Some 2021 highlights

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• I won a £50 book voucher!!! I entered a daily competition from Northumberland County Council (only once!) to win a £50 voucher from some local shops to promote shopping local! Imagine  my delight on 23rd December, driving up to Northumberland, to receive an email telling me I'd won a £50 voucher for Forum Books in Corbridge- one of my favourite Northumbrian businesses! I always make a point to visit there and buy a book when I'm ooop north.  I was SOOOO happy! Not spent it yet but gleeful at the prospect.  My Hexham-based friend was amazed when I told her.  "But you don't even live in Northumberland!??" she exclaimed!  But I really do like to support Northumbrian small businesses.  I bought a lot of my Christmas and birthday presents for people when I was up there in May, July and October and my facecream of choice comes from a Blanchland based business (CBC's choice too!) and I always take containers to refill!
• Our first ever family holiday to Portreath in Cornwall in the Summer. 9 of us travelled together to go there.  We had a photoshoot which I'd booked for my Dad's 70th birthday present and we had some marvellous photos taken.  Another memory was getting to meet the wonderful Sarah (our photographer) who I first met through her blog, a Salty sea blog!
• Finding 2 shops in Padstow with my name as the title!
• Getting to meet the wonderful Ang Almond after being blog friends for so long!  And how easy it was to chat to each other!
• My flute trio recital in September which I was granted the day off school to perform in! Was a wonderful day!
• Getting apples at last from our Apple tree!
• Growing spinach successfully!
• Having the lovely worship group at church performing my Christmas song.
• Getting to perform Bach's Mass in B Minor with the Elysian singers in September was a scary but wonderful experience.
• Getting to play twice with City of London Symphonic Winds and to play with Essex Chamber Orchestra on my flute.
• Finally getting to play flute in a proper orchestra next to my childhood flute teacher who was playing oboe!
• My epic 40th birthday TARDIS Tuesday post- having so many wonderful people from around the world dressing up in Doctor Who-inspired outfits for ME was a joyful, joyful thing!
• Finding lots of interesting fungi on my walks!
• Lots of wonderful local walks in Lockdown! Many by myself.  For me, who gets lost very easily, this was a proud feat!
• Two joyous weddings with good friends.  Getting to play music for my friend M's wedding was a privilege and a joy.
• Although the theft of my toast from the toaster at school was not funny at the time because I was hungry, the hilarity and conversations it prompted at school were a highlight.
• Going out to dinner with my work colleague and her finally wanting me as a friend after being very cautious of people.
• Finding where I can forage for Wild Garlic in Essex at long last!
• Mum giving me her beautiful blue 70's kaftan at long last!
• Growing dahlias from Tubers for the first time!
• Sharing my Contemporary Children's authors reading challenge on Instagram and having well known authors such as Piers Torday and Katherine Woodfine sharing my post on their Instagrams. Katherine Woodfine even followed me on Instagram (she is my FAVOURITE children's author)! Other lovely authors such as MG Leonard and Abi Elphinstone all commented on my posts too which was really nice!
• Finding three cornered leek in the wild and making pesto from it!
• Getting my hair cut after 2 years of not having it cut!
• Finally getting to visit Mousehole after having sung in the children's choir in the Animated film version of this wonderful book and always wanting to go there!.
• Egyptian Day at school where I got to act as the Wicked Wife of the dead Pharaoh and embracing my inner villain and getting all the children to bow down to me repeatedly!
• Swimming at my local(ish) beach a few times with my niece and loving it!
• Walking almost a mile at low tide into the sea bed with my friend N on the most beautiful day in August. So strange, so beautiful!
• Walking 17.5 miles with my friend M after lockdown along the seafront in April.   So tiring but such an achievement!
• A wonderful games evening in July at my house with my Godmother, her daughter and my Mum.  So, so many giggles and nice to have finally hosted THEM!
• Seeing the Hexham Abbey angels!
• Seeing the Flying Scotsman in Northumberland!
• Jane Austen-themed Hen party for M! Innocent, gentile fun!
• Mum staying over at my house twice in the Summer!
• Playing Gamelan again!  Especially loved playing for Colourscape!
• Lots of wonderful garden harvests!
• The joy of playing my flute at church after so many months of not being able to go or being able to have musicians when we could go!
• The joy of seeing family after not being able to do for so long!
• The joy of a permitted visit to the Opticians in another town in February or March last year which meant I could visit Wilkos and a new Zerowaste shop! It was amazing how exciting this was in Lockdown!
• The joy of returning to school in March meaning no more online teaching and real children in real life!

There's lots of things I am sure I have missed but these are what I remembered.  What were some of your 2021 highlights?

New Year recap on a joyful holiday!

 Happy New Year to you, friends near and far!

I hope that your Christmas holiday was restful, Covid-free, safe, healthy and happy.

I have enjoyed my holiday very much (except for CBC having to stop at Wetherby and his brother having to take over the driving due to feeling unwell and then 2 days later, the midnight drive to A&E at 12.30am for CBC who was feeling very unwell with the same chest/heart/digestive pains. Since I was not allowed in with him, I had a jolly time sitting in the freezing car for the next 6 hours until he was released and returning home for 55 minutes sleep before a trip to another place in Essex to play with Essex Chamber Orchestra for the entire day.  CBC's trip was inconclusive but please keep in prayer if you are in the habit of prayer that he can find out what is causing the issues and that it is nothing untoward).  With those exceptions, we have had a wonderful holiday

Some highlights from my holiday:

• Seeing the new West Side Story at the Forum Cinema in Hexham.  I went with CBC, his mother and brother.  Forum is a wonderful independent cinema and we had the most excellent seats for distancing from other people as the seats we were in were separate from others.  The film was excellent and I really recommend it though I shed MANY tears!
• New Year's eve at my Dad's house.  We had a veritable feast and had a really jolly, affable and fun time!
• The success of my 'escape room' challenge I created at my Dad's house.  I created 10 challenges around the house which were hidden in locations and had to be located in numerical order.  They included secret codes, musical codes, morse codes, science challenges, riddles and all sorts and the 4 participants in the challenged loved it and all got involved.
• Going to spend an hour with my step grandparents (stepmum's parents).  I went in to visit them and had a really lovely hour talking to my Stepgrandad.  He seemed really genuinely pleased to chat and see me and asked Dad to tell me how much he enjoyed my company the next day. I've always loved them but somehow now, they seem more precious.
• A lovely, sunny walk on New Year's Day.
• Getting to spend a little bit of time with my old church friends in Hexham when they returned from holidays.
• Having great fun with CBC and his brother doing Hexham's 'Project Escape' 'Escape the Cursed Attic' challenge! We were apparently the fastest team by far in the first room, unfortunately it all went a little wrong in the second room and we were 4 minutes over but the challenges were brilliant and imaginative!
• Getting to dispose of all the crisp packets from school celebrations to Matthias Winter in Hexham who collect crisp packets to send to Terracycle to turn into other things.  I wasn't expecting to visit Hexham this Christmas so it was a bonus.
• Everyone seemed to really like their Christmas presents and a lot of these were not requested things. CBC liked his cycling gear.
• Having fun putting together a photobook from our Cornwall trip as a present for Dad (it hasn't arrived yet). I bought him a photoshoot from Lyra and Moth as his 70th birthday present when we were down there as it seemed too good an opportunity to miss to be in Cornwall and get to book the lovely Sarah for some photos! It was nice looking back on the photos.
• Getting to spend some time with my Mum and Sis before Christmas.
• Finally getting to play 1st flute for Tschaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet for Essex Chamber Orchestra yesterday. I have long wanted to play that part. AND I got to have my lovely 2nd flautist from my regular orchestra in London to come along and play as well!
• Playing in my friend Lara's church carol service and getting to spend time with her and her husband and CBC in their lovely cottage.  So lovely to have friends and be able to spend time with them!
• Singing Christmas carols with CBC, his mum and brother in 4 part harmony on Christmas day eve.  So nice to be able to do this and have everyone willing and happy to participate and not be moaned at my less musical relatives!
• A brisk Boxing Day walk in Northumbrian countryside somewhere near Allendale/Whitfield/Long Town with a hilarious moment where sheep followed CBC and his brother like the Pied Piper of Hamelin and the rats!
• Finding a beautiful teal velvet bolero jacket in the charity shop in Hexham!
• Managing to put away nearly all my Christmas presents easily and not having the usual, "WHERE am I going to put this?" dilemma!
• A delightful catch up with my friend M in town.  We walked a few miles along the seafront and ate lunch in my favourite indy cafe.
• Finding 3 pairs of excellent brand new walking trousers in Barnardo's charity shop (one for CBC)- for £3 a piece! My two fit perfectly and I finally have more than one pair for those walking holidays where I get mud all over my one pair on the first day!
• A cosy and fun evening at CBC's old work colleague's country cottage (my friends now too!) 
• Lie ins and nights where I actually didn't wake up hideously early!
• Loads of dreams this holiday! I feel like I haven't dreamt for ages (apart from one or two nightmares) 
• A relaxed, fun time with my inlaws in Northumberland.
• Not catching Covid!

There's loads more I could say but, as I return to school tomorrow, I can say that I had some lovely times.

Happy things this week that I'm grateful for.

•  The hand of friendship can sometimes be a slow burner. I've had a work colleague for 15 years and in recent years, she doesn't join with social things but I've tried to reach out in terms of friendship but she's not been forthcoming until best friend at our school moved away.  We went out to dinner with that friend.  Last half term, I asked her to come to the Harvester for Dinner and she came and told me after half term how much she'd enjoyed it. Knowing it is her birthday today, I asked if she wanted to go to the Harvester again this Friday (CBC is at his work Christmas dinner) and she agreed immediately. She sent me a message on Monday saying how much she was looking forward to it and we asked a couple of other colleagues, including one who I would also like to be friends with.  She delightedly agreed too so we are going to have a jolly time.  I gave C a birthday present and card today and she texted me to say thank you and she would start using it immediately (As well as some Thorntons treats,I gave her Cath Kidston lanyard as she'd broken her work one and had mentioned she should probably get a new one. In the few years I've given her a present, she's never once said anything about it.  I'm delighted that she is opening up to me (which is a bit bittersweet as she is planning to move back to Wales at the end of the year probably) AND that our other colleague is coming too.  I felt such a glow when she texted me back today.
• Dinner Friday- definitely looking forward to this! I didn't do the work Christmas do but this small scale thing is totally my thing AND I don't have to feel sad and gloomy when CBC is at his do!
• I phoned my friend Lara on Saturday for a catch up and she mentioned that she is organising music or her village church carol service and was a bit stressed about it.  I told her I'd be happy to come along and play my flute or sing and she was delighted and said she felt much better about doing the thing.  I'm so happy to be getting to see her AND getting to play in a carol service AND getting to play music with her.
• On a related note, Lara had been asked to join our flute group by I, the leader and we are going to play carols the day before the carol service for I's street Christmas event (outside carols).  
• I also texted a friend who lives in the area and CBC and I are going to go to theirs for Christmas nibbles and drinks after the street carols.
• I wasn't going to write a Christmas song this year as I still had 'Hope this Christmas' from last year to perform but on Friday, after working from home, I was suddenly inspired to write a song called 'Joy!"- I worked it out and put it into Sibelius music software in a few hours and today I taught it to my year 5-6 choir who were super enthusiastic about it and managed to learn it ready for next week's carol performance.
• My Year 5-6 choir are a really lovely bunch and I really enjoy our sessions! 
• My work colleague L owns about 20 Christmas jumpers and is raising money for St Francis Hospice by wearing and photographing them each day. I thought this was such a nice idea!
• Christmas feel good movies- yes, I have watched a cheesy Christmas movie on Channel 5 every day since last Thursday and I am loving it!
• I've FINALLY worked out two year 2 Fireworks composition lessons that actually work after a few years of unsuccessful, stressful chaos.  The tweaking and new ways of organising it worked! And, doing it in a classroom actually worked to my advantage!
• Jingle Bells- very happy with my year 3 children today who worked hard on Jingle Bells.
• Couldn't be bothered to do much for dinner, CBC was out at his school concert.  Managed to adapt a Thai Chicken noodle soup by quickly adding some extra veg. Healthy, quick and tasty!
• Love the Lidl £1.50 bargain vegetable boxes!
• My year 6 kids did a really good job on their Baroque performances today!
• I'm back to Hildegard Von Bingen with my Year 5 classes again and I love teaching the children about her music!
• CBC sent me a really funny text this morning on the train!

What made you happy this week?

Happy things last week

 A few lovely things from the past week or so. I've felt really quite sad and gloomy at times this past week but there have been many bright times despite this.

1.  Tuesday, whilst waiting by the school office with my remaining choir members who parents were tardy, all of a sudden, I heard my name called from the gate.  It was a past pupil of mine who is now 17 and in year 12.  He is one my most favourite pupils of all time so I ran down to the gate for a catch up. I love the fact that he was there with his cool girlfriend, aged 17 and chose to call out my name when he saw me some 12 metres away by the office.We had a quick catch up and I said to him, "I will never forget you." to which he replied, "And I will never forget you Miss.". I was SO happy to see him and the fact he said that, was so lovely. 

2.  I received a message from the mother of a child. I think I wrote about how he had become transfixed by the Bagpipes last December and said he wanted to learn them.  I told his mum at the time and she had been interested.  Fast forward to July this year and she was late one day and I was standing with him. When she arrived, I asked her if she had thought about signing him up for music lessons.  She said yes, but had been disorganised and forgotten about it.  When we asked him what he was interested in, he said, "Bagpipes" which wasn't an option so I suggested the oboe as a good starting point.  They signed up and he'd been playing the oboe since the half term holiday. She messaged me on Wednesday to say that he absolutely LOVES the oboe and practises every day and wants to show her his notes and she is really proud of his dedication. That message meant so much to me because that thing happened because of my lessons.  Giving him access to hearing and seeing something led to that! It was a great feeling.

3.  The messages keep coming over the past  3 weeks where parents ask if it is too late for their child to join choir.  It's really exciting that they want to join and that their parents want them to!

4.  Happy Year 4's.  It was totally worth the hideous amount of time it took to locate and move 25 'exotic' instruments, including Harmoniums, mbiras, Angklungs, violins, mandolins, timpani, metallophones, xylophones, guitars, harps, hand bells and all sorts for my 1 off lesson allowing them experience of accompanying songs with different drone instruments.  Everyone was hugely positive and excited by it.  It is usually time consuming setting up that lesson in my own music room but as you can imagine, finding and doing that in a different building was a nightmare...but worth it!

5. Meeting my lovely blog friend Ang! Still smiling!

6.  A very productive Gamelan rehearsal.  I've been struggling in gamelan for the past 2 week as I'd missed so many sessions and didn't know my part and no one who plays my part was there last week so this time, I spent an hour or so watching videos of our teacher in Bali playing the piece and I transcribed my part. What a difference at the rehearsal- I knew it and when I got stuck, I could look down at my notebook! It was especially crucial as the person who knows the part was away again. Another fun part was that we played Baris,  piece I know very well and I had great fun playing the Reyong which I haven't touched for years! Also, I went secretly dressed as Patrick McGoohan from the Prisoner and it was funny!

7.  Had a lovely relaxing Saturday with CBC. We went to an Eco-fair and had a mooch around the shops. I found a lovely 3/4 length Autograph M&S cashmere cardigan in the charity shop for £5 which was very exciting!

8.  Had a hysterical time with a child tonight after choir. His mum was late picking up and he was talking about being a Russian spy and suddenly noticed some teachers in a meeting in the classrooms by the office. I had the 'bright idea' of us being spies and launched into 'Mission Impossible' whilst we cavorted over to the window- a hilarious spell of us acting like total loons (and excellent acting skills!) as we acted like comical spies working our way along all the windows.  We were laughing so much by the time we finished.

9.  Happy time with my Year 5-6 choir tonight.  Fun rehearsal and they are doing really well with my Ring out the Bells song from a few years ago.

10. Yay, after my aforementioned Year 4 lesson on Friday where I allowed the children to play the violin, there are 3 new signups for the violin in school! All very capable children!

11. We had the most hilarious- time in the staff room at lunchtime last week where someone chucked a piece of balled up foil at another colleague.  We then ended up having an en masse game of Pigeon hole ball where everyone tried to get the ball of foil into someone's pigeonhole. The deal then was that you had to secretly buy a tiny present for the person whose pigeonhole the ball went into.  It was so much fun. We had such a wonderful time, we laughed so much and there was such a sense of comradery  

12. Got some great books for the School library in the charity shops on the past few Saturdays very reasonably. I've read a few to vet them and they were really good!

13.  Nice morning hugs with CBC this morning. He texted to me to say Thank you for warm, morning hugs which was lovely as I was thinking the same. 

14.  Had another fun time with the City of London Symphonic Winds on Sunday afternoon. I was really grateful to join them again!

15. My Year 3 recorders are starting to make progress and today, lots of the children tried to help others put their fingers in the right place the way I usually do when I was unable to get to them (tight table formations!)  Other two classes weren't too bad on Monday either.

16.  Lovely Selective-mute boy who began speaking to me and singing in class at the end of last year (after me teaching him for 1.5 years without either of those things...doesn't really speak to any other adults) , today, told me what he was drawing in our music lesson and when I delightedly repeated what he said, he gave me the most beautiful smile.  It makes me happy that he trusts me enough to speak to me!

17.  Kind colleague who I was talking to about how anxious I felt yesterday was really sweet to me. I like her a lot. She's definitely my kind of person and like me, doesn't have class (but is only part time) and is also really fed up by not having a proper working space with the building situation. Empathy is important.

18.  Every child in Year 2 can play London's Burning on their glockenspiels!  One bright shining thing was that a little autistic boy who doesn't really join in much in music and can't communicate by speech (unless prompted), learnt to play it totally by himself correctly without any help! I was so delighted and glad for him. His face shone when I told him how impressed I was.

19.  In year 5, we were learning how to improvise and create interesting drum rhythms and the children seemed to have lots of fun doing that and actually, some of the children who have struggled with the work this term, did a really good job. Nice to see them shine!

20.  I bought a tray of mince reduced for Quick sale in the CO-OP in July and I got it out of the freezer on Monday as I wanted to clear the freezer.  When I was feeling miserable on Tuesday, it was the best thing to know I could come home and make Spaghetti bolognaise which I never eat as CBC doesn't eat meat (usually....occasionally).  Very much enjoyed it.

21.  Pickled Onion Monster Munch. Enough said.

I have a good life in so many ways but that doesn't stop me from getting sad and worried about things.  Finding all the happy things always helps!

10 things to be thankful for

 Back to school in the morning.  I'm in Year 3 for 2 days which I am apprehensive about since I've not been in this year group at all during lockdown and it is a year group I have not taught non-music subjects in before - so I have to get to grips with topics I'm not familiar with as well as children I'm not familiar with their abilities as well as finding out about 10 minutes ago that a child who is VERY disruptive (as in goes to a special behaviour school at the moment usually for 3 days a week) as coming back to school for the first time in months to my class! I am nervous to say the least as I find it very hard to teach or even have any conversation with this child. Pray for me!

So...to counteract the impending sense of doom I am feeling, I thought it was time to count my blessings and find things that have made me happy or thankful this week.  The things I am happy about may not be those great things that I feel gratitude for in life anyway or be super worthy things, but they are little things that have made me happy this week.

1.  THE TITS!!!!!  The birds really were going for it in our garden this morning and we had an excellent exhibition from the blue tits who seem to be exploring our nesting box on the side of the house!  In addition, on my walk today, I saw and heard Great tits and Blue tits who were determined to flank my whole journey!

2.  I had a wonderful walk with my friend Christina this afternoon.  She is a dear friend from the church choir in my birth town, where I used to live up until 7 years ago.  We shared a lot of things together before I left/moved and I was delighted when she moved to not so far from my about 1.5 years ago.  We discovered a few weeks ago, that we could both walk to the country park from our homes and meet for a walk. It's about 3 miles from my house to the lake where we met and we had such a jolly time walking together, chatting, she showed me where the bluebells will be in a few months and I saw some really extensive fungus, saw and heard lots of fauna in action.  We were both so happy we could meet and I was so grateful she texted to ask if I wanted to meet for a walk as I really wanted a walk on this last day of freedom but CBC was doing school work (I am pretending such things don't exist until tomorrow).

3.  It was SO sunny this morning and today. I had to take my raincoat off and was wearing a light shirt and vest top only! Joy!

4.  I made a batch of Chocolate Cornflake cakes on Friday (or Thursday?) using a bar of Fairtrade chocolate as well as some ancient Nutella that needed using up (and scraping a fresh tahini container too) - I made 19 of them and it has been so nice to have a box of them in the cupboard- they are such a retro nostalgic taste and both CBC and I loved them!

5.  CBC has been really tired, grumpy and not feeling totally well this week but I managed to get him out for a walk on Friday by the river and we both really enjoyed it.  We had lovely walk, it felt SO different to be able to walk with open skies and land on all sides of us with just bird noises, so different from all my other walks this week which have been Surburban (because it being so muddy).  We had some really silly laughs as we walked and we felt really positive. We bought rolls from the bakery to eat (egg mayo!) and sat on the log by the Creek mouth to eat them.  The exercise did us good.  He then got out the next morning for a cycle ride with a colleague and I went for another walk which took me to a nature reserve and it was beautifully sunny and I felt positive.  The final other walk (aside from all the boring Suburban ones this week) which made me feel good was last Sunday where CBC and I walked around 13.5km in the snow - it was such a contrast to today's walk and it felt amazing to be out, even though it was snowy and freezing and really early in the morning to be up! We were glad we had done it!

6.  Sleep! I have been so grateful to be able to sleep as long as I have wanted this week and not to have to get up for school.

7.  No screen time!  I have been really enjoying not having to check my computer and stare at a screen for hours a day. It really made a difference to my sanity! Also, I have given up ScrabbleGo for Lent and actually, has felt quite freeing not to be playing it, as much as I love it!

8.  Arranging:  I got CBC's computer out to put a Hindemith fugue into the Sibelius music program to do an arrangement for Flute trio.  It's nothing I can perform or share with anyone as it is probably still in copyright- but it was just a good exercise for me to do! I love Hindemith!

9.  Getting out into the garden. This week, we've done some clearing up, pruning and tidying in the garden.  It felt really nice to be out there and to be doing positive things.  I've been chopping up banana skins small and throwing them directly onto the raised bed along with coffee grounds and tea leaves. Apparently, bananas skins are good for plants!  I've planted some lettuce seeds, my chilli plant is coming back to life, my leek ends are doing really well!

10.  Both my parents have had the COVID vaccine now, as has my Mother-in-Law.   My Stepmum has also had it as she works at a Dr's surgery and her parents have also had it.  This is a relief.

So many good things going on so remember, when feeling blue about something else, count your blessings in other areas. It always makes you feel better!

There are more things I could write about

Happy things (20 things to be thankful for)

Happy things from this week
1. 15 mile cycle ride in beautiful weather- we cycled to a village not so far from us and back. It was such lovely weather and the roads were so clear. It was a pleasure to ride Celeste, my road bike who I haven't ridden for a couple of years. On the way back, we saw the sign for 'Fresh Asparagus' which I've often seen when driving with CBC but never spied where the place was. At cycling speed, we were able to see the cart with the honesty box where the asparagus was. We only had a £10 note and there was no change so we ended up grabbing 3 bundles and giving them £1 extra (if we go again).  We stuffed them into the back pockets of our cycle jerseys.  The asparagus looked amazing- thin and young and delicious- no packaging other than rubberbands and in terms of food miles- well, we cycled them home so no food travel miles! Can confirm they were delicious.
2.  10mile cycle ride in rather overcast weather on Saturday. It was so cold and overcast and I was feeling really gloomy at the change in weather, had a headache, hadn't been in the garden (and in retrospect, when out riding, that I hadn't prayed that day at all- prayer has been really raising my spirits). I felt much more positive once I had come back.
3. Made more Nettle soup.  It was still delicious. Every time I've made it, I've ended up chatting with someone who has walked past as I cut the nettles.    This time I also put some Goosegrass in it as it was growing with the nettles and apparently it is also edible. I also added a really old parsnip and 2 old carrots to the mix which gave it a thicker texture.
4.  Whilst fetching Nettles on Thursday, I chatted to 3 friends on the phone, 2 of which I hadn't chatted to for ages and that was really positive and lovely.
5. 2 hours ago, I opened up the sealed Polythene bag which I had left my pepper seeds to germinate in and ALL THREE GERMINATED!!!!!!!!!!
6.  Rocket seeds have finally started to germinate in the raised bed (but wretched FOX has been digging in that bed- so I have laid a lattice of garden canes over the bed so it makes it harder for him to dig.)
7.  I made FULL OF GREENS FRITTERS for dinner on Friday and used my own Swiss chard from the garden. I planted it last Summer and it has sort of stayed alive in the pot over Winter so I used those.
8.  Really enjoying Sutton Vineyard's sermons from their online church service.
9. Have you been watching Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Show Must Go On on Youtube?  We've seen Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar and Phantom of the Opera and really enjoyed them. Phantom is my ultimate favourite show and it meant so much to me at a time when I was really lonely,scared and sad (when I was first in Indonesia studying, aged 21)- so it's exciting to see it again.  I cried my eyes out several times.
10.  We've been watching, The Good Place on Netflix which is really entertaining!
11.  Really been enjoying getting to know some of the fields and footpaths around where I live. I keep thinking how glad I am that we chose this house when we moved and not being in the busy town we wanted to buy in. So much beauty here.  Really enjoying prayer walks too.
12. Saw some beautiful Oil Seed Rape in the fields during my walk today.
13.  I bought a Vienetta in Londis. This is SUCH a nostalgic dessert for me- takes me right back to my childhood!
14.  We've been enjoying eating breakfast sitting in our swing seat in the garden. It was a lot of money but it's something we really enjoy in our garden!
15.  The glorious weather!
16.  Managing to have the time to empty CBC's coffee grounds and water straight onto the garden and my tealeaves.  It's nice to try and use things as much as we can. 
17. I'm grateful to have the time to go and water the garden diligently morning and evening. This would not happen in normal term time. It's also nice that I've been able to make use of the showerwater (with a bucket) for watering the garden too- there'd be no time for that definitely!
18.  That rain on Friday night was most welcome refilling the waterbutt so my Blueberry bushes can have rainwater which they need.
19.  Having had some fun with CBC making a birthday card for his sister's birthday - he's so creative when he has time! I also enjoyed having the time to craft my wreath as well as 7 cards!
18.  The delight of chatting to my sister so much in the past few weeks. We barely spoke or saw each other last year- mainly because of her work and her running but also my difficulty in getting over to hers.  Her father-in-law has been in hospital with Covid for a few weeks and it's been a difficult time for them (please keep him in prayer- he's still on a ventilator) and I'm glad that we've had the time to be there for each other.
19.  The fun of a Zoom party escape room with my other sister, Dad and Stepmum on Monday. It was SO good to see their faces and to have fun with them.  I'm also planning something of a similar, but homemade ilk, on Friday for CBC's birthday.
20.  Reading an absolute stonker of a book- The Toll- 3rd book in the Arc of a Scythe- I've been waiting for it for a long time and it was worth the wait!
I could go on but I think I may have lost you already.

There are so many things to be grateful for in this time!!  You may have got the impression from my Post Isolation Fantasy that I am missing a lot of things. Well, I am always grateful for what I have but I do also like thinking about possibilities of things that I would like if I could, so despite that, I am content!

What happy things would you write about?

xx

15 Happy things this week (a bit like my 10 things to be thankful for!)

1.  The year 2 child who is part of a family who have never been particularly or overly fond of music, who isn't particularly strong in any other subject who gently comes and thanks me after every music lesson and this week told me she is going to be a music teacher like me when she is older. My heart melted.
2.  I was getting off the train with my bike and walking down the platform and I heard the stampede of someone desperately trying to make the train on the rickety bridge above me, so I pressed the 'open doors' button on the nearest door to me at that moment just as the driver had pressed the 'Close doors' button- it opened but then shut as the guy tried to reach the doors. Just as I was saying, "Sorry, I did try to open it" and he said, "Don't worry!", the driver must have seen it and reopened the doors! I helped!!!
3.  The funniness of reaching to the train station (via train) and having precisely 4.5 minutes to cycle to the postal delivery office to fetch two parcels (the reason I was there) and return to catch the train.  It was like The Crystal Maze or Challenge Anneka.  I ran through the station, leapt out the doors onto my bike, dashed into the delivery office and the guys in there raced to get the parcel, spurred on by my, "Gotta make a train and my husband says I won't make it!" (the added incentive was that CBC happened to be just at the station already waiting on the same train on his way home from work- I'd phoned him as I was 2 stations away to discover this!). They volunteered to sign for it for me to save me time and I cycled back.  Alas, I missed the train by 30 seconds (meaning the whole process took 5 minutes exactly!)and thus CBC and I didn't get to travel together but the whole thing was FUN!
4.  The sweetness of internet friends!  An Australian cosplay friend from Instagram was sending me a Clara dress from Australia and the sweetie that she is, she put in a beautiful elephant tote bag and a pair of blue bunny earrings into the parcel!
5.  I went and sat in my colleague Paddy's classroom to write in notes to some recorder parts & it was really nice to sit and chat to him.  I promised I wouldn't disturb him whilst doing his reports and yet somehow, we ended up chatting as we worked. It's nice to have colleagues to chat to. He's such a nice guy- he's young but treats everyone in exactly the same way no matter what their age or position.
6. I discovered that another young work colleague is a Dr Who and Clara fan last week purely by accident and told him about TARDIS Tuesday and today, he saw me in the corridor and said, "Ooooh, is that a Clara dress, it looks very Clara!". Also, the IT guy commented too!  How nice to have Dr Who friends at work!!
7.  I forgot that it was going to be my birthday today (yesterday) and my colleague (whose birthday it also is) reminded me by asking me which day I was going to bring cakes in on to work.  I laughed at the fact I had completely forgotten it!
8.  CBC gave me a late Valentines card as he was in a complete stew about work and getting ready for his skiing holiday on the actual day (I didn't even mind).  It was a really sweet card that apparently he'd bought ages ago from Gaia, my favourite Hexham-based hippy shop and his message was really sweet.
9. Yay, exciting rare Clara item as mentioned in number 4 arrived as well as another item!
10.  Having the time and the thought to do something to encourage a child with a very little resilience in dealing with things she finds hard.  I made her cry today when trying to tell her she needed to stop giving up and believe in herself which made me feel very guilty. She really does have an 'Eeyore' downtrodden approach to life and challenge and I wish that could change.  Over lunchtime after our discussion, I got on the computer and made her a poster with a message for her with a beautiful background of a forest background painting and gave it to her and she was really touched by it.
11. The train driver who waited for me on my birthday day rather than doing what they ALWAYS do in the mornings which is meanly ignore your desperate efforts to reach the train.  Alas, the next day, it was back to business as usual BUT THEY DEPARTED 30 SECONDS BEFORE THE TIME THE TRAIN IS DUE TO ARRIVE!!
12.  Lovely classes! I used to DREAD Fridays last year because 3 out of 4 lessons, I had year 5 (who were tough) and I had a crazy Year 2 music club.  This year, all of year 5 are lovely and the one year 4 class I have, are also the nicest class and my Year 2 club are really sweet (plus I have a year 5 child who is coming along as my helper). Thus, Fridays are the day I look forward to.  Yesterday was a particularly nice day teaching them about the musical textures that developed in the Renaissance era- Homophony, Polyphony and Antiphony. Mondays and Wednesdays on the other hand...
13.  Eating Thai food.  Tried a new restaurant last night and it was tasty!
14.  Colleagues who thought I was about 30 instead of 2x4 years older...
15.  Having a relatively tidy house!

What happy things have you thought of this week?
xx

10 (or maybe 11) reasons to be thankful

After the horrid day I had yesterday and the start of today, I cannot believe the blessings and lovely things that happened despite all this.  I am thankful for these.

1.  I truly believe all the prayers of yourself, colleagues and friends helped. All the positive message you left and the compassion and sympathy, thank you.

2.  So many colleagues sent me kind text messages, people were so kind to me today.

3. The caretaker left me 2 bunches of flowers flowers and a lovely note on my chair, 

4. I had decided to be pragmatic and be calm and still try to do nice things and I'm glad I did, I had a curious serenity over me today which was much needed, it was God with me.

5.  All my lessons progressed well, most of the children really concentrated and listened.

6. As part of my Year 4 lesson, we were comparing a piece of Japanese Gagaku music to  Balinese Rindik.  Having to listen to these over and over again was lovely since these were the two types of world music I loved the most at University. Also, children have this real delight and fascination with anything to do with Japan. It is curious and sweet.

7.  As I left school, I turned my phone on and was greeted with 14 delighted and thank you messages from the some of the 20 friends and family I decided to send a "have a lovely day" message to.

8. On the way home from school, the Student loan company contacted me just now and told me

they owe me a rebate of £531 (I paid it off over 2 years ago but somehow this only happened now).

9. I came home to a late birthday parcel from my lovely penpal Lucy which was just a joy and delight accompanied by such thoughtful and fun cards and a really kind and interesting letter that I want to reply to instantly!!!

10.  As I walked home from the station, I felt really hungry and wanted to pop into the chip shop to grab a sausage or something. As I went in, there was a queue of 4 people AND 20 elderly folk seated who were eating in. I stood for a few minutes waiting as the staff there were trying to juggle the dishing up of the people's orders from the large party.  I decided that I should probably skiddaddle and I walked home, slightly wishing I could have got something! I came through the door and discovered that CBC had left over chips for me as he'd been peckish on the way home and got fish and chips!!  So I got chips for free and saved CBC's from going in the bin!

11. And the best of the lot- the conclusion to the horrid thing was a compassionate, generous one with all the things I prayed for being as hoped. 

I cannot tell you how much I am feeling blessed. It just felt like all of that was a complete Godincidence. 

THANK you to YOU!

What are you grateful for?

xx

A load of rainbow

I ended up taking some very bright-coloured photos in February and the beginning of March.  I thought I'd share them altogether in one post.

I ended up pinning several of my pin badges to my pin to help me find them more easily! 

Rainbow straws in a cafe called Sherlocks in Whitby.

Sugar mice in a traditional shop window in Whitby.

Tiffany-style lamps

The Walrus and the Carpenter Cafe, also Whitby.

Most of my birthday cards.

My Chalet school books by Elinor Brent-Dyer with my newest book which the lovely Bev sent me!

The cutest Valentine card ever! That's me and CBC here.

A cute lizard my Brother-in-law was given for his birthday.

Pea Snacks and a TARDIS.

Colourful book shelves in Hexham.

Frothy bubbles in Sandsend.

Colouring my latest handmade brooch.

Colourful bunting at the Utopia Lounge Cafe in Southend.

Teto, the brooch, at a later-stage, just before going into the oven.

Colourful dress and brooch last Sunday.

A big rainbow mess on the table!

Have you taken any rainbow photos recently?  Do share if you have!

xxx

Happy things this week

This week has been truly exhausting.  Despite OFSTED being over, I've had a mad week. But there have been many good points.

 Having got back to school at 23.55 with the children from the Albert hall, it was thus a very nice surprise to receive a beautiful bouquet from my headteacher to say thank you for the hard work involved in the Albert Hall. I was very touched.  I love Hydrangeas- so pretty and I've never received such a beautiful bouquet I love so much.  They also got one for my colleague who came and even nicer, sent my Mum a bouquet to say thanks for helping out too. She's helped out on a lot of school music trips over the last few years and it is so nice this was acknowledged.

The Albert Hall concert was also a happy event.  I have such affection for the music organisation that runs it- they are responsible for the musician I am today and for so many happy memories. And of course, it is the 10th or 11th time I have taken part in this particular concert.

Although some of the boys I was standing behind KEPT turning round (and I had to keep hissing, "TURN ROUND!" through the concert), the children were largely good, sang well and enjoyed it.

It was SO nice to spend the time with my Mum too. I value time spent with her greatly, especially nowadays and it was really nice to share this same experience with her that I did the first time I sang there (she helped run our school choir). Because it was so late, I stayed at hers and it was really nice to stay at hers and fall asleep chatting and then wake up next to her. She kindly gave up her bed for me and slept on her airbed. We had lots of laughs and she even made me a cup of tea and porridge that next morning reminding me of the cup of tea she made for me every morning when we lived together.

Here we were at 1am just before going to bed. Both going for the comedy shirts!

The next day, I was HUGELY appreciative of the music, electricity and technology workshop we had come into school as I was SO tired and it was nice not to have to lead the class but help out. The workshop was really intriguing too!

Except, that I was left with 100 pieces of fruit and veg that had been handled by kids and stabbed with crocodile clips to conduct electricity to be used as a fruit piano.

 So I went home and made carrot soup out of about 10 carrots (with onions) whilst watching Doctor Who series 4 (peeled, removed all burnt electricity bits and chopped into little pieces)

 And then did the same to 20 apples which I stewed.

The soup was tasty.

Now, I've got to deal with 20 lemons, oranges and 10 carrots. My Irish colleague took home all the potatoes for me.

What other happy moments have you had this week?

xxx

Things I've loved this summer

Ok, let's just clarify that it is STILL SUMMER, no matter what the weather, the month, the bloggers of this world, the world in general, may think! But since it IS getting rather less summery, I thought I'd share my summer highlights- I saw the idea at Second Hand Susie!

1. Going to TWO mazes in the space of the week. 2 ticked off from my 'Mazes I want to visit' list.Yes, that's  real list!

2.  Runner bean success!!!! Up till today,I have harvested about 138 runner beans!

It's the first time I've grown veg by myself.  The carrots were successful too- the courgettes have been plagued by snails and slugs though I had one or two! I also have to say that concentrating on gardening has led me to spend time with my Mum - it was lovely to garden with her with excitable chatter or companionable silence!

3.  Igor Stravinsky violin concerto! Nicest flute part of the week at Music Camp.  Also loved playing Beethoven's 6th symphony, conducted by Tom, from the same parts we used when I last performed it with him conducting. It was like returning home!

4.  Walking on the Rannadale knots and paddling in Lake Crummock Water again with CBC and WOMOTM, my two favourite walking partners!

5.  Haltwhistle outdoor pool- it was lovely swimming there again after about 3 years!

6.  The best letter ever from my penpal KT- it was like a treasure hunt! An A3 sheet with numbered coloured shapes on which I had for  the subsequent numbered section!

7.  Going back to Barter Books in Alnwick!

 Loved it- ate cake, came home with several Whodunnits that I'd not heard of- Michael Bond, Monseur Pamplemousse, A Daisy Dalrymple book, The Moving toyshop and more!

8. Mammoth card-making sessiions! One of my favourite holiday activities! I made about 15 and it was great!

9. Giggling in the car with CBC about something ridiculous-not sure what but it was funny!

10.  CBC spotting a cloud that looked like an eagle! He pointed it out which surprised me since he usually groans at my, "Looooook, it's a cloud shaped like a t-rex!"-style exclamations!


11.  Cat time with Chloe! Even if she meow for England!

12.  Making an apple and blackberry crumble with apples from my Mum's friend Lin's garden and the blackberries I picked from the brambles which are pulling down the fence at the back of my garden. They're finally useful for a reason!  And the fact I got away with using veeeeeeeeeerry out of date flour in the mix without CBC suspecting! Don't tell him!

13.  Making a vegetable soup on a miserable day using my own carrots, runner beans, courgette and then adding onions, tomatoes, lentils and macaroni! It was really nice and made CBC say this is how Minestrone should be!

14.  Watching about 120 Lost episodes on DVD and Youtube- so nice to see Jack, Kate, Locke, Sawyer and co again and wonder about what the smoke monster was, what was down the Hatch and who The Others were!  I did this whilst making cards.

15.  Making my first skirt! SO proud of myself!!!


16.  Being a bookseller on Words on Water for 15 minutes!


There are so many, but these were some of the best!
What were your Summer highlights?

xx

Of many happy things and TARDIS Tuesday

I really like blogger posts where they list things that have made them happy or those Instagram posts where you post lots of random things from your month that you've enjoyed or made you happy. So here I am:

• My blogging friend Maricel does a blog post called TARDIS Tuesday where she either wears TARDIS blue or wears something linked to Doctor WHo- she was planning to start a link-up for this and was possibly starting this tomorrow- not sure if she is or not as she is busy but anyway, I decided to don TARDIS Blue for my concert on Saturday. This dress is from the brand Closet and was a total bargain last November. It was the perfect dress for an Autumnal concert where you had to wear colours. Very comfortable and made me happy to be wearing TARDIS blue. I also paired it with my TARDIS sign necklace and Irregular choice shoes. 

• I absolutely love modern stained glass. St Barnabas church in Dulwich village is a wonderfully built modern church and this stained glass looks amazing above an equally impressive organ. I love turning round to gaze at it.

• I went to Sadler's Wells on Friday to see Akram Khan and Suzie Guillem in Sacred Monsters.  It was really wonderful- I really like contemporary dance and what was really nice also was that the music was by one of my old bosses, Phillip Sheppard, an amazingly talented man. We met a good old friend of CBC's in Exmouth Market at an excellent restaurant called Moro.  Amazing Tapas! 

• On the way, I spotted this place called 'Free Word' -which is a cafe I believe! It has lots of books and like me, when I teach a class, it has the word of the day...

• Love this word! 

• I love olives but what I love more is olives with cheese, but even more than that, olives with cheese reduced to a really low price 39p for 100g in Waitrose and when they have already dished them out into tubs and you buy both tubs with tons of tasty olives for very little money!

• Last minute meals that turn out to really nice. Thank you to Lidl for delicious (but reasonable) Gravalax with mustard and then organic eggs with poppyseed bread. 

• We played Malcolm Arnold's Toy Symphony for the kids concert and it is scored only for strings and percussion.  Thus the wind players were enlisted to help with the toy percussion.  I literally almost knocked over 2 trumpet players and 2 desks worth of viola players in my bid to get over there first to bag the duck call. (it makes a duck noise) before anyone else. I succeeded.  I then had great fun before the concert with the conductor's son (who had also found a duck call kicking around) trying to play Beethoven's 5th symphony on the duck call. 

Listen from 5:40- it's hilarious!

• Washing up is dull right? Drying up is even worse.  So the best way to make the experience less boring and more arduous is playing Drying up Jenga to avoid having to do any drying up.  I think I managed an impressive 35 items (some are behind) as well as a full pot of cutlery/implements!

• It was wonderful to see my Dad and family at my niece's recent birthday party but my dad made me laugh as we were standing in the corridor- He said, "I'm being  a sideways Chad,". Ha, you know, Chad, the guy who pokes his nose over the wall. Mwa ha ha!

• Bear hugs. Just because. Even if he almost head-butted you with a large nose!

• Like reduced olives (often a rare occurence)- I also like reduced strawberries, raspberries and blueberries!

• Free Italian sausages in rolls at Canopy Beer's Microbrewery in Herne  Hill's official opening.  CBC enjoyed the IPA and golden wheat beer. I enjoyed the sausages, CBC enjoyed the beer. You can see what I thought of the beer. We were then invited to dinner round our friend/neighbour N's house. Very nice Chilli it was too!

• Blue skies on Saturday! Sunshine, warmth!

• There's never enough cat jumpers in the world!

• Earl grey in bed enjoying being a Librocubicularist.Particularly when said book is a vintage children's classic and the owl photobombs you. 

People in bear suits!  We played Ian Stephens' We're going on a bear hunt which is a genius piece. He tweeted about it on Saturday which was then retweeted by poet and Children's Laureate Michael Rosen to his 59,000 followers....



Carol service at my new church. Seemed remarkably early for one but actually, it has made a really good start to Advent, a fitting way to start the season- Start the season with the reason for the season.  I played flute for it,along with other musicians.  never usually played flute (apart from one version of In the Bleak mid winter) but always sang in the choir with organ/piano accompaniment- we'd rehearse and have special choir carols as well as the congregational ones, we'd wear our trad choir robes which we don't wear most of the year- it had a special feel. This was totally different- guitars, drum kit, saxophones, flutes, penny whistles and even dancers but it was still special.  Things can be different but doesn't make them any less enjoyable.

• Blogwise- I loved Gary's Pause for Advent and Carolyn's. I love taking part in this yearly!

• Love my daily Advent calendar from Compassion UK- every day you get to hear of incredible blessings children have experienced around the world through their daily advent calendar! Hope my little boy likes his Christmas present this year!

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Linking with Patti for Visible Monday

Creative Mondays with Claire Justine

and Maricel with TARDIS Tuesday (hopefully!)


xx