospital

We decided to have Dinner in Santana and there was a  Pizza restaurant with a very noisy parrot near the car. CBC had a pizza and I had some sort of tasty steak with fries and a beautiful rainbow salad.

In the car on the way back, we passed through many tunnels, long ones at that! We got back around 9pm so I decided to go for a swim FINALLY in the hotel pool. It was very pleasant. I then booked for the next morning.  They told me it had to be before 9am as they had swimming lessons then which seemed a bit annoying but I was happy to book for 8.30am.