Chamomile Lawn

The chamomile arrived in half term, but due to lack of time I only got around to planting it yesterday. This is the ground prepared last week-I have endlessly dug over, added compost, removed stones, and last week added a lovely layer of topsoil and some more compost. I dug a trench around it mainly to mark the area but hopefully it will stop the snails munching away on my little plants.
This is the chamomile I had left over-I think I will fit it into the gaps, or I might do a pot of it.

The information with the plants recommended planting them at about six inch spacing. I did this, then watered them in carefully. It is supposed to take about two weeks for them to settle in, then they will start growing and spreading out to fill the gaps. After I watered them, it started to rain-and rained for the rest of the day, all last night, and up until lunchtime today so I hope they are not too drowned.
I think I will gradually fill the trench around them with sand, then gravel or pebbles of some sort and maybe plant some of those ice plant type plants-their name escapes me at the moment. I have now also bought a bamboo-to start my dream of having a screen between us and upstairs. It is a lovely plant-like a small tree!
Cassie started complaining yesterday-so we tried the normal things-a couple of treats-some biscuits, some food, a fuss-but no-I think she was telling us off because it was raining! (Lily also does this-as if we can stop it!) In the end she just gave up and went out anyway. She spent quite some time sheltering in the empty compost bin, then just got soaked looking for frogs!

Little Paintings and Links-PSE and Bamboo Pens!

I put away the computer today, for at least three hours! I have had these three little canvasses for a while now, planning to do some little faces on them.

I love getting the children in my class to make faces, showing the expressions of the characters in stories we are reading. It is of course educational, but also really funny. They look so sweet doing little grumpy faces, in fact one of them was doing it so well I was actually worried about her for a second! These three all look a bit grumpy too.

I have a cardboard tube on the table which has not yet been put into the recycling, or my growing bag of stuff for school. I put the lens into it to take these, and like the effect.

Bamboo Pen graphics tablet. You can get a pen and touch one, but it is more expensive and I am finding using the mouse pad on my laptop, in conjunction with the pen, fine. It is very easy to use and to set up.

Kim Klassen-the first course I did was by her, and was really good.

Digital Expressions by Susan Tuttle. It comes with a CD with a small but good selection of textures, photos and brushes and has lots of good ideas. I am not sure if I would have understood it without the Kim Klassen class, as that covers the basics of photoshop elements and once you have that then you can play! The book does explain things very well though.