Haybales on Blackheath

Not what I expect to see in London. It explains the tractor I had seen the day before though. These were there on Friday and gone on Saturday. There is a farm not that far away so maybe they were taken there to feed the donkeys. The crows were having a good day-maybe eating worms woken up by all the hay making noise. 

 I love the way crows do that hopping half flying run. They are wary but don't seem scared somehow.

 I like this silhouette of a flying crow. I only had my phone so not great focus but the shape is there.

New Job Number 1

I spent the last two weeks working for Arty Party at Blackheath. I really enjoyed it, though I am glad that I have two weeks left to potter around and get jobs done now! The theme was Mexico and the children made all sorts of great things, a small selection of which are below. The kids were lovely and all the adults were too. It was interesting to be working with mainly artists, all of whom have interesting and varied lives, doing lots of different jobs. The best thing was there was no stress. I was not in charge and there was no pressure, apart from getting the work finished. There were roughly thirty children each day with six adults which is a very manageable ratio. The place we were working in was a church hall. It is a lovely light building, and has a great garden which included a climbing tree and places to hide, run and generally just be children! If I continue to do supply for more than a year, which, at the moment I am seriously contemplating, then I should be able to get by in the holidays by working for this group. They seem to be very busy so hopefully there should be opportunities to do so. 

Day of the Dead printing. 

This is a faceboard though this child just chose to put eye holes. They could do anything related to the theme for this one.

Frida Kahlo pictures. The one above is more like one of the originals, and the one below in the style of, featuring this girl's own cat. I love the way she did the cat, and it reminds me of Cassie.

 Papier mache cacti waiting to be painted. 

Finished cacti. 

A little Day of the Dead figure made of plasticine, ready to go in a Retablo. 

Sombreros!

One corner of the hall. 

 Views of the garden. 

 This was taken on the day we had a massive thunderstorm. The grass was soaked and the hall sprung a couple of leaks!

Froglets

I thought I had made up the name 'froglet', but it is either 'a small kind of frog', or 'a tiny frog that has recently developed from a tadpole'. 

 These froglets are waiting for relocation to the pond, from the yard. Our garden is on three different levels, and is is a long way down to the yard from the pond if you are a tiny frog. When it rains heavily lots of them go adventuring and then I have to rescue them. I am getting quite good at it. It is not like catching a big frog, as it is easy to hurt them. My technique is to make them jump into the dustpan, by touching them and then putting them in this bin, the bottom of the shredder, which is just high enough that they can't jump out. Unfortunately Cassie has taken an interest in them recently and brings them down to play with. Some of them have survived but she is not interested in their survival.

I don't know when Andy bought this wine but it is fitting. And froglet sounds even cuter in French!

Foolhardy and Lost

Foolhardy because we set out in a big storm, and were on the motorway in weather that you normally get caught in but don't choose to go out in. Heavy rain that made it hard to see. Cars still rushed along while I cowered in the onside lane at 50. But it eased off eventually. We thought we were going to Reculver for a walk on the beach and maybe a pub lunch. In fact we were going to the place in the photos below. A much nearer place but one we have not visited before. I took the wrong exit off the motorway and we were heading for the Isle of Grain. A romantic sounding name for a place that is, strangely, romantic. Wild and marshy, lying between the Thames and the Medway as they run into the sea. Industrial too, which means good roads. Little villages with ancient churches. Names like Upper, Lower and Middle Stoke, and The Hundred of Hoo. A 'Hundred' is a Saxon land division. I read up a bit about the place when we came back and it is fascinating. It is where Boris Johnson wants to build his extra airport. I really hope that never happens as it will spoil it. I love this article from the Guardian about what the Hoo peninsula represents and so, what will be lost if it is developed. (Having just looked again for information it looks as if the plans will not go ahead as there are too many issues-link to report at end) 

There is a place called Allhallows that was going to be a large holiday resort. This never happened because of the war. We went to Grain beach, saw tank traps,  and walked along the path by the sea. You can see Sheppey, Essex, and passing container ships. There is a building in the middle of the water which has access by a causeway at lowtide, and, I found out when we got home, is for sale. £500,000 would buy it, plus a lot to do it up! A lot of photos with added raindrops!

 I think this is Kingsnorth Power Station. 

 Grain beach.

 View across to Sheppey. 

 The house in the water. The address is No 1, The Thames, Sheerness, ME3. It only has one bedroom though. Shame!

 The lifeboat in the distance. 

 A freight ferry. 

 A poor green crab. 

 Tank traps. 

 Beautiful rusty green bench 

 Boats and marsh. 

The Hoo Peninsula Blogspot  Hoo wikipedia. English Heritage geological report on Hoo Peninsula
Airport watch report on Boris airport plan. 

Holiday People

Andy looking out to sea. We love our holidays. He likes the same things as I do and puts up with me stopping to take photos every two seconds. He even takes them for me if I am driving. And he doesn't mind long car journeys. He will not go to sleep though, just in case! We love driving up unknown roads,  the more sheep filled, empty of cars, and wild the better. 

Me. Well my feet anyway. This part of the coast had collieries on it and so there is coal dust in the sea. Parts of the beach wash up black as the tide goes in and out, and it makes interesting patterns against the paler sand.

Robson Green. He was filming at Wallington Hall when we visited, and my zoom came in handy for a bit of paparazzi work. It was a boiling hot day. They were filming for ages, something with a little helicopter thing that I thought was a drone, but overheard one of the crew saying was an 'octocopter'  Having looked at them they seem to be for carrying cameras to get aerial photos, so maybe that was what they were using it for, to film from the air.

Me again. We visited Anne and Malcolm in Scotland again, and had a lovely day with them. Anne gave me a free motion embroidery/quilting lesson. I really enjoyed having a go at this and can think of lots of possibilities for using it. Just need to work out how my machine can do it!

Anne and Malcolm themselves. We had just finished a delicious dinner and were about to head off back to our home for the week. Thank you Anne and Malcolm!

On the Thursday we drove over to Wylam where Andy grew up. We stayed with Bob and Maisie. This is late in the evening in their garden. It was lovely sitting around the fire like that. We had a great time and drank far, far too much wine!

On the Friday, Bob drove back over to where we were staying to take a walk on the beach with Springer his dog. Springer loved it!

After Bob headed back home, Jeremy, another friend of Andy's, and his wife Lisa drove over. We had another walk on the beach (can't have too many!) and then went for lunch. Lisa is an early years teacher too and we had much to talk about. A lovely couple of days!

Below is a picture of the view from my sister's house. I visited her and her boyfriend Will in Leeds on the way back. Andy had to go to Edinburgh with his family to start to sort out the things in his Mum's flat, so I thought that would be a good opportunity to see Jane as we don't get to meet up often. I had a lovely time there too! But although I took lots of photos of her cats and fish, I took none of her and Will!