Beautiful skies

Some of the nicest times of the day are spent driving. Not so much when there are queues of traffic, those are times that are hard work, but early in the morning and at dusk, when the light is low and beautiful.

This morning I was met with candy pink cream and frosty white blue skies, heavy mist lying low over the frosted green leaves as I drove past ponds and roadside verges. Then in the evening, the blue to navy sky had a thin white crescent moon shining out as a beacon on the way home, hovering above the white, red and blue lights of the Canary Wharf buildings that I was driving towards. At times like these I wish I could paint, or record in some way the peacefulness, the beauty of these sights. At least if I can sketch them in words, then when I read back over my blog I might remember the images.

Half my lessons were taken up with invigilation. One of those periods should have been a Geography cover - I asked another teacher if she wanted to swap, and to my astonishment, she agreed! So that was nice and relaxing. I also had two Year 9 lessons. They had to write poems reflecting on issues of evil and suffering, and Christian responses to those issues. A couple of pupils were adamant that they couldn't write poetry, but then one boy revealed that he was a lyricist - not a rapper, more of an MC. I asked him to recite to me one of his lyrics - it was excellent. But he still said he couldn't write about the sort of suffering we had been reflecting on, so we discussed in a bit more detail. I explained that there was a lot of suffering in school, for example loneliness or bullying. He revealed a bit about his life, but didn't want to write about that, so then put some lyrics together. They were great. Students do have hidden talents some times! (Quite often in fact!)

Some of our Sixth Formers are on retreat this week. Sort of wish I were with them! It will be nice and relaxing and they'll get to do some fun outdoors stuff. However, I wanted to be at home - H is still not too great, he's obviously a lot better but I'm still worried about his chesty cough. Being here won't really help him, but I feel happier!

My year 7s did some display work on the Jesse Tree. I do like this as an idea, an alternative to the Nativity Advent Calendar, which gradually tells the story of God and his people, using symbols to remind us of key people, like Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, Isaiah, John the Baptist and Mary. We'll finish it tomorrow. It's a shame though that a few pupils spoil the atmosphere for the others by throwing pencils at each other.

H has a photo shoot tomorrow, so he's tidying up the place. Better and go and finish helping! (I've done the dishes, so that's one chore out the way!)