better write something

just realised how long it has been since i posted something.  work is full on .......in a nice way.
i am making time to finish my BAO project and nearly there but the last bits of embroidery are very slow to do.  but that is ok.  i think i will be able to post them next week......the wet weather has meant a lot of time under weights trying to make sure they don't buckle too much.
it has been fun but i am looking forward to mailing them off.... i'm at that stage in the process where you are looking forward to the next things you want to make more than the one you need to finish... this always happens to me.... maybe it happens to everyone....? it is a sort of nice part of the whole thing.... the anticipation of both finishing and starting at the same time.... i love that.

am really enjoying my classes...yrs 8, 11 and 12 ; a nice mix of personalities and strengths and some great texts to teach.  At the moment am planning a inquiry response to The Old Man and the Sea for my year 11 class...an throwing Gran Torino in as a supplementary text ...it is going to be interesting to see how they respond and what sort of directions they head off in.....very exciting....i feel like a fraud sometimes...their young minds teach me more than i ever teach them ...but don't tell anyone that....one young woman is going to investigate the context of fishing in the novel and compare it to the heartless practice seen by commercial fishing practices today - im not sure how she is linking gran torino to this thesis but im sure she'll come up with something surprising.

a couple of weeks ago we had the bega show and i entered some preserves and my date loaf...  i don't really know why except a couple of the woman in the office at work are long time exhibitors and i sort of thought why not...my grandmother (who died before I was born) was a renowned and successful exhibitor,  especially at the candelo show...so it sort of became one of those things i needed to do...anyway my date loaf and tomato chutney both got first place, my green tomato mustard pickle and chilli relish both got second place.....it was the most exciting thing..walking throw the pavillion and seeing the blue and red cards perched in front of my stuff......i do have to confess there were only two date loafs entered so it was more a relief than anything but still.....
however after the initial flourish of winning passed i was a little disturbed by the obvious fallinge off of interest in pavillion exhibitions...not just the dateloaf...but most of the baking was a little light on.....do we need to make sure this iconic tradition does not fade into the past.....what can we do to make sure it grows into the new millenium....have we stopped cooking and preserving.....paying homage to the harvest...i hope not.

 and the rain ....you have to see it down here to believe  it and it wouldn't really make sense without before and after photos.  most people thought there grass had gone .. lawns were a thing remembered.....cattle and sheep eating grass ....gone ....  but one weekend and  10 inches of rain has brought it back....they say the eskimos have 28 words for white .... i am thinking at the moment i could have 28 words for green.....


i started doing it(28 words for green, lol) but stopped .... they all sounded so cliched and cheesy......maybe i no longer have any words for green.......i'm just glad we can finally see and smell it.