watching the ships roll in

I can find no more reasons to avoid doing today's marking.

Damn.

what it don't get I can't use

Peter
Originally uploaded by etcher67

For three weeks we forgot to do the Lottery. We forgot the bit when we promise ourselves that we don't really think we will win, the bit where don't win but we joke that we will definitely win next week, and the bit where we are secretly disappointed that we didn't win because actually we kind of hoped prayed dreamed a little bit that we might .

Back to work now.

I bow to public pressure

seed
Originally uploaded by etcher67

plant

My seeds are up.

It is exciting.

labour and wait*

another ex bush
Originally uploaded by etcher67

I have slain the bush! (Should that be slayed?) It is an ex bush.

Do not mourn the bush, for it was dull and full of black fly and flowered for only ten minutes. Also while I was at the garden centre buying compost and stuff I accidentally bought a blackcurrant bush, which will keep the perchless sparrows very happy. I might even get a blackcurrant myself if I'm very lucky.

I'm quite excited about the blackcurrant bush.

The place where the old bush was is now going to be a vegetable patch. It is a bit small, so I plan to use the principles of square foot gardening, by which I mean I have bought a book about it and shall ignore nearly everything it says except for the bit about planting things closer together than normal. I have even drawn a plan and coloured it in with felt tips; for I am south east London's answer to Monty Don; only with straighter, redder hair.

* This is what gardening is all about, plus it is the name of a quite brilliant shop in East London which I urge you to visit for the sole purpose of buying me EVERYTHING. Thanks.

talk to me

I stalked a lady around Marks and Spencer today because I liked her jumper, and thought I recognised the pattern. In the end I managed to admire it out loud and we stood and had a little conversation about knitting and yarn and the jumper.

I like random conversations, there should be more of them.

there there

sh
Originally uploaded by etcher67

I am seasonally confused, so I have (finally) pulled down the large cupboard in the corner of my bathroom. As usual this proved more complicated than I imagined it would be, as the switch for the (long gone) immersion heater still seems to be there. I have no idea whether it's live or not, (probably not: what would it be attached to?) but decided that today was not the day to explore.

I need a builder.

I can't stand up

It is the holidays at long last. Marvellous.

Today I foolishly forgot that I was a middle aged woman for a brief moment and played stick-in-the-mud with my class in the warm afternoon sun. This was brilliant until I fell over; resulting in a loud bang and an impressive set of grazes. I had forgotten how much falling over at speed hurts (the relative speed of a 40yr old, though there's a lot more mass to test gravity than there used to be) and nowadays one cannot burst into dramatic tears* and be half carried limping to the first-aid room, you just have to sit on the floor for a moment and feel like a bit of a twat. The kids were great though: they pointed and laughed. Bless 'em.

Our school is now officially in special measures. Um, hooray; or something**.

*dunno why really, I do dramatic tears on a fairly regular basis to be honest.
** something more like 'Oh: shiiit'.