• Haworth Primary School teacher, Caron Stone asked me if I would come and open their new Key stage one Library for them. I sensed a special teacher and a special school so I was more than happy to say yes. You can sense some schools really buzzing the moment you walk in and Haworth is one of those. The day was brilliantly planned and ran to the minute, even if I did go overtime a bit!

    Caron Stone in the new Haworth KS1 Library

    The new Library is gorgeous, stuffed with picturebooks and younger titles. Not a computer in sight -well, there is the librarian’s computer for logging books in and out, but not one to get in the way of books and stories – hooray!

    The Reception children made me Cat and Dog biscuits which were wonderful. I showed them how to draw and paint Cat and dog and they went on to do some fantastic drawings.

    I was a bit too scary for some in years one and two – I’m very sorry! With years three and four, we came up with a brilliant story about pirahnas and years five and six came up with a brilliant ghost idea that was o good I might use it myself, so I’m not going to tell you about it!

    TheLibrary opening was helped along with some fantastic home made cakes. The chocolate fairy cakes were a particular triumph!

    Bob Swindells, the children’s author joined us too as he lives locally with his wife, Brenda, who turned out to have taught Caron when she was younger and inspired her to become a teacher herself!

    Thanks for a wonderful day and good luck with the rest of the week.

  • I’m catching up with my posts! Last Friday I visited Pewley Down Infant School in the morning and Holy Trinity Junior School in the afternoon.

    I had a wonderful time at both schools. Each was buzzing with excitement and activity, with lots going on for Book week. Geraldine, their Librarian, helped me find an art shop to buy some paper so I could finish some artwork over the weekend. Many thanks – It all got in the post on Monday! While in town, I noticed that the statue of the Surrey Scholar had a cigarette butt stuck in his mouth – not a good example – Im sure!

    I saw a lovely old sign painted on a shop wall in town. I don’t suppose you gat palnning permission to do it these days, but I think it adds something to the environment. Old and faded lettering does something to me. To me it represents what the Japanese call Wabi-sabi. We don’t really have a word for it or a concept either, I don’t think. It’s a sort f beauty in imperfection.

    The trip gave me the opportunity to stay the night at my wife’s delightfully eccentric Uncle Roger’s house. Being and engineer, he likes to do things his way. The unintuitive toilet handle in the photograph is only one of many examples of what we like to call pottyness. His house is covered in interesting notes explaining how things work – usually differently to the way they work everywhere else!

  • It doesn’t help much but this song and video help you feel a little better. I heard them on the radio this morning and they said they were into spreading themselves across the internet, so enjoy watching, guilt free.

    Arrogance Ignorance and Greed are of course the initials of AIG , one of the financial houses that started the crash.

    It made me wonder what ever happened to mutuality? Of course it got sold out in Halifax shares, but surely it’s still a good idea. The Banks have been brilliant nd brainwashing us into debt and mistrust of probity. And to think that Gordon Brown thought his second name was Prudence – Ha!

    Obviously the Bankers can’t be trusted anymore, even when they’ve screwed up right and royally they refuse to change their ways. Create new, mutual banks and destroy the smug old syatem.