Demob happy teacher

A good day

A good day here at the moment, weather-wise, is one in which it doesn't rain at all and a very good day is one in which we get to see the sun, albeit for a few minutes only. As I said to Keith this morning, we worked hard to get a tan (he still has the scars to prove it!) and now it's all but faded in the three weeks we've been back.
However, a good day for me is also one in which I get a new client and today I have had requests from, not one but two!
Just to keep things in balance, however, Elder Daughter requested an emergency loan of a chunk of money to ensure that they have wheels for their current holiday in Italy.
I'd better get a decent bottle of vino rosso out of it!
Keith, of course, wants a stick of rock with 'Italy' written all the way through it. I'm not sure he believed me when I told him that is not going to happen...

A Mother's Story: Together again

A Mother's Story: Passing time

Mystery solved

I had an email from TK last night, which said that, rather than the cygnets being hunted by humans, the culprits were likely to be pike, which apparently are known to pull quite large birds under the surface of the water by their legs.
To quote Michael Caine, 'Not a lot of people know that!'
(Well, I didn't anyway.)

And on the canal

I was in Chester on Tuesday for supervision. My supervisor's place of practice is right on the bank of the canal and she and other occupants of the block take a great interest in the local birdlife. Through the spring and summer, they have watched this family of swans.
Now the cygnets have become 'teenagers' but unfortunately, there were six and, over the last few weeks, this has reduced to three. It's hard to believe that foxes have taken them at the size they are now so that leaves the possibility of them being captured by human predators, to be eaten. Not a pleasant thought and we are hoping that the three remaining juveniles will survive to reach adulthood.

After the holiday

I think Keith and I have definitely proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that travelling over twenty four hours with brief naps in the car wasn't the best thing for us to do and of course, we did do it twice just to make sure. The result is that we are still quite tired. We can deduce this from the fact that Keith has been tucked up in bed by 9pm at the latest every evening this week and I have been found slumbering gently on the sofa for a good hour every afternoon. Hopefully, we will eventually get back to normal (whatever that is) like Paddy, who was totally exhausted on his first day back home from the kennels but has since been his usual self. Maybe we will need another holiday to recover from this one.
Meanwhile, I'm off to make a cup of very strong coffee!

This time last week

This time last week, Keith and I had spent a couple of hours in the swimming pool at Floc Ferme enjoying the sun and the calm relaxing atmosphere. My main problem with actually getting into the pool as I don't do heights and anything above three feet above ground is 'height' in my book and this pool has 'up and over' steps to get into it.
However, taking my courage in both hands, and with Keith holding onto the steps, I finally made it (courage or wot!).
Keith's main problem was that he forgot that he is rather fair skinned and two hours in the pool without the sun protection that he forgot to put on resulted in Very Sore Shoulders Indeed, which are still pretty sore a week later.