Will it be another catch up time?

Just exhausted this weekend, I am still hating school and really am looking to get out of there sooner rather than later.  However will keep plodding on as I love the children I teach.  I posted a photo for :

Day 15 of Fun                                                     
We had a group of professional musicians come in to school and played alongside the children.
I didn't know if our children would cope with Handel's Firework Music and Indiana ones but they did really well and we were very proud of their percussion skills.  They even gave a concert to Year 5 at the end of the morning.  

Day 14 Drink

Well of course I had to choose my first cuppa of the day as that is the best one I think.  I don't know why but I always enjoy that one best of all and in my snowy mug it seems all the warmer.

Day 13 was ordinary and for the life of me I cannot remember what I posted!  Oops memory must be going but I do know what I posted for Day 12 with the prompt of bag.  Just two bags, one however is a little more of a favourite than the other - can you guess which?

 And then of course I remembered what the Ordinary day was - a bag full of books to mark!

Day 18 was Today so I wrote a list of all the things I needed to do today and got on and did some of them.  I managed to cross off quite a few as well.

 

Didn't manage to achieve them all but never mind I did the best I could and that is all that matters.

Yesterday we had some sad news that Martin's Uncle Alex passed away on Friday.  He was a lovely man and always made me feel very welcome whenever I saw him.  Sadly he had been ill for his last few weeks and I am sure it will be a happy release in some ways for him as he is no longer suffering.  Now I always love the idea that those close to us look over us and I have seen on Facebook many a time about a robin appearing to remind us of someone who has gone.  Well yesterday just after I had heard the news this little chap appeared in the garden.

  

I know what I like to think.  Had a lovely time out there although not that positive I have made a big impact as yet but never mind  little and often will get the job done I am sure.  Positive was Day 17's prompt

   

My brand new stainless steel fork which I am positive will make such a difference to my efforts.

I also have to be positive that something will turn up for Martin as he is still searching for a job - let us hope that the interview he had has a positive result.

Right off now to get into my cosy pyjamas and perhaps I will have my photo for today's prompt.

Guess what? Another catch up session of photos

I knew once school started that it would be a nightmare to get my photos uploaded to my blog so will just have to play catch up as I go along.  Some of them feature the garden around me, some of them were a little more difficult to think of the prompt but I got there in the end and have completed a full week.  School was a bit like that, traumatic week for some people with little or no help from where it should come from.  Good job we all stick together and help each other out.  

We finally have a front fence again, not the best erected fence as they found problems when they were trying to put the posts down into the group as there is a drain run, just rain water but a solid pipe about 6 - 8 inches under the ground along the line for the fence.  It is done, it is up and looks okay if you don't look too closely. We are still trying to sort out the tree in our neighbour's garden as we had one estimate that was very very high so we are awaiting another estimate.

Had a lovely Saturday lunchtime mooch with Cheryl around the garden centre and of course the obligatory tea and cake were consumed.  Also did a little bit of shopping for the birds but other than that the sale there was of pretty little interest.  Popped into town before going to meet her and managed to secure the children's cheques into their accounts before Daniel could divert money into his gaming world!  All in all a good weekend so far.

This morning have woken to a beautiful frosty day, the lawn is white with frost, the cars are frozen and the sky was a lovely blue mottled with red streaks.  I have done my maths planning, my action plan, e mails that needed sorting and now await the arrival of the food shopping as old Mother Hubbard would say, "the cupboards are bare!"

Saved the man has arrived:

And the shopping is all put away no thanks to my husband and saw me lug the bags to the kitchen and didn't even ask if he could help!

Daily Snappers Day 12 Up

 Wonder why the price of our shopping is going up, it is because the children spend more time now at home munching as they are commuting to college for shorter days and can get home on the train from Reigate to Horsham.  Our food bills continue to go "up" to support their food habit!












Daily Snappers Day 11 Carry

Today's prompt made me think of :

the cars that carry us all over the place : to work, to school, to college, to athletics, shopping, recreation etc. This is my take on the prompt for carry.










Daily Snappers Day 10 Look our your window

This was a bit of a catch up photo as didn't quite manage to fit one in so had to carry over to the next day but thought it was lovely to see the moon high in a clear sky with the arms of our "protected" black walnut tree standing with arms outstretched.

Daily Snappers Catch up

Day 6 Clouds
It was a bit of a cheat as I took this lovely sunrise on a frosty day a few days before the prompt, I knew it was coming up, but just could not resist that beautiful sky and the frosty ground.

Day 7 Straight

This was a tricky one so had to put my thinking hat on and sort it when I got home. Dinner inspired me and thus we had:

Day 8 White

Today I thought about doing this in school but sadly that did not materialise so another check around the house and I came up with my lovely kitchen, the one that I can swing more that a cat now, at least a medium size dog.  I love it!

Phew so there we are all caught up again with the blogging.  Once school starts it gets hectic but I am honestly trying to do my best!

Daily Snappers Day 5 "Touch"

This one was more in the negative than in the positive as I refused to touch these at all as that would be Martin's job and if he couldn't bother to do it before he went to bed then he could be greeted by these in the morning when he awoke because I was not going to.

Amazing how other people felt about this as well, looks like it happens elsewhere.

Daily Snappers Day 4 "One"

This I wasn't too sure about but decided to post a picture of the Christmas tree as it had only ONE more day left before it came down for another year.  Sad to see it go but it was lovely whilst it was there.

Our first Christmas in our new house was certainly an eventful one.

Daily Snappers Day 3 Ice

Oh this one was a struggle because all we have outside is water of the rainy kind.  Rain, rain and more rain.  We even have some inside as we have a leaking chimney and a roof leak, neither are too bad and not planning to do anything about them until we get some dry weather...... whenever that may be.  However Ice was not around today at all.  I spent the day thinking about it and it wasn't until late in the evening that Sarah went to the freezer to retrieve a towel she had put in there.  She had had a headache the night before and thought a cooling towel would work well.  Most people would put a small towel in maybe..... not my daughter, she does and puts in a bath towel and draped it around her head and neck.  Well had to quickly snap a picture as she is a bit camera shy these days...... not the best quality but it fitted the prompt for today.
Then I get the "look" - what are you doing mum?

Jobs to be done

Well following the aftermath of the storms and the Christmas fiasco, we are left with a few jobs that need doing.  Having spent a lovely morning with Pam, enjoying coffee and a chat I returned home to go shopping with Sarah and sort out her finances.  We seemed to spend a long time sitting in Barclays waiting to see an advisor and eventually managed to transfer her children's saving account into an ISA for her.  Took some time but we got there in the end.  Funnily enough I am off to do the same thing with Daniel, why they cannot co-ordinate this between them so we only have one trip to the bank I simply do not know.  However it did give me the chance to get my photo yesterday for the daily photo challenge - a colourful rainbow - before the heavens opened yet again and we were met with more rain to finish the day.  I have had enough of rain now.  It can go away and let us have some blue skies.

Sadly when we had the storm over Christmas we lost a number of fish from our marine tank and would have lost them all had Martin not stayed up all night with the tank and agitated the water to allow the oxygen to get into the tank.  We managed to save our shark catfish, our nemos and one of the Monos however we lost our puffa fish and our regal tang as well as some of the smaller fish.  Sarah and Martin went off to replace some of them and came back with a new puffa and a new regal tang.  Our tang is very camera shy and hides in the rocks however the puffa seems to be more outgoing that our previous one and is happy to pose in the rocks, virtually sitting still for his photo shoot.  Not great quality but...................he camouflages beautifully into the rocks. 

We still have a number of other outstanding jobs to get sorted - namely the tree that needs to be removed from next door's lawn and the tall fir tree at the bottom of the garden that needs to be taken down before it falls down.  We also had someone come and look at the fence in the front garden and that has been ordered to get done as well.  We will slowly get back to normal I am sure.  

Daily Snappers Day 2 Colourful

I wasn't sure what to post on the Daily snappers page today with the prompt for colourful but I left it and thought I would think about it as the day went of.  This has been such a dreadful Christmas and New Year weather wise that when Sarah and I went out for a quick trip into town we parked at the top of the car park and spotted a rainbow.  What a good start to a New Year.  It is not the best photo by any means but it seemed like a good omen.  So here is my "colourful" shot for today.

Daily Snappers Photo challenge Day 1 "Gives You Hope"

Not sure how long I can keep this going as life does tend to take over, but it is a new year and I might as well try again to take a photograph each day and collect them up so we shall see.

Daily Snappers Challenge  Day 1 post from me.  This is my first photograph of the year.

A reading challenge to start the year

Alphabet 2014 Book Challenge


Might just have a go at this, but first of all need to learn all about the links etc.

So here goes

A 

B  Breakfast at Darcy's Ali McNamara  Found this on the good reads site as a recommended read and then thought would have to have a go as it was supposedly set off on an island off the coast of Ireland.  Am enjoying it so far so will have to see what happens. Just finished it today as I couldn't put it down and loved it.  I want to read more by this author.  Just a lovely magical tale of Celtic magic. (5/01/14)

C   Cupcakes at Carringtons  Alexandra Brown  An okay read but wanted to finish it rather than enjoy reading it.  Too many characters and not enough of a "real plot" for me.  (3/01/14)


D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

A Quiet New Years Eve

What horrible weather to end the year on!  Rain, rain and more rain and heavy showers as well.Even got soaked walking to the post box!

  A day to get some work done and some other chores but eventually you need to get out and about so went off for a mooch around the shops.  Still miserable out there then though.  Went off to get the animals some supplies - new water bottles this time.  A little look in M and S, nothing much around there and drop off a parcel at the Post Office for Martin.  I lead such an exciting life don't I? 

We were having an evening in so just got a few bits of food and we were all set.  Daniel, at the last minute, decided to go out to a friend's house.  Martin drove him as I didn't want Daniel out on the roads later that evening, I always worry about spiked drinks etc, other drivers on the road.....shall I go on? Martin will pick him up when he needs to get home but he decided to stay the night.

Sitting down, relaxing, watching telly and the door bell goes.  Our porch is open so I went out to find a mysterious box sitting there and when opened revealed a lovely bouquet of flowers from my friend Cheryl and family as she thought I had had a dreadful start to Christmas with no electricity and wanted the old year to end with something nice.  A lovely, lovely thought which certainly brought a smile to my face.

Very lucky to have such good friends.
We stayed up to watch the fireworks on telly and roundabouts although why some people start at about 11.15 I don't know.  In truth it was more a case of going to bed with my book and then getting back up nearer to midnight as there is nothing much of interest on telly on New Years Eve really.  I did sit down and watch Holby City which I enjoyed but apart from that my book held my attention more tonight.  The fireworks were lovely but I was tucked up in bed by 12.30 again with my book by my side.