The In And Out Song

Here’s Monty- Liz’s lovely cat. He is a London cat – so never goes outside [his life expectancy would be reduced significantly if he did] My overnight stays in Elephant and Castle always include a time of staring [him] followed by stroking [me] and some snuggling up together on the sofa.

So for the many cat lovers among you, here’s a Garrison Keillor song you might just enjoy [thanks Jim for pointing me to this one!]

They say you are either a ‘cat’ or a ‘dog’ person – but many of the women in my family seem to manage to be both [or neither]

I want to go out - open that door if you love me
Gotta go out, want to breathe the air
I gotta get loose with that blue sky above me
I been here long enough, I got to be there
I want to come in - what's the matter, can't you hear me?
I want to come in, I am your cat!
I gotta get warm with the people
I been gone a long, long time and now I'm back
And now I want to go out - I'm an independent creature
I am a cat - we're the wandering kind!
It's the call of the wild - I gotta get back to nature
These paws are made for walking and now it's time.
OK, I'm back, but not for long I'll soon be going -
Give me a bite now and I'm on my way
Now open that door and I'll - good grief, it's snowing -
Open up - lemme in - I'm back to stay

Well, now it's stopped, so thanks for all your lovin' -
Gotta hop that freight, I'm a ramblin' guy
Gotta hit that road - it's in my blood or somethin' -
I know you understand so please don't cry
Hello it's me - I knew you'd probably miss me
So I came back, because I missed you so
But I can't stay long, so honey come and kiss me -
I think I hear that lonesome whistle blow
I'm on my way, got to leave my mom and daddy -
Got to say goodbye, want to hear that highway hum
Now I'm all alone, I'm feeling so unhappy -
It's time that I went back where I came from
Yes, it's lime to go back, time to put that road behind me -
I drifted away, but I'm going back now.
Here's the little white house -
Here s that picket fence and the ivy -
I'll scratch on the door - meow
It's me...lemme in...I can hear you talking in there
Hey – Mom'  All right, I get the joke!
Open up the door. Meow

Scents Of Wonder

Year 1 are studying ‘Ourselves’ at school, and this week we were considering our sense of smell. We had little plastic pots with perforated lids, and the children sniffed and debated what was inside. They all got onion, garlic, orange, and chocolate. Some got coconut, and shampoo. Nobody got cloves, cinnamon, herbs or Vick’s Vapour Rub – however a few said the cinnamon “Smelt like biscuits/cookies” .

One enterprising 5 year old wrote “cold” on his sheet for the Vick’s. “It smells like what I smell like when I get a cold” he said. It is good to realise these modern Mums still recognise the power of Vapour Rub!!

Perfumes are so evocative – we talked about things that smell, and most of the suggestions were food related…then they were more creative – flowers, grass, and ‘the sea’ were mentioned. “Dog Poo” suggested someone. A mark for thinking of a non-food item- but that is not one we will draw a picture of on the worksheet, thankyou!

What fragrances do I enjoy? Lots of them…

• fresh coffee
• newly baked bread
• roses
• woodshavings
• beeswax candles
• leather upholstery in posh cars
• creosote
• Savlon liquid*

But I don’t like the odours of

• blue cheese
• cigarette smoke
• rancid milk
• musty books
• boiled eggs
• strong beer
• mothballs
• TCP

*Savlon liquid always reminds me of the Maternity Hospital where I had Liz – in those days they kept you in for a week! I was just so happy she’d been born safe and well. Perfumes can bring back memories, good and bad, as Proust recalled.

Which odours bring back memories for you?

Are there smells you love?

Or ones you hate?

 

Remembering

I have yet to see the poppies at the Tower of London – maybe I will be able to manage it somehow this coming weekend. I am  going down to a WWDP Day in Kent, stopping overnight with Liz en route.

One of my colleagues suggested that the girls I teach on Tuesdays might like to make their own poppies this year. So that is what they did – we took red hearts cut from felt, decorated them with beads, then sewed them together with a central black button. It was interesting to see how they interpreted the idea  - here are four of the finished ones [the others remain WIP to complete later]

[Thank you Sandie- that red felt was a piece you gave me!]

Write On!

I love writing – not just selecting the words to say, but the physical act of doing it. Keyboards don’t have quite the same thrill as making marks on a surface. Apart from typewriter keyboards – I love bashing my digits down on the keys then slamming the carriage across at the end of the line, and making the little bell ring!

But in July I found something which really brought back memories. I was sorting out some old crayons, and there in the box was a white chinagraph pencil.  Did you ever have one of those [or are you too young for such old-school equipment?]

Before the days of whiteboards, and dry-wipe markers, these were the tools we used to write on hard surfaces - especially glass or china [hence the name] but it was not indelible – and detergent plus elbow grease erased our scribblings.

So I wrote on the mirror in the hall “I have found my chinagraph pencil” and then I decided to see how long lasting the waxy words would be. I went outside, and carefully wrote a message backwards on the window of Bob’s study. That way he would be able to read it when he sat down at his desk.

I have to report that twelve weeks later, the words are still there! [We don’t clean our windows very often] That’s despite heavy rain of Biblical proportions in recent days. I wonder if words from a marker pen would have lasted that long?

I confess that I am not enamoured of the current use of whiteboards and drywipe pens in school.

I can see that it is useful in a phonics lesson to ask the 25 children sitting cross-legged on the carpet to write a word on their board and hold it up so you can check they've spelt it right. But

• they will erase it using their sleeve or finger [black marks everywhere]
• their sitting position doesn’t make for neat writing
• gripping those chunky pens in little fingers doesn’t help good handwriting either
• there is no sense of permanence about their work
• teaching assistants seem to spend ages at the photocopier, copying the best work from the whiteboards so there is a permanent paper record of the little darlings’ ‘good sentences’
• the tops do not go back onto the pens properly, so the pens dry out, and every lesson starts with checking who has not got a working pen!

Is there anyone else out there who still has a chinagraph pencil – and if so, where do you use it? and what do you write?

Bobbing About

News of a revamped Bob the Builder- from this, first shown 16 years ago

to this – due to be aired in the spring…

New voices too for Bob and Wendy- Lee Ingleby [George Gently’s sidekick Bacchus, and also star of Our Zoo] and Joanne Froggatt [Downton Abbey]

The new characters will be computer-generated for the new series rather than created using stop-motion animation. Bob also has a new home in the busy town of Spring City, and will use a computer for his building designs, but he'll still be seen working at his yard in the village of Fixham. I am looking forward to this.

What do you mean “It’s a programme for children”?!

Pretty Prompt Princess Pinafores

A friend asked for two aprons for birthday presents for her nieces – aged 3 and 6. She said could they have their names embroidered on the bibs, and be ‘sort of princess style’ and with . It was a very last minute request so I thought about what I had in the stash, and came up with these two which I produced in an evening.

I think perhaps I should post a tutorial for these on the blog – I have simplified my original design now, and I am sure there are some of you out there who would appreciate an easy guide to making them.

Try Not To Put Your Foot In It!

So there I was, sitting in the staffroom on Friday, eating my lunch, when someone dashed in, and said “A workman’s foot has just come through the ceiling!”

It was the classroom where I was due to be teaching in the afternoon, so I went with colleagues to inspect the damage.

It looked something like this – there was a patch of plasterboard, some insulation and much dust on the carpet, and the data projector had got knocked sideways in the incident. The adults in the room had been very surprised by the whole thing.

Workman had been [noisily] banging about in the roof space all morning – but, by the grace of God, this accident happened in the lunch hour and the children were all outside – the debris was scattered all over the carpet space where they are often seated during lessons. We hastily replanned the afternoon’s activities, and doubled up with another class- and by the end of the day were able to return to the room for our singing time. We sang one of the class favourites - “Wind the Bobbin Up” – with the chorus

Point to the ceiling, point to the floor,

Point to the window, point to the door

But we modified it for the occasion

Point to the ceiling, up in the air

We can see a hole up there!

I think that next week, in story time, I may tell them the story from Mark 2, about the four men who brought their paralysed friend to Jesus, and let him down through a hole in the roof.

I have been thinking about that story a lot since the incident happened.

It has challenged me to ask myself some questions

What am I doing to introduce my friends to Jesus?

And do I often remain silent, when I could speak about my faith, for fear of ‘putting my foot in it’?

Maybe if my lifestyle was more gracious and Christ-like, then people wouldn’t get such a shock when the G-word suddenly comes into the conversations.

[happy to say that the workman was fortunately uninjured]

All In A Good Cause

A couple of weeks ago, some of my teenage students arranged a Macmillan Cancer Care Fundraising event. As well as making cakes and biscuits, they decided they wanted to sew some little items to sell. So they made lots of tissue holders…

They also made little gift pouches, some containing travel sized toiletries, others laden with golden Werther’s Originals Toffees.

I thought the gift pouches were really cute – one of the girls had found the idea on the Internet and brought in a sample she had made, for us to copy in our sewing session.

You cut two squares of fabric 20cm square, sew them round, right sides together [leaving ‘turning gap’] then turn out and press. Then you fold over the four corners and sew each down with a button. Now thread a ribbon round through each flap and pull up and tie a bow. Voila!

A pretty little pouch for holding a tiny gift. These would make fun ‘favours’ to have on your Christmas** dinner table in lieu of crackers – you could pop a few sweets and a joke inside each one. Or maybe even wedding favours, filled with sugared almonds. Do we know anybody called Almond who is getting married in the near future?!

For some of the girls, this was only their second week at the sewing class, so I was quite impressed with their efforts. The girl who brought in the sample pouch has been working with me for over a year – but I was especially pleased that she has taken up sewing as a hobby, and is constantly looking out for simple ideas like this. They raised quite a lot of money by their efforts. Well done, girls!

**It is less than eleven weeks to Christmas. I have some Christmas Present Projects underway – and this year Bob has been helping out too, spending the occasional hour on a Monday pottering in the garage. But I can’t reveal anything here, too many of the recipients of the gifts read the blog! I will post pictures in January!

We’re All Doomed!

…or maybe not. They have just announced the line-up for a big screen remake of Dad’s Army. I’m quite excited about those chosen.

Toby Jones - currently in BBC’s “The Detectorists”, will play the little Napoleon, Captain Mainwaring, with Bill Nighy as his upper-class sidekick, Sergeant Wilson.

Sir Tom Courtenay will be butcher Corporal Jones and Danny Mays, will play spiv Private Walker. The Inbetweeners star Blake Harrison plays 'stupid boy' Private Pike. Sir Michael Gambon, [Dumbledore and The Singing Detective, takes the part of doddery Private Godfrey, and Bill Paterson, will be the gloomy Scottish Undertaker Frazer.

I think this sounds like a fantastic cast- well chosen and capable of producing a brilliant film – I only hope the plot and the script are as well thought out as the selection of actors. Just don’t panic!

Normal Service Will Be Resumed ASAP

Fortunately the extreme migraines I suffered in my youth are very rare these days, and prompt action when I do get the warning signs helps a lot. Wednesday’s malaise was nothing like as bad as it might have been. I felt bad about letting the class down, but teaching would have been impossible. Very grateful to my loving, tolerant and patient husband, for his understanding and support. And because I was sensible yesterday, I will be OK today in school – and should manage to last out through tonight’s Parents’ Evening too.

Stock Photographs

My father was very fond of the works of the war poet Rupert Brooke – particularly “The Old Vicarage, Grantchester”

But Grantchester! ah, Grantchester!
There's peace and holy quiet there,
Great clouds along pacific skies,
And men and women with straight eyes,
Lithe children lovelier than a dream,
A bosky wood, a slumbrous stream,
And little kindly winds that creep
Round twilight corners, half asleep.
In Grantchester their skins are white;
They bathe by day, they bathe by night;
The women there do all they ought;
The men observe the Rules of Thought.
They love the Good; they worship Truth;
They laugh uproariously in youth;
(And when they get to feeling old,
They up and shoot themselves, I'm told)...

I was interested to watch ITV on Monday with James Norton and Robson Green, acting in the new series based on the books by James Runcie [son of the late Robert Runcie, former Archbishop of Canterbury] Norton plays a vicar/amateur sleuth.

It was…OK…more Agatha Christie’s Marple, with slightly contrived plots, rather than the intellectual stimulus of Colin Dexter’s Morse. And Father Brown, he most definitely isn’t – I have yet to see evidence of the deep spiritual insights of Chesterton’s moon-faced priest. I have blogged about sleuthing priests before [here] I found Grantchester to be relaxing sit-and-do-your-knitting entertainment [I would have expected this to be shown on a Sunday evening rather than at the same time as New Tricks – but perhaps ITV are hoping to pick up NT fans who feel that set of detectives are losing their edge?]

One of the pre-release reviewers I read said that she found it rather slow moving and had started looking for errors in the 1950’s settings [You do that anyway, said Bob] Yes, they had a set of Green Beryl Woods Ware crockery – still to be found in church kitchens up and down the land, the men wore braces, the housewives wore hats and pinnies. But I got a little concerned about the Rev’s attire.

His clerical collar and stock didn’t seem quite right to me. My own dearly beloved doesn’t ‘robe up’ on a Sunday [he has been known to conduct worship casually dressed with no tie!] but in the 50’s my Dad wore a “Clerical Collar and Vest Stock” for church. I am sure his white shirt was not visible inside the collar [unlike Sidney’s was ]Many of today’s clergy have a little rectangle of white plastic which they insert into the front of their shirts [black or coloured], back then many Revs wore a white shirt and over the top had a black front – a small dickey-bib, which tucked into their V-neck waistcoat or a longer vest-front which had straps attached at the waist – and both had collar bands to which the stiff clerical collar attached with a stud at the back [through collar and shirt collar band]

These are properly called “Rabat Stocks” – from the old French word rabat or rebato – a ‘stand-up collar’. These were very popular with the Elizabethans [and Cate Blanchett]

I must go and find an elderly clergyman and ask about 1950’s collars and stocks. Maybe I am remembering it wrong – I was very young then.

Runcie has an informative website devoted to the books. It declares that Grantchester is “ Father Brown with attitude, Agatha Christie with Cathedrals, and Barbara Pym with sex.”

I went to the Old Vicarage once, around 40 years ago. Dad and I were driving through Cambridgeshire and saw a sign saying “Book Sale, Old Vicarage, Grantchester” so we went. I bought some very useful 2nd-hand books which were on my Uni booklist. Just after that, the OV was sold – to Jeffrey and Mary Archer, who still live there, I believe. I think the current TV series is using a different property for filming the Vicarage.

If you like nostalgic fifties settings, and friendly rivalry between the professional copper and the amateur sleuth, then I think you will enjoy this series. In a world where there is so much sadness, is it so bad to want a bit of gentle escapism on an autumn evening occasionally?

I’m glad that my man doesn’t set himself apart behind a collar –so here’s Neil Diamond, singing For Reverend Blue Jeans

It’s Been A Hard Day’s Night…

…and I’ve been working like a dog! I have not haven’t been in school since Thursday, but the last few days have been really busy. I seem to have spent a lot of time planning, preparing and marking [how I hate marking!] But I have taken a bit of time out to dress a dog for my Wednesday/Thursday class. My jobshare partner Jane brought him in to school and said “Could I please dress him?” So that was a pleasant diversion on Monday. He is rather large,and very floppy.

• Fido is floppy
• Fido is funny
• Fido is friendly
• Fido is furry

– I can foresee we’ll be doing some work on alliteration soon! Can you think of some more suitable words? [any and all appropriate alliterative adjectives will be appreciated]

Wanton Woman

My “Mange-tout September”meant a serious sort out of the freezer. I found this neglected packet at the back, underneath a box of frozen peas. I am not sure that this pastry freezes that well – and will not do it again. But I was not going to waste the packet.

I always thought ‘wonton’ was spelled with two ‘o’s – but this packet seems a little more immodest. I didn’t fancy making dumplings, but wondered if I could use the thin sheets in the same sort of way as phyllo pastry. In the fridge was a spring onion, a few cherry tomatoes, a couple of mushrooms- and a large beefburger [Bob has cooked 4 for tea, but I only wanted one] So I lay the sheets of pastry into the lids of two small pyrex casseroles [about 6” across] brushing them with water, to make a quiche base. I carefully cut the burger into 16 wedges, and arranged 8 in each shell. I sprinkled chopped veg in between and then poured in 2 beaten eggs [seasoned with salt and pepper] Then I baked them

Once cooked, the triangular ‘overhang’ of pastry was a bit dry and not that tasty, so I snapped it off – but the quiches were fine, and I took halves in my lunchbox with some salad for lunch at school.

You could say I ended up with two wanton little tarts!

Harvest Prayers

Last Sunday was Harvest Thanksgiving at church. We donated gifts of food, and baby goods to a foodbank in Leicester

Lots of bags of stuff brought to the front at the start of the service.

I’d made a toddler hat and some baby bootees – I needed to do a bit of knitting to help relax after school!

The children had made a Harvest Praise Banner a few weeks before and that was hung at the front of the church. The had also made a hand-print apple tree [ stuck over the pulpit]

During the service, people came up and wrote prayers of praise on red paper apples, and these were fixed to the tree. Here it is half way through the service. There were even more apples at the end. We also wrote prayers for nations round the world on postcards which went in the Prayer Post Box

And some people even tweeted prayers- which went up in the big screen

All the flowers looked fantastic

Praying for others, giving to others, and rejoicing in God’s creation - - important elements of any Harvest Thanksgiving.

Cross Purposes

What was I baking last week?

I was baking some crosses, made from the sand clay. I found the instructions for this last year when researching children’s activities in the Bahamas. I made some green and some pink ones

After they had dried, I painted them with a 50/50 solution of PVA and water, and left them to dry on a bin bag on the kitchen table.

Why all this cruciferous crafting? Well I am about to start trekking all over the place to take part in Preparation Days for next year’s Women’s World Day of Prayer – the service has been planned by women of The Bahamas. I want to give a personal gift to every woman who attends the days, to encourage them to pray, between now and March, for those who live in those beautiful islands. A small sand-cross will be a special reminder for them.

And please think of me as I travel to Suffolk, Leicester, Somerset, Norfolk, Kent, London … [so grateful for my reliable little car!]

Think About It Tomorrow

You probably recognise the phrase “They are not long, the days of wine and roses” but like me, would struggle to name the author. It was a chap called Ernest Dowson [1867-1900] This poet did indeed live a short life [with much wine, and few roses] Like Bob, he studied at the Queen’s College Oxford – but left before he got his degree. He also wrote “Cynara” – with the line “I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion” The American writer Margaret Mitchell took another phrase from Cynara as the title of her one and only book “Gone with the wind”  which won her the Pulitzer prize in 1936.

I love the book, and the film, with its portrayal of life in the States at the time of the Civil War. Before the days of CGI, so much had to be genuinely created in front of the cameras. In "The Burning of Atlanta" scene, actual sets are being burnt. Selznick needed to get rid of some old sets, used in 'King of Kings' and 'King Kong,' and what better way to do it than burn it for another movie? This was the first scene they shot – if it went wrong, they planned to cancel the whole film!

Producer David O Selznick did use dummies for some of his battlefield casualties – of the 1600 wounded soldiers, only half were live actors! And the mansion at Tara – Scarlett’s childhood home was not a real building – it was just a façade. After filming it was dismantled and stored.The parts were sold at auction, to someone who planned to make them into a tourist attraction. That never happened. Then they were sold again. For ten years the bits lay on the floor of a barn.

But now a GWTW enthusiast named Peter Bonner, is finally rebuilding the front of the Tara Mansion so that you will be able to go to Georgia and see where it all happened. Only a dedicated, unrelenting passion for GWTW and history could drive someone to save Tara. There are no blueprints on how to put it together. The materials are so old that they are impossible to match or replicate. “The hinges and everything, were handmade. They look like they were made by a blacksmith.” says Bonner, who is funding this project himself. You can read all about it here. It will be interesting to see if Mr Bonner’s project comes to fruition!

And to think that I once watched Scarlett skipping down the path, away from the Tarleton boys, and believed it was a real mansion behind her! Selznick himself said, 75 years ago, “It is almost symbolic of Hollywood. Tara has no rooms inside. It was just a façade. So much of Hollywood is a façade.” 

Things haven’t really changed much, have they?

This Week I Have Found…

…well, for starters, I found the carpet in Steph’s bedroom. I went on holiday straight after the final Holiday Club Sunday Service- and then returned [in the dying Daewoo] the day before I was due in school. I have been so busy with lesson prep etc, that I ignored the mess. So the room was full of craft materials, sewing equipment, and all sorts of stuff I had not had time to sort properly. Last week, my hairdresser came round [she’s a ‘mobile hairdresser’, and comes round and cuts my hair in the bathroom] and she asked if I knew where she could get some fabric for a cushion cover.

“I have some you can have!” I said “No, honestly, I have loads, there is bound to be something appropriate in here” I flung open the bedroom door – and I could see her struggling to control her shocked  expression. I suspect she thought she had fallen into an episode of Hoarders!

I have therefore sorted out and put away all the stuff – so now it is much tidier [and ready for Steph to come home in 10 days time]

I have also found my Nicki Trench Crochet book which I mislaid ages ago – it was upside down and back to front at the bottom of a stack of books. I had somehow looked past it in previous hunts.

Very pleased to have rediscovered this one.

And I have found a great use for loom bands. I acquired some more knitting needles last week [thanks, Sandie] and decided on Saturday evening that my needle collection needed sorting. A useful project to do whilst watching Dr Who! But I wanted to keep the needles more tidily organised.

I did not have many ‘regular’ elastic bands – so I dismantled a loom band bracelet – these bands are ideal for holding needles in pairs! It is my belief that loom bands were invented by a relative of James Dyson – they are clogging up vacuum cleaners the length and breadth of the land, and increasing sales of new models. [Actually, I suspect that the increase in sales a few weeks ago was because the EU has banned super-sucker cleaners!]

I had hoped to find some money in my tidyings- but I only found a 1p piece, and some worthless Chinese New Year “Bank Of Hell” notes.

Never Mind! A tidy room is definitely worth something.