up the Wrekin.
The flowers were gorgeous.
If you looked closely too you could see some wonderful insects, caterpillars and bees.
At the top of the hill, it was a bit windy, but you could see for miles, even if what you could see was the rain coming towards you.
The flower beds in this town are not town flowers, but the council has taken the opportunity to sow pieces of 'waste' land with wild meadow flowers, which are absolutely gorgeous.
Spoke to son on mobile phone about what he could raid from the freezer. Half way through conversation he says "B...g..r!" He's just unloading the washing machine, where he finds his passport!
One of our little Austrian visitors wasn't very well yesterday, with a tummy ache and feeling sick. Her teacher came round and gave her herbal drops, and prescribed coca-cola. Certainly it seemed to work, for both girls were happy and smiling and eating at breakfast this morning. I was impressed too that the whole conversation was conducted in English, despite their youth. They've been learning English for only two years, yet responded with understanding and sensibly if somewhat shyly.
"He's so lovely, your husband! He bought you a cup of tea."My Indian friend praised him at 7.30 this morning as we met for a long day at work. I had to get up at 6.30 in order to be at MK in time. He offered last night to bring me a cup of tea. He did. At ten past five.
I think I was prouder of my first degree because it took so much effort and a change in self-belief to get it. Here are some photos of husband who believed in me and supported me through it, and my proud parents when I went to get my BA.
On Sunday we opened our garden, as did dozen others in the old town. Around 300 people traipsed round, admiring layout, size, hidden greenery behind houses that are right on the street, and our delphiniums (blue) and geraniums (red). Photographers could be seen focusing in close on the phygelius.
"What should we do with this border now the branches have gone? Your suggestions are welcome."Some suggestions have been:
"What should we do with this space now the trees have gone? Your suggestions are welcome."This elicited:
Our grandson sold ice creams, making a tidy £60 towards our chosen charities: Norcap and Space. Rumour has it that between us all we made around £900.
I'll load my photos up to my flickr site.
Yesterday evening some yob chucked something at our window and cracked the pane. Pest!"My research is based on a constructionist approach. My examiner is a realist."Son immediately responded:
"Oh dear!"How nice to be understood.
She was teaching her class poetry, 'The charge of the Light Brigade' and they were reciting it in a very lackadaisical manner. 'Put some life into it' she said. 'FORWARD the Light Brigade!!' and her teeth shot out and landed on the floor between the desks! 'Leave those' she barked, and marched up, picked them up, turned her back to put them in, fixed the class with a beady eye and continued with the lesson! She had excellent discipline and there wasn't a titter but I bet they didn't half laugh when they got out. As she did. She told the tale with great aplomb many times.I wonder if the children there still remember the incident.
When I'm working at home, I often nip up the road to my favourite coffee shop. I drink an espresso and a glass of water, but I avoid the cakes. The cakes are delicious. It's very difficult to avoid them. I didn't avoid this one because it's a chocolate espresso. The top is all fudgy and delicious.
We do tae kwondo, my daughter, my grandson and me - well, all right, to be exact, my step-grandson. We all go together on Sunday evening. We're different grades.
I have been rather honoured that my work colleague asked me to come to an exhibition of children's art. Her little boy was one of only 600 out of 6000 entrants to be chosen to have his work displayed at the Royal College of Art. They have an exhibition each year, run by volunteers in aid of cancer research.
Daughter was tired so we took our time leaving today. We passed on our maps, guides and spare food to people in the hostel. I had a printout of the spec for the eeepc (I've just bought one, and left that for the woman C, who had been fascinated by it. She said that she was sorting out things, starting afresh I think, and thinking creatively about how to set up her own business in event management, so an eeepc would suit her situation well. We caught the round-town bus up to the gaol, where they sentenced us to serve time and charged us 6 euro. Cork gaol is just as forbidding a place as any other gaol, but rather cold too. Its history is that it served as a prison for both men and women since before the 19th century. It doesn't seem to have been overcrowded and the first Catholic governor, Murphy, seems to have been a sympathetic man who managed both the scoundrels and the political prisoners.
We also stopped off at the Butter Museum for an excellent lesson in marketing, branding and advertising, then nipped across the road to St Anne's church (see photo) where I sat and minded our luggage, while daughter went up the tower to ring the bells of Shandon.
Got home with time to see husband enjoy his three bottles of whiskey (miniatures) - daughter delighted in buying them and showing her passport as evidence of her 18 years to the cashier, who wasn't interested.
We took the bus to Kinsale this morning, There's a cool wind today and daughter is a bit off colour, cold and sleepy. We had a look round, the city in the morning, stopping at the Crawford art gallery where we had scones and a drink and then nipped back to the hostel for daughter to have a quick nap, and we fetched warmer coats.
We're in the Bru hostel. We arrived in Cork yesterday afternoon to lovely weather - balmy and spring like. The hostel, Bru, is not too bad - worth a few asteroids, if not stars. It's clean and quiet (if you're not in the bar) and we are sharing our room with a couple of young women from New Orleans. (What does 'bru' mean?) It's right in the middle of the city, but from our walk last night, I'd guess that this side of the river is less salubrious than the other, which seems to be the shopping side. We walked past the Cork Opera House, 
which was advertising Spanish Harlem that evening and strolled though a square , where we could hear the birds' evening chorus, round a church and onto the main street. We found a couple of alley ways, the Huguenot quarter, where there were a number of cafes and restaurants. We got ourselves some pasta in one.
Then we caught a mid afternoon bus back to the city in time to return to the English market. We'd visited it in the morning and found the huge variety of butchers, green grocers (with fresh turmeric even), grocers and fishmongers. We bought whiting, mushrooms and rice to prepare for supper in the hostel kitchen, and stopped for tea and cake in the cafe. We found a variety of fascinating small shops in the alleys near Patrick's Street, including a glass designer - and I would really like some of this to lighten our windowless bathroom.
