Perfect Summer

It's been beautiful here recently. Long, perfect, summer days; days when the sun shines all day; days when it's still light at 10 and you can lie in the garden with a glass of wine and look up at the leaves and the sky... Knowing that it can't last forever makes it all the sweeter.

And everything is growing! My pumpkin plant is spreading its tentacles in a triffid-like way, the courgettes are getting bigger by the second, there are dozens of baby tomatoes, and the peas are flowering! It's all very exciting.

The flowers in the fields around us are gorgeous too.

 

I took this at about 6.15 on Saturday morning (it's light here well before 5 at the moment). Wild poppies and daisies and cornflowers ... My favourite colour in the crayon box when I was 6 was Cornflower Blue, so it makes me happy to finally see cornflowers growing wild.

And I think this is flax growing in this field. I am enjoying seeing the seasons change on my running route; so far, I've seen this field frozen and grey; freshly ploughed; sprouting tiny green shoots; and now covered in blue and white flowers.

 

Oh, and my parents spent this past weekend with us; it was lovely. We hung out at home on Saturday, and on Sunday the boys went to an airshow, and us girls took the train down to Brighton. We looked at pretty clothes in the lanes, and walked along the pier, and ate chips on the seafront. And ate Chinese takeaway when we got home (from the place where Ems has her Saturday night job). Delish.

I'm still working hard; lots to do before term ends on the 14th. Teaching is over, but I have an awful lot to prepare for next year, and it all has to be done as soon as possible, as other people will also be using the materials I'm working on. It's somewhat stressful but also quite enjoyable.

One more picture, this one taken in the parking lot at the climbing gym last week.

 

Sophie wants to start climbing again so we've started going to the gym again. I'm enjoying it - it feels good to work my neglected muscles again. Hope she maintains her enthusiasm. I think it'd be good if we started climbing regularly again...

Why?

Why can't we have a cool president? One with chiselled good looks, liberal (by US standards anyway) policies and lightning-fast, fly-catching reflexes? Instead, we have miserable bungling old Gordon as our morose Prime Minister, plodding along in his dour, defeatist way. He's an embarrassment.

Why is my house a mess?

Why are our courgettes thriving, while the runner bean looks more and more poorly?

Why does anyone watch Big Brother? It's just a freak show, and a boring one at that.

Why am I wasting time on the computer when I should be either sleeping or doing something productive?

Time flies

So Emily is all done with her GCSEs. She wrote her last exam yesterday, and now she's on holiday till September, when she'll start at sixth form college. The same one I teach at - though she's not taking either of the subjects I teach, so we won't intersect much. (She's going to be doing Eng Lit, Biology, Chemistry and History. Quite tough courses, but I think she'll do well.) Meanwhile, she has three months of holiday. As will Steve, after he writes his last exam on Thursday. Lucky things. I am hoping that they will put a little of their spare time to good use and turn the house into a gleaming paradise while I am at work. Like 1950s wives. It's not just a pipedream - Ems did in fact do some housework this morning, and Steve baked cupcakes, so there is hope!

Rodrigues at the Barbican

Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, and to someone who had the time and energy to upload a video from their phone, you too can see Rodrigues live at the Barbican!

He was great; he seemed frail but he sure could sing! I think he was a little bemused by the level of adulation he was getting from the crowd... Someone sitting behind us said that suddenly finding out how wildly popular he was in South Africa (and, apparently Australia and New Zealand) when he thought his album had been long forgotten must have been a bit like finding out that someone had published the poems you wrote as a teenager and they had a huge following. Disconcerting to say the least!

The concert went on a bit longer than we'd thought so we very nearly missed the last train home; as it was we had to walk from Redhill. (Could have got a cab but it was a nice night so it seemed more pleasant to walk). It was a very good evening. Oh, and we ate at Wagamama beforehand - yum!

And tomorrow it's our wedding anniversary. Twenty years! I will have been married for more than half my life. Bobby's taking the day off (well-deserved, especially considering he had to work Sunday) so we plan to have coffee somewhere in town before I go to work, and then dinner out afterwards... Bobs is going to fly his plane during the day, I think. Hope it doesn't crash; the symbolism would be unfortunate.

Fridays in London

Last Friday, I took the train in to London to see a William Blake exhibition at the Tate Britain which I'd been wanting to see for ages.. It was a lovely, leisurely day; a late start, a stroll to the gallery, picnic lunch in a park...

Tomorrow, I'm taking the train in to the city again. This time, though, I'll be attending a training day for the course I'm teaching next year. I'm looking forward to it - except that, instead of leaving at 10, I have to leave before 8, along with all the suit-clad commuters with their briefcases and laptops and newspapers. What always strikes me as weird is the way that there always seems to be at least one woman doing her make-up on the train. They seem totally unself-conscious, with all their little pots and tubes arrayed on the table in front of them. Maybe it's because of that English thing of ignoring the people around you while on public transport - perhaps they really feel as though they are actually on their own. I'm glad I'll have my iPod to distract me. I love it dearly; I'm not sure it's good for me, though. It can't be entirely healthy to revel in distancing yourself from the outer world... Healthy or not, I'm addicted, and my new favourite podcast is WNYC's Radiolab - fascinating stuff!

Hand-in Day

Today was official hand-in day: all assignments and my portfolio are now in for marking. It felt odd walking out of the library (where we handed them in) and seeing our folders sitting in a heap on someone's desk, waiting for some poor individual to go through all those thousands and thousands of words. I'm glad that individual is not me!

I'm also glad that I didn't have any work to do this past weekend, because the weather was amazing.

 

I took this picture on Sunday morning's run. It was only about 6.30 and already the sun had been up for almost two hours. Gorgeous... We went for a cycle ride in the evening, to a lake we last visited in winter. On that ride, the whole world looked grey; it was an icy, foggy morning, and we couldn't even see across the lake. There was not a glimpse of colour anywhere - just grey and black and white. Yesterday, though, the sky and the water were deep blue, the grass was bright green, there were yellow buttercups and white daisies ... it's like living in a different country, now that it's summer.

Finished!

All three of those hideous, hideous assignments are done! Each giant wodge of paper is neatly filed (oh how I love those pretty cardboard section dividers) and ready to be handed in on Monday. I hope they're all okay; I need to force myself not to re-read them or I'll start to doubt myself and re-edit them.

What will I do with all the free time that I'll have now that this work is out of the way?

I shall start off by going downstairs and tidying up a bit - we have a friend coming over for dinner tonight -

Yippee!

Killing time

I have half-an-hour or so before I need to pick my folks up from the airport. They've been in Portugal for the last couple of weeks. It'll be back to reality with a vengeance for them once their plane lands in Gatwick; it's grey and rainy and cold today. Though to be fair the weekend was gorgeous here ... We didn't make much of the weekend, though, as Bobby was working. The implementation he was dealing with has finally happened and it went well. He's very relieved, and basking in the well-deserved glory.

I went for a run this morning and enjoyed it. This came as a surprise, as every run I've been on for the last couple of weeks has been dreary and tiring, to the point where I had almost decided to find some other way to get my exercise in. I particularly enjoyed running through the graveyard today(I'd insert some pun about the quick and the dead at this stage but I can't quite figure one out.) It was beautiful, all mist and long grass and fallen grave stones. Maybe tomorrow I'll take Bobby's phone with me and take a couple of pictures. (Mine has a crappy camera to go along with the rest of its inadequate features).

Tomorrow I intend to put the finishing touches to all my assignments, and then I'll be done, done, done! Two years of hard work...seems hard to believe I'm actually almost finished... And, nice surprise, there was a letter in my pigeonhole at work on Friday; they're bumping me up another notch on the salary scale! So my salary as of September will actually be quite reasonable.

It has been lovely hanging out at home these past few days. (We're half-way into the half-term break). Is this a sign of old age, that pottering around the garden in the sun and drinking tea with the kids seems positively delightful? Used to be my idea of utter boredom...

Getting there...

We went for a walk after supper tonight. I love the long evenings; we got home after nine and it was still light. The bluebells are all gone by now but the irises are beautiful...

 

This is the sky, reflected in the water...

 

We are very lucky to live somewhere so beautiful. The only snag is that it's so far away from South Africa. We have been researching flights to SA - thinking of a trip either this summer, or maybe at Christmas time - but it's so damn expensive I'm not sure we can swing it. And I just had a look at the cost of flights in February (thinking they'd be a lot cheaper as it's not a peak time of year for travel)but even they're over £500 each. (Multiply by about 1.5 for US dollars; by 13 for rands...) Ugh. I got all excited when I found cheap fares advertised through Air Afrikiyah (Libya's airline) but when I phoned the travel agency it was one of those cheat fares where they don't include the taxes in the quote, so it was no cheaper than any other airline. Plus, it would have meant we had to spend an entire day and an entire night in Tripoli airport. I would do it for bargain price fare but given that it's not actually a bargain price fare it doesn't seem appealing.

In other, happier, news, I am starting to see light at the end of my PGCE tunnel. I finished off one of my assignments today; my aim is to have the others finished by the end of the week. And then it'll be half-term - a whole week of freedom! Handing-in day is June 1st; I'm trying to avoid having yet another holiday ruined by having to slog away at assigments.

Slug Pub

Our morning inspection of the veggie patch revealed a slime trail and two lettuce plants reduced to stalks.

Slugs!

Something had to be done, so we have constructed a slug pub. Also known as a beer trap. Carling lager; the can says "refreshment for all" and let's hope that includes slugs.

In other news, the students wrote their Psychology exam today. It seemed to go well; we'll have to wait till August when the results come out before we know for sure, though. Sociology on Monday; let's hope that they are all spending their weekend revising rather than socialising.

And I finished one of my assignments; one down, two to go! It's going to be an amazing feeling when I'm finally done.

baby plants

I am besotted with my baby plantlets.

I check on them as soon as I get home from work; yesterday, I fed the tomatoes before I fed the children. (The children find these new priorities distressing.)

I am terrified that the slugs will destroy them (plants, not children); I have still not quite got over last year's Courgette Massacre. One day, my plants were flowering; the next day, they were slug-munched stumps. Seriously. Eaten right through.

We've planted tomatoes, lettuce, spring onions, beetroot, mange tout, peppers, a pumpkin, and some courgettes. And some baby corn. And some basil. The thyme and the mint survived the winter and are looking perky again. So far, nothing has been eaten - the only failure (so far) is the carrots. They haven't yet come up, and we are starting to suspect that they won't. Perhaps we should plant some more...

Place marker...

Time is short as usual. But I want to be able to remember what we've up been up to recently, so, quickly -

I've finished with the observations for my PGCE. One last Tuesday, one yesterday. Both went very well, all boxes ticked (and that's a lot of boxes, trust me), so I've officially passed the practical part of my course. Now I just have to hand in a wodge of assignments. June 1st is D Day. Aaargh.

Am wrestling with forms for Steve's student loan. Why oh why am I not better at filing official documents? I am definitely losing the plot a bit; keep tracking down documents and then re-losing them. Aaargh.

Am probably going to be teaching across two faculties next year. Aaargh.

Am feeling ill and tired. Probably not swine flu, more likely an allergic reaction to the fact that I have to interact with AndyPandy, my PGCE supervisor, tonight. And have to drive to bloody Weybridge in order to do so. Aaargh.

On the plus side, we spent a beautiful sunny Saturday with my folks in Beccles. First time in ages we've had a whole day of R&R. It was lovely. And we've planted some tomato plants, some carrots, and a solitary runner bean. Hope they don't die, we are quite besotted with them. Also, went for a really nice run on Monday morning. Who'd have thought I'd ever say "nice" and "run" in the same sentence??

Unexpected enjoyment

Our garden has been completely and utterly neglected for lo these many months, and it has been annoying all of us, in a low-key sort of way. We keep making vague noises about sorting it out, and never get around to it. Rather pathetic of us, seeing as our garden is a teeny tiny patch anyway! This afternoon, though - a beautiful sunny afternoon, by the way - the kids offered to tackle the weediest, biggest flowerbed if we could get buy some flowers to plant in it. So Bobby and I went down the road to the garden centre and bought some marigolds and some begonias and some lobelias, and a lavender bush, and when we got home the kids had indeed made substantial inroads on the weeds. Between the five of us, we finished weeding the disaster zone, did some pruning, planted out the baby plants, and put some veggie seeds into seed trays. And everyone enjoyed it, and the barbeque that followed. Even Roly; he loves it when everyone is out in the garden with him. Odd how the nicest family times happen by accident.