There is a strange bright light in the sky this afternoon.
People are walking around without umbrellas and waterproof jackets.
The rivers of water have stopped coursing down the sides of the roads and puddles are vanishing.
My webbed feet are subsiding a little…
What could it be? Oh yes… I remember now…
RAIN DOMINATED WEEK – GROWING WEBBED FEET
Coming from Scotland you’d think I’d be used to rain, because it certainly rains a lot there, but after years of living in the south of England I have become accustomed to a slightly drier climate.
This week it has poured every day, sometimes torrentially, although there have been occasional bright breaks where the sun has been glimpsed, and wearing raincoats and waterproof footwear has become the order of the day.
It seems that since the hosepipe ban came into force at the beginning of April for parts of the south and east of England, we’ve had more rain than in the whole of the previous 12 months!
freefoto.com
For more Six Word Saturday participants have a look at Cate’s blog, Show My Face.
My mum bought a bunch of ‘tropical’ flowers from her local supermarket and it had this unusual red flower in it. We’d never seen one like it before and have no idea what it is, or where it would naturally grow.
Can anyone help?
This week’s theme for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is Sun.
I couldn’t decide which of these two photos to use, so have used both. We were at the coast last weekend and, despite weather forecasts of rain, rain and more rain, we had lots of sunshine so I was able to take a few shots for this week’s challenge.
The first photo is taken facing into the sun and I like the way the sea is shimmering with reflected light – you can see it better if you click on the photo for a closer look. The second one is the sun reflecting on the pebbles as a wave receded from the shore.
photograph © iusedtobeindecisive
photograph © iusedtobeindecisive
This post is for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge. Click on the link for other bloggers’ photos on the subject.
CONSTRUCTION WORK OUTSIDE MY CLASSROOM WINDOW
The diggers and trucks moved in during the Easter break to start work on alterations to the school and grounds so there’s lots of activity going on just a few feet from my classroom window. Of course, most of the children would rather be watching that than me!
For more Six Word Saturday participants have a look at Cate’s blog, Show My Face.
April is poetry month. There are lots of blogs where people have written their own poetry (some on a daily basis!) in celebration of that fact, but this is not one of them. I’ve never really been great at writing it, so I have tended to steer clear. My poetry writing standard is something along the lines of -
I’ve never seen a purple cow
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you, anyhow
I’d rather see than be one.
I’ve known The Purple Cow for ever, it seems, and I’ve just done a quick Google search to find out that the author was Gelett Burgess who wrote it in 1895 – you learn something new every day – I thought it was something from the 1960′s and not anything by an ‘official’ poet. Anyway, that’s about the standard that I could probably manage.
Being unable, or reluctant, to write poetry doesn’t mean that I don’t like it, in fact I like some of it quite a lot, and enjoy using it in my teaching. I enjoyed some of the poetry we did at school (way back in the olden days), and as long as it had a good story and rhythm with lots of rhyming words, then I enjoyed it. My particular favourite was The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Over the years I have made several attempts to learn it off by heart, but have never managed to get beyond a few verses! We were doing a lot of poetry work at school recently and so I bought myself a copy of The Nation’s Favourite Poems, and there, at number 2 on the list, is The Lady of Shallott, so it seems I’m not alone in liking it!
The Nation’s Favourite Poems is a great collection and is well worth a look if you get the chance – lots of familiar ones there I expect. In at number 45 on the list is The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear – that brings back many memories, as does Please Mrs Butler by Allan Ahlberg which is number 40. The Owl and the Pussycat I remember from childhood days, and Please Mrs Butler I think I first came across when I had started teaching and it makes me smile every time I read it.
It would be good to be able to round off this post with a little ditty, or limerick, that I had composed especially for the occasion but, as that won’t be happening, I will finish with the first verse of The Lady of Shalott:
On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro’ the field the road runs by
To many towered Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below;
The island of Shalott
Strong rhythm, lots of rhyming words and the promise of a good story…. perfect.
This week’s theme for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is ‘Two Subjects’.
This is a photo I took quite a few years ago, and have already used on my blog, but it definitely has two subjects. The first subject is my dog – nearly 16 years old now and doing very well. The second subject is the yellow and blue ‘squeaky’ ball which she was given about 10 years ago, I think, and has been one of the best toys she’s ever had. She LOVES it because when she bites it it has a loud squeak. I don’t think the neighbours love it though!
She still has the ball, but every time I tried to take a photo of her with it she got up and wandered off. The blue pattern has worn off now, but it still squeaks just as loudly as ever.
photograph © iusedtobeindecisive
This post is for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge.
MY HEAD IS LIKE A SIEVE
(sometimes)
Despite leaving myself notes (on the fridge, by the phone, stuck to my laptop) and making lists, things slip my mind. Nothing terribly important, but annoying all the same.
I leave things right by the front door so that I remember to take them with me when I go out – and then step over them as I go, leaving empty handed.
I like to imagine it’s because my head is so full of important, life changing thoughts/ideas/inventions/cures for the common cold etc that it has no room for the little things – but I think I’m grasping at straws there!
Is it just me?
For more Six Word Saturday participants have a look at Cate’s blog, Show My Face.
The ‘people’ at WordPress are always coming up with something to ‘improve’ our blogging experience. I was happy enough with it as it was when I started two years ago, but I have to say that the latest development, on the Stats page, is quite interesting. Now, instead of just being able to see how many visitors my blog has had, I can see where in the world they come from – not in detail, just in general.
The darker the colour, the greater the number of visitors. It’s hard to tell, but the UK is the darkest colour, closely followed by the US. It’s fascinating to think that you have come from all corners (well, almost) of the world to visit me. The map isn’t cumulative so this is where people came from yesterday – today might be different!
Where are you from?
This week’s theme for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is ‘journey’.
I took this photo in Itasca State Park, Minnesota. This is Lake Itasca and the post marks the start of the journey of the Mississippi river to the Gulf of Mexico.
The inscription on the post reads ‘Here 1475ft above the ocean the mighty Mississippi begins to flow on its winding way 2552 miles to the Gulf of Mexico’.
photograph © iusedtobeindecisive
This post is for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge.
