I am gleeful....!

It's fair to say that this particular teacher - even though she loves her job - loves an unexpected off as much as the next kid!

The heating has been shut down due to a gas leak.  As a result - NO SCHOOL!  Woop, woop!!

Sadly the decision to close the school was taken after I'd started the commute with Mark.  As a result I had to take him to work, then drive the 30-odd miles back home again.  This afternoon I'll have to drive back over there to get him.  Expensive and time consuming - but there's nothing else I could do really.

So what am I going to do with my unexpected day of freedom...

• I went to my parent's house and had a second breakfast with them.
• I've caught up on all your news.
• I'm going to do some paperwork that would otherwise hang over into the 'holidays' - probably some Year 9 reports.
• I'm going to finished reading this months 'Handmade with Love' and spend some time on the internet seeing if I can source the 'Washi Tape' that they're raving about.
• I'm going to do some more work on my 'Spring Flowers'-themed crochet project.
• I'm going to select photos to go in a collage for the back bedroom. (A job I've been putting off but now needs to be done - my M-i-L is arriving on Saturday and she bought me the frame for Christmas!!!)
• I'm going to finish sorting the Easter eggs and presents for next weekend - probably on the way out this afternoon.

Sounds like a plan...!  My only worry is that this closure may last longer.  Basically we were only doing a three day week anyway and I had epic amounts of Btec paperwork to do in a fairly short space of time.  I also intended to go into school on Thursday, just to keep up and get ahead a little for the summer term (when Ofsted WILL land). 

Mark has suggested that - should the school be closed for longer - we go and collect all these folders on the way home tonight.  I don't think he realises the scale of the problem.  All the coursework from 62 candidates is more than a couple of carrier bags!!!!

Oh well - I think I'm just going to have stop being such a control freak and 'chill and enjoy' for the moment.  What will be, will be....!

Mark's gone mad....

 

Introducing Conrad.

This 'not so little fella' joined my bear collection yesterday.

He's 80 cm tall and filled with pellets - so he can stand anywhere he likes.

(I've had to use a picture from the internet because my laptop doesn't seem to

want to up-load my photos this afternoon)

At the moment he's stood at the end of the sofa so he can watch TV.

This afternoon he was stood out in the sunlight - meeting

my bear-loving next door neighbour!

 

Mark bought him for me because he knew that I would never buy him for myself.

My husband is prone to these lovely, generous, grand (and immensely impractical!)

gestures every once in a while.

When I was stranded in Geneva by the Icelandic ash cloud a couple of years ago,

Mark drove all the way across France to rescue me.

He's also the guy who hid a bottle of Chanel No 5 in a Milk Tray Easter Egg.

He painstakingly undid all the wrapping, popped in the perfume and wrapped it up again

so it looked completely untouched.

 

These lovely mad moments of Mark have become part of our family's folklore.

Do you have similar tales from your family....

 

A Tale of Two Cities...

...... Not Dicken's classic this time, but a reference to my plans for the Easter holidays.  Work is dreadful AND time-consuming at the moment - not a great way to spend my days!  Anyway -

The first city I'm going to visit is Edinburgh.  Mark has never been there and I have only visited once (at the age of 11).  We are going with the specific intention of visiting a special exhibition of material from the Bartholomew Map Company archives.  I found out that the exhibition was on when I was doing some research on Mark's latest map purchase the other week.  I'm just in the process of booking hotels and generally sorting the trip.

The second city I'm going to is Geneva.  I'm flying with Easyjet from Birmingham and going to stay with my oldest friend.  We became friends when I first arrived in Worcester in the early 1990s.  Such is the small world of music, we'd actually met a few times in 1989 when she was going out with a lad on my teacher training course.  By the time we met up again we were both working as secondary school music teachers.  I was one of her 'Matrons of Honour' when she got married in Worcester Cathedral!

Our friendship has survived the best part of 20 years and the fact that her husband's job took them abroad shortly after they got married.  I cried buckets when they left for Poland, but her expat life has given me the chance to catch up with them in some really lovely locations.   I've been to Geneva a few times and, while it sounds glamorous, it's probably my least favourite of all their 'postings'. 

The funny thing is - we could be meeting up anywhere in the world and it wouldn't matter to us.  When C. and I meet it's all about TALKING.  Her poor family have to accept that we don't stop - from the moment I step off the plane to the drop off at the airport again.  We've never fallen out or irritated each other.  I don't have this kind of relationship with anyone else in the world (Mark is only a close second!).  She is truely my best friend and I can't wait to see her again!!!!

A walk through Benthall Woods

The weather was far too nice Saturday to do anything other than a lovely long walk.  We took ourselves off to the Ironbridge Gorge, near Telford.  We are particularly fond of this section of the River Severn, as it makes its way from Shropshire into North Worcestershire.  On Saturday we decided to create a walk up-river and out of the Gorge.  We parked the car in the cheap car park on the far side of the famous bridge, walked a short distance along the old railway track, then started the climb up the hill-side on the 'Shropshire Way'...

 

 

When we got to the top the views over the Shropshire countryside were worth all the effort.  This is the view back toward Much Wenlock and the beginning of Wenlock Edge...

 

It was lovely to walk on dry paths for a change.....

 

Before long we arrived at Benthall Hall (a National Trust property).  It's a 16th Century House and I'm sure it's very interesting - but National Trust entry prices are a bit steep if you're not members so we 'gave it a miss'...

 

I was more interested in this fascinating little church in the grounds..

It has loads of really quirky features and I was desperate to get a view of the inside....

 

Sadly it was locked (Grrr!).... so we plodded on across the common towards Broseley.

 

Eventually we picked up some sandwiches from a supermarket in Broseley and sat outside the Victorian parish church.  There's a bench in a sheltered corner by the porch and it was a lovely tranquil place to eat some lunch... 

 

After lunch we retraced our steps for a while, until we got back to the woods.  We then decided to follow an alternative path through the old limestone quarries.  There are lots of remains of the old access roads and tramways - which makes navigation through this section a little tricky.  The OS Map seems to bear little relationship to the tracks we found on the ground!

 

Eventually we reached the view point above our starting point in Ironbridge.  From here there were hundreds of steps down to the river bank.  I was glad to be going down this way, rather than up, but the steps were big enough to be something of a killer for our knees!

 

 

Thanks to Jo for my recent award nomination.

 

As you can see from one of the photos - Mark is back safely!

The return journey was a major saga, which culminated in arriving at Birmingham International station just as thousands of teenage girls were leaving the area after the Justin Bieber concert ("Horrific" was the work he used!)

 

I hope that you are all having a good week.

Jx

Romance and Tragedy...

Can you just about make out the names scratched onto this window in the bar at the Spread Eagle....it's David Niven (the actor) and his war time bride, Primula.  David Niven was stationed at the Stourhead Estate during 1941 and his new bride was able to join him at some time during the year.  During the war Officers were stationed in the main house, but I couldn't help wondering if the couple had actually stayed in the same room as we did for their romantic breaks!

 

 

Displays in the pub recount the details of the wartime love story.  Apparently it was a real 'whirl-wind romance' - the couple only met 17 days before their marriage.  Over the next few years the couple had two boys.  Tragedy struck in 1946, when the family had moved to America.  Primula died while attending a dinner at Tyrone Power's house.  After dinner, while playing hide and seek, she opened what she thought was a closet door but instead tumbled down the basement stairs and onto the concrete floor. She died shortly after.

 

An area to the south of the estate was given over to an airfield.  Part of it survives and is used by the National Trust as an overflow car park in the busy summer months....

 

 

Appart from this concrete perimeter road, you have to look hard to find other evidence of the WW2 years.  The former control tower has actually been converted into a house, and it's crisp clean lines work remarkably well.  Sadly I couldn't photograph it for you - because we were being watched by the owners!  We discovered one small concrete guard position on the far side of the field and these shelters tucked away in a wood, about 2 miles from the estate.

 

Mark and I love looking for this kind of 'hidden history'.

 

I'm still 'home alone' for a few more hours....

I was going to 'do the romantic thing' and drive to meet Mark at Birmingham International Station around now (9.15).

Unfortunately unexpectedly heavy traffic in Paris resulted in him missing his Eurostar.

Fortunately he has a car at the Land Rover Factory (which is fairly close to the station)

He's running about 3 hours behind so he's going to make his own way home....

I hope that he's mastered the art of coming in quietly!!!!!

Remembering Blue Skies and Warmth..

The early mornings were generally crisp and cold last week. I liked to pop out of the pub

each morning before breakfast and take a few photos of the lake...

 

 

After a nice 'full English' breakfast we headed out across the estate to explore the quiet areas that most visitors didn't have time to find.

 

We walked this old road several times. 

It used to lead into a village that completely disappeared in the C.19th..

 

More visitors to Stourhead also make their way to Alfred's Tower (about 2 miles from the main house).  In the summer months it's possible to climb to the top and admire the views over three counties.  The Tower is on the edge of a hill and can be seen from miles around.

 

We also discovered further lakes down the valley.

There's a thatched house on the right - what a wonderful place to call home!

 

On a couple of occasions our walk took us onto White Sheet Down.

It was difficult to capture the scale of the 4000 year old hill fort - this is just one small corner.

I was brought up fairly close to the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire.

Both these places have a similar feel of 'ancient presence'...

 

 

I'm back at work now AND 'home alone' this week.

Mark has had to go to Paris for business, which is something that happens very, very rarely.

He was extremely grumpy about the trip this morning -

 but I've had some texts this evening saying that they were just doing a bit of sight-seeing.

He's alright really - he's just some-one who has always prefered to sleep in his own home.

 

Tom and I are fine...

I cooked what I fancied for dinner.

I left school when I was ready - rather than having to wait for my lift.

I am in control of the TV remote.

 

Having said that, I don't fancy this as a permanent life-style!

 

Welcome to my new followers.

I hope that everyone is having a good week.

Jx