I suppose it will lighten the Essex clay soil a very tiny bit!
Chris and Steve washed their car earlier. I, being lazy, am taking it to the valet place tomorrow at some point.
It's just as well tomorrow is downstairs cleaning day because that sand gets everywhere!
Photo of a bit of my Sunday lunch. See those dwarf beans? Yup, they are the very small first picking and they were delicious!
I really didn't do anything particularly exciting over this weekend. Spent some money (mostly on garden stuff), did some housework, made meals, knitted quite a lot (that jumper is coming on), did some exercise . . . all the usual stuff, in fact.
To me and, maybe, to other teachers, August has this dual feel to it. On one hand there's an air of almost determined laziness about it as if it would be a sin to be busy at this time. You're on holiday!!
However, on the other hand, unless one is/was the most efficient person under the sun, there's a whole long list of Things That Have To Be Done over this month, ranging from Getting The Classroom Ready to labelling books and pencils, sorting out table boxes, dealing with The Reading Corner and getting assessment records and sheets sorted and ready - and a world of stuff in between! Planning. Resources. IT stuff. And it niggles away at your brain, assuming gigantic proportions the longer you leave it all.
Or maybe that was just me!
Anyway, I recognise those feelings which probably won't ever go away completely and call them out as fake because nowadays they are! Sometimes it even works! 😉
Watering the runners this evening, I noticed that there's definitely some almost ready to pick - a couple of days or three, maybe. Not loads, but it's something.
Well, the weekend is nearly over. The weather has been variable but it has finished off very pleasant sp I'm hoping tomorrow is good.
How's it been your way?
Good night, one and all, sleep tight and sweet dreams. xx
Here in Scotland most teachers go back to school on the 12th of August (children a few days later) Already my teacher friends are talking about the dread of going back. I'm enjoying not having that feeling any more!! :-) xxx
ReplyDeleteYes, of course. Don't they break up end of June or something? Same length break, different weeks. I'm so very attuned to going back beginning of September, it sounds really odd to be back to school half way through August (it isn't really odd, just different, of course).
DeleteThis lingering niggle of I-don't-know-what-to-call-it is a bit frustrating really. xx
Yes they break up at the end of June. Traditionally so kids could help with the potato harvest or tattie howking as it was called :-) xxx
DeleteAh, so that is why. Different 'climate', different seasons. xx
DeleteDinner looks lovely. I imagine that feeling won't ever go away. Too many years of teaching for you. As a parent I always had dual feelings about the summer ending. My middle son had a lot of problems with school (He has Asperger's, diagnosed before it was considered a real thing in the schools) and really hated school. It was always a struggle. I did feel at the end of a really long summer here, that I could do with a bit of a break lol.
ReplyDeleteYup! When you have done school terms your whole life, more or less . . .
DeleteIt's too easy to forget that a lot of people find these times hard, not just the teachers. I feel for you and your son - it must have been so hard. xx
Another month for teachers and kids here. My retired teachers' group gets together on the first day back (usually first Tuesday in September) and we ring our school bells to celebrate being retired!
ReplyDeleteNow that's what I call a Good Idea! I love it! xx
DeleteI'm guessing that feeling about the summer break won't ever quite go away for you Joy........ I'm feeling a little melancholy, always do in August, and especially this year as it feels like summertime has only just got going! Ah well, that's life. Your beans look great, you just can't beat that fresh picked flavour.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
I think you are right. It's so deeply embedded in who I am now.
DeleteIt's funny; they say people get more down in the darker months what with SAD, etc,. but some people find the summer harder. As you say, that gentle melancholy that the Romantic poets used to go on about. xx
😍 x
DeleteAlison x
We’ve had torrential rain during the night and it’s clammy and drizzly this morning. I hung the final set of curtains yesterday-the 120” wide ones-and now just waiting for the blinds sometime next week. Got rid of 50 paperbacks on Saturday to a nice lady who is setting up a book swap at her work. Will put the study back into order today and see what else can go out! Catriona
ReplyDeleteGetting there - well done, you. How lovely that the paperbacks will be put to good use.
DeleteWon't it be lovely when it is finished. xx
We're almost two thirds of the way through the year and that's so surprising to me. We seemed to wait such a long time for spring and then summer sort of arrived but not quite. It's a messy year, in more ways than one.
ReplyDeleteGosh, so we are. Oh, dear, that feels ridiculous! As you say, both unreal and messy. xx
DeleteSadly, no rain here at all over the weekend, it threatened but didn't happen. Who would have thought that after the dismal Spring and early Summer I'd actually long for a bit of rain now??? Mind you, just a gentle over night rain please! ;-)
ReplyDeleteHow about swapping the mental dread of school start memory with the pleasure of going on holiday for a week instead, first half of September is usully still a good time to holiday. x
October - that's when Beth, Alex and I are off to Center Parcs for a Monday to Friday break. I'm really looking forward to it.
DeleteDefinitely gentle overnight rain . . . do you think Amazon could get us some? xx
Oh it always annoys me when people say about teachers that they work 9 - 3.30 and have super long holidays. Don't people realise the preparation work that is involved in teaching, always has been and it is only getting harder and harder with all the current rules, regulations, tests and restrictions.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right, Sue. No, people just don't realise and I think you have to have personal involvement (do it yourself of have someone close who teaches) to understand.
DeleteStill, despite all the hassles, I would never have chosen any other work. I loved teaching. xx
Tesco are starting to put the Christmas stuff out ☺..
ReplyDeleteOh, for goodness sakes!!! It ought to be illegal until after Bonfire Night. :-) xx
DeleteHaha, I'm sure Amazon would sell rain if they could at a vast profit too! I know it's a pain but I welcome the Sahara dust as free fertilizer as it's mineral rich. I look on it as Mother Earth spreading her goodies. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/concerned-saharan-dust-plume-crucial-to-ecosystem
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting, thanks, Annabeth. xx
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