Doris's Day: Back Blogging and a Day in the Garden

Never again!  Just emerged from a month of marking exam papers.  Huge piles of ironing; garden overgrown; journal unwritten and blog untended.  But weeks of holiday coming up soon and I tamed the garden today.  Ironing can wait.

I love these flowers which I've put in pots on the patio - we called them Livingstone Daisies in Ballyronan.  This white shrub which we called Bride's Blossom is also flowering,  but over here it

is Mock Orange.  Whatever - it smells lovely.

Peas also doing well and so much lettuce.

And the elderflower is eventually out, about a month later than usual.  Our hedge is full of this and really needs cutting but it looks great for a while with all this frothy blossom.  Considering trying elderflower champagne again but last time one of my bottles exploded in the garage so I'm a bit wary.  This is another childhood tradition.  It was made in May/June and we were allowed a glass of the sweet, slightly alcoholic fizz at Christmas.

52 Weeks of Happy 6/52: A Flower-y Post

 

Blogging on the back burner for now as I'm still marking poetry papers.  Just about halfway now.  So just a quick happy post. Joining with Jen again at little birdie 

1. Tea - sustained in my endeavours by many cups of tea from my favourite Emma Bridgewater flower mug.

2. Long evenings of daylight.  Ten o'clock and the birds are still singing.  We took advantage this evening and walked the dog late.  A bit chilly but at least the rain had gone.  And it's so lush and green everywhere.  Cow parsley, buttercups and those big daisies that we used for playing 'he loves me; he loves me not', tearing the petals off to find out the future!

3. Noticed also the dog roses are beginning to flower on the hedges around the village.  Love these - delicate, simple beauty

4. Planning our holiday, the reward for all this marking misery. Currently considering Cornwall (a spot of alliteration there - still in poetry mode) as I've been inspired by pictures on some my favourite blogs. (Today's Stuff by Leanne which features St Ives for example)  Perhaps Padstow (there I go again), if we can find a cottage which accepts dogs.  But after last year's UK holiday in Northumberland (below, cold and wet by Warkworth Castle) I'd really like some sunshine.... 

There's some flowers in this picture too - daisies on Kate's headband if you look closely. 

Happiness is: the perfect strawberry

Misery of marking relieved by trip to Morrison's for supplies: Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, large bar of Fruit and Nut and these: strawberries which are just perfect - ripe, but not mushy or too big; and shiny which shows they are fresh. Half price too supposedly at £2. (As if anyone who shops in Morrrison's would actually pay £4 for a box of strawberries.)  They taste delicious.  I'm on a constant quest to find strawberries as good as the ones my granda grew Northern Ireland when we were children.  Of course we weren't allowed to eat them: they had to be made into jam by Granny.  Going to make some at the weekend  - it's worth it for the smell alone. Anyway a short post -not much time for blogging at present.

Thought I'd also share a strawberry poem by Scottish poet Edwin Morgan.  Love this.

Strawberries

There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window
facing each other
your knees held in mine
the blue plates in our laps
the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar
looking at each other
not hurrying the feast
for one to come
the empty plates
laid on the stone together
with the two forks crossed
and I bent towards you
sweet in that air
in my arms
abandoned like a child
from your eager mouth
the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you

let the sun beat
on our forgetfulness
one hour of all
the heat intense
and summer lightning
on the Kilpatrick hills

let the storm wash the plates

Edwin Morgan

52 Weeks of Happy 4/52

Late for this week's list of happy moments, joining again with Jen at little birdie.

1. Saying goodbye to Year 11 - happy and sad. Their last day on Friday - fancy dress, water pistols and shaving foam but all good-humoured.  Wrote them goodbye poem and gave them remaining copies of World Book Night book 'Noughts and Crosses' to encourage them to keep reading.

2. Two sunny days at the weekend so got out in the garden.  Back to layering on the woollies again today.  Refusing to turn on the heating- it's nearly June.

3.  Have made Jen's Roasted Veg pasta recipe a few times now and it's a winner.  The addition of the feta cheese makes the difference.  Didn't have any fennel today but used aubergine and it worked well. A good way of getting veg down my brocolli hating teenager.  And I enjoyed it with a glass of red tonight as a reward for a day of more exam marking.

 4. Relaxed mornings with no rushing around as we are all off this week and staying at home until Friday.  I get up early and enjoy a cup of tea and some blog browsing before anyone else emerges. 

Doris's Day: In the garden

It's taken me a long time to get to this, my 50th blog post.  This week was one of the busiest ever as my part-time teaching job this week was in fact full-time because of my colleague's absence. And it's exam season so extra revision sessions, the English Lit exam on Monday and the arrival of 350+ exam scripts to be marked yesterday morning.  Never mind - it'll pay for a holiday.

So to de-stress before the marking begins in earnest I spent the weekend in my garden.  For once the sun shone here in the north west and I did a big tidy up removing the big nettle patch behind the veg patch; transplanting seedlings and planting up bedding.  Really pleased with the results.  Our garden always looks its best at this time of year with the clematis in bloom. We had lunch in this spot above and then Kate did a bit of maths revision for exams coming after half term.  Maths not her thing so had to help - fractions and multiplying decimals.  Found it tricky despite my 'A' level many years ago.

Above: the results of my efforts - pots of veg seedlings - peas are my favourite as the ones you buy in the shop don't compare and I love eating them raw from the pod as we did as children.  And bedding plants - trailing geraniums.  I love the smell of geraniums - reminds me of my granny who always had pots of them in her porch.

Didn't remove all weeds though.  Like this one below so left it.  Anyone know the name of this wild flower?  Some sort of mallow?

And I love the way the clematis is growing through the Japanese maple at present, but this will have to be cut back after flowering in case it strangles the maple.

Wanted a photo of us this time to mark my 50th blog post but Kate not keen and I don't much like the one of me.  So it's the dog again. At least he's not camera shy.

 .

52 Weeks of Happy 4/52

Joining with Jen at little birdie again. My four simple happy things this week.  Mostly today actually.

 

1. Spring returned today and the clematis is in bloom. Bit of a surprise as so cold last night used the last of the coal to light a fire. This brute needs pruning ruthlessly but never fails to produce masses of pink blossom every year.

2. More pink. Glass of kir royale in the garden before dinner. Sparkling wine rather than champagne but still very good.

3. Harvested the first of my salad leaves today.  Delicious and far superior to nasty supermarket bags.

 

4. Trip to cinema with my daughter to see Gatsby.  She wasn't that keen but it's payback time for terrible things I sat through when she was younger like 'Bratz the Movie'.  She enjoyed it in the end.  I loved the spectacle, the music,the clothes and everything about it except Leonardo di Caprio.  Really didn't seem right for Gatsby for me. 

Doris's week with Steinbeck

Not much blogging this week. Have spent my time immersed like many other English teachers around the country in Steinbeck.   It's the GCSE English Lit exam on Monday for our students and yet again I've been doing final revision sessions on  'Of Mice and Men'.   I am entirely fed up with George, Lennie, Curley's Wife etc. having taught it more times than I can count, but it's a winner with the kids.  The shooting of Candy's dog silences the most difficult of classes; it's perfectly structured and not too long.   Do worry about the message it conveys to impressionable  teenagers - that dreams are futile.  And no match for my preferred GCSE text 'To Kill a Mockingbird'  which ends in a more positive way.  Can't read the line 'Hey Boo' without tears in my eyes.