Peace to you this Christmas- my annual Christmas song.

 sdsds

Many of you have read my yearly posts where I share the Christmas song I have written for the children at school. I've written one a year for pretty much every year I've been a teacher and my children sing it for one of our Carol services.  It's one of my favourite Christmas traditions.

This year, I knew I wanted to write a carol either about angels or about Peace.   The world feels a very dark place in recent times with wars and conflicts  and atrocities around the world- Palestine, Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan and the awful behaviour of the US and our own governments. So I knew that I wanted to write a song about peace. 

One idea I wanted was to embrace my diverse school community and include them in the process so I posted a message on our online messaging system asking for them to share any words they knew in languages they spoke for the word for peace.  I was delighted to receive some 56 comments in the first 3 days, albeit receiving duplicate words. I don't think I've EVER had that many comments before!

I composed the chorus melody and words fairly soon after the October half term but It took me a little while to work out what to do with the rest.  I included many of the words shared and tried to end the verses with a sense of unity and oneness.  

Finally, the verses were worked out and the melody but I hadn't come up with an accompaniment. When I started teaching the kids the song, all I'd done is written out the melody and put chord symbols for the accompaniment.  It took a couple more weeks until I finally wrote out the whole piano part. In fact, it was the 4th December that I finally finished it on paper (I drove CBC completely mad working it out. He  was so cross with me replaying chords and notes and over and over, citing the sanity of the new neighbours as his chief objection but I think it was about him!).

And then disaster struck.  On Saturday the 6th December, my orchestra had their Christmas concert in Islington. I had my music manuscript book in my bag.  The conductor, Mark Biggins asked if anyone had any manuscript paper. I said yes and got my book out for him.  

It wasn't till the next evening that I realised HE HAD NEVER GIVEN IT BACK!!! And worse than that, he was now back in GENEVA where he lives!!! It was my only copy of the music!

Cue some frantic emailing of the committee of the orchestra!!!

Thankfully, that evening, I received a Whatsapp from the Chair of the Committee and from Mark, who felt incredibly guilty who had taken some grainy photos of the music for me.  So, thank goodness for that!

I tried to get my colleague to record the final rehearsal in school but it didn't pick up the piano part, then at the church, my Headteacher was recording for me and she was sat next to a very loud singer who drowned everyone else out so I asked the children to rerecord it on the final morning which they did.  I asked S, the student who I have managed to get a 4 year music scholarship for, to play flute for it. I only gave him the music on Friday lunchtime and he was perfect 3 days later for the performances.  Sadly, he had to borrow my flute for this recording so it wasn't quite in the right position for him and he couldn't get some of the notes to sound, but he still did a good job.

I hope you enjoy the song and the message of it.

Much love to you this Christmas day!

Jesus came to bring us Peace. The peace which passes understanding. The peace of the Christ child.

Peace to you this Christmas.

Peace to all the Earth

Hope to end all conflict,

With this wondrous baby’s birth.

 

Baris, Sakinah, Sukoon.

Shaanti, Pace, Mir.

Many voices united in the longing

For a world reconciled in peace.

 

Peace to you this Christmas.

Peace to all the Earth

Hope to end all conflict,

With this wondrous baby’s birth.

 

Shaanthi, Asomdwoe, Paz

Spokoj, Amani, Frieden

We share one hope, one message, one prayer,

For a world reconciled in peace

 

Peace to you this Christmas.

Peace to all the Earth

Hope to end all conflict,

With this wondrous baby’s birth.

 

Taika, Alafi, Salaam,

Amaidhi, Paqen, Paix

For we all long to share in the freedom,

From the shadow of war and fear.

 

Peace to you this Christmas.

Peace to all the Earth

Hope to end all conflict,

With this wondrous baby’s birth.

 

Aman, Miers, Shalom,

Ashtee, eirini, udo

No matter the word, the hearts do concur,

That there’s longing for peace on Earth.

 

Peace to you this Christmas.

Peace to all the Earth

Hope to end all conflict,

With this wondrous baby’s birth.

Peace to all from  this baby’s birth. (A)

Peace to everyone here on Earth

Here are some previous songs:

Marching into Christmas

Star in the Sky

Sing a song of Celebration

Joy

Hope this Christmas

Love is all you need

Mary 

Feel the Christmas beat

Join in our story

Ring out the bells

Shepherds Swing

The innkeepers rant

dfdfd

TARDIS Tuesday: Sarah Jane Smith: The Gift

 I've worn TARDIS Tuesday outfits for the past few weeks but again, failed to photograph them so I'm glad to share one today which is a first appearance, Remember back in August, I posted that I'd seen some Doctor Who costumes at the Queen's Hall in Hexham and had got in touch with the costume owner to see if he had an ID on any of the items.

Well, he finally got back to me in October (after a second pestering email!) to say that the tops were both from Marks and Spencer.  

She wears the tops with French Connection jeans and some toe bar sandals which look a bit like Birkenstocks but who know s where they are from!

Images all screenshots from

 https://sjscloset.livejournal.com/20074.html 

Here's my picture from August:

I searched on Vinted for a couple of weeks, finally realising that it doesn't allow you to view more than 500 posts at a time so restricted the number by price AND material and finally found the screen accurate blouse and an alt vest-top (the product code is not the same!)

It was a tense couple of weeks as when finally my Vinted parcel arrived to my local parcel shop, the seller got in touch to say Yodel had muddled up two of her parcels and someone else had my blouse!  She asked me NOT to collect it so it would be sent back but it took at least 3 weeks until it turned back up at her house and I was fretting!  She then sent it to me by Royal Mail and it took 10 days to reach me!

Here I am in the blouse and vest top today! Worn with a pair of my Yaz Khan jeans (not SA)

I wore this whilst CBC and I went out to go and pick up some presents AND a new kettle as last night, I was cooking oven roasted veg and disaster struck! I boiled a kettle  and all of a sudden, all the lights went out in the kitchen. Weirdly, the oven and hob still stayed on but everything else was out!

I finished cooking and we ate dinner and CBC tried to reset the MCB.  It didn't work so I texted my lovely neighbour Martyn who manages to solve and help with absolutely every house/machine disaster we've had!!! He texted and then came round to show us there is a secondary Earth MCB which had tripped because the kettle had died.  Luckily, this morning, we were able to have tea as I also have a lovely stove-top kettle.

By weird coincidence. I discovered that the man who helped me with the costume ID and who owns the screen worn costume was actually a great cousin of my Godmother's husband and I own a book he wrote and my Godmother is spending Christmas with his Grandmother!

CBC just made some delicious potato, carrot and leek soup for us for dinner and we had an amazing fried breakfast this morning! We've tidied and cleaned lots of the house which is good as it was a disaster, annoyingly, as I had tidied and cleaned all the downstairs last weekend and C had wrecked the kitchen cooking for his college course Christmas dinner and for various other reasons!

(head back tomorrow for my annual Christmas song!)

Yule Log

 Here was last week's poem for @thetoypress Word of the Week : Sticky! 

The last chance Sale-oon

Back in the Summer, one of my favourite clothing brands, Emily and Fin announced they were shutting shop as times were hard for businesses. This is sad as they were brilliant. Cotton dresses, fully lined, pockets,  beautiful designs etc. I've owned many of their dresses over the years (&still do). They had various sales which I studiously avoided until they finally completely shut. But then as they were packing orders, they left a few bits and pieces up on the website that they'd found in their warehouse including this beautiful dress which I thought would be a perfect cooler season party dress and at £25, was an absolute bargain as this detailed a lot higher. 

I finally got to wear it for a 40th birthday outing in London. 

I kept my jewellery simple, black leggings and boots and my Next cross necklace. 

 I wore my G Star Deline corduroy coat and a black cashmere cardigan for warmth. 

This week is tiring but enjoyable! All going well so far! 

The last week

 The past week has been fun in some ways and had some lovely moments. I made it home eventually on Tuesday after missing my train stop when writing my last blog post. I was very tired the next morning and the Elizabeth Line decided to play nasty so I arrived at school with only about 5 minutes before I was due to leave for the church with 50 children to rehearse for our Christmas carol service.  Luckily, I had absolutely everything ready so we were able to leave pretty much on time.

The rehearsal in the morning went well and we had worked most things around, the kids behaved and we got back to school in time.  When we came back, I had to spend most of lunchtime chasing children out of the hall who had not listened to the message, "You need to come up the hall when I come outside and play a drum very loudly!"  They get so ridiculously hyper before a trip. All sense goes out of the window! It's sweet but exhausting! Usually, they ask about a million superfluous and ill-timed questions so when I did my usual pre-trip safety and rules talk, I prewarned them that questions really weren't urgent and in a joky way told them that I would be patient for a certain number of questions but they should really try to think about what questions they might ask as I might bite their head off at question number 11 and it would be nothing personal but getting everything set up is stressful. I said it in a humorous way but they understood what I was saying and it worked as I barely had any questions!  The two Ukrainian girls walking behind me gleefully counted the 6 superfluous questions that one of the boys behind them asked and I asked him, "Is this really urgent!" and he then realised he was just flapping and refrained! It was really funny.  The rehearsals went well for the younger children too and we got back to school in time.  After our staff meeting, I went to CBC's school concert to watch. It was nice to see it and I was glad to be there for him.

Thursday, I spent most of the day teaching Year 5 about Hildegard Von Bingen and starting work on the Baroque with Year 6 as well as a Singing Practice with all of Year 5-6.  

After school, I had a choir rehearsal.  Usually, I get the children a chocolate Santa lolly at Christmas but we're not supposed to give edible treats to kids now.  A while back, I had gone through my jewellery collection and collected a whole load of pin badges, mini pendants and a few other bits to potentially sell at the School fair to raise funds for music projects but I just decided to give them to the kids as gifts. I told them that the gift was second-hand and I really believe in eco-presents, that you don't need to give something brand new. I told them that everything belonged to me and I would like to share.  I couldn't believe how excited and happy they were to own something of mine- they loved the fact that every single one was unique.  It made me feel really happy that I had given them to the children! It was a lovely feeling.

I came home and CBC and I watched a really fun mini series with Rowan Atkinson called Man versus Baby! It was touching and funny!

On Friday, I had two final practices with the children as well as my Year 6 lessons and then it was the school fair after school.  I was on the raffle stall which was a good one to be on.  My colleague ended up swapping to come and sit with me and we had a really, really good chat, talking to each other about things.  She told me something she hasn't told anyone which made me incredibly sad (what it was about) but so touched and happy that she trusted me.  

I had a quick look in the grotto. It was truly magical. My Headteacher's partner is a genius.  The design is planned all year and the library is transformed into something so magical! I will try to share a video and some pics so you can see how breathtaking it is!!!

When I got back, CBC was home and we somehow cobbled together some noodles and CBC and my sister's boyfriend worked out some crazy last minute plan to go out on Saturday.

Saturday, I spent most of the morning tidying and cleaning and then C and our friend T and I went to a new cafe in our town for a cup of tea and cake. I visited the local charity shop.  I ended up buying a few of their new goods for some presents for people as well as thinking I was buying CBC a nice shirt- it turned out to be a women's shirt when I get home! At that point, my sister and her boyfriend arrived. We had a cup of tea back home and then we headed out to Westcliff in Southend for a Thai meal and then went to watch the Cinderella Pantomime at the Cliffs Pavillion.   I've never been there before for a show. It was fun but I felt like Rylan (who was the fairy godfather) and (Ross King as Buttons) had a lot of stage time and there wasn't so much emphasis on the story and Cinderella.  It was fun and it was a great production but I just felt there was less of a balance on characters.

The next morning, I set my alarm for 7.45am and then got the train to my old church who were celebrating their 60th anniversary! I was playing flute for the worship band. It was so nice to see everyone and it was a lovely service.  We had a wonderful dinner afterwards.  The Bishop of Bradwell came later and amazingly remembered who I was, even though we'd only met briefly at my own church 3 weeks ago. He told me later, that he remembered who I was when I saw my blue Brompton as I'd met him first whilst wheeling my bike into church!

I got the train home and then CBC and I went to get some shopping for his college sharing lunch tomorrow. He's currently making chaos in the kitchen (which was, SOB, tidy and cleaned by me yesterday!) cooking a potato sharing platter.  I'm watching a film on Netflix and trying not to worry about the carol services at school tomorrow!  I am sure they will go really well but it's just nerves!  

Year 3-4 in the morning, Year 5-6 in the afternoon- 180 children each time. 

Then CBC's carol service rehearsal after school. I'm very glad it's just the rehearsal and not the actual carol service- three in one day would be a bit much!

xx

Weekend in London

 It was a lovely weekend!

Saturday morning, CBC and I travelled up to London to play in our Orchestra's Family concert in Islington. It was a fun concert of opera scenes without the singing and was beautiful and serene with some carols and other bits. We only had a small audience which was sad but we had fun. We then travelled to C's brother and we went out to Canary Wharf for dinner to Little Green Vietnamese which seems fairly new. It was delicious and great portions! We played Qwirkle whilst eating which made me very happy even if I came third!

We got the train back to T's flat and C and I both fell asleep on the sofa.

I pinged awake early as per usual. Honestly fed up of 40's sleep issues and it's only been a year. C had to go out to a rehearsal early ish and disturbed me again. Thankfully, I managed to actually get back to sleep after and get an extra hour or so which I was grateful for so I didn't feel quite so like a zombie. T and I are breakfast and then headed out to meet C for brunch at Caravan. Also yummy and C joined us a bit later. We played Qwirkle and T had the absolute best tile luck, me not so. He beat me by 118 points which tells you how bad my tiles were comparatively!

We headed back to his flat for a cup of tea and then C and I went home. It was fun to have a weekend with T in London!

P. S. In the writing of this blog post, I missed my train stop and ended up in another city, now having to return,  wait, change train again and  won't get home till 00.25!!! Serves me right for daring to get on a train for one stop rather than waiting standing for 30mins for my direct train. I've got my carol rehearsals all day tomorrow with all the kids and need to be on top form. Considering I should have been home by around 11.10, because of Liz line delays AND this, I'm furious with myself. Serves me right for daring to actually go to my Orchestra's Christmas party for the first time in 22 years. Sad. 

Schwarzwalder Fungi 3- the holy grail!

Back to sharing my fungi find from Germany.  I did slightly drive CBC mad with my stopping for fungi but he did get involved also and stop and stop and point out so I think he just likes to pretend to be annoyed sometimes!

Shall we see some mushies??

I saw another pink mushroom which I think was possibly a Rosy Bonnet.

Here was a Charcoal brittle grill. I also love the contrast to all the background detritus.

Yet another Russula here. I liked the way the nibbles were making it heart-shaped!

Yet another Russula here

I finally found an intact one- this is known as a 'Sickener' for obvious reasons that it will make you sick if you try to eat it...unlike other very edible Russulas!

CBC deserves a prize for his next find because he saw this from quite far away and pointed it out to me and guess what??? IT WAS ONE OF MY TOP WISHLIST FUNGI!!!!!!!!!

This is a Lion's Mane fungus which, in the UK, is incredibly rare and a protected species! Just look at it!!!!

This is highly prized and edible with many, many health benefits, but you must not pick it in the UK. I'm not sure about Germany. As I am not hugely keen on eating mushrooms, I wouldn't even have contemplated picking it, if it were allowed, as it would be a complete waste if I didn't like it!

It is fabulous!!! I was very sad to leave it!

This next, very Microphone-like specimen was growing quite close to the Lion's Mane.  I believe it is a Calvatia Cyathiformus or the Purple spored Puffball.  Ang asked how I knew the names of fungi.  Well, I did read an entire fungi book a few years ago but I follow lots of Mushroom folk on insta and they often post about a particular fungus. Someone posted this and I realised it was the same as the one I saw in Germany! Sometimes, I search to find if I can ID a mushroom!

Here was another jolly growth of Yellow Stagshorn.

Here was another CBC find.  He showed me this soon after I found something else exciting (in another post!). I wasn't sure if these were some sort of Oyster mushroom or the parasitic Shrimp of the Woods.  Still not sure! I didn't want to disturb it to ogle its gills!!

Finally, a cute little unidentified round fellow!

Any favourites here?

xx

 

Gingerbread Fugitive- - a poetic anniversary!

 It's a year since I've been writing weekly poems inspired by the Toy Press's Word of the week. Here was my first one, an ode to the humble Sleigh Bells. I think I only missed one week in all 52 weeks (the word was routine!) even if I haven't posted all the poems I've written on here. It's also a bit of a milestone that I reached having written 150 poems in the past 14months or so. The good, the bad or the ugly, the process is the valuable part even if most of you don't really have much interest in children's poetry.  Many thanks to any one who has commented, positive or negative but especial thanks to my dedicated commenters who have often given me feedback over the year, Ann, Kelly, Ivana, Vix (who confesses to hating poetry!) and Sheila. 

This week's word was 'dough'.  The other poets on Insta did some really fun poems about playdough and baking. For me, I thought of that naughty traditional story character, the Gingerbread man. And then I looked at the 'ough' phoneme and it reminded me of that poem that begins, "I take it you have heard of...' which then bemoans all the words that don't follow the same pronunciation. I can't remember who it is by but I always liked it.

Gingerbread fugitive

His body was dough, 

He was baked to be tough, 

Ginger filled his veins through and through.

The cook thought she was thorough, 

But she made a real hiccough.

For he did not await his fate in furlough, 

He escaped through the door, she cut it rough.

Along the lane, he did quickly plough, 

He passed a pig, wallowing in a slough, 

A horse joined the chase, abandoned his trough,

A boy desired a taste, also not fast enough! 

Until in a moment, a snap, bite, cough,

As he was carried across a deep, deep lough, 

He was swallowed by a crafty fox (pity though).

Hope you are well.

xx

Schwarzwalder Champagnion 2

Onto round 2 of my Black Forest mushroom hunting. 

This first nestled example looked like another Russula but perhaps the Lavender Brittlegill. 

This prickly fella is possibly some sort of Puffball. 

When I first saw this, I think I'd found one of my wishlist - a Chanterelle! In this case, was it a Golden Chanterelle or a Winter Chanterelle? 

I wasn't sure if this was an old fungus that was distorted or a Phlebia Radiata or Wrinkled Crust.  

Here was my first Shaggy Inkcap or Lawyers Wig in its young state. 

Here was what looked like a Bay Bolete or certainly a type of Bolete. 

I wasn't sure what this yawning fungus was but it did have a bready appearance so I did wonder if it was a tiny Penny in? 

Here is another Saffron Milkcap. They go green when they get bruised. 

Here was a Beech Brittlegill, somewhat nibbled. 

 I didn't discover what this prickly fungus was! 

Any favourites here?