Saturday

In the virtual world I was at a tea party. In the real world I was having a very busy but good day. We got up early as Roger Tester the electrician was coming round to fix our bathroom fan. I love it when people have suitable names for their jobs. I also had lots of work to do (still!-They keep thinking up more and more things for us to do!). I had to go to the post office and the shops for cat food. When I came out of the shops I thought I would check my tyres. There was a programme on this week about dodgy car places and one of the items was about things stuck in your tyres. Good job I checked as there was a great big bent nail in one. (Nearside rear-I love little proper terms like that too so I can expertly (!) chat to the mechanics) I rang up a garage I have used before for the same thing and they could fix it within the hour. It took little time and only cost £17.50! And the electrician fixed our fan and our over cooker light all for a very reasonable price. Whilst waiting I had plenty to look at on the tastefully decorated garage walls.

After finishing my work I decided to have a little trip to Rochester. The beautiful weather we have been having continued and I had a fun hour or two pottering up and down the High Street.

Back at home, I saw that my friend had posted on Facebook that she was stuck at home and fed up as the weather was so lovely. So I rang her up and we decided to go to a park for coffee and cakes. We went to The Horniman Museum gardens which are lovely and up on top of a high hill with great views of London.

The cakes were tasty as well as pretty. Mine was the purple one-blueberry.

The view over London with the Shard visible. A wedding party in the bandstand and my friend waiting for me on the wall with her bad foot up!

It was busy but everyone was very relaxed, sitting around in groups and enjoying the sun.

Mini silver ware for the dolls houses which maybe I will do this summer. I say that every summer but you never know!

In the evening Andy alerted me to a mouse in the back room. He was clinging to a wire that just hangs there uselessly. This is on the windowsill and the window sill is behind my pile of 'stuff to sort' and therefore I couldn't get at him. Tiger and Cassie were transfixed. Tiger even managed to jump up on the windowsill once without falling off! As far as I know the mouse is still in there. I hope it may have escaped though.

Roll on next Saturday!

Time For Tea

Do you take lemon or milk? Sugar or honey? I like milk and no sugar, but I like the look of lemon and amber tea much more. It is time for tea at A Fanciful Twist today. The Mad Hatter and all his friends will be there. A few of those friends are here too, to offer tea and chat. They only arrived last night and preparations have all been very last minute. The Mad Hatter has been to Spain. The rabbits have multiplied. The mice sleep, or hide in teapots. Alice is drawn in the shadow of the clock which says that three is time for tea. So choose your teapot and take a sip, before clicking here to take a trip!

Are you still here? Oh no, no, no. Cassie says it's time to go!

Heron Post

On Friday morning last week, the postman rang the bell just as we were leaving for work. For once I couldn't remember ordering anything from anywhere, and it turned out I hadn't. Instead it was the giveaway prize I won from Anne the other day, for telling her something important that I had forgotten. Thanks Anne-it was a lovely surprise! I love the heron photo-a favourite bird we have in common. I love the card and the sheep stitch markers too. A pleasant start to Friday!

A Day Away

Last week was exhausting and stressful. Trips are fun but take so much preparation and are so full of worry. No matter how much fun it is, I am basically responsible for getting the children there and back again without mishap. If you have ever done a risk assessment for such a thing then you will know how many things can potentially go wrong! There have been all sorts of things going on at work, on a scale from annoying to upsetting. I wonder at how people make decisions that make absolutely no sense to me, then don't have an answer when asked why. I felt totally wrung out by Friday and could not go to a party that my friend was holding for some of the people leaving work, because I was exhausted and just did not want to become involved in any more work related conversations. Andy has had a similar week so we decided to get away on Saturday to Dungeness. (Again!) It was just the perfect cure for it all! We had fish and chips sitting on the beach with this view, a beautiful warm breeze and people to watch. Then I went for a walk with my camera to see what I could find while Andy lounged.

 Oh-before the walk with my camera we thought we would paddle as the sea was far out and the sand looked inviting. Last time we were here and the tide was out it was lovely to walk in. However, the sand was deceiving. Underneath the thin layer of sand was mud-as in the Bear Hunt mud-thick and oozy. By the time we had realized, it was too late! We couldn't go over it, we couldn't go under it, we just had to go through it!

 I managed to rinse some off in a little water, apart from my toes, which stayed mud caked all day-even when in the shop later! Andy has thrown his shoes away!

 Andy through my zoom.

 I saw a bee who thought that these egg sacs were a flower.

 I saw lots of waders-from afar-it took quite some time to get even these photos as it is so wobbly with the zoom-my knees were my tripod! After much research, actually involving a book, I think they are Bar Tailed Godwits.

 I love this one-he looks like a little old man.

 There was even an oyster catcher. I spotted him as the black stood out at a distance, so I zoomed in and there he was!

 This little dog found us and let me throw his tennis ball for him. 

 I played with the sand. If I had realized how bad it smelt I would not have bothered! I had to search for the eyeball stones.

 Shell bow tie.

 The last find of the day was by chance. I was looking at the wild flowers when I noticed something under this one.

 A large, mottled and mysterious egg. Softly buried in the mossy grass at the base of this flower. I think it might have been a Curlew egg. I don't know if it was abandoned or just unattended. 

 The lifeboat station was open. We had a look at the impressive boat, talked to the lady in the shop and bought a few things to support them. I can never believe that the lifeboat service is a charity and all the lifeboat crew are volunteers. The fact that we live on an island where sea accidents are a part of every day life and this is not government funded always amazes me.

 Last picture looking back towards the lighthouse with Derek Jarman's cottage in the foreground. There are always lots of people taking pictures of the house and garden but somehow to gawp like that at what is still someone's home just seems wrong to me.

Farm Trip

We had a great trip to the farm today. The children loved it. Here are a few pictures from our day.

 Fluffy hens.

 A hen you could touch. Later, on the coach, I asked the boy I had with me today how the hen felt. He looked at me for a second, then said 'Better'. My other favourite quote of the day was from him too. As we were going around on the tractor ride he looked at me and said 'I love this'. Makes it all worthwhile!

 Isn't this rabbit just so cute? This boy was, as instructed, very gentle. One of the others in my class chucked some of its bedding all over its head. You can't win them all. His Mum brushed it all off again and the rabbit didn't bat an eyelid!

 The llamas of love. Not your usual quick animal antics, but a long lasting, and seemingly meaningful experience! I should have warned of adult content at the beginning but I don't want to attract dodgy spam!

 This sheep was looking at us just as closely as we were looking at it!

 The tractor we rode on. My favourite make, a John Deere-favourite as it is the only one I can remember!

 Scarecrow seen from the tractor.

 One of my kids throwing herself off the sheer drop in the play park. It looked great in there as I watched through the plastic mesh!

 Another milking the plastic cow. The main learning that went on here was that the cow had a water tap behind its back that we could turn on to fill it up. Not sure that the cow-milk link was made!

 I drive past this roundabout with its fish sculpture, quite often but can never take a picture as it is dangerous! So when the coach came this way I took the opportunity.

This one is on the same stretch of road and is related to the gypsy horses that are kept near here. It is a lovely sculpture. It is a strange tradition putting sculptures on roundabouts. While I think it is great and enjoy seeing them, I also think it is a distraction. Not as bad as the ones that are planted so densely that you haven't got a chance of seeing what is coming around it.
We have another trip tomorrow with the other class and then back to normal school life!