Celebrating Outdoor Classroom Day with a five mile walk

Project 365 2018 Week 18

Project 365 2018 Week 18 Day 119 – 125 the weather features quite heavily this week. I am British after all.

Sunday 29th April – Day 119

Project 365 2018 Week 18

My son has loved the JCB Dancing Diggers for years, since I bought him their DVD when he was about three.  But he’d never seen them live, until today.  We drove all the way to Thetford, yes we are quite mad, to see them at the East Anglian Game and Country Fair.  To say it was freezing would be a huge understatement, but my son was in his element.  But I think the cold and a long day out got the better of me and I felt awful by the time we got home and 2 jumpers and a duvet couldn’t warm me up.

Monday 30th April – Day 120

Project 365 2018 Week 18

I still felt awful this morning, and the weather agreed with me as it was freezing cold again.  As soon as I’d walked the boys to school I headed back to bed and the warmth.  I should have gone out to do some photography work for my course, but I felt awful, and the weather would have just made any pictures look rubbish too.

I love my son and the way he re-lives his experiences.  As soon as he woke up this morning he created a showground arena and was lining up his JCB machines ready for an after school display.

He had fun at Cubs as they got to make rockets and then set them off, there was some suggestion of firework style launching.

Tuesday 1st May – Day 121

Project 365 2018 Week 18

Sunny in the morning, freezing and grey by school pick up.  I had a full on day working on a project and trying to get sorted ahead of the long weekend.

My son has decided that he doesn’t need to sleep anymore and that a 9.30pm bedtime is totally reasonable.  I disagree but he’s winning the battle of wills at the moment.

Wednesday 2nd May – Day 122

Project 365 2018 Week 18

A late night with my son, an early morning visit by the duvet thief and a wake up call from the cat all leads to a Grumpy Mary.  It’s going to be a long day.

The day of a thousand seasons.  I think we had them all today.  I soaked walking to school this morning, and soaked again going shopping.  But by school pick up the sun had decided to stick around.  We have a lovely cherry tree across the road from our house and I admire it every day at the moment, not so much when it starts to shed its blossom everywhere!

I’ve decided on the theme for my part of the photography exhibition, having printed all of the photos I’ve taken over the last year of my son from behind.  His red coat is a running theme across my Instagram feed and these days I always seem to be following in his wake. I’d narrowed the selection down to 50 odd (no joke) and laid them out on my living room carpet and got my husband to help me narrow the selection down further so I can take them into class tomorrow.

Thursday 3rd May – Day 123

Project 365 2018 Week 18

I’ve always been a softie and these days I run on an emotional roller coaster like no other.  Catch me on the wrong day with the wrong word and I’m likely to fall to the ground in a teary mess.  Something was implied on a blogging group last night that called my character into question.  The implication was unfounded and really upset me, being me I couldn’t sleep worrying about it and this morning I was in floods of tears.  A few good friends reassured me that they know I’m not that person.  I sent a message to someone to let them know how much their words had upset me, they’ve apologised, but hopefully it will make people question things before putting things ‘out there’ that could hurt others.

Anyway on to happier things.  I had college this morning and we all got to show work we’d done towards our exhibition work.  As I’ll be away at the end of the month I need to get ahead of the game and get things enlarged, mounted and framed ahead of others in the class.  I put out all of my favourite shots and as a class we’ve whittled it down to a final eight shots for my exhibition.  Now to get them enlarged.

My son had a play date with his best friend after school and his Mum brought him home later for me too.  Weird to not be do the school run this afternoon but great that I had a couple more hours to get some work done.  He had a lovely time and even played football.  He never plays football.

Friday 4th May – Day 124

Project 365 2018 Week 18

My son’s class were visiting a local care home to play games and read with some of the residents and I’d offered to help with the first group of the day.  It’s a nice walk from school but there are some very busy roads to cross.  The children all did really well, my son even left my side at one point.  A new boy has joined his class and we all got to get to know him on the way there and back, hopefully he’s already made some new friends.

Once the kids were back at school I headed off to our local framers to sort out the mounts and frames I’m going to need for the exhibition.  Not cheap so I’ll definitely be making a photo wall with them afterwards.

It’s been a long week for my son this week with one thing and another and grumpy boy had returned after school.  Cuddles with Brewster were required to bring the smile back to his face.

Saturday 5th May – Day 125

Project 365 2018 Week 18

I bought Short Walks around Bicester (Amazon affiliate link) in our local book shop a few months ago as there a number of walks that I thought my son might enjoy.  As the forecast today was looking good, we made up a picnic and headed off to the village of Kirtlington, parked the car and headed off on a 5 mile circular walk, taking in the Oxford canal, farm land, Whitehill Earth Station and Kirtlington Quarry.  We even timed our walk perfectly to see the lock at Pigeons Lock in action.  It was a really lovely morning, spent chatting with my son.  He moaned a bit on the last mile as it was much hotter out than either of us had envisaged and a hat would have helped, but overall he was a joy to be with and I’m thankful that I have a nature lover in him.

Now we are home and apparently I’m spending the afternoon as his water pistol target – joy!

Project 365



15 thoughts on “Project 365 2018 Week 18

  1. Funnily enough mine is weather based this week as well.
    Hope you are feeling better now.
    Sometimes a comment is read in a way it is not intended to sound, that is the problem with the printed word no chance to pick up the tone.
    Sounds like a lovely walk this morning.

  2. Oh Mary, I’m sorry someone’s unkind words have upset you. I don’t frequent blogging groups these days, and don’t know who said what, but big hugs to you. Online nastiness was one of the reasons I hardly visit any groups now. Love the photo of Monkey with Brewster. How lovely that he re-enacts the experiences at home, that’s very creative.

  3. Those JCB’s look fab…What a fun day out. It’s such a shame it was so cold.
    Ahh! My 10 year old thinks she doesn’t need to sleep anymore either. Ugh!
    Oh no! I am so sorry you had a bad experience in a blogging group. I tend to read a lot in the groups but rarely type anything.

  4. Sorry to hear about the group issue. Hope you’re feeling better about it all now.

    The walks book sounds good, but blimey you were brave going for that length of walk in this heat.

  5. so sorry you’ve had a shit week, with sleep and unnecessary comments, glad you felt strong enough to message them and ask for an apology, I’m here if you ever need to off load, our virtual tea/coffee dates are always good with friends. Love how Monkey recreated his day at the dancing digger event.

  6. So sorry to hear another blogger upset you. I don’t bother much with the big groups and more as they are filled with egos. I can say for certainty it is all them and not you. I love the red coat/ back theme. Some really great photos there.

  7. Oh wow didn’t even realise there was such a thing as dancing diggers!!!

    So sorry someones words upset you. I hope you are ok now x

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