Week 34: A Whale of a Time!

The week started off really well the night before with this delicious homemade pudding, made by my nieces and nephew.  It was their version of 'Eaton Mess', and it was out of this world!!  They cooked a 3-course meal from start to finish for me and my sisters. 

Well, I've had a great time teaching 2 groups of B1 classes at the Lake School. Friday we said our goodbyes, and it was nice to hear how much they had enjoyed themselves. This made me very happy! 

I often ask myself why students sometimes say my classes are funny, when I am not a natural comedienne, but... I like having a good time with my students, and chatting to them about everyday things....  I also like teaching colloquial English, and the lessons always seem to go down very well, especially with younger adults.

Some of my Lake School colleagues are doing a marathon night-time walk in London in aid of Cancer Research.  I hold this charity dear to my heart as I was a CRUK volunteer for almost 20 years from 1987 - 2007 in Oxford.  I stopped working in the charity shop just before I moved to Abruzzo.

I created a ToonDo comic for them which I sent along with my donation:

 

I love using comics, and not only just for teaching purposes! 

The week zipped past and I was able to reflect on my past 35 years of teaching in a very positive way.  I had vowed not to do any extra work at home so that I could chill out a bit more than usual, but on Wednesday evening I couldn't help myself, and I ended up buring the midnight oil.  I did some internet research for an online article that I had given my class to read for homework, so I did a Tagxedo word cloud, which contained some of the key words connected to Urban Living.  The lesson went very well and a lot of discussion took place.

My writng on the whiteboard hasn't improved much over the years, but my students were kind enough to say that they could make it out........

Suffixes Brainstorm

We then sang the Logical Song by Supertramp, which contains approximately 20 suffixes!  Many thanks to my student Matteo for suggesting this great song, which really tied in with the vocabulary area we had been studying!

This afternoon (Sunday)  I went to Milton Manor House in the Oxfordshire countryside and took lots of photos of the beautiful house and gardens!  It is a lived-in family home and historic house, open to visitors and researchers at various key points of the year, such as Bank Holidays.

The manor house is celebrating 250 years since the Barrett family began to reside there. 

There was a dramatic re-enactment of the outbreak of the First World War and how it affected the house at that time.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and gave us a lot of information about the history and background of this wonderful country home.

The walled garden was lovely!

 An alien amidst the foliage below!

Nurses waiting for soldiers arriving at the home during the first world war..... (enactment)

Milton Manor House is one of the few places in England to have its own private chapel, where family weddings over the generations have taken place.

I absolutely loved walking round this beautifully-kept manor house, and really enjoyed the tea and delicious cake after the tour.  The service was excellent, and the young staff on duty were impeccably polite and attentive.

Below a gorgeous cherub on one of the walls of the house.

Week 34 was a great week!!  I now have a couple of days free and then as long as the Icelandic volcano does not erupt over the next 48 hours, then it will be time to head back to K, my furkids and gartden in Abruzzo.  I have missed them a lot, and can't wait to get back.  

I wonder how my courgettes, runner beans, potatoes, onions etc are all faring....

Week Ten

This week has been a very nice quiet one and that is the way I like it!   
K took the motorbike out for a spin yesterday evening and has kindly given me permission to add this photo here.

I just love all the colours of the sunset.  This was taken at the top of our road.  The predicted rain still hasn't arrived and fingers crossed it won't be too bad if it does come.  The road is beginning to move again, (yes, I know, it is a scary thought) and cracks are appearing across it again.

I created a tagxedo heart for a summary on Monday.

I highlighted a forthcoming Spring Blog Festival on my main blog here.  
I reused the image of the almond tree in blossom, as I like it so much!

It promises to be a great event and lots of presenters will be discussing the art of blogging, including Shelly Terrell, Sylvia Guinan and many more.

On Thursday I picked a few flowers to put in this sweet little jug I bought from a charity shop.  I like to add fresh rosemary twigs into the display.

I am keeping a constant eye on the bowl of olives I am pickling.  They were freshly picked off our trees in November and have been in a brine solution since then.  I have to keep checking the taste and changing the liquid from time to time, and tonight I think they are almost ready for eating!  They taste quite delicious and the sprigs of rosemary adds a nice flavour to them.

I recycled some plastic tubs which had contained food and made some plant labels out of them. Nothing ever goes to waste!

I created a Good Luck comic to send to 2 colleagues who are going to China for a few weeks to do some teacher training on behalf of the Lake School. Comics are a fun way to send all kinds of messages.

Our cutter hadn't arrived by Friday so I had to ring the company to ask where it was....It should arive tomorrow.

A lovely Friday evening spent in a local pizzeria with some friends.  It was great to catch up on their news and it all came to the princely sum of 10 euros each.  We had a huge pizza each and wine and beer to drink.  In the UK an equivalent meal would cost up to £20 per head, so prices can still be reasonable in Italy.

For an online weekend activity I created a rose Tagxedo to highlight activities I was doing over the weekend.  

A nice relaxing week, all in all!

Roll on Week 11.