Visiting and Exploring

After the jumble sale on Saturday, we ventured through the tunnel to East London, to visit this very 60s looking building where...

 ...we found lots of fascinating art! 'Now What ' is the name of the Sussex University Illustration and Graphic Design department's degree show. Our niece Isobel was on this course, and we went along to see her work, not knowing if she would be there-but she was! So it was good to be able to talk to her about her work and the exhibition. I was really impressed with the whole thing, especially when she told me that the students on the course arranged it all themselves, and all this started three years ago when they started the course. Here is the Now What website that one of her friends put together-with links to all the artists. The same friend I think that had a tall box with a big red button on top, inviting you to press it. When pressed it issued a pink receipt with all his details on it-his version of the little cards and postcards the artists provide with their details.

Isobel's work..the book on the left was made by Isobel. It contains beautiful photographs of different places in London, paired with quotes from Dickens set in those places. It is really beautifully made and fascinating. She also did a lot of work on the relationship people have with animals, and had made another lovely book, and some large photos relating to this. The shirt is her response to a college project on self-promotion-how better to promote yourself than to wear your work?! Well done Isobel! We loved seeing you and your work.

 After leaving the exhibition, we had some time before the parking ran out, so we wandered around the local area where we found a great market, stripey dogs and coffee (delicious coffee which I waited about five minutes for, while it was lovingly crafted by some young men, one of whom returned to the stall and casually offered his headache pills around-"Would anyone like some nurofen?"-as if they were sweets!)

 The stripey dog was obviously interested in some good dainties!

We didn't have any hot jellied eels-I can't imagine many things more disgusting-but I do love the front of this shop. There was a great crafty shop nearby, with a sleeping cat outside and great music playing,  where I got a ball of purple wool, and a bag with the words 'emotional baggage' printed on it which I thought was most amusing!
We are definitely going back for another explore soon as it is great round there!

Saturday Rummage

This weekend there was a jumble sale at a church quite near to here. They have regular jumble sales, and I love them because they are proper old-fashioned affairs, with large trestle tables of piled clothes, lots of toys, books and junk, and a clientele that makes the whole thing fascinating. A real mixture of middle class yummy mummy types, little old ladies, mad people, focussed and scary clothes hunters, and me and Andy. We managed to get there just before it opened, having found a parking space quite nearby. The queue was quietly excited, and pleased with themselves for arriving early. As we went in, past the tea and cake serving place-a little kitchen at the back of the church, a little old lady asked if they had any cheese rolls, and was disappointed to hear they didn't. It was obviously the most important thing to her about the event, and I felt quite sorry for her.

 The sale is old fashioned in its prices too. Nothing is much more than 50p, and most things less. My bargains of the day are as follows: A bent plywood school chair with black metal legs and painted a great shade of chartreuse-£1-a present from Andy who could tell I really wanted it! A penguin book called 'The Weekend Book' which is a great title and is yellow-never mind the contents, those two factors were enough. A snow baby-a lucky find as my Mum likes these (they remind her of christmas cakes of childhood) and it is her birthday today! An old colander-possibly for school. Four wooden gold finials from something-may or may not be used in some miniature project, but loved them. A book about diggers for a boy in my class who loves them, and an RHS magazine, unopened. A Monsoon green stripey cardigan. Andy bought a book of unexplained mysteries.

 Here is a blurry picture of the rummage tables. As I homed in on the stripey green wool fabric of my soon to be purchased cardigan, I happened to go too near to a lady's pile of clothes. 'They're mine!' she said, somewhat aggressively. Time to leave we felt!

 A pretty door in the church.

 The blanket and household linens table.

 My colander and finials.

 Snow baby.

 Yellow penguin-only number 129. Ned do you have this one? Do you still collect them? If not and if so,  it is yours! I bought it with you in mind really!

Verbena Bonariensis

This is a plant that seems to have become very popular over the last few years, and it is easy to find lots of reasons why. It is long flowering, tall and structural, but allowing a view through the straight stems, with their angular side-shoots. This means it can be placed at the front of a border if wished and still allow a view behind. It is on the corner of my little garden, and I can look through it to the pond, the rapidly growing mystery flowers from my meadow seeds, and the chamomile.
It has pretty clusters of tiny purple flowers and is popular with insects. It grows easily from seed-in fact self-seeds very well, and can also easily be grown from cuttings, making for lots of free plants. I first grew it about six years ago from seed, and have loved it ever since. It is not totally hardy, but easy to replace if lost to snow or frost.

Interesting facts about the plant here!

Flora

I finished this crochet doll a few days ago-she was just waiting for her hair and clothes really. She is very cuddly and I love the way she has poseable legs. I have not got a name for her yet, maybe Flora, as she is accompanied by lots of flowers. I love the day lily with the grass, and the dog daisies are at their best now. The blue and rust coloured flowers were bought at the end of the day in Bromley market. They are a huge bunch and were £2! The men on the stall had loads of stock left and were selling it off ridiculously cheaply and doing a very brisk trade. I have never had such a large bunch!

Green and Brown

In the garden today.

Venetian Red

Venetian Red is such a romantic sounding name, and the colour that attracted me the other day. I like the way it looks like red clay. Very old looking. So, I drew this face, with slightly chubby cheeks and an uneven nose.

I enjoyed doing her ears the best. I like the way the ears join onto the face-all those curly shapes are the attractive part of a feature which, when analysed, is quite strange and a little ugly. My ears are quite big, though they don't stick out too much! Enough vain ear talk! Next I added some colour. I love colouring on this bumpy watercolour paper, the way the colour builds up softly and with texture.

Then, the most exciting part, adding some water to the watercolour pencils, and seeing the colours come alive.

I printed this picture on A4 paper, and she is stuck to the wall where the teapot pages were. I like printing pictures I have drawn or painted-it lets me see them somehow-more so than in the original, and often they look better-which can't be a bad thing!

I enjoyed all your comments on my post yesterday, thank you!

My New Room

Have I said how much I love my new classroom? I love it!  I always thought that the old place, which was a double unit, with 50 children using it at a time, was busy and sometimes seemed chaotic. But we made the best of it, as you have to. It is only after being in this room for a few weeks, that I have realised that it does not just make a small difference to everything, but a huge one! For a start, I now have control over my classroom-I am not talking about the children here, but how I feel. I can make decisions about how I think it is best to do things, without having to compromise, and so suddenly am enjoying doing displays again, arranging the classroom, and thinking about how it can best help the children in my class to achieve, without having to worry about the other class too. (Sounds harsh I know but I already have 36 in my own class!) I do talk to the staff I work with about things, and listen and incorporate their ideas, but it is easier to do this with three other people than six.

 My crochet monster and octopus have new jobs-as key rings for the gate and my drawer key. They are so big they are unlikely to get lost.
The second reason I am finding it so much better, is how the children are in class. They are calmer, there is less running indoors, and the atmosphere is busy but allows the adults to focus on things more without the distractions we used to get in the old place. If anything is going wrong, it is easy to see in this smaller space, and to intervene quickly before things get out of hand. It is easy to stop them by ringing a bell-I can see everyone now! We have walls and a door! At my school, I have never worked in a fully enclosed classroom-it used to be all open plan, and even though some doors and walls were put in over the years, the nature of the building design meant that often your classroom was a corridor to somewhere else. There is nothing more annoying or distracting than people using your room to walk through, have conversations at the edge of, and push dinner trolleys through.

 The third reason I am loving it so much, is that I can set up all the little story and rhyme opportunities I want to, provide things such as small toy cars, or phonics resources, and know that they are not all going to go missing! If they do it is easy to search this room, whereas the old place was huge, and had so many hiding places it was impossible.

 So on Friday night, the five speckled frogs who have lived in my car for a while now, were given there own sparkly log.

 The speckles are felt circles you use to stop things scratching tables. I have kept them for ages, waiting to find a good use-speckles 1-5 are that use!

 The play people have moved into the big house, ready for Monday. What they don't realise is that I bought a jail yesterday in the charity shop! And a bank for them to rob! I think Grandad did it.

 This great bookend was in my 'p' bag to illustrate 'push', but now he can do his real job as the classroom has lovely deep windowsills.

 We brought the pigs and houses with us to make this display. I wrote the story and then read it with the children before putting it up, as there are quite a few words they can read now, and I wanted them to know what the story said. They liked the 'run!' part best! The pigs have such cute expressions!

 The pigs and bad Mr Wolf were very popular last week, and, as I say, did not go missing at all! Next week they have got the three bears. I got this little set on ebay-for something like £2.99!

 This book is one of their (and my) all time favourites. Full of adventure and brilliantly illustrated with photgraphs.

The other main reason the separate room is better, is that we can work with the children in our class only, thus making assessment and teaching easier. We do work with the other class outside, and there has been a little mixing in the rooms, but that has worked ok. I think the new school had an all in one classroom again, but after our experiences down here, it is going to be split into two. Hurray!