My Mum has two tabby adorable cats who she frequently sends pictures to us in our family WhatsApp group. A few weeks ago, she sent me a picture of Rowan, her male cat.
He had a really different facial expression from normal, it was a kind of mesmerised, loving gaze, a sort of smile from the eyes but not quite...
And it reminded me of Mr Darcy at Pemberley. He's just heard Elizabeth sing and then his sister Georgiana plays the piano and Elizabeth ends up page-turning for her as a cover for when Miss Bingley spitefully mentions Mr Wickham in Elizabeth's hearing. The music changes from piano to strings and flute and we see him gaze at her and she at him. It's at the end of this clip...
I sent my Mum the particular shot of Mr Darcy from the video and she laughed and agreed!
Funnily enough, a friend of hers commented that her other cat, Bramble, in another photo, had pursed lips just like a disapproving Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey, as portrayed by Dame Maggie Smith.
I always envied people who have an attractive laugh. You know, the ones whose laugh peels off in a pleasing way. My laugh is not that! CBC and I always call a certain laugh, the Sam L laugh as he has this funny way of laughing. My friend Marianne and I used to do this totally silent laugh, my friend Nicola laughed like Flipper. We probably all remember Mel from Neighbours' laugh.
For some reason, the Toy Press hasn't published a word of the Week for couple of weeks. By coincidence, the Week of, 'Bake', I wrote a second poem apart from my Hansel and Gretel spin. I decided I wanted to write something that didn't rhyme and was purely descriptive. I wasn't convinced by it, it lacked some cohesion so I didn't share it online on Insta. But apart from that, I can't pin down why it doesn't work for me. Can you?
Collywobble Cake
I made it in a bowl made of woven cobwebs.
Whisked in a flurry of shadows.
Stirred in a liberal amount of shivers.
Sieved in the cackles of unseen visitors.
I coarsely grated the nerves from a late night, moonless walk.
Creamed these with the creaking of a rusty gate.
Added in 2 cups of flaked paint from an rear wall of an abandoned house.
Squeezed the juice of a storm raincloud in,
Made a well and melted half an icicle into it.
Stirred it with the femur of an ancient warrior of a long-ago battle
until I had a thick, thick batter.
Poured into a baking tin of ancient iron and smoothed the top.
Baked it in the heat of an erupting volcano.
Served with the hairs on the back of my neck that stand on end.
A couple of years ago, I had an unexpected experience. I blogged about it but I cannot find the post. When it was National Bookshop day 2 weeks ago, I wrote this poem in recognition of the joys of bookshops and was based on that experience!
The weeks are hurtling by but at the time, they feel like they are going very slowly...
Had a lovely surprise on the way home from school as I saw a girl who was in my favourite ever class at school. She was a really lovely, musical girl! We were both delighted to see each other, had a quick catch up. Funnily enough, I'd only been thinking of her a couple of days before so it was an odd coincidence. She is now 20 and doing an architecture degree. Similarly, funnily enough, she said she'd found her recorder the other day and played through, In the Hall of the Mountain King which I had arranged for 2 recorders, especially for her and a friend! When I got home, CBC was still at school helping out with Zombie night. I had a lovely Friday night watching Victoria on ITVX and typing up a poem. He came back around 9pm and we cooked a pizza and ate that.
Saturday morning, annoyingly awake early but then ended up helping CBC get to his Gardening course by making him coffee in a flask at 7.30am (absolutely determined to help him save money!) and providing him with snacks.
I then hung up washing and went out into the garden to do some watering and pick around 12 runner beans. I am so amazed by how prolific these plants have been. I spent £1 on two plants from a bungalow down the road and I have already been rewarded with over 250 runnerbeans from those two plants, some of which are in the freezer. I then made tea and then came back to do all the washing up, hung up washing, sorted other washing.
It's funny how inspiration for a poem comes. I was thinking on Friday night that there hadn't been a prompt word this week from The Toy so I hadn't written one, only ended up tweaking my last week's one. and couldn't seem to think of ANY subject to write a poem about. I was sitting in bed and ended up thinking about a theme for a Children's concert based on Time. Ended up starting to write a poem in the shower (well, say words out loud in the shower) and then I suddenly had a poem 20 minutes later. Even CBC liked it later when I told him it (and he gets ennui from my poems!)
I went into the shower and packed my bag for my concert and started finally eating breakfast around 11.15am and suddenly realised I needed to leave so shoved the rest of my Branflakes in the fridge and dashed off to the station. The timing was perfect as CBC arrived at a station to pick me up at the same time and we drove to the town for our concert.
We parked the car at the concert venue and then walked into town and had a yummy brunch/lunch. We had a quick look at the High Street but I didn't buy anything (although wished I'd picked up the Ikea Hol I saw in one charity shop! CBC's cycling clothes have expanded beyond their current accommodation and this would be perfect for either those or our bedding!)
We then walked to the woods for a quick walk and back to the venue for our rehearsal.
The rehearsal went fairly well. We rehearsed Brahms and Sibelius and then the other two flutes came to rehearse Ives' The Unanswered Question. This is a BRILLIANT piece of modern music. I've included an extract from a London Symphony Orchestra Children's Concert below. (listen from 19:00 if it isn't already at that point when you click on it). I first heard this piece at an LSO teachers creative day and then it was used in this lockdown concert for Children which I shared with my pupils and they all loved it. Really well worth a listen. It's such an interesting piece! Click and listen to it as you scroll my post.
There are three things to listen out for: the trumpet who asks the question. The flutes who try to answer and get increasingly frustrated as they try to solve it and then the strings who are the silence of the druids who know, see and hear nothing.
I asked for this orchestra to perform this concert as I thought it was such a beautiful piece and we are a quartet of four flutes so it was perfect for us. I had to conduct the flutes from my flute as we play at our own tempo.
The rehearsal went well but I was very nervous about conducting. I was also a bit anxious as there had been a sort of falling out with 2 members of my quartet which was really hard as I feel a bit piggy in the middle. I'm not sure how we are going to solve this one.
In the break, CBC, Lara and I walked into town to get some dinner. Lara and I bought M&S sandwiches and CBC went to get a hot meal. Lara and I had a bit of a talk about a couple of things and walked back.
Slight panic as CBC had all my black clothes locked in his car and I couldn't find him until 10 minutes before the concert. Our lead viola also had a fall and ended up with a based bleeding nose and two black eyes!
The Ives went really well. The Sibelius and the Brahms also fairly well.
Sunday morning, it was very hard to wake up but I managed to drag myself out of bed and get to church for 9.15am. It was lovely to play flute with Sue on piano as we've not coincided on the worship team for a while!
The service was lovely. We had a talk about the vision for the next stage at church and we were asked to pray about it and share if there were any words of knowledge or encouragement. I'm not very good at speaking up in these situations as I am never sure of what I'm saying. However, as we were praying, all of a sudden, I got this clear sentence in my mind, "A Chink of Light". Hmm, what a strange phrase, I thought. And then as I thought that, I saw it, a tiny hole in the church and then the light streaming through hitting the walks and then the light spreading out and growing. I said it out loud, feeling very nervous. I don't usually say anything at these points but felt I should this time. It felt encouraging.
After church, I headed home just in time to see CBC who was about to go cycling (although didn't go for an hour!)- I rescued my day old Branflakes from the fridge which tasted nasty but I didn't want to waste. I made some toast for CBC and I and then I hung out more washing.
I headed upstairs to put away yesterday's washing and then went to get started on my 'Operation Christmas Child' shoebox. I always like doing this! All of a sudden, I heard the sound of rain and went frantically outside to rescue the now sodden washing and brought it in.
Soon after, I went to have a look at the apple tree in the carpark down the road. I didn't even pick any apples from the tree as there were 24 very good windfall apples just on the ground and they were huge and ripe. I don't understand why no one picks the apples or windfalls so I am glad I discovered these!
When I got back, I put on Ever After on my laptop (one of the best Cinderella Story ever, almost as lovely as The Slipper and the Rose) and set to work peeling and chopping the 24 apples. Although I had to cut some manky bits, some of the apples were so huge that I got lots of flesh out of them. I combined them with frozen homegrown blackcurrants and some honey and then boiled them up to make some lovely stewed fruit jars for my breakfast for the week.
I then set to work making a lentil and vegetable stew- enough for 3 meals for the two of us- red lentils, stock, onion, garlic, kale, carrots, sweet potato, French beans, tomato passata, bay leaves, herbs, paprika,tumeric.
After both were cooked, we ate both, the former with some of the croutons I made in August (still taste totally fresh!) . They were delicious and meant that we have food for a few days!
Back in August, when we were in Northumberland, I was keen for us to have an evening walk and CBC suggested we drive to Slaley to visit a place called Juliet's Woods (however, another time I want to visit Slaley Forest).
We parked where you can see (spot the red car in the picture)
These photos are in a random order so enjoy my random musings.
CBC spotted this tree at one point
He decided to climb into it.
I wondered what he was photographing...
And later, I found out!
We came out the woods into a meadow at one point.
On the way home, driving along the Hexham Race course road, the sunset was incredible!
I thought this fungi's gills looked like a labyrinth. I am happy to know its name is Oak Mazegill- a very appropriate moniker!
This is what they looked like from above.
This tree had a beautiful heart-shaped hole.
Here's an old Brittlegill (Russula)- could be a Rosy Brittlegill or a Primrose Brittlegill more likely.
The light streaming through the trees was glorious and golden. Impossible to capture in a photo!
This Beefsteak fungus was easy to ID!
We saw a wealth of this fungus!
CBC spotted this very old and manky Chicken of the Woods under some holly! The brackets were unusually low down.
There were so many ebullient red berries around.
The Haws on the Hawthorn below looked tempting. You can make a lovely winter tonic from these or Ketchup!
Another little fungus- not sure what!
A view of the meadow again.
And here I am again!
Close ups of the meadow.
Here's a birch polypore looking a bit beaky.
This one even more so! Not sure what this was!
Both CBC and I agreed it had been a magical walk, we even saw some deer and heard many squirrels. I even collected some hazelnuts! We must return!
I was searching my memory stick for something a couple of weeks and and found a document called Unfulfilled ambitions written in around 2009. I was very curious about this but I didn't remember what on earth I had written so I opened it to have a look!
It was titled:
This sounded an intriguing title and it was something I had never shared with anyone. Obviously, I had just written it for myself. I thought I'd have a look at it and see where I am with any of these ambitions!
Unfulfilled ambitions: Stupid ones AND serious
Remember the original Prince of Persia- on the Amstrad or something? I never completed it- in fact I never got past level 3- oh how I wish I could see someone complete it or indeed do it myself!
Go to random tropical island in Polynesia.
To be published again.
Complete the Commodore Amiga 600 version of Bart v the space mutants.
Go to a ceilidh in Scotland!
For s. in my class to listen during the whole lesson and actually do something in the correct way. He misses the point every time!
To write a really really compelling kids book.
To play for a West End musical in da pit!
To be able to ride a bicycle.
To go to a Regency style ball.
To find a real secret passage!
To find buried treasure!
To foil a secret plot.
To be in an am dram production of the Sound of Music!
To go back to school after a holiday without a feeling of dread!
To be able to juggle 3 balls without dropping them.
Play flute 1 in symphony fantastique
Ditto William Tell overture.
To read War and Peace (I have it, but it just always manages to shuffle its way to the back of my priorities
Here's my update:
1. Well, I've never played Prince of Persia again but I do think I looked at YouTube and saw a speeded up video of someone playing it. I don't think I watched all of it. I should look at this one again!
2. I'd still like to go to a random island in Polynesia! Not happened particularly because of the impact of flying on the environment so I don't fly so often. Would be lovely to one day!
3. I'm still not published again in actual Print form but I suppose having one or two of my poems online might sort of count. Would be lovely to be in actual book/paper format! (In case you are wondering...I had a flute duet published when I was a teenager...)
4. Ha, like Prince of Persia, I am not sure how to make this happen! Would like to see it played though!
5. I was supposed to have a holiday in Glasgow in April 2020 but Lockdown put paid to that so I have never been to a ceildih in Scotland. The closest I have been is the annual Queen Elizabeth High School ceilidh on 28th December in Hexham about 4 times!
6. I'm pretty sure I can remember who S was! And, occasionally, he got the point of what we were learning!
7. Sadly, I have still yet to pen my magnum opus children's book- I have an idea for one but not really sure how to see it through!
8. I don't think I was realistic with this one. I WOULD LOVE to play flute for a West End musical but unless I make a friend who is in a show who desperately needs a dep. and no one else is available, this one is never going to happen! Sob!
9. I wrote this one before I met and got together with CBC. He taught me to cycle around a year after this list! I now cycle daily!
10. I have not been to a Regency Ball although I did go to a couple of Historic dance classes to learn Regency dance and I did dance my favourite Jane Austen tune and dance, Childgrove, with CBC at our wedding, which he secretly arranged for me as part of our wedding ceilidh.
11. I long to find a secret passage still. I've been in historic houses with priest holes but never actually seen any secret passages. A PROPER Enid Blyton one is what I long for! Preferably one that connects an island with the mainland...
12. Still not found buried treasure.
13. Are you detecting a Blytonesque theme here? Still not foiled a secret plot either!
14. OH YES, ONE I HAVE ACHIEVED! I played Maria in the Sound of Music in around 2011!!!
15. Nope, there's still a feeling of dread every time!
16. I haven't tried to juggle in years- I still can't do this therefore.
17. I played 1st flute, possibly once just for a quick run through but never properly rehearsed it. They did it at my musical camp this Summer but the other 2 flute got to play it. I AM, however, going to watch the LSO play it in 2 weeks!
18. Yes, I did play flute 1 once at my Musical camp a couple of summers ago!
19. War and Peace is still just a big weight on my shelf!
So... 5 definites achieved, the rest.... could do better!
I made allusion to my Mean Gulls t-shirt in my last post. If you haven't already clocked it, this is a pun based on the movie Mean Girls. They have a quote that "On Wednesdays we wear pink!" so this t-shirt made me laugh a lot, even though I have only seen the movie once.
The brand is Hello Dodo and their t-shirts make me really laugh as they are all Homophone puns and there are a LOT of Seagull ones. I bought one in Lockdown that says "Gull Power" on it.
Here I am wearing it yesterday in Nottinghill.
We were at our KCO concert and it was the break. We went out into the street during our break to drink our tea and eat cake. My friend Quentin laughed as these two girls were posing having their photo taken in front of his Saab. He didn't say anything to them which funny! I got Bryony to take my picture in front of it! I got lots of love for my outfit. I wore my Meangulls t-shirt with these white striped trousers from River Island (charity-shopped in May in Hexham) and my Vinted Clarks funny Dream shoes.
The concert went really well. We were pleased with it (except the very first chord- someone played a wrong note!). All my solos went well and we had a good audience!
MyBiL and his partner came to watch as well as CBC! Got back quite late!
As I have often discussed (and I know I am preaching to the converted here!) that to count ones blessings, joys, small victories, happy moments, frissons of the day is to make one's self happier and more contented.So here are a few recent ones...(some of these were written a few weeks ago so the timing may sound odd)
I was really nervous about my school appraisal. I was going to have to meet with my Headteacher to go through it and he's notorious for being quite particular with it. I sent through my filled out review and appendices of evidence. His opening repartee was, "Out of all the appraisals I have read and gone through in the past two days, yours is the most succinct and to the point" and he ticked my targets off with no further comments and gave me some lovely praise on the things I'd done. We also talked about targets for this year which sound quite cool and linked to our school development plan. I was so happy. My colleague had told me that they had done theirs on Chat GPT. I told him how mine had gone and jokily said, "Screw you, Chat GPT!" to which they roared with laughter!
We held our second session of Orchestra today and I took all the glockenspiels, metallophones, harp players, timpani and untuned percussion players to work with them alone whilst the conductor took the flutes, violins, celli, recorders, clarinets and piano. I was so pleased because what I did really benefitted them and they all felt really pleased and proud of themselves with what they had achieved. This made me feel good.
I am taking some kids from school to watch the LSO in November and so I held the first if 2 workshops to prepare them for Symphony Fantastique by Hector Berlioz. I invited 48 children. Suddenly realised that we would not all fit in the music room so was on standby to see if we had to cart instruments over to the hall. Well, 32 students replied and so I had the perfect number. One child, who I was absolutely certain would not be allowed to come for reasons, was able to come! The euphoria on her face when she told me that her mum had said YES was an utter joy for me, as much as it was for her!
I held the first workshop on Wednesday and we had a really good session- the children were super positive about it, you could tell they were delighted to be working with children who were of a similar level of competence who wanted to be there and get on with it- we all had a lovely time and time flew!
We are trying to work on diversifying our curriculum, representation of our communities in books, activities etc and I was put on the perfect team for - racial literacy- the book side of it. We have a Barnado's charity shop near us that often gets donations of brand new books from bookshops and often they have a sale on them. I went in and they had a flash sale where ALLbooks were reduced to 50p and I managed to find 12 books, 10 of which were ALL written by writers of diverse backgrounds or featuring characters from diverse backgrounds, 3 of which were signed by the author! I also found a few others in the charity shop- it was great I was there JUST when these books were!
Last Wednesday, I had a rehearsal with Orchestra of the City- I had forgotten my stand- I texted the fixer- he said he'd bring me a spare. I realised I'd forgotten my piccolo too! Luckily, I have a spare one at school- the one I had since I was 11. It turned out that, even though it is not such good quality- it was perfectly in tune on the really quiet high notes at the end of Also Sprach Zarathustra which we were playing. The next Wednesday, I'd also forgotten my stand. The fixer brought one as he had a feeling I might forget!
The concert for this was last night- film music and Also Sprach and it was AMAZING! It went so well. We also played the Slipper and the Rose waltz which is an absolute childhood favourite!!!! I wasn't supposed to play in this one but because it had alto flute in it, I ended up playing it as the lovely 2nd flautist doesn't have one and asked me to play instead! Also Sprach went SO well and the scary, scary chords that are so hard to tune at the end were amazing! My piccolo was in tune and my lip didn't shake!!!
My choir numbers have gone up. I now have 18 in Year 3-4 choir and 23 in Year 5-6 choir. We are loving it so far and I've thought up some new fun games and activities to do at the end which they are really enjoying. Drumming club is still only 8 though...
Shouldn't be buying anything but I have been wanting this t-shirt from Hello Dodo for ages that has 'Meangulls'- on it- I love homophone puns. It was in their Super Seconds sale last Saturday in my size! It arrived today and I love it!
Lovely Supply Teacher was in on Monday and we were singing the Aurora orchestra's Bright Eyes which is based on the theme from Shepherd Song from Beethoven's Pastoral symphony and she loved it so much and was singing along. I shared the resource link with her and we had a lovely chat. It's so nice to meet lovely people!
I'm really enjoying BBC Radio 3 this morning!
Did I say that I got to meet my blog friend from back in the 2010's, Sarah Ziman. She used to blog at Lakota, Faith, Hope and Charity shopping. She came to do poetry workshops at my school. We went for a drink after and it was so nice to meet her!
I was in a hurry on Wednesday night and had no time to divert to get some dinner and also didn't want to spend any/much money. I was cycling to the station and I was passing a Costa. I don't like chain coffee branches but I suddenly remembered a child had given me a £20 Costa voucher for a present and it was in my purse. I ran in and found their toasties were 50% off so I got dinner for £2.50 and I didn't have to spend money!
I have Kensington Chamber Orchestra's concert tonight and my BiL and his partner are coming to watch (fingers crossed no plans change!)
In Orchestra, I have a very musical girl who I asked to join on clarinet but she was very reluctant to come. She left her clarinet at school on Thursday so it was here for orchestra. I promised her I'd bring my own clarinet to play with her. On Friday, we went through it- I was pretty terrible but she seemed to perk up and we went through the clarinet part with the 2 clarinets and it felt really positive!
I've got 2 Year 4 boys on the case with scrap paper saving- they are recycling bin monitors and now, whenever they find any paper which is in good condition with one blank side, they bring it to me and put it in my box so I have a massive supply of paper to print all my worksheets onto- so I am reusing old paper! This is making my life easier!
Read a LOVELY Children's book called Song of the Far Isles by Nicholas Barling which was all about music and really enjoyed it! I've read a few good books with a musical link/theme recently! May do a post on them!
Right, better get on with getting ready for Kensington Concert!
It should surprise none of you that I wore my train dress for the 200th anniversary of Passenger Train travel. This was a birthday present at some point in my 30's. In fact, I wore it for a swing dance night and another girl was also wearing it!! Naturally we had a picture together!
Worn with my Clarks Funny dream shoes plus my vintage Totnes garden. I love a beret!
This week's prompt word for a poem was 'Bake'.
You may HATE this poem (part of me does, more than half!) but I decided to explore what would happen if I only used one Rhyming ending. Would it get annoying? Would it feel relentless? Would it feel corny and tenuous. My jury is still out of this one!
I had a rehearsal last Sunday but I really wanted to have a walk in the woods near the rehearsal venue as I know that there are Ceps to be found in the woods in the area and although I wasn't sure where to look, I wanted to have a go. As far time went, I ended up only having 20minutes to look in the woods due to Engineering works meaning I had to cycle more than I was intending to so I was restricted to walking on mostly main paths with my bikes. I didn't find any ceps (Boletes) but I did see one of those interesting-looking things.
I a not sure what this one was but it resembles a macaroon!
I've seen this type before but not sure what it was!
I saw this one which resembles a colourless Fly Agaric. It looks a little like an Amanita Pantherina or a Panther Cap from what I have looked up but I'm not sure if it IS this or not?
The ones below, I think this grey one is a Charcoal Burner Brittlegill (Russula Cyanoxantha) This one is edible, the best tasting Russula, if it IS that! OR a Powdery Brittlegill. They are definitely Brittlegills, but I'm not sure exactly what type!
I think this possibly is some sort of Birch Polypore, but I am not sure
Here was another Brittlegill...
I suspect the above was an Artist's Bracket but a pretty old one!
It was fun to find these but I wish I had had time to explore more OR go and forage with Leon who was the one who mentioned the Boletes! Another time maybe!
Possibly the first poem I ever published on my blog, written back on February 13th 2007, I was doing classic poetry with my Year 5 children on my PGCE placement. We were looking at the poem The Night Mail by W. G. Auden and From a Train Carriage by Robert Louis Stephenson and I felt inspired to write my own.
From a Village Station
Edited 27/9/25 on 200 years of
Rail Travel Anniversary in the UK.
To be read starting slowly
building up speed over the first 6 lines. Start to slow down gradually 7 lines
from the end.
There goes the train, starting her journey
Steam starts to blow as coal starts burning.
Building momentum, she gradually speeds,
As along the tracks, she faster proceeds.
Trees and Houses becoming a blur
As the dragon so vast sends grasses astir,
Huffin’ and puffin’ she chugs along
Eating up the whole line to be sure before long!
By village, by stream, by fields full of sheep
Past farmers, their crops, by gorge so deep.
There town, there valley, past ribbon-like road-
Flies the steam-belching carriage, a-carrying her load
On and on pass the hours, where have they gone?
The sun has a-flown from where it once shone.
“Are we there yet?” some impatient hearts cry,
As they vainly familiar sites try to spy.
When brakes are applied, it’s a sure exclamation:
“We’re soon to be there, to arrive at the station.”
She rounds the curve, the trees become clear,
The sites are familiar, home must be near!
Yes, now we are slowing, the beast she tires,
The coal is now spent, the flame it expires,
As we shudder to halt, and arrive at our aim,
I bid goodbye to the stationary train.
This poem is going to feature on BBC Sounds on BBC Radio Essex tomorrow Thursday from 6pm at some point and Saturday night. (You can hear it here from 8mins...)
