OhgoodnessIammuchtoobusy.
Huge quantities of marking at the moment; plus visiting my Dad in hospital. My week goes:
Sunday: take my Mum to church; visit my Dad in afternoon; have Mum and Daughter 1 and SIL to meal in evening with rest of family and then marking/preparation.
I work full-time during the week but in the evenings:
Monday: marking/preparation
Tuesday: teach evening class and then marking/preparation
Wednesday: sing in choir and then… as above
Thursday: take Mum to visit Dad and then…
Friday: take Mum to visit Dad.
On Saturday mornings, I always take Mum out for a little expedition, and then we visit Dad in the afternoon.
And I do spend some time with my dear husband and lovely offspring. And I dust, and so on. Iron. Cook. That kind of thing.
Doesn’t leave much time for writing Christmas cards and letters. As for shopping… and blogging…
So I’m behind with my blog-reading/commenting.
However, on a brighter note, I’ve won a competition! No talent required – it was a prize draw - a blog prize draw. Kirsty from Two Lime Leaves -http://twolimeleaves.blogspot.com/ - made some lovely Christmas decorations and I’ve got one! What fun.
And – even better – Daughter 1 has got a new job – which she needs. She’s a trainee archivist, and when her previous job came to an end (it was a fixed-term one) some weeks ago, there were no archive posts to apply for. She’s been temping as a secretary, but this job sounds very suitable. It’s only till May, but still, it’s fine for now.
So there. I feel cheerier than of late. And we’ve had no frost to speak of yet so there are still flowers – like this fuchsia – blooming in the garden.
Our students have been doing assessments – textual analysis. One was of a poem in which oystercatchers fuss round rocks, crying “Weep! Weep!”
Oystercatchers are birds, by the way (not sure if they have non-British cousins, and I don’t know whether they actually eat oysters. Certainly not exclusively). Our students hadn’t, on the whole, heard of them.
The most interesting guess by a student was that oystercatchers are like clams, and they run around the beach, catching oysters.
Running clams… hmm. And indeed, oysters pelting away across the sand…
I seem to recall an Edward Lear poem with 'oysters hand in hand'??
ReplyDeleteOr am I mistaken? Was it someone else.
The Owl & the Pussycat is my favourite Lear poem, & I have always been meaning to make a quilt of it.
I love that Fuschia.
Oystercatchers don't eat oysters though they do appear to eat molluscs in general.
ReplyDeleteAnother gardening coincidence here...remember the agapanthus? Well, guess what - we have exactly the same Fuschia in a hanging basket outside the kitchen window. My SIL gave it to me a few years ago for Christmas and it has lived, died, lived and died a few times, until last year I finally resurrected it in new soil and have been watering it diligently, and am currently blessed with masses of flowers.
ReplyDeleteThe 'oyster hunt' sounds like something out of Disney! Very funny.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful fuschia! With a schedule like yours it's a miracle you find time to blog! Glad you do....
ReplyDelete