** (right) The dog and Christmas tree is nothing to do with us!  It just makes me laugh.

​I can’t remember what I have reported regarding the latest news, but my portfolio of job roles now includes another twelve hours work at Andoversford Primary School.  Andoversford (APS) is a small village about ten miles from Cheltenham (on the Oxford Road) and the school roll is just 81 children.  Although the new job starts officially in January, I am covering some ‘induction’ time before the end of term.  

But kids are the same wherever you are in the world! 
​
Yesterday at TG we enjoyed our Christmas Lunch and, of course, it was absolute carnage!  Noisy with a large dose of high excitement to complement the Christmas crackers, poppers, paper-hats and jumpers!  Afterwards, in the playground, one small child quizzed me as to “why are you shaking that tree?”. He did seem perturbed.

​Later in the afternoon and after my colleague (the School Business Manager) had left for the day, another small boy came into the office to collect some material off the printer / photocopier.  Without ceremony he barged into the office, looked at me and said with a suitable amount of awe “Mrs Green, are you pretending to be Mrs Jameson?”.  To which I replied, “Well, Henry, I am pretending that I actually know what I am doing”, and he nodded in agreement, picked up his paperwork and left the room, seemingly satisfied.   So, that told me!

Moving on from working-for-money jobs I have had a fairly productive week in the both garden and greenhouse despite the colder weather - and snow surprise of yesterday.

Making the most of this morning's sunshine I harvested the remaining leeks and dug up more carrots to accompany our Sunday roast.  The soil was icily crunchy but once broken was fairly easy to dig-over.  Well, I say that, but having decided to "prepare" the whole veg patch it proved to be a decent work-out and I was soon  removing the various clothing layers and glowing nicely!  Digging over can be pretty exhausting but one way of feeling virtuous too! 

According to all the allotment advice (books and on-line) it's the time for preparing the soil (tick!), collecting fallen leaves (tick!), checking compost bins (tick.... very full!), clean cloches and cold frames (vaguely-ish) and optimistically sow:

• Onions
• Garlic
• Broad Beans
• Carrots
• Peas

​​Tick, Tick, Tick... but surprised by the last two, so might do that this coming week - in trays under glass. just like the fine display of own-seed lupins and hollyhocks coming along nicely, and (packet bought) sweet-peas and love-in-a-mist (re-potted from seedlings given to me by a neighbour). 

​It all looks marvellous!

*Adam Henson is possibly the best-known farmer in the UK, presenting on BBC’s Countryfile  programme each Sunday evening

As usual, nothing happens for ages and then there is a glut of birthdays and visits!

My niece Violet was back in the UK for a couple of weeks and this coincided with Terri's birthday so we enjoyed a family get-together for Sunday lunch at my sister's home.  Violet flew back to Kazakhstan last weekend but she will be back for Christmas... well, I hope so, as the plan is that Paul and I will be enjoying all the festival fayre at her house!?

As food seems to play such an important role in our lives, we also celebrated my nephew's 15th birthday at our favourite The River Avon Chinese Restaurant in Evesham (again). 

Today, my niece and her friend, added this pretty heart to the National Covid Memorial Wall in London.    

I think it sums up how we all feel, all the time,

The Memorial Wall consists of a public mural painted by volunteers to commemorate victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The wall stretches more than a third of a mile along the South Bank of the River Thames, opposite the Palace of Westminster,  It is an unauthorised mural but it is hoped that it will become a permanent memorial.

It is in keeping with remembrance services and events throughout the UK over the weekend,  

The past couple of months have been a busy time again but Paul and I are currently in the fortunate position of being able to chill-out in Cornwall – courtesy of friends who have asked us to stay in their [being] renovated coastal house and report back on the place as a future holiday rental property.  Oh well… twist our arms, we’ll give it a go!?

It hasn’t been too much of a hardship and it has been helped significantly by the unbelievable weather… all week sunshine and minimum daily temperatures of 18 degrees.  The average temperature is usually 14 degrees apparently, so we have been very lucky.

So, we are presently enjoying Cornwall but have spent a lot of time trekking up and down the country between Hampshire and Gloucestershire whilst trying to organise my mother-in-law’s house sale and move to a residential home. I shan’t go into all the details because the navigation through medical, social services, legal, estate agents, and financial channels is bureaucratic headache of the first degree. And, you know how that winds me up at the best of times?*!  As a quick example, Paul recently had to reply to the solicitor who had asked for a copy of his Power of Attorney… saying that perhaps they should check their own records because they had drawn it up originally 15 years ago, and again within the past two months.  Hmm… so if we have to do the work for them, can I have a refund on the initial £90.00 fee?? Outrageous.

So, that is the logistics of the above has been the main focus but in the closer periphery the new academic year has kicked off with a vengeance and I've got statutory requirements, policy guidelines and declarations of all and sundry coming at me from all directions! I have also started my new one-day-a-week on site at Temple Guiting Primary School and that's a bit of a learning curve.... although the curve is a gentle one because there's only so much that can be achieved in 8 hours a week, and with a six days gap between attendance! I'm still getting my head round the smallness of the Reception class... that's both in individual height as well as general numbers!?* Although some of the general character and capacity for volume is not necessarily thwarted by a diminutive stature?!I

I have been lucky enough to be able to swap my working day and therefore can enjoy a whole week away.  As you have already seen, we spent some time at St Michaels’ Mount (fabulous), have wandered in and out of Porthleven itself and walked a very short stretch of the Loe Bar coastal path but otherwise have read, snoozed and quaffed wine! 

Nice!

The photographs are intended to make you jealous!  The house is like something out of a film or magazine, and it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to stumble across James Bond or a Cary Grant character gazing across the sea-view whilst contemplating whether to go out on the yacht…
However, my photos are carefully selected views - avoiding the scaffolding and the team of ten builders and painters who all rocked up at 8am this morning!