Saturday morning

. . . and I'm a right misery at present. After tossing and turning with tummy cramps all night, my back's gone doolally again. It will wear off in time, of course, with help from the pills, but I've cancelled today's excursion to visit family.

So I have a day with nothing planned which is just as well because I reckon I will need to sleep on and off quite a lot.

See you later . . .

Friday afternoon

Well, wasn't that just beautiful. A radiant bride in a dress that one can only dream about, a church wonderfully decorated, music of beauty to bring tears to the eyes and a quote in the sermon that was just amazing.

'Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.'

Isn't that amazing? I know an awful lot of people don't recognise a 'god' now, but even given that, so many people try to be what they are not. They try to be something different, whether it is outside pressure or inside pressure that causes it. But if everyone could acknowledge, accept and work with their own, personal strengths and try to be the best they can be with them, the world would truly be set on fire.

The difficulty is saying 'no' when people try to persuade you to be what you are not. The skill is having the personal perception to know when to say no and when to say yes.

I know I haven't got it right yet. Have you?

Friday morning

It's a bit cold at the moment. I have the back doors open to air the house as I always do in spring, summer and autumn (weather permitting) and I think I'm going to have to close them again soon as the house feels very cold indeed.

So, today! Wall to wall telly, I suspect. It will give me the ideal opportunity to get up to speed with my ironing - I usually iron and watch telly at the same time. There's this wedding happening somewhere, isn't there? That should provide a nice background and I am rather looking forward to the music during the ceremony. Oh, and seeing what The Dress and The Flowers are like, of course.

Apart from that, I have some plants to get into the garden. Last weekend dad dropped off some sunflowers (for the right hand side bed), some delphiniums (blue) for the front, because a bit of height is needed there and some cosmos which can go anywhere there's a space. And then my summer planting is more or less complete. The rosemary cuttings I took last week haven't died yet - in fact, they're not even drooping, so I'm still hoping. Also I have a bit of a nice little bush that is a sort of domed shape with attractive yellow bracts in spring so I need to get that in as well. And everything needs a bit of tidying up. I'm very bad at digging up surplus plants when they've self seeded, etc, and the middle bed just looks a bit messy really. Must get my act together! And I have just remembered, I have an oregano that I must get into the herb area and a couple of lupins too (not in the herb bed though)! I must definitely do some gardening!

Photo: The bush with the yellow thingies. Someone will know what it's called!

Thursday eveing

I'm writing this with a great sense of relaxed satisfaction, having treated myself to the DVD of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader this afternoon and watched it through this evening. I do love those Narnia books and I thoroughly enjoyed this adaptation, much more so than Prince Caspian. It felt more like the original Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I'm doing nothing now. Well, nothing that involves work anyway. Four days of sheer idleness looms before me. Behind me trails a simply lovely day - week, in fact. I wouldn't want school to be like that all the time. One needs routines and timetables. But now and again it's a delight to children and staff alike. The sight and sound of the whole school sitting in the field, waving their union flags and singing Land of Hope and Glory and God Save the Queen (twice as it wasn't loud enough the first time) brought tears to many an adult eye and, I hope, will have given the children an experience they will remember for a long time to come.

As for tomorrow, well, I will boringly be doing what at least 90% of the country will be doing and watching 'The Wedding', with all the fuss and bother that surrounds it. We were going to have a cul-de-sac party but no-one had the time and/or energy to get it organised. A shame, but we're all busy witches down here. And that wedding needs to be watched!

Happy Royal Wedding to you all!

Thursday lunchtime

Just writing this very quickly at lunch time. Today is turning out to be a lovely, lovely day with lots of fun, colour and laughter. Champagne and cake this afternoon (really lemonade and cake!)
We ought to have royal weddings more often!

Wednesday morning

I woke up with a start this morning, remembering that yesterday evening I had been boiling up a lamb bone to make a hotpot. What I couldn't remember was turning the heat off. Oh, no! So I rushed downstairs to find that I must have turned it off because there it was, fat hardened on the top ready for lifting off (which I did), with a jelly-looking stock. I'll deal with that before school and get it all into the freezer!

Today is a madly busy day. We race from one area of the curriculum to another with no time to hang around. Reading revelry, family assembly, ICT suite, library and half an hour's PPA, crowned with playground duty in the afternoon! Phew.

And then, after school, K and I go to the very last Makaton session. At least we think it is the very last session, although we're not totally sure. Whether it is or not, if it's as good as the last one, we will be happy.

Better go. I have lamb to sort out, a map to prepare, spelling homework to do and a myriad of other bits and bobs. Roll on Friday!

Photo: more flowers at Milton Keynes

Tuesday evening

And here we are at the end of the first of the three working days this week. The children have learnt about the succession (very simply), they can now colour the union flag, they can sing (sort of) the first verse of our National Anthem and they have all been crowned princes and princesses after making their own symmetrical crowns!

Tomorrow - well, tomorrow has an awful lot of pre-arranged stuff. ICT suite, library, etc, but even so it should be great!

Something to remember about today - I went into school with around 42 cupcakes and came home with none! Great!!!

Photo: rosemary for remembrance