It's been a long year...

With 6 weeks to go to the end of term I've been taking stock of the events of the last academic year. 

From the autumn term when I still felt sad about leaving friends 

and colleagues...

...but excited too about the new developments in my life and career.

To the cold winter when although things were going well I still felt daunted by the task ahead of me, 

a little frozen in time.

Bu then there were signs of spring and I felt my confidence, 

in me, begin to grow;

 with support from others who believe in me and the things I wish to achieve...

...before finally, this term, feeling like the blue sky is starting to appear and I feel like this is a path I was always meant to tread...

...and that although I have only left a faint trail...

...I hope that over time, it will be become clearer for others to see, 

and for them to follow...

...until it is no longer a trail, but a road well travelled...

Endless holidays....

It feels like a summer holiday should, warm and sunny(well mostly) and with seemingly endless time to spend together, mainly outdoors, enjoying whatever experiences come our way. So far this summer we have...

...walked amongst thousands of tiny frogs, trying not to step on them or harm them with our 3 and 4 year old boundless enthusiasm!!

We worked together to create a den, so involved in the building we only had a few minutes to play inside...

Then we visited Cannock chase and found a whole village of dens that somebody had made, but somehow they didn't have the same attraction as our self built home!

We've flown kites at the seaside...

...and rescued a bee that got caught in our conservatory overnight and needed a honey reviver, watching fascinated as it drank through its proboscis.

We've spent hours playing pooh sticks...

...and several more sliding down this bank, until most of it ended up in our shorts!!!

But most of all we've spent time with people we love, enjoying life...

...gaining memories to treasure forever.

Planting for the future...

Personally I'm a winter girl but professionally I love this time of year.

Most of the children I work with will have been having sessions for nearly twelve months. We will have spent weeks weeding, preparing the soil and  mulling things over during the colder months and then in some cases, but not all, started to make plans for the future; thinking of practical or beautiful things that they want to bring into their lives.

Then we will have spent time sowing seeds or planting tubers and cared for their plants over the unusually early hot and dry spell. Later watching in amazement as their seedlings have enjoyed the recent rain and really started to get their roots down into the warmer soil.

And now those children are starting to see how they can change their worlds:

We've had things to eat:

 

And beautiful flowers that "Are really cool!"

Sometimes that one achievement is enough but for others they've tasted success and it leads to a whole new session of planting for the future...



1st September 2010

Welcome to a year in the wildlife of my family!!

After a long summer holiday which involved, amongst others, listening for wild boar in the woods, hunting for water voles in the pouring rain and watching merlins chase above us in the peak district, its the final day of the summer break and we're contenting ourselves with the nature in our back garden...

Early breakfast to get us back into the routine!!! and we get a great show of the house martins skimming the roof tops. It was a cold night again last night, so the children get a fantastic view and the air is filled with the calls of the birds and the "Wow's" and "Wooo's" of my two wishing they could be up there with them.

Lunch in the garden and we're watching the butterflies and hoverflies get their lunch too. Whilst we enjoy cheese and ham rolls they are lunching on verbena, which is in full flower, and getting a little taster of the sedum on which the buds are just beginning to break. There is a persistent painted lady, maybe one of the ones Cj hatched earlier in the year, and it doesn't leave for the whole hour we are sitting there. The children are fascinated by its eyes "they're freaky" and its proboscis, watching it dip in and out of the flowers. Cj wants to know how the pollen creates seeds, she already knows the stigma and stamen, so we get the books out and look at pictures of dissected flowers and ovaries, with her comparing them to the flowers in front of us. We are also lucky and get a small copper join us for lunch, a first in our garden, and it is truly beautiful in the summer sunshine.

The next find is not a new addition but a plentiful one, as it seems to have been a record ladybird year with the children finding one on nearly every plant in the garden and almost as many pupae waiting to hatch. Wh loves the tickly feeling they create walking across his fingers and keeps trying to persuade them onto his hand, not sure they like the taste of cheese tho, unlike the wasp which keeps returning to rest on WH's discarded cheddar!!!

A little later whilst i'm cooking there is a yell from the garden and when I head out to investigate the children are captivated by the collection of butterflies on the gable end of the house enjoying the warmth of the evening sun. There are 8, one each of small tortoiseshell, peacock and red admiral, but the others refusing to open their wings to give us a recognisable view. They seem happy to stay and I have to call the children in several times to eat before they are prepared to leave the butterflies to their sunbathing, maybe they all feel its the last of the summer...