Break time Brouhaha

 Brouhaha (noun), a word meaning a loud outcry or public commotion. I first heard this word as part of A'Level History. My teacher, Mr Plumbe, would come out with these words I'd never heard before that I loved the meaning of. I kept a glossary or some of them and whilst some of them, I never use in common parlance (nominal vassal, anyone?), this one cropped up as the word of the week for The Toy Press last week.   Funnily enough, I immediately thought of children all crowding around and causing a brouhaha and it brought me to mind of something that happened at school last week...

I was really sad about this as two weeks ago, what looked like the same slug had made an appearance outside the music room. I pointed him out to my children (Year 2 I think) and told everyone to be careful of him/her/it/ as they went past. I got paranoid about him getting stepped on so I placed a chair over where he was as a sort of warning.  The slug stayed generally put and was the cause of much discussion.  Later, when I had got a chance, fearing for the stampede of lunchtime, I decided to relocate the slug out of danger. Job well done.

When I saw what looked like the same slug on Monday last week, I told everyone in Year 4 to mind the slug and they were all very excited about it.  Sadly, I got distracted and forgot to put protection for the slug and when I came out at lunchtime, the slug was mashed into the ground, no doubt trodden all over.

Thus, I felt it needed to be immortalised in a slightly embellished version of the story.

For the record, slugs are usually my bitter enemies due to their fondness for the contents of my veg bed but in this case, no vegetables were at threat, so I feel much more benevolent towards my slimy friends.

On the subject of poems, I had another piece of joyous poetry-related news. I had another poem accepted for a print literary magazine called Little Thoughts Press in America.  I've made three previously unsuccessful submissions to this magazine so I am really happy they have accepted the poem I wrote for their Rituals and Traditions issue.  This poem was one I wrote last Summer which I am actually going to be using for a school performance in July as it is Performance Poetry, designed to be spoken aloud.

Hope you are having a great week.  I had an irritating day as we had a polling day at school for the local elections so we were given training to do from home which would have been fine except that the internet would not work on both my laptops and I spent about 2 hours trying to troubleshoot and make alternative devices work.  Our service providers have a lot to answer for making us swap to fibre cables from our old copper ones which worked perfectly well.

xx

Happy things

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!

xx

18 things that made me happy this fortnight

 

I wrote this last Friday but forgot to post it!

1.  It was National Poetry day this Thursday- I announced this at the end of Singing Assembly and suggested the children write a poem.  After lunch, 2 of my lovely girls in year 5 came up and presented me with poems they had written about me, for me! They were so sweet.  Today, a Year 6 girl came up to me and presented me with yet another poem, about me! This one was really lovely and unexpected. It made me laugh so much because, on the other side, she wrote a poem about our Sports Coach who I tag-team with as we teach the same pair of classes and swap with each other, morning and evening. I think I did better out of this poem writing than he did!!!

2.  My old colleague, J, who has left my school (we produced Treasure Island together) had contacted me saying we should meet. I suggested Thursday.  He said he was a co-organiser of a new Poetry-and-Music night called Testing Ground and suggested I come.  It was held at a Book Shop on Roman Road near Mile End called Bard Books.  J persuaded me to join in with the Open Mic element of the night and I played Syrinx, for solo flute, by Debussy. Ha, I can say I was the first musician to perform at this Performance evening! Most of the other  open-mic participants were Spoken word artists, poets or writers and there was one beautiful singer.  The two headliner artists were singer, writer and rapper, Adeeb Abdul Razak  and a poet called Ellie De Satge.  The night was so different from what I was used to, held in a lovely bookshop and it was so nice to see my friend again!  He performed a poem of his own called 'Feedback' about giving feedback to pupils. As someone who teaches, this poem was so powerful and I was so impressed by his artistry! 

3.  Last Sunday, I performed with Forest Philharmonic Orchestra. We were playing accompaniment for the final of the North and East London Music Festival. The three soloists got to perform a movement of a concerto with us accompanying.  The judges AND audience AND orchestra all got to vote for their favourite performer.  I usually play 2nd flute or piccolo for this orchestra but the regular (and wonderful) 1st flautist was away in Scotland so I played that part. This is another first for me as I've never performed First Flute with them before.  

4.  I made a cleaning product myself out of foraged ingredients! More on that soon!

5.  I've been using my new Personal Amplifier to try and protect and preserve my voice a bit more at school and it IS making a difference!  So grateful to my Sister/Dad/Stepmum for getting it for me for Christmas. Not impressed with myself for not using it UNTIL now!

6. WE ARE OFF TO THE CRYSTAL MAZE AGAIN TOMORROW!!!! So excited!

EDIT- It was brilliant! And I got 2 crystals this time!

7.  Found SUCH a sweet song on @musicforkiddos on Instagram called Falling Leaves and it is SUCH a adorable song. Tried it out on KS1 today and they loved it!

8. Some Year 5-6 children are on a residential next week and I managed to manoeuvre a swap so I could still teach year 6 next week. Pleased I managed to do this.

9.  TRYING to take a bit better care of myself this by a) trying to ensure I've had something for breakfast- yoghurts in glass jars, tinned peaches, bananas have worked well so far.  b) trying to have slightly more organised lunches, c) trying to not say yes to anything on more than 2 weeknights in a week, d) really determinedly working on quoting the School Rules when children misbehave and using stock phrases such as "Please place your instruments in resting position" or "What is the rule when I am giving feedback to someone?"- helping me AND them!

10.  Enjoying the joy of the year 3's at their new recorders- they are SO proud of them!

11. Enjoying how popular orchestra is so far this year! Everyone wants to be in it. AND I managed to acquire a NEW Orchestral Manager! She volunteered and I accepted instantly!

12. Love my Year 5 girls.  They are really loving and kind. It warms my heart to see such gentleness and their real acting of their age, not trying to be something else! They come and surround me with a hug every time I cross the playground and they always know when I am feeling tired or down.  They are my new 'music crowd' and it's lovely!

13.  Enjoying the relationship I am developing with the class whose bookcorner I am helping with. I hate to say it, but one child leaving last year has made ALL the difference to that class! The toxic habits and learned patterns of poor behaviour have been broken and life is so much happier for that class!

14. Was given a cute new Penguin by one of my pupils! It has a strawberry hat on!

15.  My year 4's did some really good rhythm performances on Wednesday. The class who are usually very difficult were actually the best!

16. Tonight (Friday)  I was productive! Came home, made dinner instantly, did all the washing up, put all previous washing up away, put in washing, hung up washing, sorted more, made a birthday card and here I am writing a blog post or two!

17.  Went to see my lovely friend, Naomi Preston-Low in Pride and Prejudice- sort of, at the Chelmsford theatre last night.  It was utterly hilarious and silly (a bit sweary and irreverent in places but funny!Imagine how Lizzie Bennett might have responded to Mr Collins' proposal with a few choice words). Naomi was brilliant! I waited for her at the Stage door and she gave me a massive hug and was so pleased to see me after such a long time. CBC and I really enjoyed it and it made a great change after school to do this! The show is on tour so if  you fancy giving it a go, check the link. It goes to Wolverhampton next week!

Here is a great review of it which I wholeheartedly agree with

18.  44 of the Year 5-6 children were away on a residential today so I did Samba with the remaining children and they loved it!

What things have brought you joy this week?

The Delightful Tale of Sad Frog

 One of the sweetest and loveliest elements of this year at school was the lovely rapport I had with some of my girls in one particular year 6 class. This class were really enthusiastic musically. They worked well in teams, were dedicated to achieving their best in music, practically all could sing in tune, at least half were part of music clubs and they were cohesive as a class.  There were a few girls in particular, who were especially loyal. Many was the day where I'd be sitting at my computer at lunchtime when one of them would appear at the door saying, "THERE YOU ARE! Mrs P I've been looking for you everywhere!"  On other occasions, I would walk into my room and find one of them standing on the step looking at my book collection in the dark (I have a personal library which certain kids borrow from- I say certain- there were about 30 of them borrowing...).  She'd laugh as I jumped! I'd find notes on my desk asking me if I could be their walking partner on a school trip; at the end of my music lessons, they'd stay behind and hang out.

One thing they all loved is my little shelf of cute items.  I had cow bells, music box mechanisms, A-Z of music instruments, toilet roll bunny and mostly importantly, Sad Frog.

Sad Frog was a birthday present from my friend Lara last year.   Lara sells her crochet toys on Etsy and in order to be compliant with safety, legally, for selling to children, you need to do certain tests on certain products.  This is called CE testing and you can read about it here.  The main two tests are hanging weights, up to 10kg on eyes to ensure a child could not bite them off and setting fire to the wool.  Lara posted Sad Frog on Insta after she'd tested him. I asked what would happen to him and she said, she couldn't sell him.  I said I'd give him a home and he came to be on my Birthday with a bow round his neck. Her retail models have happy faces but Sad Frog, the first of his kind, has a sad face because of his mistreatment.

When I decided to take him to school to keep there, as I had my music room back, often children would pick him up and ask why he was sad. I would always explain about CE testing to them. They've all met Lara, as she came to school to play the piano for us last year, so they all liked the link.

When we started going on trips with choir/drumming, the girls asked if they could bring him on the trip and he could be our choir mascot.  I thought this was sweet so I agreed and subsequently, he's been on every trip, watched every concert and performance.  Three children in particular, always pick him up every time they are in the music room.

Around about 12 weeks ago, when I decided to retake the Drumming Club photo, I noticed a photo bomb....

As we've got nearer to the end of term, my girls kept fretting about leaving and not wanting to go.

In their DT lessons, they were asked to design and make an embroidery which would be an important memory of their time in school.

I delightedly found out, that Sad Frog made it into TWO embroideries:

How sweet are their write ups!!!

The next adorable thing was that one of them decided to write Sad Frog's story!  I unfolded her book (I haven't copied the front cover as it has her name on it but it's very cute:

One point, I should mention is that the 7 girls who spent a lot of time with me, had been extremely helpful and loyal. 2 of them were orchestra managers- they organised the orchestra set up, chased missing children, took the register, filed the music, gave out music to those who had forgotten, kept me up to date on what needed more photocopying.  In addition, they all, on quite a few occasions, helped me tidy and move things and also acted as TAs in my Year 1 and 2 music lessons during their lunch breaks on many occasions (one of them, the one who wrote the story book, stayed all afternoon with me last week to teach the same lesson 3 times.  She genuinely acted as a teacher, giving feedback, explaining and the suchlike.)  At this point, I knew that I had to give them something special as a thank you.

I contacted Lara and asked her if I could commission her to make me 7 miniature Sad Frogs.  She was delighted to, having been kept abreast of Sad Frog's popularity.

Last Sunday, we met for lunch and I met Sad Frog's children:

Behold, the line of Misery!

I decided, as a tribute to N____, to write a story to accompany Sad Frog's children.

I printed it onto paper and folded it with a front cover and back cover featuring Sad Frog and then his children:

Sad Frog had had a hard start in life, in fact, some might say his early existence was veiled in trauma. This was  due to his mistreatment for the cause of ensuring his progeny were safe for young children to handle. His luck changed, as chronicled in the book by esteemed author, N___ R_____, when he received a new and safer home in the hands of a music teacher, Mrs P_____. He observed day after day, week after week of music lessons with the children of ____ school and slowly his fear and post-traumatic stress subsided. It was, however, thanks to the tender care and friendship of some particular children, that he experienced the true joy of life and the euphoria of friendship. Some particular young girls seemed to spend more time than others in that room of sound and music and spent their time cheering up their teacher and helping younger children in their lessons. The tall and gentle T___; the generous and kindhearted T____ with the infectious laughter; the witty and efficient (but tiny!) I____, the loyal and dedicated S_____.  But most of all, his bestest of friends were those who showered him with love and attention and encouraged him to see the world, to travel on trains to world famous orchestras, to party to samba music, to watch shows about sailors, ships and treasure, to take part in concerts and his rescuers from kidnap. They were the cheeky, charming and utterly hilarious D_____, the astute and bright-eyed A_____ and the gentle and imaginative N____. Sad Frog knew his days of friendship were drawing to a close as his closest confidants moved onto pastures new and great adventures. His heart grew full as he reflected on his halcyon days and his eyes gleamed with tears at the thought of their loss. And his heart overflowed with droplets of joy and those tiny droplets of joyous memories became something wondrous. For from those crystal droplets, grew several tiny new froglets. They bloomed and blossomed and became Sad Frog's children. Sad Frog's heart swelled with joy for he knew that part of his heart would travel with his friends and accompany them forever and show his gratitude for their help in bringing him happiness. He bade them farewell and told them to seek new adventures and to always protect their new owners and ensure that they always sang from their hearts and found the joy in life even when times were hard. Sad Frog and his children may have sad faces but their hearts are glad

I've been gleefully waiting for moment when I could give them.

On the last day, I called my girls to come to my room, sat them in a line and asked them to shut their eyes. I laid out a frog and book in front of each of them.

When they opened their eyes, they SCREAMED!!!!  The comments of joy and glee were a delight to behold (I recorded them!) and when they sat and read the story and realised it was about them, their faces were utter joy!

They then decided to line up the frogs and sit them with Sad Frog.  We then had a selfie with all the frogs!

One more lovely element was the two gifts I got from two of Sad Frog's biggest fans:

One of them got me an apple to be Sad Frog's friend and the other, got her mum to make me a crocheted duck to accompany Sad Frog.

The children, plus many more, spent their playtime AND part of their lunch in my room improvising music as I attempted to tidy up and there were many tears.

I don't think I've ever had such a group before and I will sorely miss them.  But, we will ever forget each other because of Sad Frog.

xx

16 Happy Things

It's been a while since I did one of the posts where I list things that have made me happy. There have been numerous things in the last week or so and I thought it would be nice to list them! 

1.  The Genius of Ang Almond:  I count myself as so lucky to have so many friends through this blog community we have here. I value each and everyone of you.  Ang is someone I am lucky enough to be in touch with outside of the blog and she has been so generous over the years to be an enthusiastic help in some of my cosplay adventures.  In the past, I have sent her cosplay projects which she has done a marvellous job of.  However, I sent her a couple of cosplay projects based Classic who characters which she absolutely surpassed all expectations with her sheer genius and dedication!  The parcel arrived back last week and I am astounded, humbled and grateful for her efforts.  Look forward to seeing this, and another project at some point soon!

2.  Wordle.  Since last Summer when CBC's family went on holiday to the South of France, I have been in a Wordle Whatsapp group with his siblings and mum (he's not in it!). I LOVE the daily interactions with them over it and over friendly, but definite competitiveness over it.  We had the most hilarious interaction last week over the word ENNUI which was the word on 5th June.

Here follows the conversation in the chat.

J1 and I had completed it in 3 guesses.  T had completed it in 4. J2 had not completed it at all.

T:The word I convinced myself it must be turned out to not even be a valid word

J1: Well, when I got 4 different yellow in the first two guesses, I just went for a wild stab at the maddet word it could have been.  They seem to swing from tricky niche words to really easy ones, but with multiple different possibilities....

T: This one seemed like a tricky niche word but it turned out to be very boring.

J: [Laughing face emoji]

J2: I'm stuck.  can't think of any boring words (or tricky niche words) that fit.

T: Maybe it's both [head exploding emoji]

Me: Yawn! You lot need to find something better to do with your time.

T: Oh Kezzie, you sound weary and dissatisfied!

Me: Whatever PEASANT!!!

J1: Why don't people sort out their boredom by just brushing up their French? Just to fill in the time!

T:  Or play some games to allevaite the boredom? Perhaps on Wii?

Me: yes, my preferred games console [Grinning and laughing emojis]  J2 hates us right now, if she could summon up the effort to feel that intense an emotion.

J2: [Intense Crying emoji]

Me: Fun fact: I know a song that includes this word! [Grinning face]

Soon after

J2: ENNUI!!!! [aghast emoji and WHAT? emoji] I've never heard of that b*** word!

J1: Clues: French: boredom: On Wii.  (very clever T)

J2: I wouldn't even know how it is pronounced!!! [Angry and crying emojis]

J1: Brush up your French!

J2: My French never advanced beyond 'le chat est sur la table'

J1: You're a disgrace to your clan!

J2: Or 'ou est la piscine'?

T: CLUESSS? In here????!

T: [Insert Carry on meme saying 'I'M SHOCKED! SHOCKED I TELL YOU!"

J2: Stupid b**** word.  Looking forward to it going back to TABLE!

J1:  Ah, but then you get the other sort-sometimes more trouble... table, fable, sable, cable, label.  FAIL!

Me: Where are your squares J?

J2: I didn't post them because I couldn't think of a valid answer so I cheated and googled it.

Me: I knew Ennui as it is in a song in one of my favourite childhood movies, The Slipper and the Rose!

J2: It wasn't in the Argos catalogue. [Sad face]

The whole thing was utterly hilarious!!!!

3.  Happy thing no.3 leads from that.... yesterday, I GOT WORDLE IN 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never thought that day would happen! To be fair, glancing at my MiL's squares did help me to make my first choice of word. Never did I expect it to be right though!!!!

4.  I left my waterbottle at my Gamelan rehearsal on Thursday. This is a lovely 750ml stainless steel bottle that I won in an Insta competition a few years ago. I really am fond of it and have taken good care of it. They cost £20 new. I was so sad as I'd left it on the floor in a seating area outside the Gamelan room and it was likely that a) it would just get chucked away or b) someone would pinch it. I realised as I was on the way home so I speculatively emailed the university, guessing a generic email address and enquired if someone was able to look for it and put it in the gamelan room, not really expecting a response  to be positive.  I received the following last night after school:

Hi K,,

Sadly I don’t have a key to access the Gamelan room, but if you look to the left directly below the tap in point you’ll see it tucked away there.

Best wishes,

David

Thank you to whoever David is!!! I will hopefully find it next Thursday!

5.  Gamelan:  Ah, it has been a delight going back to it these past 2 weeks.  We have been learning a new piece called Tabuh Aras Arum (Fragrant Forest) from a wonderful teacher called Pak Dewa who is here with his lovely wife and daughter for a few months.  His style of teaching is really helpful and his pace is great.  It has been super satisfying to learn a new piece. It's not too hard but it is interesting and I was able to to do some 'working out' of the Sangsi part (everyone learns Polos first- this is the ON BEAT part... Sangsi then slots in between this) which was satisfying. It is from an older type of Gamelan called Semar Pegulingan which I LOVE and so has taken me back to my time in Bali when I learnt this.  This week, we revised it (I forgot most of it but then got it!) and then revised a dance piece called Margapati which I THINK I had learnt about 17 years ago but I'm not sure. It was so satisying to revise it and again, I was able to work out the sangsi and remember it!

6.  My Peri cosplay:

This week, I wore this outfit for TARDIS Tuesday and in my Insta post ,I had mentioned the Actress, Nicola Bryant in my post as I had gained the idea of this adaptation of the cosplay from her.  To my utter delight, she came and looked at my post and left me a comment!!!! I couldn't believe it! It was so nice of her!

7.  Last Sunday, I attempted to make a pea hummus from the Anna Jones recipe book.  It uses peas, mint, basil, olive oil, lemon zest and lemon juice.  I had 105g of fresh peas (I think frozen are better now) and a small avocado- this made it up to 205g- the recipe called for 300g. I didn't have any Basil but I did have mint. I used all the the other ingredient plus poppy seeds.  Rather than faff with the blender, I tried the stick blender... Anna mentions you can use a handblender...are these the same thing??? It went everywhere so I then attempted to mash it with a potato masher and then a pestle and mortar.  It wasn't really working so in the, I had this pea, avocadoey stodge which I put in a box with a large quantity of grated carrot.  It has been a lovely fresh-tasting ingredient to eat with either bread or left over Naan this week for lunch...even if I have had some funny looks!

8. I cover Teacher PPA in tandem with S, our sports coach.  We've got to know each other better this year.  We are very different and didn't really have so much to do with each other in the past but we've been getting on well this year. He's a complete joker.  Yesterday, he mentioned how hot it was and I said, "You need to have a bucket of water chucked over you!" and he laughed and said, "Yes, maybe I'll turn the hose on later.  Later on, I was filling my temporary 1litre plastic water bottle (a reusable, I hasten to add...) and I remembered out conversation.  I knew he'd be tidying the sports room so I called to him.. he came into the playground towards me and as he came towards me, I lobbed the entire bottle of water at him!  He was stunned for about 2 seconds as I instantly ran away and then I heard him laughing raucously, the entire way I ran across the playground.  Haven't seen him since but I know it will have made him laugh a lot!

9.  In Choir, I have been teaching them, Me ol Bamboo from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for a festival we are taking part in and they practised the routine I've taught them and it's starting to look really good!

10. In drumming club, I have 3  children this term who have a SEND statement (special need) and who usually all have 1:1 TAs.  It's really lovely having them in it and seeing them doing really well. They don't always join my clubs and it's nice that all 3 of them are there and able to do well without any additional support.

11.  It was my Year 1 final Spring lesson this week and it's one of those 'let's choose an instrument' and compose a class piece lessons which can be really chaotic- I've finally cracked how to teach this really well without it being stressful!  Success!

12.  I may be getting actually be getting my music room back in September if the builder complete the work on time and in addition, my Headteacher may be getting me an interactive whiteboard for it!

13.  I've been really enjoying the Kate Shackleton books by Frances Brodie. They've been on my shelves for ages but I am working my way through them. Death of an Avid reader, which I finished last night, is the best book so far!

14. I ordered a limited edition Hungry Caterpillar necklace (inspired by Eric Carle's famous book). It came on Wednesday and I AM IN LOVE!!!!

15. It was my Gamelan friend D's birthday on Wednesday. She paints her nails with Nail art and posts them every few days and she posted that she had painted them with Ladybirds just because she loves them. I was seeing her the next day for Gamelan and I realised that I had a tiny pair of Ladybird studs in my present stash so I thought I'd surprise her with them! When she saw them, she was so excited and surprised! It made made really happy!

16. I  will be seeing my family today for my sister and Dad's birthday!

Is there any particular thing making you happy this week?

Homegrown harvests 2022 totals

I've enjoyed growing lots of  things these last few years but I've never been organised enough to keep totals of what I've grown- this is a shame as I've had some bumper years for raspberries!

However, this year, in mid-June, I remembered to start writing down what I was picking. This means there is probably about 10 large colanders of Rocket and a bunch of alpine strawberries or more, which didn't make it into the totals as well as a whole lot of Perpetual spinach and Welsh onion scapes!

Strawberries: 517

Rocket: 9 colanders full.

Raspberries: 623

Green Beans: 108

Blueberries: 478

Courgettes: 8

Cucumbers: 9

Capers (Nasturtium seeds): 59

Peas: 77

Figs: 10

Apples: 3

Alpine Strawberries: 15

Rhubarb:34 stalks

Tomatoes: 1007

Leeks: 2

It wasn't such a good year for raspberries as previous years as several of my plants didn't grow back- I think I cut them back too late. But still, there were a lot.

It wasn't a good year for Courgettes.  I think they need more space or water.

The rocket was hugely prolific! A lot of it didn't actually get eaten as I couldn't keep up with it- I shared lots of it with work colleagues.

For the first time in 3 years, my tomatoes did not get blight- I was so happy and my September and October were full of home grown tomatoes.

It's the first time I've been able to eat my own figs- they weren't huge but they were still mine!

It has been the best haul of blueberries I've had and the strawberries did well too.

My Nasturtiums were really good this year and I finally managed to get seeds which I put into vinegar to make capers (as recommended by Vix!)

I am sad I didn't plant garlic last year but I intend to this year.  

The feeling of picking your own is amazing! I hope that I do as well next year!

xx

Recently...Happy things this week.

 The last week:

There were lots of good things:

• I applied for a grant for school last August and was awarded £1000 for some external music workshops.  My family friend/Godmother's daughter owns a workshop company and ran those for us- the children and teachers really enjoyed them and I was delighted to get to see my friend who ran the first day workshops for us. I ate lunch with her and she stayed after school to help me with choir and we did some team-teaching together. It was so fun and it was so nice to see her!
• After choir, I went back with her in her car to her parents house (they are my favourite people in the world!) and I had a cup of tea and good chinwag with them.  Their house looks exactly the same as it has always done and it was so lovely.  My mum called when I was there and to confuse her, I answered the phone!
• On the way back to the station, I went into CBC and my favourite restaurant which does an AMAZING Szechuan Aubergine (and no other Chinese restaurant I know does this) and ordered 2 portions of it plus Hakka vegetable noodles and Garlic Chilli prawns and took them home for CBC and I. It was a wonderful bonus to realise I would be going past this restaurant! Also passed my old childhood home which was so weird!
• Every child in 2 of my year 5 classes was willing to sing a solo in their Medieval-inspired plainchant.  Everyone except 2 children in the 3rd class was willing to do this.
• I made an EXCELLENT vegetable stew tonight- I made enough for 6 portions- it contained 8 carrots, red lentils, 1 courgette, 3 onions, 1 tin of kidney beans, 1 tin of chopped tomatoes, 1 litre of vegetable stock, old swiss chard, home grown onion scapes, tumeric, paprika, marjoram, oregano.  It's nice not to have to think about 2 more meals this week!
• I went to church in my old town today- was lovely to play with the worship band and feel that joy that comes with being in the presence of God and feeling like all is well again.
• The sun!
• A vegan sausage roll and vegan festive bake plus chocolate muffin from Greggs- yum!
• Managed to return plastic and hangers to the dry cleaners in town.
• CBC and I enjoyed a delicious Tapas meal out in town last night- a new cafe has opened in town and it was their first evening event. It was really yummy!
• I cleaned and tidied the house yesterday- it took aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages but I am really glad I did it.  The bedroom floor is clear!!!
• I am playing for City of London Symphonic Winds' next concert and had to go to a rehearsal on Friday night which I REALLY wasn't in the mood for especially as I know NO ONE in the band and the other flutes aren't particularly friendly or welcoming (my friend who asked me to do it isn't doing the concert but didn't tell me until I'd agreed to play)- the music was actually good in the end and it was fun to do even though I was not feeling 100% about it.
• I love watching The Apprentice- so glad it is back on.  The 'Turd' thing is hilarious!
• David Attenborough's Water series is so exhilarating!  I used to hate watching wildlife programmes as a child  but I love them now!
• I'm just catching up on the Emily in Paris that I haven't seen before. The series annoys me but I quite enjoy it!
• I've ordered my Stepmum some handcrafted stained glass flowers for her 60th next week and  the artist posted a picture of them on her IG stories today and they look really beautiful! I really hope she likes them as they are REALLY expensive so I hope they go down well.
• I took a risk on a 'too good to be true cheap priced instrument' on eBay for school and it turned up on Friday and it is AMAZING!!! It's such good quality and should usually cost about £180 but I got it for £25 including postage!!!
• The photo book for my Dad arrived- it looks lovely!
• I did some ironing today. Yes, I don't know who I am either!
• My friend said that my cute year 2 class were so amazing at their music workshopt that she did the same work as she did with Year 4 with them.
• 4 of the cute girls from the aforementioned class came up to me and told me they were playing 'Schools' and one of them was 'Mrs P'- me!! It was so cute!
• Letter arrived from my lovely penpal Katie- we've been reusing the same orange bubblewrap envelope for about 10 letters and when I see it arrive through the letterbox, my heart sings- her letters are SUCH fun and this was no exception! I wish we lived nearer!
• I've had 2 weeks of reading vintage Whodunnits- my comfort food!

The bad:

• My journey to school and back is long and arduous as it is so I was VERY annoyed to discover that the train company has reduced my trains morning and evening to one every HALF an HOUR (usually one every 10 mins). I had to wait 30mins on Monday morning and then EVERY evening home, I missed the conection by 30seconds and had to wait 30mins on a cold platform.  That's 3hours of my time this week spent on a cold platform waiting for a train. SO NOT fair! I pay a FORTUNE in train fares.
• Usually, teaching Year 1 about the orchestra is really fun- they LOVE conducting and being in the class orchestra but it was REALLY hard doing it in a classroom and they were really badly behaved!

What happened to you last week?

xx