Recently in Greenwich Park

Roses

It is coming to the rose time of year and some of my class are bringing me roses in the afternoon. A couple with a delicious scent. 

Alphabet of April and May

 Allotment

 Butterfly

Bluebell

  

Boat

Cat

 Chairs

 Castles

 Drawing 

 Doll 

 Daffodils

 Daleks

Egg

 Forsythia

Predator, Arco Beck, Viking Sea

I woke up at seven this morning, which is when I had set the alarm, and had no idea what day it was, and a terrible fear that it might be a week day, which, if it was, meant I was very late waking up. Reassured that it was Saturday, I lay there for another half an hour before getting up to start a busy day of report writing. I didn't get quite as far as I had hoped, but I did quite a lot, and at least I started them, always the worst part. I had a few breaks, to take Andy to the foot doctor in Woolwich, to pop to the charity shop, and to potter around the internet. I ended up joining a website called Marine Traffic, where you can create your own fleets, and monitor shipping traffic around the world. I did this because I wanted to upload a picture of the Arco Beck, a dredger we saw on the Medway a couple of weeks ago, when we went to Upnor for lunch with my Mum and brother. Having read the many rules about the photos you upload, I don't expect they will let mine in, but it was worth a try. I cannot make head nor tail of how the website works. I have created a fleet with one ship in it, but how you view that ship's travels I have no idea. The map is covered with a grid of numbers (may be map references, may be ships-haven't looked too closely, and I don't know how to just show my (if only!) ship. Anyway, all that waffle is because this is a boat related post. 

When we went to Upnor, the carpark at the top of the High Street was full so we went to another part of it and parked briefly. I took this picture there, because I liked the rustiness and the lettering.

We went back to the carpark and a space had appeared. At the bottom of the High Street we saw this rusty ship. I found out today that it is a suction dredger, which would explain the weird machinery on board.

Behind the ship, you can see the pump house where my brother is working, helping his friend convert it into a distillery. After lunch we had a tour and saw the latest developments, explained to us by his colleague Abbi, the distiller. A massive shiny distilling system arrived from China and has been installed so they are a bit nearer to opening.

On Thursday, Andy sent me a text with news of a giant boat which would be in Greenwich that evening for a naming ceremony. I love seeing these boats, so, after voting, we went down for a look. It took a while to find parking, and in our meanderings we found this face.

This is Andy's photo. He managed to get the whole ship, which I failed to do. 

It is as if a ten storey building has plonked itself on the Thames. Massive!

The lifeboats are pretty big. 

Canary Wharf in the background. 

My zoom lens captures some staff chilling. 

I was thinking of that picture with a man in lots of different poses in a grid form when I took the picture below. Found it after googling variations on 'man in different positions in boxes tate'. It is by Bruce McClean. It is called 'Plinths' and is a comment on the work of Henry Moore. 

All the time we were looking at the ship, the sky was putting on a beautiful display of soft evening clouds and sunset.

Love is in the Air

The beautiful Wood Pigeons, who like to sit on the fence at the end of the garden, treated us to a display of what can be termed 'mating' yesterday. We were watching them touching beaks in a sweet way and then they were off. A few seconds later and they were walking along then flying off to a higher place. There is a number three pigeon who is trying to muscle in on the lovebirds, but he wasn't there yesterday. When I used to do Forest School, there was a nesting pair of these birds in one of the trees and we could see the babies when they hatched. I wonder where these two will nest?

We also have a squirrel visiting at the moment, as well as the foxes who pass this way at night. I never manage to get pictures of these animals as they are too quick. I do love having a garden. A little wildlife haven from the world.

All Work and No Play and a Yellow Spider on a Pink Tulip

The title explains why I have not found any time, or even inclination for blogging. School work has, once again, taken over my life. I have been humming and haahing over what to do next year. If they offer me a job at my current school, should I take it? It is the sensible option. My pension would start to be paid again, I would get paid in holidays and I would only be working within walking distance of home. However, I would be signing myself over to a life of being constantly not good enough, having no time to do anything other than work, and having no energy to do anything else anyway. Which sums up the last year, and especially the last few weeks. This weekend is a bank holiday. So far I have spent the majority of it working. Yesterday I worked until midnight finishing the lastest batch of adding stuff to the children's learning journeys. These books are a lovely thing, but a nightmare to keep up with, and it doesn't help that there are only two printers at work that I can use, (I don't have one in my room) one of which, in the staff room is always needing toner, ink and paper, and the other of which is right up the top of the school (four floor Victorian building) and never has paper. I take my own, and often, before I can print anything, everyone else's work comes out as soon as I turn it on. Work they have sent but didn't bother to collect. This may sound petty but it is a significant pain when a lot of my displays and learning journey work is photos. Anyway, moan over, I have decided that I am going to carry on with the supply next year, but go back to mainly daily with maybe some PPA cover. I would get paid almost the same as I do now, except I would not be working evenings, weekends and holidays for nothing.

Right, moan over. I just went into the garden to have a look at the latest tulips to bloom and found this lovely spider. She did a little dance for me as I took photos. I think she was actually threatening me, but she looked like she was dancing! There are lots of greenfly on the tulips so maybe the spider appeared to eat those. I saw a similar spider a few years ago in Andy's brother's garden. (Andy's cousin informed me in the comments that it is a female common crab spider)

 Said tulips. 

Love the colour combination of these flowers.