November...

Random pics from Nov so far, some may even be from the end of Oct...

 Yummy paella and tapas. Lovely night but a sad occasion really. A goodbye to a friend who could take our western Scottish weather no more and has now relocated to the sunnier climes of Somerset...

 Amazing how adding some seeds makes the bread maker bread look fab.

 Still loving my drive to school. This one was from the view point car park. I did later take some sneaky ones en-route when able to slow down due to being on my own or stuck behind slow drivers...

 Fireworks night!

 Lovely frosty weekend morning. Some pics from the garden...

 N had Star the dragon home. I wrote out what he wanted to say about him and he copied it into the jotter.

 Beautiful evening skies...

 I've been making more window stars.

 I actually used these to base my crit lesson on. We looked at shape properties, angle sizes and lines of symmetry as we made them. I'll be going in early on Monday to stick 25 stars on the classroom windows. Four kids were off, would otherwise have had 29 to do. I passed my crit, woohoo! Such a relief! I've so much admiration for teachers now knowing what they have to go through not just day to day but in qualifying to be a teacher in the first place.

A last look at the view on the way home after my crit on Friday.

Still two weeks of placement to go. I'm teaching for my first full day on Mon so that will be interesting...

Untitled.

Still here!

Just wanted to note that A has informed me of her first two items for her Santa list:
1. Three packets of polos
2. A pack of blu tak.
Awww!

N, on the other hand, wants everything he sees on the telly.

I'm having a very short break from lesson planning. It takes me soooo long to do. I'm up till 1am most nights now trying to get it done. I just hate the feeling of running out of things to keep "them" busy, I'm not comfortable ad-libbing to class yet, hopefully that will come.

Just three weeks of placement left. Crit next week too, eek!

I've been taking a few photos here and there but haven't had time to upload or sort them. Still, can't have a post without pictures. Here's an old one for now of a mirror I once designed and made, back when I had time to do such things...

Necropolis

The essay is 99% finished, just a few minor tweaks required. Now that it's almost out the way I feel like I'm released back into normal life! Hopefully, the level of chocolate consumption will drop back down to normal now too, which will be a good thing.

At the end of last week I had an hour long break. I fancied some fresh air, a change from sitting in the library. We're close to quite a few of Glasgow's historic visitor attractions, I decided to go for a wander round one I'd not been to before - the necropolis. Even the name sounds wonderful, it literally means "city of the dead". I seem to recall it being a bit of a no-go area when I was at Uni first time round, however, it seems safe enough these days. Here follow lots of drippy, misty photos, quite atmospheric but not great for the views. I had my new boots on again, it's a bit of a revelation wearing jeans tucked in - it's cosy and dry, no more flappy soggy trouser leg bottoms and chilly draughts wafting up your legs!

The Thief of Time.

I have an essay to write. I've already spent all of last weekend working on it but I fear that what I've written is not what "they're" looking for. I've also written too much. Before taking it to pieces and re-writing it I decided to procrastinate by sharing some October photos.

I often take my camera with me on my daily trips into town but I've been a little self-conscious about taking photos when so many others can see me. Silly I know. However, I took a different route back to the train station the other day and was stopped in my tracks by a piece of amazing, unexpected and huge street art. Other people were taking photos so I was happy to join in.

A robin for Country Mouse who is still out there somewhere.

 Big feet. The next photo will show you just how big...

 Big!

 Here's the robin in situ. The little bit of parked car gives a sense of scale.

 Boo! Capercaillie and red squirrel.

 Blue tit (and some scribbles, honestly, some people...)

 Another squirrel, some deer and a fox (and more cars).

 This photo's just to give an idea of the location, the artwork is painted on to the backs of buildings adjoining a car park.

Hedgehog for N (who loves hedgehogs).

 And a worm at the end.

 A little further on and I passed the Duke of Wellington. He's well known for wearing his traffic cone hat (have a look here!), today the horse has one too.

Another new thing for me since returning to Uni - a pair of slim jeans with boots worn over the top. Radical it's not, but it's a big change from my usual bootcut/flared jeans hiding my footwear. The boots (of leather (writing that brings the Velvet Underground song to mind, not really appropriate here!)) were a bargain £49 from Matalan. Some observations on current female student fashion - no one wears bootcuts, it's all skinny jeans (I didn't quite go that far) or little skirts. There is rather a lot of hair around and I'm a little jealous. I keep mine in a bob as it's prematurely grey and I find it easier to dye it when it's fairly short. No, I'm not ready to let the grey show yet, for the simple reason that it's beyond grey - the front roots are white and I'm still "only" in my forties, and early forties at that. People with great facial features and style can pull it off, not me. Anyway, back to the students. They all like to pile their hair up on their heads in funny little messy buns. Interesting. I'd give it a go if I were younger and had more hair. One more thing - they're all much taller than when I was a student first time round. At 6ft I no longer feel I stick out like a sore thumb, at least for my height. There are a few other older people on the course, I don't think I'm the oldest. There are over 700 of us altogether (primary + secondary - some lectures are mixed) so I've not actually met everybody yet...

Now back to some more of the usual stuff, a couple of garden pics...

 The cosmos seedlings I planted way back in May have finally flowered, yay!

 A hoverfly visits.

 More beasties on an anemone which appeared further up the garden.

 The patio, with a pelargonium still in flower.

 Garden snail going slightly rusty.

And to finish, a fly agaric, spotted in the park by N & I after dropping A off at Brownies one evening. It was already quite dark, hence the flash. Our pockets at this point were stuffed with conkers, we'd collected them till we could no longer see what we were doing. A bumper crop this year.