A Busy Summer

The summer holidays are drawing to a close. My brain is slowly being cranked up to go at a faster speed than I have allowed it to go over the holidays. My alarm is being set earlier and earlier to get me in to the routine of work again. The tsunami of work can be seen on the horizon, tumbling towards me, waiting to engulf me. Yet after a good rest over the summer, I feel ready for it and am looking forward to my new challenges.

The excitement builds as I prepare for my new job, with new people, in a brand new school - 'new' is the key word here. I've been in to the school already. It's very impressive - the whiteboard still has it's plastic protective cover over it, waiting to be used for the first time. People all over the place were unpacking boxes and moving stuff around, making small mountains of stuff for teachers to sort out when they got in to their classrooms. Builders were still around, making finishing touches to their work. Next week, after the bank holiday, we will all be going in to the school together to talk about what we are going to do. All will then be made clear to me....

It has been a great summer holiday. Despite having to sort out a mountain of stuff that I brought home from my last school (you should have seen it - Mount Everest was tiny in comparison!) I spent most of my time away, visiting friends and seeing the sights.

After setting off straight away, the day after finishing school, to the Lake District, to visit the lakes, eat cream teas and climb the fells, I headed down to London to see friends and meet up with members of Wellgate Community Farm to do trustee work.

Coming back to face the mountain of stuff in my room, I worked for days sorting paper, packing away things and throwing way/recycling stuff where-ever I could. It was a mammoth job - it is amazing how much stuff can be collected over 6 years of teaching!

I then went off to West Sussex to see my mother and her collection of dogs. It was great to see them all, even if I was put to work mending, digging and putting up sheds. Still, the long walks are a pleasure to do, around the local countryside and woodlands and to the local Pagham Harbour to sit with a drink by the waterside.

Returning here for a couple of days to catch up with what was happening in Leicester over the summer, I then took off to Devon to see friends and, yup, go for more walks, this time by the sea. This then carried on in Cornwall, where I managed to visit the Lost Gardens of Heligan and The Eden Project. To non-plantly people they are great places. To a planty person like me, they are inspirational!

Back to Leicester then off again - another meeting at the Wellgate Farm and then off to Brussells to meet some friends over there. Our main goal, to eat as much good food as we could. And we did - my waistline now proves this!

So now, using my time to visit my new school and going to numerous BBQs and parties (almost everybody seems to have a birthday around this time!) I savour the last few moments of my holiday and wonder what will happen over the next year......

PS - I did find my camera after all. It was in a friend's car, hidden under the seat, unseen for a few weeks. I couldn't remember taking it with me when I went in the car so didn't think of looking there. All's well that ends well.......