Clarissa et al.

So, the holidays have begun.

Pa had a meeting in KingsLynn yesterday so Joe and I took advantage of a free day out and went down with him.

Did I say free? Well, despite the concessionary rate I get as a museum worker, I still had to pay. Then we went to St. Margaret's Church, and for a too hot walk around the town.

It was during this stroll that I came across the statue of George Vancouver and decided that I really want to take a cousin - any Huston cousin - on pilgrimage both to see and photograph this the founding father of where they live, and thence to visit Nan's birthplace and great-grandfather Jones grave. (Shelagh et al. this is a hint!)

At Joe's behest we went to look at an antique shop. He spotted some Woods Yuanware, which I bought. I thought on the whole that it was a rather expensive shop, but the three bowls (one 1930s and two 1960s/70s) at £6 each less 10% and with no postage to pay were cheaper than the same over the internet, and the magnificent quart jug for which I paid £10.80 (inc. my 10% discount) is priced around the £70+ mark on the two sites I found with similar but smaller jugs for sale.

Not that I have the slightest intention of selling them - these collectables are for use! I value tradition and I am simply replenishing the everyday tableware which my family has used since the 1920s (the Yuan design goes back to 1916).

After that we needed lunch. I chose a nice cool salad (Joe had soup) and was rather surprised to find the quiche served hot, especially as I had remarked to the waitress on the oddity of boys choosing hot food on a hot day.

The week after next I am working for a couple of days - historical toys with an assortment of children and their parents - one day at the museum and one at Normanby. Last night's thunderstorm has done nothing to make it less hot and muggy, but I'm hoping for a touch of coolth while I am at work.

I am puppy sitting this afternoon as Jess is at Pony Club camp and Helen is duty mother today. Rowan is asleep on my feet so I shall just have to continue at the computer when I should really be cleaning the bedrooms and bathroom.

Friday

The garden is out of control - the plants are parched and the weeds are thriving. We had the most wonderful crop of cherries ever (no wonder M&S is giving the things away!) but the birds have now eaten those too high for mere humans to reach. The raspberries are coming to the end of their season, but have been plentiful if rather small. The earliest apples are just reaching the edible stage although they are still a couple of weeks off full ripeness.

I am rather surprisingly teaching every day this week when normally schools don't seem to do educational visits in the last week of term. The enormously popular 'Beasts of the Nile' exhibition moves on in August so this is their only opportunity to see it in the museum although the workshop will continue as an outreach.

However, the conditions under which we do the workshop are a little too authentic for comfort in the hottest week of the year, in the hottest room in the museum.

Jess has a new spaniel puppy. His name is Rowan, he is seven weeks old and the half brother of Teal. He is very sweet and very sleepy. He loves the two other dogs and treats Daisy, the dalmatian, as a surrogate mother. She loves him too, as does Midnight, the cat. Tilly, the border terrier, reserves judgement.

Note
Teal was run over just before last Christmas by an idiot who swerved onto the grass verge where he was sitting. It is believed that the idiot was on his mobile phone; if he wasn't it was the first time since the things were invented.

Last week I wrote in response to something on Liz's blog,

"What a difference a class teacher can make! Two groups on consecutive days, same year, same school, same mildly deprived area, same helpers; both groups had very pleasant male form teachers and both groups were very well behaved and pleasant, but one group was quiet with little information on the subject and a certain reluctance to answer questions, while the other was very well informed and bubbling over with information (including one boy whom I suspect knows more about ancient Egypt than I do). I look forward to the third group next week."

Today I visited a little country school to do the Egyptian outreach: before playtime I had years three and four who were attentive, well-behaved, interested and had a great deal to contribute to the lesson. After break it was years five and six who were on the whole so silly, talkative, and generally ill-mannered that I felt really sorry for the minority who really wanted to hear what I had to say. I know that the year 6s tend to be a bit 'demob happy' at this time of year, but it must be at least in part the responsibility of the class teacher when there is such a difference in ethos from one group to the next.

And here the greatest strength of the small school - the caring, family atmosphere - becomes its greatest weakness because it relies so much on the excellence of a few teachers, and the children remain with the same teacher for so long.

Friday, July 14th

Just to add to this - probably my last observation on teaching this term - today's nursery school came accompanied by 17 adults to the thirteen children (4 teachers/nursery nurses plus 13 parents). As usual when this happens the children are totally confused and don't seem to know how they are expected to behave or who to look to for authority. The parents chat to their children and the teachers are unable to intervene and get school standards of concentration and attention back.

While Federer was busy winning Wimbledon four of us were having a delightful day out at Tattershall Castle. It is a perennial pleasure to introduce friends to favourite places, people, pastimes, books etc., and Lisbet, after around a decade in England - in Lincolnshire -, had not visited Tattershall, despite having painted a picture of the place from a photograph.

So, after Morning Prayer at Croxby, Lisbet, Carolyn, Joe and I set off. On arrival we had our picnic lunch - Lemon Tuna starter from Lisbet, Poached Salmon, rice and prawn salad, green salad and new potatoes main course from me, Madiera (both booze & cake), peach and almond trifle from Carolyn, and home-made lemonade from Joe - followed by a nice cup of tea. Replete, we packed our picnic things back in the car and went to look at the castle. Although rain had threatened in the morning we enjoyed lovely sunshine for our picnic and sight-seeing, and had a beautifully clear view from the top of Boston Stump and Lincoln Cathedral.

We popped into the church to have a look just as they were about to start Evensong and stayed thus doubling the congregation.

Then we went home by way of Bolingbroke Castle which I discovered to my amazement had never previously been visited by the other three.

I came home to a toasted cheese sandwich and an evening watching Italy's somewhat lack-lustre victory over France in the World Cup.

On Thursday I took the Egyptian workshop to a special school in Lincoln. I was a bit nervous about this both because I had never done this particular workshop as an outreach before and also because I wasn't certain what to expect from the children.

The children were absolutely fantastic and I must mention especially Becky, James, Lucy and a little girl with an African name I can't even begin to spell who were eagre, interested, well-informed and wholly delightful. I also have to mention Josh who, while I was setting up during lunch break, parked his wheelchair outside the window to watch what I was doing and then tried to get straight in instead of going to registration, and Ellie who cried because she thought I had brought a real corpse to mummify and then laughed at herself so delightfully and delightedly when she realised her mistake and found it was only a 'teddy' corpse - a four foot tall humanoid with a velcroed slit up his abdomen and felt internal organs. (I find that children use the word teddy to describe anything soft and stuffed, not just bears - an interesting language shift.)

Friday was a day off, so Joe and I decided to visit the newly refurbished Alford Manor House. This small manor house is of major architectural and historical importance as the largest and best preserved thatched manor house in Europe.

It used to be full of the miscellaneous trash and treasure of a typical folk museum; now the rooms (virtually all of which you can now see with none closed because their floors, ceilings, or walls are unsafe) are empty so that you can see, understand and enjoy the building itself. I am glad that I have seen it thus, but I miss the old clutter and feel that there is a place for a compromise between this almost clinical perfection and the former rampant eclecticism. Obviously it would take both time and money, but I think I would like things like "Miss Margaret's Parlour 1773", "Sir John's Bedroom 1692", "Betty and Eliza's attic bedroom 1864" etc. (Properly researched with the real names of course.)

The guides were absolutely wonderful. I don't know whether the fact that I mentioned I work at a museum got me special treatment, but their enthusiasm for the whole project was wonderful, as was their knowledge. (The cake in the tea room was very nice and the locally made cups were a proper size, not daft little thimbles.)

We went on to look at the church, and then on to Well which has an eighteenth century church which was unfortunately locked. There was a key notice, but with phone numbers and no addresses: we tried, but - guess what? - no network coverage!

Nonetheless, it was a very pleasant day out, and the park and exterior of Well Vale Hall well worth a look.