WOYWW 591

 Hello and Welcome to my blog. As usual I am joining in with Julia's wonderful world wide blog hop - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW). 

This is my desk as it was last night (empty apart from my computer now as I am and will be working from home for the foreseeable future apart from going into Uni for any face-to-face teaching I need to do). On my desk you can see my mug of tea, my little sports camera, some pens, a ruler, some washi tape and my journal. 

This is the page that I had just put together - a little water colour and poem I wrote about swimming at my local swimming spot... the first poem I have written in about 25 years! Not sure if you can read the poem so here it is:

My head is full of the busyness of the day,

So I scramble down to the plunge, to chase my blues away.

The tingle of cold water makes me feel alive;

The thrum of the cascade helps my soul revive.

The waterfall washes all the stress away,

I swim in the current and my heart begins to pray.

Some minutes later, now filled with glee,

Like a butterfly fresh from a cocoon, I fly free.

I have done some other crafting this week - messing with Autumnal colours in my art journal - the first time in months I have done anything in it. 

My local swimming spot is a plunge pool with a waterfall - the temperature at the moment is ~11oC and it is wonderful to swim and stand in the waterfall.

That is all from me for this week - I will leave you with this photo of Alex with a bubble beard... I have no idea why!!

Take care and stay safe everyone,

With love & God Bless,

Caro  

xxx

WOYWW 590

 I'm back again to show you my desk as part of Julia's What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday blog hop.  I was missing in action last week due to a very heavy cold but am back today, still snotty and coughing but at least feeling human again.

This is my desk as it was last night (it is now all tidied away ready for working from home) as I was working on my diary again. You can see my trusty mug of tea (almost empty), various stickers, scissors, pens, and printed photos as I try and arrange the images on the page in a pleasing way.

Here are the latest three pages, so I am pretty much up to date!

Having had to stop swimming for about 5 days due to my cold, I am back to swimming again regularly, making the most of the last of the sunshine.  

This is a stunning lake in the middle of the peak district - they allow swimming but ask people to be careful and mindful of the wildlife ecosystem so to only enter in at one place. Over the summer it has apparently been very busy so this is the first time I have been this year (no nesting birds to disturb, no hatching insects and no crowds of people to avoid) - it was wonderful! 

For those who asked, I don't own a wetsuit and would struggle to wear one due to an on-going shoulder injury.  Instead I have invested in neoprene gloves and boots, and an old fashioned swimming hat to keep my extremities warmer as the water gets colder. I don't know how long I will keep going for, but at the moment it is helping so much with my mental health that the intention is to keep going as long as possible.

I will finish with this photo of Alex - he came back from his first live scouts session in months looking like this.  The wig and glasses are apparently his prize for completing all the challenges at the virtual scout camp that was held during April and May - the only scout to do so.

I hope that you all have a good week. Stay safe and take care,

With love and God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 588

 It is Wednesday and time for another blog hop around various crafting desks courtesy of the lovely Julia and What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Firstly I would like to start with an apology, it has been one helluva week and I failed dismally to comment on anyone's blog. A combination of my great aunt's death, Alex back to school, Tim's operation and me doing my first face-to-face teaching (wearing masks and socially distanced) in 6 months, as well as marking student final presentations has left little headspace or time for anything else.  I will try and do better this week...As a result my desk is looking pretty empty - except for the contents of a lovely envelope that came through the post arriving yesterday, my mug of tea and my diary. 

These lovely items were sent to me by Cindy!  Thank you so much, they are all gorgeous and I love them. The layers, textures and details in the little tag book are gorgeous. I keep thumbing through it and finding something new to admire in every page.

I have done a little crafting over the past week - I printed out the photos and stuck them into my diary along with washi tape and stickers.

These are the two weekly pages I did.

A post from me wouldn't be complete without some form of swimming photo (sorry about the out of focus photo - Alex took it!).  I am going to try to continue swimming regularly as the year gets colder but we will see what happens!  

Alex is unlikely to continue much longer as he gets cold easily. That said, he came out with me to explore this old paper mill pond.  Unfortunately it is pretty silted up so not very deep and very squelchy underfoot. I'm not sure that we will revisit this, although Alex did enjoy the rope swing.  Anyway, that is all from me for now.  I an very much hoping that I will be able to do a better job of visiting people this week.  Take care and stay safe.  With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 587

 Another Wednesday so it is time to show you my desk as part of Julia's What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday. Warning - this is a very picture heavy post!

My desk is looking rather boring at present. My computer is open as I am getting together all the photos to get my diary up to date.  I do it by copying them and re-sizing them in Powerpoint and then printing them on sticker paper. It takes ages but I love the way my diary looks in the end. You can also see my diary, pens, notes, my almost empty mug of tea and my waterproof camera.

As I said last week I have had the week off work to spend time with Alex and we have had fun doing a variety of things...

 including visiting a zoo (Yorkshire Wildlife Park) for the first time this year. 

Then a wild, windy and quite wet weekend in Scarborough - 

Mostly so Alex could go body boarding in the North Sea.

and at Alex's request we finished the holiday off with Alex paddling a rubber ring down the river at Chatsworth while I swam. The water there is now 11oC so deliciously cold and tingly.  

It's now back to school for Alex and I am back to working from home for the time being.  Take care of yourselves and I hope that you all have a good week.

With love and God Bless,

Caro

xxx