According to what they call a citizen science project - “Nature’s Calendar”, it’s name is apparently - bluebells were late in starting to bloom this year. A cold April made them slow down their growth. I knew that snow drops did that sort of thing, starting to flower and then going into a kind of suspended animation if it snowed in early January. Now I discover that bluebells do the same. We did think that our bluebells were a bit slow to get started but just put it down to the vagaries of Saddleworth climate and Saddleworth plant growth patterns.
They may have been slow to start but we have noticed that the few we have in the garden are past their best now, fading and running to seed. So yesterday we walked the “forest path” again to catch the bluebells before they are last their best and incidentally taking advantage of the fact that the path is nice and dry.
We were not disappointed by the bluebells. Quite magnificent displays.
Mind you the hawthorn trees are vying with them in the bits-of-beauty-everywhere stakes.
Lots of snowy blossom all over the place. No pink hawthorn yet, but I know a few trees that usually blush nicely for us.
And then there were the poppies, mostly the wild ones ...
... but a few of the cultivated variety in gardens.
Having had the best part of a week without rain, yesterday evening I filled the watering can and watered the various pots of flowering plants that stand on walls here and there. The plants in actual flower beds manage well enough unless we go for weeks without rain but the standing pots tend to dry up and the plants wilt. So I gave them a big drink. Consequently it rained overnight. I’m a rain-bringer! I am pretty sure it didn’t rain much though. I could hear it on the attic skylights when ai went to bed but it didn’t continue all night and it was dry again when I went for a run this morning.
Among other things, the news channels are still going on about what we need to do to help our children catch up with the education they have missed over the last year. The idea of lengthening the school day is being bandied about. Other countries may appear to have longer school days than we do here but in some cases they finish the school day later because they have a long lunch break. Children, like their working parents, still often go home for lunch. (Who prepares that lunch is another matter!) So maybe they don’t have a longer day after all. Many of them also have much longer summer breaks than English schools too. Even taking into account that they may not have half-term holidays, going on for ten weeks off school in the summer is still a long break. Maybe all of us need to re-think our school year.
Another suggestion that has popped up today is that year 11 and 13 pupils need to stay on and be taught after the exam period is over. It has been the norm for as long as I can remember for students to be granted study leave before taking GCSE and A-Level exams. This year that hasn’t really happened because they haven’t sat external examination but been assessed, usually at least in part via school-set examinations. Once assessment was over, students left school. But this article suggests they should have been made to stay in school once the assessment was over.
Here’s Michael Rosen’s response to the suggestion :-
“Yeah right.
(How come these people are promoted to a level at which their useless thoughts are amplified? The kids have gone. They're out. The gates opened and they've fled. They're at home. In the parks. Having a great time. And anyway, some schools have already redesigned labs etc to the year below. And you lot thought up an exam-crazy regime (ie school = exams) then when the exams are over, you're now trying to think of a reason why they should be in schools????!!!! Really? Go away. Find something useful to do. Please. )”
Some of these suggestions arise from the ongoing myth that teachers have an easy life with a short working day - 9.00 - 3.00 or 3..30 - and long holidays. You would think that by now that would have changed!! The reality is that teachers work just about all hours of the day and use their “holidays” for forward planning. As regards that post exam period, the establishments where I have worked organised “taster day” or even “taster weeks” for students about to join them in the following September.
No more teacher-bashing please!
That’s all!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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