R.I.P. Little

BLOODY F****** FOX. I HATE IT. Poor Little was taken today. I LOVED that little bird. She was so jolly and pretty. The peacocks roosted about 50 ft up tonight and God help my sanity if the fox gets either or both of them. My neighbour is on the case with her hunting rifle. The same fox has had a duck and a hen of theirs in the last three days.

I am distraught. I know she's (was) just a bird,but.. 

I am not getting any more. It's too heartbreaking. I know it's nature. I know it's what happens...but it really does not get any easier to be sanguine, especially when you find a pile of exquisite lemon and charcoal-tipped feathers only 30 metres from the front door. She had done so well getting through the winter and roosting up in the trees and the BASTARD had to bloody eat her. I am sorry about the language but I am incandescent.

SPRING?

Mr P is convinced that it is spring. Mrs P actually decided to pay him a bit of attention but she, like me, seemed to have a bit of a snigger when he showed her the other side of that magnificent tail...those frilly bloomers really are most unflattering and undermine his male credentials somewhat!

Book news

I don't mean to be vain, but every now and then  I google my Devon/Dorset name and my old city name...Under the former ( though chronologically the latter!) I find that that my first book now has a cover and a publication date of September 2010, which is great! Cheered me up no end!

Killing subjects..how school crushes creativity and passion.

In the New Scientist a couple of months ago, Bill Bryson , talking about his recent forays into the world of science, tells his interlocutor :'There is nothing in science that is not worth being excited about. Unfortunately, the place you are least likely to find excitement, in my view, is in schools, when that is the precise place you should be handing it out to people'.
It's the same for English, I am afraid , Bill. I have had a number of very talented, passionately-committed budding young writers pass through my hands when I taught. Sometimes I bump into these (mainly) girls in Lyme or Axminster or Bridport. 'How are you getting on in English?'. They usually pull a little moue of disappointment. They don't enjoy it anymore. They are thinking of dropping it for 'A' level. They don't write creatively anymore. They are dispirited and downcast.
A long chat with one of the mothers revealed the cause...it's not (just) bad, uninspiring teaching. It's..guess what...the teaching to exams, exams which do not like to assess anything that cannot be put in a box. English Language and Literature now have very little to do with creative writing. It's all box ticking 'analysis' ( regurgitation) of the set texts..that limited, repeated and repeated short list of works which the children will have had force-fed in predigested form. The excitement of language, the magic of words have been crushed out of the curriculum, disenchanting a great raft of talented children. No doubt literary creativity is seen as a pretentious middle class habit. The educational process, far from 'drawing out' ( Latin:educere) and developing ability, just dumbs it down, parcels it up, stamps it and sends it out to join the growing pile of greyness. It's WRONG. 

Wow! What bold creatures!

Just sitting at my desk, when I see the peacock look very agitated...and then , from just round the corner from these french windows, come TWO deer...a mum and a babe, cool as cucumbers! Couldn't get my act together with the camera quickly enough and had the lens on close-up for the first pic...but just look! They wandered about, annoyed the peacock, mesmerised all three cats and strolled off! What a treat...though I won't be saying that when they eat the buds off my specimen trees. Must get the mesh out to protect the few I did not armour last year...

Freezing...

The weather is truly vile today. Very cold indeed and raining heavily. I have just sent off for a SAD lamp. Even the BG ( sceptical about such things) is convinced that I have the condition, having seen me transformed into a buzzy, upbeat thing by a ray of sunshine. Not much of that of late...or not for long enough to make a lasting difference. After all, it was only a week ago that Spring seemed to be in the air...

Have also ordered a whole stack of books on twentieth century English Landscape painters..many of the St Ives school, but including Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious and the wonderful Ivon Hitchens. I wish I had a lifetime to study, learn, practise...but I don't..so I must crack on. ENough of this seasonal gloom! Pick up a paintbrush, woman, and stop whingeing!

oh...and Shaun White

THE most awesome snowboarder on the planet, he is one seriously brave and talented dude. Heartstopping final run....didn't think he had the speed for that mctwist move of his. AmAzing.
Wanted to include a youtube vid...but nuthin' doin' coz of copyright. Hope you saw it ...will see it sometime.
Loving an Olympic sport you can do in jeans!