Woodland Weekend

 Hello there!

I hope you are well.  Did you have a jolly weekend?  I did and actually enjoyed being cosy inside most of the weekend.  We did do a few things but it was fairly relaxed.

On Saturday morning, I woke annoyingly early. I went to bed far too late on Friday night and then woke up really early in the morning.  Tried to go back to sleep and failed. Grrr. We had some lovely Thai takeaway on Friday night.  They gave us 20% discount for picking up and 2 free bottles of Singha Beer- CBC was happy about that.   We've been watching 'Come Dine with me' on Netflix as well as The Queen's Gambit.

After aborting trying to sleep on Saturday morning, I went and did some washing and a few other clearing up bits.  After a shower, CBC went out into the garden and attacked the Clematis Tangutica which had completely entwined all the crevices of the Swing seat and it was starting to get rusty so it really needed to get put away.  CBC ruthlessly chopped the plant down and attempted to get the mass of foliage into our garden waste wheelie as the compost bin is full.

I emptied the compost caddy in the kitchen and did my weekly tea-bag ritual.  If I've not shared this before, I save all the teabags I use at school in a box and I always grab any other teabags which people have left in the bowl on the worktop and bring them home.  I then rip them all open and throw the tealeaves onto the raised bed.  They very quickly get assimilated into the soil.  It's a small eco-gesture but it does add up- I might only be saving a small number of tea bags from going into the bin (usually about 15 a week) but it does make a surprising amount of loose tea when you combine it.  I also did a bit of pruning too- cutting back the raspberries and emptying out some old pots of compost onto the bed.  We swept the patio and then rearranged items in the garage to fit the swing seat in.  

A little later, CBC wanted to drive to the nearby woods because he's taking part in a 'The Grinch who stole Christmas' staff reading at school and each staff member has to record an extract from the story. CBC likes to go all out for things like this (he really should admit that he is secretly a drama queen) and we nipped into the Cook shop (it sells DIY stuff so is open) for him to buy some battery-powered fairylights.  

It was really busy in the carpark, despite it being fairly late and we headed into the woods to find the wooden thrones. He wrapped his fairy lights around them and took of his coat.

I had to patiently wait trying to film as CBC fussed and we kept having little windows of opportunity before yet another family with screaming children came past.  One annoying child kept trying to get into the video. 

Eventually, after about 20 takes with various fluffing of lines from CBC, we got the 2 videos filmed.

I confess to feeling a bit jealous so I told CBC it was MY turn and sat in the thrones.  He recorded me saying the poems in one take.  

Here's a shot from the woods.

We then headed back to the car.  We took a brief trip to Sainsbury's to get some mulled wine mix and minced pieces and headed home.  Whilst I made a cup of tea and we heated the mulled wine, CBC got onto Zoom with his family and we had a lovely cosy chat.  We played some fun games of Bingo together which was hilarious.

After that, we ate left-over Thai food.  We then played through 6 pieces from the Nutcracker ballet by Tschaikovsky as my school is ALSO doing a teachers reading a text- we are reading The Nutcracker to film for the children.  Our Speaking and Listening lead asked me if I would record 10 minutes worth of music for the background casually.   I'm not sure he realises how much work that is.  I managed to find a piano reduction of the full orchestra score and CBC and I played through for about 2.5 hours.  It was REALLY nice to play music together and to have an reason that motivated me to get my flute out.  CBC really enjoyed it too.

Sunday morning, when I need and WANT to get up early, I just cannot get out of bed! It's so annoying.

CBC got out of bed and headed out on a 100mile cycle ride. I emerged out of bed about 3 hours later.

I went downstairs and watched Ang's church service from United Church, Ferndown as my regular church service had not uploaded their service for some reason.  It was lovely.

I ate CBC's left over porridge. 

I then put some washing in, hung some other washing up and started to sort out the understairs cupboard- a long overdue job.

CBC called to say he was in Thaxted (that's MIIIILES away!) and he was really sorry he had gone so far and would probably not be back for hours. 

I then headed out for a walk to St Mary's church yard where I took some TARDIS Tuesday photos and then headed to the COOP where I picked up a few delicacies- got some delicious Quorn cocktail sausages- we had sausage sandwiches when CBC got back.

CBC and I then practised the Nutcracker extracts for another hour and then recorded those.  I can't upload any of the recordings of us both together but here's a little extract from Valse De Fleurs:

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Finally, CBC cooked us Salmon for dinner and we watched some Queen's Gambit.

It was a cosy, pleasant weekend which I enjoyed!

 

Cold weather florals

 On lots of cold days, I wake up, having set out a cute outfit for school, decide I am too darn cold, tired and miserable to actually put it on (I am NOT a morning person) and slink into something comfy and loose (like today where I am wearing a bit baggy Breton-striped top, unironed, and trousers) or running too late to contend with multiple layers and garments and zips that require a grumpy, also-late husband to assist with.

But sometimes, you can hide those comfy baggy clothes under something cute!

On Tuesday, I set out this Closet floral dress to wear and found this White Stuff jersey blouse, which is rather loose-fitting and soft, in the pile of doom (AKA the old washing basket which now houses clothes which can be worn twice or more and are waiting their next turn to be worn).  Add to that, Bamboo leggings and my Florentine blue leather boots and I had a winning combo which was comfy AND cute!

I didn't need any accessories except for the bee and daisy collar clips which my lovely penpal Katie bought me for Christmas a few years ago.

I got the absolute sweetest message from one of the parents the other day about how excited her son was to practice his recorder and how she's grateful for my hard work.  Considering we'd only had 3 lessons on the recorder thus far, I thought this was really nice but surprising.  Then, when releasing the year 3 children to their parents, another parent came up to me and said, "Thank you so much for all you are doing. A is really loving your lessons and you are giving him the confidence he lacks."  Again, it's only 3 lessons so far and I've been uploading revision and practice activities to the Class Dojo area so the parents can access what their children are learning but the engagement on my Blog has gone up 10-fold  (page views on those posts are around 80) so it's nice they are using it after my frustration that they weren't during lockdown. I know some of you were affronted on my behalf so I thought I'd tell you.

Today had some good moments.  A little year 1 boy who was being  a menace and refusing to sing the past 2 weeks in music, sang really loudly all lesson today and participated really well. That class is still challenging but I had the support of 2 really good TAs and it really helped us contain them! I'm glad I only have them for one lesson a week though!

One of my year 2 classes is really good now- even some of the children who have found music hard- have been concentrating SUPER hard for the entire hour and fifteen minutes of their lesson and learning and understanding what we did.  There's a little boy who I call Dragon Boy (his name is basically a combination of the patron saint of England and his famous adversary which I find hilarious!) and he's always really struggled in music.  Not for the last few weeks- TOTALLY focused! I feel euphoric every time I teach that class recently. It helps that the Alpha females in that class (yep, the class is ruled by two girls) absolutely adore music but the enthusiasm seems to carry through all of them.

Anyway, I hope all is well with you! Love to you and those you love!

xx

From the Archives: DIY ideas for Christmas jumper day

Christmas Jumper day is coming up imminently- in the UK anyway.  If you want to join in or have been coerced into it, don't go and buy a brand new jumper, instead:

a) wear one you have already 

b) Swap with a friend.

c) Buy one second hand from a charity shop or eBay

OR 

d) read this old blog post of mine from December 2014 for some ideas on how to use what you have already to make your own. We all have a house full of Christmas decorations so just borrow from your tree.

Enjoy something from the archives:

DIY ideas for Christmas jumper day

As you may have realised, a recent phenomena is almost upon us. I am talking Christmas Jumper day, a day that Save the Children have deemed a charity day. I think the raising of money is a good thing- Christmas is a time that children in need really need to be thought about and helped. But, I was talking to various friends and colleagues, some of who (myself included) don't really like how it has sort of become another money spinner for clothing businesses and how you have to spend money on a jumper to get involved, it just feels a bit commercial. If you don't join in, you feel a bit like a Scrooge. I LOVE the Christmas jumpers around, don't get me wrong, but I don't want it to feel like yet another commercial thing that I've been sucked into, nor do some other people I talked to.

Therefore, I put together some ideas for two colleagues (and anyone else) who want to get involved in the charity side of it but don't really want be sucked into buying a jumper just for Christmas. I suggested customising a jumper in some way, but then again, you have the problem of something that can only really wear at Christmas time, so I thought you could construct something temporary in the vein of the ideas I've offered.

I do actually have one I have bought, I ended up buying one before I thought of this but I hope others can benefit from these ideas:

The only thing you will need is some safety pins and some decorations of your choice.

Flat decorations work really well and I found this set of three woodland animals in Tescos for £3 which I am really pleased about as we would probably hang these on our walls all year round and  if you aren't as fond as woodland decor as we are, they could just go on your tree afterwards.

All I did was find a plain red jumper I already own and I laid it flat to line up where I wanted the decorations to go and hung them in a line pinning them from the inside with safety pins- be careful where you place them as you don't want to look like you are hanging them from your er- chest!
This would work well for children even better who don't have a feminine shape to contend with for the animals to hang well.  You might even find some way of reducing the ribbon length too to make these hang better.



The second idea, I wore to our school Christmas fair on Friday.

I knew I'd be very hot running around on my stall, so I simply took 5 mini- mirror-ball baubles (came in a box of 12 from Poundland) and I hung them around the neckline of the top.  My children were apparently mesmerised in the afternoon as after the lesson they all asked me if it was a necklace or a top.  Again, I laid them out on the flat top and then pinned to the inside. Ok, so it's a bit gaudy but excuse me, Christmas jumper day??? And why not team it with something else glittery?  I have worn this sequinned skirt at school at Christmas every year for at least the last 6 years!


There are dozens more ways you could create a temporary Christmas jumper-
want something cheaper?  How about pinning cotton wool balls all over a plain sweatshirt for a snow fall? Or all round the neck?

I have some flat star ornaments in rainbow colours that I planned to pin to a black top but they were all sadly in the loft and CBC hasn't managed to get them down for me.

If all else fails, why not pin tinsel all around the neck and sleeves of a plain jumper or cardie, am sure that would work equally well and look very glam!

24 days of Advent writing prompts

I am slightly apprehensive in posting this as life gets very busy but I thought it might be quite nice to have some ideas for things to write about during December. I know some people have struggled to 

As always, I will be joining in with Ang's 'Pause for Advent" which this year is entitled:

Advent - at home

preparing for Christmas in unparalleled times.

You can find out more and sign up at: http://angalmond.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-different-sort-of-advent-pause.html

Ang's one is about this year- which I look forward to writing about. Not sure what I will write yet!

I wrote this post back in September but didn't post it till now.

If you struggle for what to write about these days when it comes to blogging, I thought I'd give you some ideas for things you could write about on each day of Advent- you could pick one every so often or do them all- these are all to do with memories- I am very nostalgic (as you probably realize), so I like recounting memories from Advents and Christmases past.  Hope you like the ideas!  You could also post a picture if writing lots of text isn't your current thing.

1.  Waiting
2.  Donkey
3.  Barns/Stables
4.  Gift you wanted as a child but never got
5.  Favourite childhood gift
6. Favourite Carol
7.  Snow day
8. Chocolate coins
9.  Carol Service
10.  Christmas day games
11. Christmas miracle
12.  Midnight mass
13.  The year your Christmas was different.
14.  The first Christmas when I was.../that I...
15.  Sprouts
16.  Peace and silence
17.  Hilarious Christmas moment
18.  Your ideal Christmas
19.  Something you miss from your Christmases of the past
20.  Anticipation
21. Candles/lights
22.  Decorating the tree
23.  Favourite charity
24.   Faith

Let me know if you end up writing with any of these ideas- I'd love to read them!

A cheeky message from CBC

 Last Friday, I had gone to bed too late.  I then struggled to sleep. CBC, on the other hand, had conked out asleep on the sofa at around 9pm.  He had had a lot a sleep.

Utterly despicably and unexpectedly early on the Saturday morning, CBC was awake, making noise and turning the light on, watching annoying videos on his phone.  He was disgustingly chipper.

In my desperate tired state with headache, I SHUSHED him very loudly in bed. I couldn't engage in dialogue because that might make me too wide awake and fail to get back to sleep.  He laughed and poked me and I shushed him all the more and kicked him for good measure.

Later, I went out to meet my friend for a walk by the sea front and CBC sent me this message.  It's a picture from our calendar- well, it used to be a calendar in 2019 but we liked the bird pictures so much that we cut off the date boxes and kept it as a rotating art piece for the year.

His message said, "Look! You are in our calendar!"

Utter rat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TARDIS Tuesday - Yaz Khan from The Ghost Monument

 Hi there!

Welcome to another week of TARDIS Tuesday! I'm wearing the warm cosplays at the moment and the lazy ones it seems! 

I last wore this one in January this year and it hasn't changed since last time except my hair has grown and I am wearing different shoes.

Here's the inspiration:

Image borrowed from 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05tyrjy/p06lp52f

As usual, it was really hard to find good images of Yaz's outfit so I tried to take a few screen shots.

She wears an orange star jumper from Mint Velvet, a brown leather jacket (apparently the Bryden leather jacket) from All Saints, black skinny jeans and grey bootie trainers.  Her hair is in a scruffy plait/pony tail.

And here is me!

I found a red version of the Mint Velvet star jumper. It's a lovely thin, soft, comfortable jumper with cashmere in it- it's really nice to wear!

I added my usual brown fake leather jacket from Clara Oswald's wardrobe.  Her All Saints jacket retailed at £360 and even the second hand one I've seen on eBay is about £70.00 -£100 second hand- too much! I don't need another one when I have this one to be so versatile!

I'm wearing black trousers (my ubiquitous ones!) and threw on CBC's sneakers again.

This outfit was worn on a Sunday for a day of church at home, watching TV and a trip to the COOP for bread and Veggie sausages! The glamorous life I lead eh!?

Hope you are having a lovely day!

xx

Reverend Wilks and the tiny red apples.

 

Ally wrote a great post about some apples recently which prompted me to think of my own apple memories.  As this blog is a great nostalgic thing for me to look over, I thought I'd write about 2 special Apple memories for me.

The first apples- small red apples which grew on a couple of trees in my Grandad's garden in the orchard.  I've written about it before here  but I wish I had more photos of the paradise that was their vast garden.

When we used to visit them in Summer and Autumn, we always used to go home with a massive bag of these tiny red apples. My sister and I would eat one after the other in close succession, often about 5 or 6 on the way home, throwing the cores out of the window.  They were so sweet and juicy- they were the equivalent for us of sweets (something we didn't get to eat a lot of).  It was a glory of the Summer time for us- the long visits there, the idyllic days spent running through the garden with my very patient older sister. I think in retrospect of how patient she was, always playing with her 4 year younger sister.  Luckily for her, I guess, I was also a reader, and also liked playing alone. But still.

The second apple memory for me is of my childhood home.  The garden really was tiny and thin for our little Edwardian servants quarter but it was it was a good length for a Suburban garden- longer than my own current garden.  When we moved there, it was beaten earth, killed by two alsation dogs.  My Mum slowly built it into a wonderful space filled with many plants and trees.  One of three apple trees there was a Reverend Wilks apple tree.  This tiny tree used to produce a veritable bounty of the most wonderful HUGE apples.  They were cooking apples in their early stages but then became eaters- they really were gargantuan and lasted for a while!  My Mum tried to graft a cutting of it onto dwarf root stock when she moved but sadly it never succeeded. I often wonder about that tree.  One Summer, when I was living there alone, a big haul of the apples were ripening. When I returned home from holiday , there were NO apples on the tree. I was puzzled and called my Mum to ask her if she'd been round to pick them? She said no.  The house at the end of the garden had often asked about the apples and to this day, I remain convinced that someone climbed over the low and easy to navigate wall and pinched the lot! I'll never know!

Both apple varieties and their associations are pretty special to me.  Do you have any special apple associations?

Swallowship

There is something so wonderfully calming about being in a English forest or woods.  There is a hushed stillness and a great sense of awe at the majesty of the stature of such ancient trees.  That feeling of being small when you stand alongside them but there is a wonderful benevolence.  Trees do so much for us.  Some of my happiest walks have been in woods and forests.  One of my favourite parts of our honeymoon in Switzerland was a wonderful walk in the woods in Zeneggen where are Squirrel dropped an incredibly large pine cone onto my head!  

When we recently visited Hexham, I eluded to my walk in Swallowship, the woods on the hill above Hexham.

Here are a few photos from my walk so you can enjoy them too.

 

Big sleeves

I was looking through my folders and I found these two pictures from August.

Since I'd already uploaded the pics to a blog post, it seemed a waste not to share them.

Ah, I feel wistful looking at these photos- everything was so verdant! 

This was an outfit I liked from the Summer. This white embroidered top and I go way back. I had this phase when I was 20-23ish where I really liked wearing white cotton clothes in the Summer.  I still like wearing them but I'm not quite so obssessed with the idea! I found this blouse at Spitafields and with its big sleeves and pretty rainbowy floral embroidery, it seemed right up my street!

The skirt is a vintage handmade one I charity shopped a while ago but I kind of fell out of love with it after these photos after I realised it was impossible to cycle in!

I'm wearing CBC's Panama hat with a polka dot headband wrapped round!

Oof, the weather is changing all the time at the moment- I can't decide if I am cold or too hot! 

I know this is an outfit post but I don't want it all to be about the outfit.

A couple of happy/funny moments for me to record here.

Today, in year 2, we were learning to sing 'Oh dear, what can the matter be'- a traditional English folk song (I think) and we were discussing how the melody contrasts between changes in pitch that leap from high to low and steps from high to low.  There is an absolute pest in that class who is always so attention-seeking.  Well, he (and the rest of the usually weakest out of the year 2 classes) seemed to be spot on with identifying steps and leaps and seemed to love this activity.  They seemed equally enchanted with the song itself and later on, after exploring turning the rhythm into an ostinato and trying to change it, showing them how a drone worked, I played them a recording of a Northumbrian small pipe player playing a version of the tune. I then got out my Lidl bagpipes (yes really.  They were £11.99 and are as bad as you would imagine for that price but allow me to demonstrate how the bagpipes work in front of the kids even if all the sound I can get out of them is a rather weedy sounding parp) and demonstrated them.  At the end of the lesson, in a first, a boy came up to me and told me he was going to ask his mum if she could buy him some bagpipes as he really liked them and wanted to learn.  I told him he'd probably have to get a teacher to have lessons but why not ask.  Later on, Mum came to pick him up and I apologised and said, "I'm really sorry, but A. has decided he'd like to learn the bagpipes!"- wondering what her reaction would be.  She laughed and then said, "He absolutely loves music so perhaps we could look into getting him some!". It made me smile alot- I'm not sure what she'd be letting herself in for and how this story may continue but it really did make my day- who knows, he could be East London's finest exponent of the bagpipes in a decade or two's time and yours truly can feel a little smug.  Or maybe I'll point her in the direction of the oboe...

On the subject of lessons, I decided to sponsor a girl in year 5 to learn the flute after her working so hard at her online music work during lockdown and to my delight she is flourishing at it and her teacher is overjoyed with how well she has already progressed after only a few weeks. She came along and played her teacher a version of Henry Purcell's Abdelezar after I taught the class an adapted version of it for glockenspiels as part of our work on Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.

This was the week of Year 5 creating their own plainchant in the style of Hildegard Von Bingen (but using their own secular texts rather than sacred writings) and yet again, I have been delighted by the response of the children to this. I have one more class to perform tomorrow but the first 2 classes worked so hard and every single child in the class was brave enough to sing a solo and sing the line which the rest of the group echoed. I was so proud of them and they were proud of themselves. I hope and pray the 3rd class will be just as successful...though they are the class who are most likely to have issues! Keep me in prayer!

The year 3's are enjoying learning the recorder in their second week and I am delighted that 88 out of the 90 children in year 3 have been bought a recorder by their parents.  To see their proud little faces when I gave out their recorders and their joy at bringing in and owning their own instrument is something I treasure- life is hard for them at the moment so to be allowed to do something to bring them joy is a privilege.  To see them able to read music for the first time and to hear them play (even if a little painful at times!) and progress is something I hope keeps them going through the difficult times.

Tomorrow, I am starting orchestra for the first time this year...just with year 6 children so not to mix bubbles but I am happy I can do something...24 of them will be learning We wish you a merry Christmas tomorrow!

I'm debating writing my own song as usual.  We won't be going to the church this year to do our regular performance but I thought it might be nice to compose a Christmas song with lyrics centered around this year and try to get the children to record it to send out something nice to the parents.  Maybe...we'll see how it goes.

Ah...to walk barefooted on warm stones!  It's a while till Summer again.

Sending you hugs

x

 

The final harvest?

I had some great luck with growing this year.  Some things didn't grow so well (as evidenced in my recent post.

This was probably the last haul of vegetables I picked including my prized peppers and my 5 potatoes from a sprouted potato.  Ah, I'll take everything I can get! It was fun to try growing!

 

TARDIS Tuesday - Clara Oswald from Nightmare in Silver.

Hello there!

Today, for TARDIS Tuesday, I am sharing an outfit I have featured twice before- like today, I've subsequently upgraded the look. You can see the later one here, the first one is here (it took me SOOOOOOOOOO long to find that post! It didn't have a tag.)

It is from a Series 7 episode called Nightmare in Silver

Image borrowed from 
Clara Oswald Cosplay.com

 Clara wears:

• Asymetric denim jacket from All Saints- uber expensive originally!
• Sessun tomato collared merino wool top in black
• Silence and Noise carnation skirt
• Black tights
• Luftwaffer cap badge
• Black suede wedged shoes- F Troupe

And here's this time's version:

I'm rather pleased with this look!

Let's start with what HASN'T changed:

The skirt was bought a while back- it was the first item I had for this outfit. It's a cute flippy skirt but I feel more comfortable wearing it over leggings rather than tights so I did.

Let's look at the top which is hidden under the jacket through most of the episode:

My top comes from Boden and is an excellent alternative to the real top- they are almost identical except the red is not as tomatoey!

I am wearing different boots from last time as I couldn't find the ones I usually wear.

And then the newest item in my collection is the All Saints Jacket!!!

This originally retailed at £190.  There is no way I would ever spend that.

I liked the jacket but I didn't like it enough to spend much money on it.  I had a £2.50 charity shopped fake leather alternative version- I wasn't actively seeking to buy it.

Once, I saw one for sale for £35 which is incredibly cheap for this- most people I know have paid more than £70 for it.  I ummed and ahed about it but I didn't care enough about it to spend that.

Then, about a month ago, I just happened to search for it (ok, it's the treasure hunt element I like about this!) and saw a size 10 for £11.  I thought, "Ah...I'll just make a bid and then run away".  On the day, I thought I might perhaps glance at it last minute.  I forgot.  I suddenly remembered and thought, "Ah, there's no way it won't have been bidded on." but lo and behold, in my email later, I saw I'd won it for £11!  

Finally, I'd never managed to find a way to attach the German Luftwaffe cap badge (a £2.50 eBay find a few years ago)  but someone showed me you could bend the prongs around a safety pin. I tried it and then attached my Magnapin (a way of using a magnet to stop you making holes in clothes from Brooch pins) and it worked a treat! Next time I'll attach it in the right place!

And there we have Nightmare in Silver.

I wore this (mostly without the jacket as I was indoors) for a lazy day at home. It is cosy, soft and comfy.

What do you think?

Not quite what I was hoping for

This year, I tried growing sweet potatoes.  Some that I bought had sprouted so I carefully removed the sprouts and grew them in water. I subsequently planted them and saw them grow lots of leaves. Mum recently harvested her sweet potatoes and got a haul.  I decided to harvest mine as they'd had 4-5 months in the pot...

and all I found was these two sad little worms!  Not quite what I had hoped for...

 

Return to Rannadale knots

Whilst the weather is getting cooler (though we have had some pleasant weather this week), I thought I'd share a few photos from August.  Oh, how utterly thankful I am for our glorious 2 week trip up north to Northumberland- it feels all the more special now since we are in Lockdown.

From Hexham, we returned, one day,  to my favourite Lake District walk back in August.  Rannadale Knots.  This fell is famous for its bluebells in the Spring.  I've never seen them sadly. It is a walk I did twice with my Father in Law before he died and I hold it in great affection because of that association.  It is a fairly short fell with great views and nothing too scrambly during the course of the walk.

The greatest attraction is that where we park (oh we were soooooooooooooooo lucky to get free parking in the tiny free car park by the fell when the one which you pay for was full, a mile down the road and rammed full of tourists whereas we saw few people here) is right by Lake Crummock water so if you finish your walk all hot and sweaty, you can go and swim....which we did! It was the most dreamy and wonderful swim as it was dusk and even CBC swam- it's usually a fight to get him into water! The water was calm and cool.

Enjoy a few views from Rannadale Knots. 

I hope you've enjoyed these lovely views.

 

Miss, what does incomprehensible mean?

 Ang recently reviewed this book and very kindly sent it to me after she'd finished, asking if I would pass it onto someone else to review also.  So, if you would like to be considered to be sent the book, please do leave me a comment saying so with your email address (unless I can just reply to your comment and you get a reply in your email, then I could just do that).

This story is told in diary form by 'Miss', a secondary school English teacher.  It's the start of a new school year and OFSTED is looming.  She's got a new Head of Department and she's struggling with getting older, pre-menopausal and seems to be constantly having too much work to do, much to the disapproval and worry of her husband.

I loved this book.  "Miss" is very funny, has a very witty, appealing writing style. You find yourself saying, "NOOOOO!" to the book, every time she is loaded up with yet another commitment she can't say no to.  You laugh as you hear of her scoffing an entire box of milk tray or cakes (oh yes, we've all been in the staff room when there's treats!), nod when she has to say no to commitments to get all her marking done, giggle as she has anthropomorphized the mirror and weighing scales to have their own comments on her body's response to ageing.  As a teacher, I nodded at many of the references to INSET days, meetings, workloads, pupils being awkward.  Miss is hard working with a good dose of sceptism.  She really cares about her pupils and colleagues and you find out what an interesting person she is in terms of her background and how she has got to where she is now and wonder about her difficult past.  She's a really engaging protagonist and I really enjoyed seeing how her school, pupils and colleagues fared over the years. It's an interesting insight into working in a secondary school.  It's published by a Christian publishing company but apart from references to church and missing bible study or saying the wrong thing at meetings, I wouldn't have really noticed it as being a Christian book apart from Miss's moral commitment to getting things done.  I really recommend this book.  If I were to rate it, I would give it 4.5 out of 5 for a book of this type. I really enjoy books written in diary and letter form.

TARDIS Tuesday - Yaz Khan from the Series 10 trailer

Hi there,

I missed TARDIS Tuesday last week- I did have something to share but my mobile phone has been a bit of a problem and I haven't managed to transfer the photos yet.

Anyway, this week, I thought I'd share a different outfit which I haven't shared yet.

This is the first outfit we see the 13th Doctor's new companion, Yasmine Khan,  wearing in the trailer which introduced the characters. 

She is seated on her teal sofa wearing a navy blue sweatshirt with stars and moons on (from Maison Scotch) with black trousers, a denim jacket and her hair down with the sides up in two little buns.

Image borrowed from 

https://pocketmags.com/doctor-who-magazine/528/articles/412905/mandip-gill-is-yasmin-khan

And here, side by side with her is my version of the outfit:

I wore this outfit this Sunday for a lazy day at home since I spent the previous evening being dreadfully sick, with only a trip out to have a bit of exercise and a walk to the COOP for bread.

I'll start with my ubiquitous black trousers worn for all cosplays requiring black jeans or trousers.  On my top half, I am wearing the same Maison Scotch sweatshirt as Yaz- I love it! It's so comfortable and excellent quality. I bought it second hand from another cosplayer who was in need of money so was selling off some of her cosplays.  

I don't own a denim jacket and, to be honest, have no interest in owning one so instead I substituted my Chambray blue shirt. I do have a denim shirt but I thought this was nearer the colour.  Notice the subtle detail with starry socks- not screen accurate!  

I did think it was appropriate that I have a teal-ish sofa and a pink cushion!

I attempted to do the hair style but I really can't do hair- I was never one of those girls who experimented on my friends hair (like my sister always did on me)- and I just never gained that particular skill set, nor wanted to devote the time to it.

I thought I'd give you a full length look at the outfit- it really is a 'Lazy Day at Home when you aren't feeling well' outfit.  I added CBC's sneakers for the picture- they are also super comfy!

You'll see this jumper again at some point soon as Yaz wears it in another episode so see if you spot it when it returns!

xx

Remembrance

 Today is Remembrance Sunday.

The day when we remember those who have died in wars, particularly starting from WW1, but in subsequent conflicts too.  The Poppy is a symbol of remembering. I seem to be losing track of events so much this year, particularly as they are usually mentioned or marked in assemblies at school, but we are not having those at the moment.

I am grateful for all those who have died in conflicts.

In Northumberland, I saw two beautiful crafty ways of marking it in Hexham and Corbridge so I thought I would share those with you.

In Corbridge, this wave of poppies, knitted together covered the wall to the church- it must have taken hours and hours to craft, no doubt by a myriad contributors.

In Hexham, the decorations were smaller but also had an impact.

I wonder if in future years, those who died serving the NHS during this COVID crisis will be honoured in some manner?

The gates to the Sele park were decked in Poppies too.

God bless all those who have died in conflicts and in times of great difficulty and turmoil.

Living Room Lounge Update

 Hello there!

In January, I shared a post of our living room with our new coffee table which we bought second hand at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre.  It really completed the space in our living room.  However, our phone and our internet router just sat on the floor behind the sofa and it was a temptation (for me!) to dump things behind there.  CBC said he wished we had some sort of narrow shelf to go behind the sofa to make the phone neater and make it easier to access. He also wished we had a more retro phone as our cordless one was being really unpredictable and dying after 10minutes of talking.

2 weeks ago, on the first Saturday of half term, CBC wanted to go and get some lunch somewhere.  We were driving aimlessly, not sure where to go, so I suggested we go to Battlesbridge to a lovely place called Frazer's Tearoom (there's a B&B above there in case anyone ever fancies a trip to Essex!) to have some lunch and perhaps we could find a vintage repurposed phone there.

The lunch was delicious and then we headed into Battlesbridge to look around.  In case you don't know, Battlesbridge is a big Antiques centre.  There's an old Mill with 6 floors of antiques sellers and some other units spread out over the village. It's really worth a day out there.

Whilst I was looking at a lovely vintage clothing store called Polly's Place-  I went in and she had some amazing pieces at really reasonable prices as well as some retro-looking modern pieces- brilliantly, I actually found a pair of Cath Kidston trousers I already own but that are too small for me and I've been searching online on eBay for the next size to replace them- I ended up getting them and a matching jacket as well as a lovely 50's shirt.

When I met CBC, he told me he'd found a SHELF to go behind the sofa.  We didn't manage to find a retro phone we liked then but actually, in Northumberland, at the Corbridge Antiques centre, we found the perfect one (which we bought!) .  CBC also bought a pair of Scrabble tile wooden coasters with our initials.  When we first got back to the car, CBC looked at the shelf (it is handmade, repurposed from pallets I think) and fretted about it.... but actually, when it was in place, it was perfect!!!

Here's the area which has been updated since the last post with a plant, the new Emma Bell painting I featured in the Bloggers Art Gallery (but wasn't up on the wall yet), the new shelf, the new phone and coasters, a plant from the kitchen and my first edition Angela Brazil book.  Oh, and some cushion rearrangement.

What do you think?

I can't tell you what a pain it was to get this picture up on the wall- It took us hours and CBC was going to kill the wall plugs in the end!

Here's the shelf- I couldn't believe it fitted the gap behind the sofa exactly!

And here's the retro phone in position. It's really nice to have a proper phone although it takes an age to dial a number!

The coasters work well as well.  I put a cup of tea on the C when chatting to my mum on the phone earlier.

I also put the hand-crocheted Ombre blanket my mum made for me on the back of the sofa.

Two other updates to the living room are the Monstera plant (found in Lidl!) and the handmade stool which CBC bought from Re in Corbridge in Northumberland last week.

What do you think?