Thursday, December 07, 2006

Busy blog


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…

5 comments:

  1. I seem to recall an Edward Lear poem with 'oysters hand in hand'??

    Or 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.

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  2. Another 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.

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  3. The 'oyster hunt' sounds like something out of Disney! Very funny.

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  4. Beautiful fuschia! With a schedule like yours it's a miracle you find time to blog! Glad you do....

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