TARDIS Tuesday- The Rings of Ahkaten- A High-Low, fish-tail, asymmetric number

For TARDIS Tuesday, I am returning to an outfit from Doctor Who series 7, Clara's 2nd episode as official Who companion(though, in reality, her 4th episode...)

I last wore this outfit online for TARDIS Tuesday in March 2021 so it is due a return visit:

Image borrowed from Clara Oswald Cosplay

It features a really lovely light shirt dress from the Silence and Noise label at Urban Outfitters.  It's quite hard to describe this dress: Sometimes it is called a -High-Low dress or a Hi-Lo dress; others refer to it as a fishtail dress; some call it an asymmetric dress.  What about the print? Is it a cross-print?  Geometric print? Stylised flowers?  Whatever, this dress is sometimes quite hard to pin down in the search for it.  Some people just waded through a million 'blue dress' listings on a second hand site under eithe the label: Urban Outfitters, Silence and Noise or even just UO? Also, it is notorious for really odd-fitting with a very tight-rib cage section and looser other parts.

Aside from the dress which eludes conventional nomenclature, it also shows off the All Saints Axelle black waxed denim jacket (also asymmetric, also masquerades as leather), All Saints black Jules biker boots (with furry lining), black tights, an UO Aztec bird necklace and a Deena and Ozzy red satchel.  So mainly All Saints and Urban Outfitters.

Here is my 2023, not at all different from 2021 version, just a slightly older me with shorter hair.

Happily, the dress still fits me though it's a little tighter than it was when I last wore it earlier this year- you also can't see the navy cardigan I snuck in under the jacket.

That, by the way, is "the most important leaf in human history". Watch the Rings of Ahkaten to find out more!  I've been wearing this All Saints Axelle jacket with a few outfits this week and this whole outfit was good for a trip to Leigh-on-Sea.  

I confess to not bothering to use my £2.50 charity-shopped satchel (Primark)  but sticking to my red Kipling bag but my TK Maxx alt boots have been a staple this October.

I bought three things in Leigh on Sea, apart from some Vegan cheese and Tamari sauce and that was

a pair of Ceramic drums - looking rather like Bongos for £4.99,  a  lovely Per Una black wool and quilted furry edged gilet and a denim/chambray shirt dress from Thought (all charity shopped).  Maybe I will show you those too!

xx
 

(Swiss) Fungi #14

Hello there!

I am back from Northumberland and have spent the last two days sorting out things at home- still not perfect but a bit more sorted.

It's been a little while since I shared a fungi post and I thought I'd share some of the great variety of examples I saw in Switzerland on our Summer adventure.

The region of Gstaad/Gsteig where we spent some of our time had really interesting examples of fungi which actually served to distract me from some very scary downhill descents

This fungus looked really bloated. I'm not sure if the fungus in the background is a different variety from the one in the centre but I think the one in the centre is some sort of Earthball or Puffball.

This brown one may be some sort of Fly-Agaric variety but again I wasn't sure.

This beautiful orange/red example really resembled a tomato!

I was SO unbelievably lucky to see these two lilac shiny mushrooms. I happened to be walking slowly and bent down to tie my shoelaces and glanced to my left under a rocky-shelf in the woods and there they were.  They were really hard to photograph as it was quite dark but they were definitely lilac.  My friend thinks they are a Lilac Webcap.

Here's a Classic Fly Agaric. Chomped as usual!

I suspect this is a Boletus variety mushroom- the Cep! It's a little cracked but I thought it might be one!

Not 100% though! Cracked Cap Boletus perhaps?

I'll have some other fungi to show you from my Switzerland trip over the next few weeks.

Which one is your favourite?

From the Archives: The Night Ambush

 I randomly click on my links on my blog sometimes to see what things are.

Had no recollection of this scary post and incident...perhaps we try to forget things...

The night ambush

After a long day at work, I found myself weary on the relentless trudge homewards. When the nights draw in and darkness comes, I find myself  somewhat nervous of the poorly-lit park route to my humble abode. Bracing myself, I left the main street of bright street lamps and a healthy flow of commuters moving in cars and on foot and find myself on the path of few lights, few people and a sense of isolation.

I walked amidst the avenue of trees, the comforting hubbub of traffic dimmed to a faint memory and left me as a solo passenger on this journey.   Heightened awareness of noises means my breath sounded loud and panicked and I wanted this ordeal to be over.  I increased my pace to a paranoid canter.

As I neared the gloomy, old pool building, with the memory of swimmers as a mere memory, I wished for some company, some sense that I was not alone.  Reaching the end of the building, my eyes darted left and right, left and right like a tortured cat seeking the elusive swinging toy.

It was then that I saw them.

Looming out of nowhere in the darkness, a mass of tall, lean, muscular individuals whose stony faces were a mystery to me in the complete lack of light  as they stood to my right.

Involuntarily I gasped in shock and braced myself for the threatening encounter that was surely to come with this ambush.  I'd always imagined this kind of horror in my imagination but didn't even consider it would come to fruition here in this place that I had come to love.
Words failed me, they died in my mouth as a kind of panic unique to rabbits in the middle of a road held as a statue.

A stentorian voice came out from behind me to my right- an unexpected extra individual.  "Right, I want 50 press ups! GO!"

As those anonymous individuals threw themselves down the grassy surface where their feet had been, I breathed a sigh of relief as I realised that the Boot-camp participants were back in winter training.


(This account is based on a number of times I have suddenly happened upon the Boot-camp members training by the side of my path home in the pitch black throughout winter.  I tried to imagine back to the first time I had seen them. It has always struck me as slightly sinister the way they are there with no pomp or circumstance just getting on with it in the dark. Bootcamp is an extreme form of exercising rather like the army, I believe)

Garden joy

 It seems a bit late sharing this now but I was enjoying some of the late flowers and colours in early October and I thought it would be nice to share them, particularly as it is now all yucky and rainy/dark!

I love the way Verbena Bonariensis defies gravity!  It leans at all sorts of awkward angles but is a delight to all the polinators.

I think this one is Nandina Domestica.  It looks so jolly and red in the Autumn and dons berries for jewellery

The cosmos hasn't been particularly successful this year but this self-seeded set has appeared out of the lawn!

The fuscias are still blooming- delicate ballerinas caught mid-jete.

The lemon tree has thrived this Summer after CBC kept treating it with anti-scale insect treatment, the advice he was given on GQT after a roasting!

Amusingly, a line of Nigella has grown at the edge of the lawn, in the drain grating!

The Blueberry plants always don their red robes at the end of the season.

I've still been picking these 5 edibles up to this week! I wonder what I will find outside tomorrow morning?

I relocated a Nasturtium to the soft fruit bed and it's finally growing!

Let's see the Cosmos again!

Here's another Autumn harvest.

A healthy-looking Lemon Balm plant has begun to grow in the lawn to which I have no objections- free tea!

Ah, there's another of the Nigella!

The warmer months always show their love by the bounty they share! I've enjoyed the feast.

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Tileprint alternatives!

 Is it really true that I haven't featured this Clara outfit since August 2021?  The time before that was 2019- so it seems a biennual appearance is its regular spot!

Well, it's due a repeat as it was one of my original favourite Clara outfits!

Topshop tile print dress and navy Bertie Brogues plus navy tights.

Let's have a look at my rendition.

It was worn for school on  Tuesday in September.

You might be forgiven for thinking, Hmmm, this looks a slightly different colour and print. No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. For whilst I DO have the accurate colour, Topshop made an alternative nude-coloured version.

My lovely size 8 version was getting a bit tight on me and I found it hard to locate another one in a larger size.  My friend Laura was selling her size 12 alt coloured one and I was selling a Yaz Khan top she wanted. So we swapped!

I MUCH prefer a larger version. I subsequently found the green one in a 10 so I sold on my Green one.

Worn with the too-small navy brogues. This is their last appearance on the blog because I have sold them! Realised there was no point in having them as they were too small and I didn't want to wear them because they hurt. So they are winging their way to Canada.  I could have sold them at a profit but I just sold both my pairs at the same price which meant I basically made what I had sold them for.

Bye, bye brogues!

However, I have seen that Clarks had a lovely Hamble Oak pair of brogues which are quite similar so if I ever see those at a bargain price, I may replace..and I won't be scared to ruin them!

The print is really pretty. Not sure I've ever shown you it up close before.

This was a good dress to wear for the slightly cooler but still warm weather we had in September.

I also think it is a good teacher look too. Out of some of Clara's slightly less school appropriate outfits, this one rates higher!

Hope you have an enjoyable day!

xx

Burgundy blues

Hi there!

I hope you are well.

One week to go till half term.  This first half term has flown by, at the same as not!

I wish I were able to craft well-written blog posts at the moment. Sadly, my mind is really fatigued and I am lacking the focus to do that. I think that's the effect of the new term- I hope !

This week has been a busy one.

Monday night, CBC and I went to see 'Peter Grimes', Benjamin Britten's opera about a beleaguered fisherman from Aldeburgh at ENO, English National Opera.

Benjamin Britten, if you haven't heard of him, is one of England's greatest composers. We had a reputation in the 'classical music' world as being a bit rubbish as composers.  Or at least, none of the great names, like Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Ravel, Verdi, et al, were English.  Our finest composer was Henry Purcell, beloved composer of the Baroque era and then, very little was thought of English composers for another couple of hundred years or so.

Then, Benjamin Britten, born in 1913 and died in 1976, came along. He is also well known as being the partner of renowned Tenor, Peter Peers.  Together, they set up the Britten-Peers school and foundation.  He founded the Aldeburgh festival with peers and is responsible for the creation of the Snape Maltings concert hall.  He wrote with great imagination and skill and some of his best works are his operas.  

Peter Grimes is the opera which brought him to great international acclaim.  It has a theme in it with notably recurs in quite a few of Britten's operas- the struggle of an outsider against a hostile society.  In this opera, we begin with a scene where an inquest is being made as to whether the death of Peter Grimes' young apprentice fisherman was an accident or something more sinister.  Grimes is an outsider and is constantly the subject of whisperings by those in the town, known as the Borough.   The verdict is left open but Grimes is advised not to get another apprentice.  Grimes is despairing as to whether he will ever be away from the gossip and mutterings but doesn't help himself by how he responds to the villagers and also how he is seen to treat his apprentices.  Ellen Orford, the school teacher, who is fond of Grimes, vows to help him if he gets a new apprentice and makes it clear she would like to marry him but he vows he can only marry once he's proved everyone wrong and has made his fortune in fishing.  

He is constantly ostracized by the Borough and they refuse to help him, except for 2 men, one of whom has found him a new apprentice from the Workhouse.  The child arrives the night of a storm when a drunk and rowdy pub unites in their dislike of him.  In next scene, it is Sunday morning and Ellen, the school teacher sees a bruise on the new apprentice's neck and his worried.  Later, when a suspicious village go to Grimes' hut to find out whether he is up to no good, in Grime's haste to get away from the villagers, he and the apprentice go down the cliff to the boat.  Despite, Grime's earlier warning for the boy to be careful, alas, things go wrong and the apprentice dies as he falls down the cliff. Grimes is in despair.

The village notice Grimes' absence after a couple of days and when he returns and Ellen has found the boy's washed up sweater which she made, she and Balstrode, the  Captain and fear the worst and tell Grimes he must scuttle his boat as the only way to escape the judgement of the Borough.  Grimes sails out to sea, his boat is seen sinking and life continues in the Borough.

It is an incredibly bleak opera but it is beautifully evocative in its music, particularly the 6 interludes which are between scene changes where the orchestra sets the scene musically what what is occurring.

Britten later put four of these into a concert piece called "Four Sea interludes"

The first is called Dawn, then there is The Storm, Sunday Morning and Moonlight.

They really do depict what their name suggests and I really recommend you listen to them.

It was a wonderful performance and we really enjoyed it, despite my being in floods of tears at the end. Poor Peter Grimes!

Tuesday, I was very tired for school but it was an ok today, all in all. I was pleased that past me had bought some fish and sausages and put them in the school freezer so I had something to go with dinner for the next 2 evenings.

Wednesday, I had agreed to lead a teacher's INSET on music.  Well, for half the session.  I've not actually ever done this at my school before, in 16 years.  Mainly, because I teach the music and no one else does so it hasn't come up as a need. However, my colleague, M, a young teacher, a brilliant teacher, told me he'd love it if I led an INSET so I suggested to our Assistant Head that I lead one, just for fun and to give staff experience of some musical concepts etc which she thought was a great idea.

So, on Wednesday, at 4.30pm, I told all the teachers to come to my room where I taught them almost 2 hours worth of Year 4 music lessons in 30mins.  I taught them about Pentatonic music, transposition, octaves and I got them to sing in 4 part harmony and learn to play a piece.  The lovely thing was, they were all really enthusiastic and sang beautifully! Everyone was so nice about it and told me how much they'd enjoyed it and how it was their favourite INSET. It made me really happy to see they'd appreciated it and not found it a waste of their time!

Thursday was a really positive day. My year 3 students worked really hard and behaved themselves (mostly) in their 4th recorder lesson.

Then, I had Year 4 for three lessons It was their first lesson on Drones and Melodies and it is the day I teach them about travelling ministrels.  We then spend the rest of the lesson travelling around the school singing Tudor song, Hey Ho, Nobody at home whilst accompanying ourselves with drones and asking for money with a prepared speech.  The kids always absolutely love this lesson and this year group was no exception. In fact, their behaviour was excellent, including the usually VERY disruptive class! It was one child's birthday and he told me it was the best birthday ever which was sweet.

After school, I had choir, who were hyper but I had a brain wave.  We have been using kazoos for one of our songs and they are a pain to clean each time to disinfect them so I had all these plastic skinny long bags from the new recorders I'd bought for the Year 3's. I hadn't recycled them yet so I gave them all one to put their kazoos in so they could use the same one each week- I had some old sticky labels I'd saved from WOMOTM's desk which I'd recently brought home from Northumberland so I felt quite pleased to find a solution!

Friday, after my Year 6 lessons and orchestra, I grabbed the orchestra kids at 3.00pm to take their photo for the clubs wall. I told the children I wanted to take the photo in the school hall so that A could have her proper timpani in the photo. We aren't using the hall at the moment so I told the children we were going to have to sneak up there secretly to take the photo so they couldn't make a SOUND whilst we went there or on the way there or I'd get into trouble. Not sure if this is true or not, but they ADORED the whole stealth operation and we managed to get there and back in total silence and we had such a laugh about it when we got back!

Thai on Friday night.

Saturday was our orchestra concert in London.  We had a rehearsal and wen to Miznom, a Lebanese street food restaurant on Elgin Road which was lovely.  It was quite sad as it was our principal Clarinet player, Drew's last concert before he moves to Lincolnshire.   The concert went really well but we got home super late.

This morning, I woke up at 9am and managed to get to church for 9.20am but was very tired!!

We ended up travelling to another town to see if we could find CBC's missing bank card (to no avail) and ended up having some lunch in John Lewis.

This week, hopefully, won't be super busy....I hope!

Oh, and here's an outfit from before the weather turned!

Fabindia skirt, charity-shopped Newlook top and some Asda shoes plus a charity-shopped belt. Comfy but cool. Nuff said!

Hope you are well.x

From the Archives- Autumn Treasures

 I was looking at my blog and found this post from October 2015. 

It included a poem about Autumn and reminds me of my need to make an effort to like Autumn. I don't. But I try!

So, come on then Autumn, show me your finery!
Take me on a journey of discovery, that we may know each other as dear old friends.
Deck yourself in your most dandiest of threads
And serenade and woo me with your beauty.
Dazzle me, hold aloft your greatest finery.
Pave my paths with gold and my walls with the richest of rubies.
Allow me to tread gently upon your veined-dreams.
Offer me the finest delicacies, enjoyed by the richest of your patrons.
And lead me to places with untold, unimaginable intricacy.
Exhibit shapes in myriad forms and the whole spectrum of shades.
Share your tree-dappled light as a lamp to my feet.
May lace-like ferns adorn my routes.
Like palms in far-off lands.
Show me that life still brims within you.
And that you are echoes of friends past, still near, still loved.
Teach me the ways of older beauty.
That you too, may be long-cherished in my heart.

CBC and I went for a forest walk today after a rather long and protracted detour in which we aborted an attempt to visit a nature reserve in the place of my ancestors, Tollesbury.  Instead, we returned to Danbury, a place I posted about walking in, in January.  I tried to look closely at the colours of the season and appreciate that there still is incredible variety, delicate beauty and not all shades of futile decay. Indeed, comparing it to my January walk, I see a great contrast and realise, that whilst Summer is my true love, that there is still much to rejoice in!

It is a joy to be on holiday for another week in which many joyous plans, dear friends and family to see and adventures will ensue!

I hope all is well with you!

xxx

Linking with Claire Justine at Creative Mondays 

AND, for the first time,

Linking with Photo Friday with Jen from Pierced Wanderings