I'm back!

Well at last the term and school year have finished, my lack of posting/blogging has been because I was making a sampler for my Head of English who is leaving us and going to have a year off. Why? just because having been a teacher since the early '80's she never had the chance of a "gap year", so she plans to take some holidays. I filled her sampler with her achievements and hobbies as well as the English Department. Jane loved it and is really looking forward to her break.
Back soon.
Jane

Pasties and Holidays

Another month has flown by! Em made Ham and Cheese pasties, delicious! But the dairy free homemade pastry was a disaster so she had to make them with bought pastry that she couldn't eat. Em also made a salad which had to be high in protein and vitamins; she used lettuce, anchovies, sundried tomatoes, smoked salmon, cashew nuts, raisins and olives with a dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We had it with new potaoes for our evening meal and it was delicious (just a bit on the salty side). With the Rangers/Girl Guides we went to visit our local RSPB reserve and spent the evening pond dipping and looking at moths. With the pond dipping each team of four had to see how many species they could find. In our tray there are 16 species! This week was half term which we spent in the Cotwolds. We stayed in a National Trust property on the edge of the Lodge Park & Sherborne Estate. It was a very peaceful place to stay, we had a comfortable two bedroom lodge cottage with beautiful views across open countryside in front of the property. Blue Tits were nesting in the cottage wall, chaffinches, greenfinches and blackbirds nesting in the hedges and deer walking in the fields down to the woods. We visited The Cotswold Wildlife Park which was brilliant, Cheltenham, Upton House and Gardens (N.T.), Burford, Bourton on the Water, Stow in the Wold, Cirencester and Bibury. Bibury is very picturesque, like Stow and Bourton, with a stream full of trout and a row of beautiful stone cottages and busy with tourists during the day but peaceful and lovely in the evening which was when we visited. The lanes back to the cottage were festooned with blossom and the occasional baby rabbit dashed away into the long grass. We also saw a pair of Partridge (Mr & Mrs) crossing the lane. Back to school on Monday! I hope you have a good week. Jane x

Time flies when you are having fun!

Goodness where has the time gone! Easter was yesterday.... wasn't it? I have been busy cross stitching for a swap with a fellow guider, it is to commemorate the centenary/100 years of Girlguiding and she is making a quilt of squares which 100 of us have decorated. Em has been busy in food tech creating salads this one was made using cheezley, continental lettuce, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, apricots and cashew nuts dressed with a mix of Balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was delicious and disappeared very quickly.
Last weekend - 1st May was a holiday on the Monday, so the Guides, Rangers, Scouts and Explorers were taking part in a joint camp at the local National Trust House - Petworth Park.
The Saturday was lovely bright, dry and occasionally sunny with lots of activities to do. Zorbing, Kayaking, rafting, zipwire and craft activities. on the Sunday it poured with rain but there was stillplenty to do; rock climbing, abseiling, zip wire, rafting, Kayaking, drumming, glass engraving, sweet making, candle making, decorating pencil cases with fabric pens, pyrography and Radio shack. The girls had a wonderful time and went home tired and happy on the Monday.
At the moment I am recovering from a nasty throat infection which left me without a voice yesterday. :-)
Hope you have a good week Jane x

Easter Holidays and Happy Easter wishes

Hoorah! the holidays have begun, so we are busy with the family but looking forward to the lazy mornings. I have been busy with Guides/Rangers and working towards a camp holiday in May. Em has been busy trying out recipes and made a Thai Curry rice with tofu. Without the tofu it was a lovely tasty dish :-) As we will be busy for the next few days I'll wish you Happy Easter and hopefully get back to blogging during the holidays. Jane

Performance

Last Wednesday Em did her star turn at Guides in the talent show, and performed her own composition "Rocking the Souls" on her electric Guitar. It sounded great, the other girls also took their star turn and performed skipping rhythms, Dance, Poetry reading, Singing, Jokes and finally the senior guides sang "on top of Spaghetti" to the Tune of "On Top of Old Smokey" It was a brilliant evening which we all enjoyed.

On Monday this week the English department went to see the Poetry Show which was a performance for GCSE students travelling around the local theatres. It was a presentation of the poems from the AQA Anthology and Heaney & Clarke or Duffy & Armitage. The show appealed to the students and had quite a bit of humour in it, certainly it was worth every penny of the ticket price.

My present knitting project is a Ranger Doll for Em as we are hoping to start the new Unit after Easter. The pattern is Jean Greenhowe's Mascot Doll booklet - Guide which I adapt with colours to fit the doll I'm making. Jane x

Half Term

It came and went with amazing speed and yet we didn't get as much done as we'd hoped. We visited Ali and stayed overnight. We did go up to London for a day but it rained constantly and the whole world had decided to go to The Natural History Museum! The queues were horrendous so we tried the V & A but that only really appealed to me. Later we went to China Town for a meal and then we watched a traditional Chinese dragon dance performed on the street in the pouring rain. The dancers were accompanied by a band of drummers and other muscians. It was amazing and we loved it. The crowds loved it too. Unfortunately walking round London Tony twisted/pulled muscles in his foot and was unable to do much walking for the rest of the week. So on Friday my parents came for the day to visit and we went for a walk along the harbour front at Littlehampton. The photo shows blue skies and sunshine but behind us was a sky that was almost black in colour. We managed to get back to the car before it began to rain. On Sunday it was Girl Guides Thinking Day Celebration so our local Girl Guiding area held a procession. All the girls from the youngest Rainbows through to the older Rangers, Leaders and Trefoil Guild members attended. We carried all the unit flags through the town to the church. It was an impressive site as we snaked our way up through the streets despite the rain.

Stitching and a Footplate Ride

On Saturday I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Brighton with two friends and we had a lovely time. We parked at the back of Brighton and walked through what my friend described as the hippy lanes. I have been before but it was a very long time ago. We found some beautiful shops selling jewellery, fabrics, paper, beads, clothes and bags. Heaven! We crossed the main road and wandered down through the real Lanes and drooled over more jewellery and food and finally got to the Brighton Centre. The show was great and mostly had what we were looking for, my friends wanted wool and I wanted cross stitch supplies. Has anyone noticed how gradually the nations love affair with cross stitch seems to be fading? Or perhaps it was that what I was looking for just wasn't at the show. There were kits, aida and some buttons, but very few books. I am beginning to wonder if I will have to go to London in March to find the little charms and bell pull hangers I am looking for. I could buy it off the web, but its nice to go and find the things you are looking for. Later in the day we walked back to the car retracing our steps from our morning route and found some more lovely things to buy.
On Sunday I went on a steam footplate experience ride with the Mid Hampshire Railway - Watercress Line. It's ok if you think I am a bit weird, at school this week I mentioned it a couple of times and then gave up. I got very bemused looks and I have the distinct impression they thought I was bonkers! If you are interested I rode on a GWR 5224 tank engine which belongs to the Waterman Railway Heritage Trust. It was a fantastic feeling and fascinating to watch the Fireman and Driver at work. They were both very friendly. We chatted about driving the engine and the line. The gradient is 1 in 60 from Alton to Fourmarks and the steepest that an engine can manage is 1 in 45 on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Tony is more interested in electric and diesel engines, not steam. So he and Em enjoyed the ride in the carriages behind.

Today at school was Hearts for Haiti and the students brought in £1 or £2 and in return were allowed to wear home clothes. They were given a little packet of love hearts - yum! I have saved a couple for Tony as the staff were also given a packet each. It is also the start of half-term yipee! A whole week of fun and Tony is on holiday as well. I have finally finished my purple scarf mentioned in the previous post it is lovely and long. I used two balls of 4ply but I knitted the scarf using two strands of the yarn to make it double thickness. Happy Valentines Day for Sunday. Love Jane x