Rambling long post with pretty pictures, great photos, a book recommendation and a song I love!

All the comments on my last post made me laugh and smile, and feel happy to have such lovely and kind blog friends! The bears say 'Hi'-they and I have calmed down slightly now.
The children came in yesterday, and almost as soon as they did, one of them was sick on the carpet, vinyl, sink, silly cupboard lock and taps! Poor girl-she is on the autistic spectrum, and was terrified of the new school, and it could not even be mentioned to her without causing a massive panic. She was in such a state when she first came in, crying and scared, that no wonder she was sick. She went off with her Mum for a while, to take her older sister to school, and when she came back was much better, and today pretty much fine. As with everything, it is often the thought of what is about to happen, rather than the actual event which is far more scary. I hoped it would be like this for her, that all the familiar faces and things would be far more important than the location.

The playground is huge! It is about three times bigger than our much reduced old one, and we actually went out quite a bit today. It was lovely to see the kids using so much space, and to be able to have bikes, parachute games and other things going on at once!

After yesterday with the children, it was easy to see where the problem areas of the classroom were, so I totally rearranged it last night, with the help of the lovely cleaning lady Jackie-who has been of far more practical help than anyone so far, and so kind! I only knew her slightly before-just to say hello, but she is great! Though I miss our old cleaner who was also lovely. Tarting up begins in earnest tomorrow-my favourite part! The reward for all the hard graft is always the arranging and decorating! I will show you some pictures next week!

 My personal reward to myself a couple of days ago was these paeonies. They were reduced and looked promising.

 Beautiful! They are standing on the kitchen table, but this little table is good for flower pictures against the white wall. I could not really leave them there though as it is an unstable table!

 I just thought I would show you these too. They are two photos from a selection of twelve I bought last weekend in a charity shop-all about A3 or slightly bigger, and amazing shots. Urban, industrial, buildings and some people-all black and white. The photographer is called David Lyon. I couldn't find any information about him on the internet, though as they are from so long ago there may well not be any. I would love to know about him. There were at least forty more pictures, and I had to stop myself! They were £2 and £3 each! Some are mounted on card and others are just the print. They must have come from a house or business clearance. It is sad that all this amazing work just ends up in a charity shop, though I suppose some good comes out of them, and the buyers will appreciate them. Most are from the early 80s or late 70s. Carole asked me the other day what I would do with the bones I found. A lady on Greenwich market asked me what I would do with the four or five vintage postcards of the Queen I bought the other day, and I also thought to myself about these things, and these photos, which cannot all be displayed at once. What I think, is that I don't often know what I will do with things, I just feel compelled to have them and this is mainly because they make me happy or inspire me. I am displaying a photo for a while on the little table, then will change it. The postcards will go in my postcard frame for a while and I will enjoy looking at them. The bones are on the side, and I look at them often and have drawn some.

This one is called 'Man and Concrete'. I think it must have been taken at the Southbank, near the Hayward gallery.
I am currently reading this book on the recommendation of Andy's brother and I love it! Have only read a little so far, but it is the first book I have started for ages where I can't wait to get back to it. We went to see 'Prometheus' with him, and were discussing many much better films when we came home, and he said this book was a little similar in storyline but really good. Have you seen it yet Tracy? What did you think? I didn't want to answer your query the other day in case I spoilt it for you!
And I also can't stop listening to this song-by Mary Gauthier, so brilliant but emotional too which is what I seem to need in the car on the way home at the moment! Andy has made me a whole cd of her songs to listen to tomorrow!
This version is most like the one I have on cd-I like both.