Dales' diary entry

The week ended with a nice sense of calm, which makes a nice change, even after the Foundation Stage sports day. I must confess to a slight anxiety about the prospect of teaching next year's January Reception class, which is the current plan. I foresee another steep learning curve on the horizon.

J and I got up early and drove over to Whitby for a spot of shopping - ostensibly to buy a pressie from the Leadership team for our secretary.



I think that it will be our last visit until after the Summer as there are far too many people at this time of year for us. It's still a lovely place to visit and we like to drive home making detours into Eskdale and Glaisdale.



Bought a few things to send of to my SP8 Spoilee and some CD's of World Music to use in school. Also bought a Thunder Drum, which was for use in school, but I don't think it will get there. I can't even include a photo as j has commandeered it for his own use. It was the same with the rainstick, the beanbag people and the jumbo metallic pencils... Weird, because I can imagine the look on his face if I brought any of these things home and told him I had bought them for him :)

This was the bag the Thunder Drum came in, from the Fairtrade Shop. It's made from a couple of pages of the New Delhi Business Times and two bits of string. Amazingly strong.



I am completely unable to go to Whitby without a trip to Bobbins and a small yarn purchase.



Two small skeins of Louisa Harding's Sari Ribbon. I think it will work well with another yarn in a scarf.

Called at Sleights and had lunch of crab salad sandwiches on the river bank at Perry's. I'm trying really hard to like fishy things and to try different kinds of fish whenever possible. It's not really working out that well, however. I still only really like plaice, tinned tuna, smoked haddock, cod in batter (with chips from Verrill's) and mackeral in pate. And it's been a long slog to get this far! Actually, training myself to like Gin and tonic was much easier.



Pottered in the garden when we got home. Everything is huge and there are so many lovely colours and textures at the moment:





Views from the deck. The cardboard wine case isn't a feature, but J picked up a couple of new Phlox on the way home today.



J's bird feeding station. We get all sorts of garden birds and it's funny to watch bigger birds like jackdaws and wood pigeons trying to balance on the hanging feeders.





The Sea Hollies are doing really well this year and have self-seeded all over. We just leave those that seem to be well-positioned.