Wednesday 10th December - head in sand mode

Tra-la-la - I've got my fingers in my ears and I'm not listening - what's that? Only two weeks until Christmas? Why that's a WHOLE FORTNIGHT - plenty of time....

We were out and about this morning; off to my father's flat to meet someone who was coming to to the energy survey thingy certificate we need as part of the wadge of paperwork for selling  property. As I was about to get into the car I stopped to take a photograph of this moth;

 

The markings are so intricate and pretty. Although not much use as camouflage against the window!  I hoped it would fly away as we moved off.

The survey didn't take long, it was a lovely morning and so we went off for a little drive to charge up the car battery and visited a Country Store - oh joy! It was the sort of shop where you could by pet food, horse food, chicken food, hunting shooting fishing farming clothes, and all sorts of strange things to do with small farming machinery and bits of hardware. 

Near the front were several aisles full of farm foods, and several aisles full of Christmas jams, biscuits, chutneys, sweets - my eyes were on stalks!

We came away with biscuits, eggs, chocolates, and what I really wanted to buy; a beanie hat with a torch.

It's for a Christmas present for Vicky, my gardener (she doesn't read this blog). An elderly friend put me on to them; she said her son and grandsons had them for working with the sheep, and she bought one for herself for when she goes out at night. The number of times I've watched Vicky carry on digging and delving long past dusk...

RandonThoughts commented about the Maddy Prior recording of 'the Angel Gabriel' carol; as a contrast to Voces8, here it is.

I used to have a lot of fun with the infant classes with this CD; we used to make up circle dances and the like in the last few weeks of the Autumn Term. 

I played their Gaudate to one very difficult class. Well, it was an easy class really, except for one 6-going-on-16 boy, let's call him Chas. He was the youngest of five boys but several years. The teachers had endured the previous four and their verdict was none of the men in that family had any respect for women!

We listened to the music, and I asked for their impressions and comments. To add some movement, I suggested the children choose whether to stand still when the men sang and stand still when Maddy sang, or vice versa.

We did that once, and then Chas took charge. He had organised all the boys 'you're the army', lining them up in pairs and instructing them to march round the room when the men sang, and then told the girls to dance when the woman sings. 'Right, let's be having the music, Miss'. 

And that as one happy class, content to be slotted into their stereotypes, which I watched fascinated. And relieved; call me a chicken if you like, but one had to be feeling strong to deal with Chas at the end of the school day, if Chas wasn't in the mood. Strength is something most teachers are fast running out of at the end of December!

Hard to think this track was released 50 years ago....