September Sunshine

September is here and for the first time in many years I am not returning to work after a summer break.  I now feel that my retirement has started for real even though I haven't done any real work since July.  Everyone else has gone back to school/ work now and, after a few days of missing the excitement of the new term, I am now pleased that I haven't gone back to work having heard how difficult it is to teach with all the new regulations in place. 

It's also been the first time I've ever been able to take a holiday in term time.  Kate and I had a mini-break - very mini as in one night -  in Conwy in North Wales last week before she returned to Sheffield this week ahead of the start of term.  It's not Palma where we planned to be but was very pleasant and only an hour away in the car.  We left the dog and Paul behind this time - I have another September holiday with them planned later in the month.

Conwy is dominated by an impressive castle which was unfortunately closed last Thursday when we were there.  We explored the town, walking along the estuary to Conwy Marina and stopping at a pub overlooking the Great Orme. The town itself has plenty of the kind of shops which I like and Kate doesn't, selling clothes from Sea Salt and White Stuff.  It has changed a lot from when we visited to explore the castle when Kate was little.  It seems to have gone upmarket - a bit like the Padstow of North Wales. There is even an independent bookshop.  I resisted the clothes but did buy a book (Nick Laird Modern Gods. More on my recent reading soon).  In the evening we sat on the quayside drinking overpriced G&Ts from plastic glasses in a pub called The Liverpool Arms which Paul recalls visiting as a teenager with his mates.  It was apparently the only pub in Conwy they hadn't been asked to leave.  Possibly why it's called The Liverpool Arms.  The sun was going down on the estuary and for a few minutes reflected off the windows of the buildings opposite making them look as if they were on fire.  Kate took this photograph.

We stayed at a B&B which was conveniently situated on the High Street.  After a not so great night's sleep( I snore, she objects, I try not to and remain awake as a result), we spent the next morning at Bodnant Gardens which I'd visited with Paul back in February.  It was good then and even better in full bloom, though I still haven't seen their Laburnum Arch as, of course, we couldn't visit in May. Then Kate drove home as I was too sleepy to be trusted behind the wheel and she's now a more confident driver than I am.  

That's it for now.  Have good intentions about blogging more frequently now I have time.  

Kate

For years I have been forbidden to make any more than a passing reference to my daughter Kate in the blog and so have got into the habit of not writing very much about her.  Now it seems she has changed her mind -she recently asked why I never write about her! So today’s post is all about Kate though I suspect what you get will not be what I am writing right now as I will give her a chance to edit for fear of reprisals - (that word will be out for a start).

I’ve seen a lot of Kate of recently, much more than last year, since she’s been living at home since lockdown began in March.   She’s 20 now, 21 in October and so properly grown up so it’s been hard for her to return to living at home after being independent for over a year. Hard for us too negotiating new boundaries and trying not to get irritated by the trivial stuff like the leaving open of kitchen cupboard doors - I’m better at this than her dad.  Even though we’ve had occasional grumpiness, having her here been one of the bonuses of lockdown. She arrived accompanied by her boyfriend, Calum, and he has fitted in very well, even when confronted by the worst excesses of family bad behaviour. (I’m including myself in this as I can be very snappy if I’ve had a bad night’s sleep, a rather too frequent occurrence recently.) 

Kate has now finished her second year at Sheffield University where she is studying History and Politics.  Having missed a great chunk of university life this year and also concerned about the unpromising jobs market, she’s considering doing a MA when she finishes next year. At least she is going to have some face to face teaching on her course and so will be going back to Sheffield in September. I’ll miss her as I’ve got used to having her around again. Clearing up the devastation her dad leaves behind after dinner is more fun when she’s there and we are kitchen dancing along to her Spotify playlist, fuelled by M&S mojitos from a can.  She offers opinions on my clothing choices,  plucks my eyebrows as I can’t see to do it, and this week helped me choose new glasses as apparently my old ones, as well as being bent and having puppy teeth marks on the frame, were  ‘too old lady’. We watch rubbishy TV together - something on Prime called The Amazing Mrs Maisel is a current favourite. I draw the line at The Real Housewives of Beverley Hills so she’s persuaded her boyfriend to watch that with her when she can drag him off his X-box. Now he’s a fan, it seems. 

We’ve also had a few outings recently, though both of us are still a bit Covid cautious. She’s become more tolerant of my garden visiting and accompanied me to Tattenhall Hall on a NGS opening. We’ve not bothered so much about shopping trips though there has been plenty of comfort clothes buying with Asos parcels arriving rather too frequently for someone supposedly living on a maintenance loan.  I have been spending unwisely too though my purchases are more often things to adorn the garden. This week we went blackberry picking and I recited the Seamus Heaney poem about this to her en route, misquoting wildly.  She says she misses studying English Lit and has had time to read for pleasure, choosing ‘The Beekeeper of Aleppo’ which she said reminded her a little of ‘The Kite Runner’ which she loved when studying it for A Level.  We’re planning a few more trips in the next few weeks before she goes back,  including an overnight stay in Conwy, North Wales to replace our planned trip to Palma which had to be cancelled. 

Kate loves dogs and really misses our lovely Irish Terrier, Ronan, who we lost last year.  He was very much her dog. Booshka, our White Swiss Shepherd is without question Paul’s dog.  She (the dog) likes having Kate and Calum here. Kate lies on the floor with her, cuddles her and scratches her belly.  Occasionally this leads to overexcitement, squealing and puppy biting and then Kate compares her unfavourably to Ronan who, she says, would never bite like this. Fortunately Calum also loves dogs, though is perhaps not so keen on the white hairs that he sometimes finds in his dinner.  Paul and I have no doubt consumed many of these as our eyesight is too poor to spot them.

Kate can be quite a demanding daughter and this isn’t about her asking for stuff. What she wants is my attention, lots of it.  It was the same when she was little. I don’t recall my mother ever playing with us, yet I’d spend hours playing with her in the Tweenies pop up tent, or dressing Polly Pockets in tiny rubbery outfits or playing games based on the Rainbow Fairies books.  But then my mother had four other daughters, whereas Kate is an only child. As my sister once remarked as she watched some fairly spectacular toddler bad behaviour, Kate knows I’d do anything for her.  She was right and it hasn’t really changed.  I have plenty of time to spend with her so this is fine with me.  And I’m conscious that she’ll be going again soon so am making the most of this unexpected time together.

Changing Times

Picture on card from Rosie made a Thing. According to my sister this a good likeness. Hope my nose doesn't look like this!

I finished work for the summer term on the 10th July and this year I won't be returning to school
in September.  This is quite a life changing event and I've been feeling a bit unsettled in the past couple of weeks. Even though I know it's the right decision, I sometimes find it hard to cope with change. It was sad too not to be able to have a proper leaving do to mark the occasion. I've been thinking back over my years in teaching and wrote quite a long goodbye email to colleagues with all my memories of the past 15 years at the school where I finished my career.  It was a bit self indulgent really and I am quite sure many of the younger staff didn't bother to open the attachment, but others did and responded positively.  

I was able to have a bit of a celebration here with my closest work friends in the English department coming round on that Friday for a few socially distanced drinks and lovely food cooked by Paul who was universally admired for his culinary skills and witty repartee.  Having frequently complained to these same colleagues about him and his irritating habits (foolish purchases, grumpiness,  etc), I was told to stop moaning and appreciate what I've got. They have a point.

Both Paul and I have July birthdays and we celebrated then fairly quietly this year.  On Saturday which was my birthday, it rained all day but we went ahead with our planned trip to Dunham Massey, a National Trust property near Manchester with an impressive garden even in the rain.  Back in February we took out membership of National Trust thinking that with my imminent retirement we'd be able to get our money's worth this time.  Then lockdown happened.  Now that the gardens are open again, we've been visiting the local ones. The best so far was the Japanese garden at Tatton Park which I visited on my own as dogs aren't allowed in there.  The rest of the family walked the dog in the deer park and spend a considerable amount of time chasing her as she chased a deer which unfortunately had strayed from the main herd. Paul hadn't spotted it so she was off the lead. Kate said it was like something out of David Attenborough.  It was apparently a very stressful experience which I am glad I did not witness.  I was in this peaceful garden. 

Gardening successes and failures

As I've been spending a great deal of time in the garden recently I thought I'd record it at its midsummer peak.  I'm learning to be a bit more relaxed about gardening, realising that there is never a time when everything is looking good at the same time and that some plants thrive unexpectedly while others inexplicably don't even when I do everything by the book.  

So here are my recent successes and failures.  First roses which I grow in pots on the patio.  I have a yellow one called Laura Ford (on the right above) which was brilliant last year but has been disappointing this year, having been attacked by greenfly.  I kept rubbing them off but to no avail and it now looks very sad. Contrast this with my beautiful pink Ballerina, bought for a couple of quid in Home and Bargain.

I've tried growing soft fruit and, for the first time, I have raspberries - not that many but progress on last year.  But my blackcurrant looks rather pathetic I think it needs better soil. I'm disappointed as I had a brilliant one in my last garden.  I have had more success with potatoes.  In fact I have what looks distinctly like a potato plant in a spot where I was expecting to see an echinacea emerge.  I tended it carefully in the spring only to realise it was an imposter which had planted itself in a spot where I'd probably thrown the spent compost from last year's potatoes. This amused me. I reckon, as the daughter of a farmer from Co Derry, potato growing is an innate skill.  We ate the first of my new potatoes from the plants I am growing in a dustbin on Saturday evening.  My book says you can harvest when they flower - only had a few as they are quite small so I'll leave them a bit longer.  They tasted good. 

I have a good crop of peas and beetroot.  I grow peas mainly so I can eat them raw straight from the pod as I did as a child.  Our summer holiday dinner was often new potatoes, peas and butter so we were sent off to gather the peas and then had to shell them. Many never reached the table.  

I am hoping my agapanthus, two of them in lovely terracotta pots which I got as a birthday present last year,  will flower, but though they look healthy there is no sign yet.  The B&Q hydrangea which looked like it was going to expire during the dry weather is now doing better though the flowers are a pale pink and not white as advertised.  Much nicer so I don't mind. 

A final picture of my usual garden companion who has totally destroyed the lawn. and my herb garden in pots.

A Life in Teaching

At the end of this term I am retiring from teaching.  I began my career in 1983, working full-time until I had Kate in 1999 and part-time since then, stopping for a couple of years when she was small.  So that's over 35 years, most of my lifetime.  In fact, because the school where I teach isn't planning to open before the summer holidays, I have already taught my last lesson in a real classroom. 

I have mixed feelings about this.  I'm pleased to be escaping the spreadsheets and target setting and data capture which take up so much of my time;  I will no longer have to face inspections or prepare for lesson observations.  I'll no longer have to wade through every single word of  'A Christmas Carol' with a reluctant GCSE group just in case an obscure passage is set in the exam.  But I'll miss the company of young people and how they make me look at the world in a different way and I'll miss the day to day contact with my friends in the English department and the staffroom. 

In the last week a couple of things have happened which have made me reflect on my career in teaching - I can't go into details here for reasons of confidentiality. One of these incidents upset me; the other delighted me.  That just about sums up how it has been over the years.  There have been difficult lessons, disrespectful pupils and challenging moments.  But I still get that feeling of elation when a lesson goes really well, or I succeed with a tricky pupil or read a piece of of really good work a student has produced.  Maybe elation is too strong a word for it but you know what I mean.  So overall no regrets about my career choice.  

Other than some Zoom teaching this week life has continued in the new routine we've established in the last few months: dog walks, online quiz evenings, gardening for me cycling for him, eating and drinking slightly more than is advisable.  I also made some Elderflower Cordial with some flowerheads collected on a walk.  It does not look very appealing - family members have unkindly said that one of the bottles looks like giant urine sample.  It tastes ok though a bit too sweet for my taste - will use less sugar next time.  Thought about trying Elderflower Champagne which my dad used to make but the recipe says I needed champagne yeast which I didn't have.  I'm sure he didn't bother with that.  The last time I made it one of the bottles exploded so that also made me a bit wary.

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Outings

Planted some manky looking old amaryllis bulbs and unexpectedly they both flowered.  Lasted about 3 days in the heat.

Not having been in the car or driven anywhere at all myself for ten weeks, I felt it was a kind of treat this week to go on a couple of outings. \None of these outings were 'essential travel' really.  But I made sure I 'stayed alert', as the illuminated roadside sign instruct me. En route to Sheffield via Snake Pass, we drove past huge numbers of parked cars and people presumably 'staying alert' while picnicking in the Pennines.  It is so beautiful there but we didn't stop to join them. We were going to Sheffield to pick up the remainder of Kate's belongings from her rented house.  This was not much fun; she has acquired huge amounts of stuff. And the terms of the contract require the room to be left perfectly clean and empty otherwise they might not get their deposit back. She was told to take a video of the room to prove this. The previous resident of the room before Kate hadn't paid much attention to this as, when we pulled the bed out to clean, we discovered discarded clothing and toenail clippings. Revolting. They've got a cheek these rental companies - when we arrived they'd been fitting a new bathroom and had turned the water off so we couldn't even go to the loo or have a cup of tea.  And yet she's been paying full rent and a fixed amount per month for bills.

Shady dog walk on Duke's Drive

Another more pleasant outing in the car this week was a short journey to the other side of town to walk the dog somewhere shady - like us she's not to keen on heat. Temperatures have soared here in the last few days after a weekend of high winds which nearly flattened my precious foxgloves and poppies. On Bank Holiday Monday we went to the Duke's Drive - a long straight shady path through mature woodlands which eventually, if you walk far enough, leads to Eccleston where the entrance to Eaton Hall, home of the Duke of Westminster can be found.  Anyway, having many entrances, the Duke allows us commoners to use this path and it is glorious.  Right now it is full of buttercups and cow parsley, honeysuckle and butterflies.

And I actually drove my own car one day this week on an trip to B&Q as I 'needed' some more compost, some tomato feed and various other garden essentials. Luckily, Mildred ( the name Kate has given the car) started first time and I hadn't forgotten how to drive. At B&Q, I was greeted by a young man in high-vis vest who informed me that I'd have to queue for at least 45 minutes to get in.   I turned around and left but noticed that the nearby 'Home and Bargain' was open for 'essential' purchases and there was no queue.  I spent an enjoyable half hour there purchasing bargain plants, seeds and bulbs as well as the compost I need to repot my tomato plant. It was fairly quiet and, except for a couple of strips of black tape by the check outs, no different from usual.  I was the only one in there wearing a mask and no one else seemed too bothered about social distancing.  I felt a bit of a prat really - probably wouldn't have bothered with the mask if Paul hadn't wanted me to.  He is still  very anxious about catching the virus.

Another highlight of the last week was a family photo quiz to celebrate my sister's birthday.  That was fun - I dug out old pictures and asked others to guess the date, place etc.  As we are now allowed to see up to six people, I'm looking forward to getting together for real.  We had planned a get-together in Liverpool in July for my sister's 60th but that's unlikely to go ahead now. At least there's hope on the horizon of some kind of meeting ‘

May.....ing

My blog revival has stalled a little.  I had visions of me writing daily posts in lockdown - a kind of online diary.  But that hasn't happened - I'm always too tired at the end of the day - blogging for me is a morning habit - something I do while others are still in bed and the house is quiet. So I'm using a format inspired by Christina to review my May.

More gardening.  There's been a lot of watering to do as, after the very wet winter, there's been hardly any rain in the north west in the last couple of months. My hard work is paying off as the foxgloves and alliums are now in bloom.  I've attempted new things like taking cuttings from dahlias.  And I'm having more success with growing plants from seed. Usually I can't be bothered with all the thinning, pricking out and potting on that's involved but with extra time on my hands I'm getting better at this.







Celebrating two anniversaries last week.  First of all we celebrated VE day with afternoon tea in the garden.  I made a Victoria Sponge with the last of our flour.  It's the only thing that still seems to be in short supply. I had to add a bit of pasta making flour and ground almonds - it turned out ok despite this. Another was the anniversary of the day I first met Paul -  5th May 1984. To be honest I often forget this one and it's him who remembers it; he forgets our official wedding anniversary. Family members have sometimes wondered how we have put up with each other for 36 years.  He is turning into a grumpy old man - everything makes him angry.  He's a lot like Victor Meldrew in the old sitcom 'One Foot in the Grave'.  Or to update the reference, the Ricky Gervaise character in 'After Life'. He really is quite happy to make his irritation with total strangers obvious.  His particular target recently are those who fail to observe the 2 metre distance advice.  On a dog walk last week he shouted at a cyclist riding on the pavement overtaking pedestrians within centimetres.  I cringed with embarrassment but I suspect the mother with the buggy on the pavement was grateful.  He makes me laugh, never lets me down and cooks dinner every night so I put up with the grumpiness. We celebrated by opening a bottle of wine to have with the meal he cooked. Not that the opening of the bottle of wine is an unusual event in this household.

 

Reading  'Wolf Hall' nearly finished. This month's bookclub choice is 'Merivel' by Rose Tremain so I need to get going on that.  I should probably read 'Restoration' first as it follows on from it.  It's not like me to read so much historical fiction but I'm quite enjoying it.  It's filling in some gaps in my knowledge too though I suppose I should check that the fictionalised version of events is actually accurate.

Sleeping surprising well. I'm almost scared to write this in case I jinx it.  Last night I went to sleep at 11, didn't wake until after 8 and can't remember being awake in the night.  I think it's the fact that I'm exercising more than usual, with a long dog walk every day as well as gardening.

Spending time with my daughter who is doing her university course online here rather than in Sheffield.  She's working hard as her exams have been replaced with additional coursework essays.  But there is still time to do other stuff.  We're doing a jigsaw I bought her years ago, making a collage rainbow and watching lots of rubbishy television.  And lots of quizzes. Her boyfriend is still here and he joins in with the quizzes.  He has several useful specialisms in addition to encyclopedic sports knowledge such as Flags of the World and Star Wars.

Watching television. In addition to the reality TV I've been watching with  Kate I am also enjoying 'Normal People'.  And we watched the film 'Hidden Figures' this week -  excellent film about the role of three really smart black women in NASA at the time of the moon landings.

That's it for May so far.  I've quite enjoyed writing this though it seems to have taken most of the day.  Apart from dog walk, watering and one load of washing this is all I've achieved. Oh well - I'm getting used to a slow pace of life.