WOYWW 599

 Welcome back to my blog for another edition of What's on your Workdesk Wednesday, courtesy of the lovely Julia.  The week has gone back so fast I almost didn't post as I didn't remember it was already Wednesday!

I will therefore keep this short and sweet. Here is my desk while making another clean and simple style of Christmas card, with the distress inks in a strip down to one side. You can see the inks, applicators, ruler, stamps and nearly empty mug of tea.  I wouldn't be me without tea!

This is the final design. The white stars are added afterwards with a posca paint pen.  I will probably end up doing several of this one and several of last weeks one, but do have other ideas as well.  They need to be clean, simple and quick, due to lack of time on my part.

This week has been crazy because Alex has an assessment week at school so in addition to my work I have had to help him with revision (a very painful process due to ADHD).  I have managed to sneak in a few swims as well to help with my sanity (including one under this stunning rainbow - I am the swimmer with the orange float).

This plunge pool swim on Monday was my coldest to date (6.5 oC in the water), and was truly wonderful. I am loving how alive it makes me feel. 

That is all from me for now. I am very much looking forward to the zoom sessions and seeing some of you then.  In the meantime, please take care and stay safe.

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 598

 Hello and welcome to another edition of What's on your Workdesk Wednesday, courtesy of the lovely Julia.

This is my desk, taken last night, where I was trialling an idea for a Christmas card. With work the way it is, in order for me to make cards, they are going to have to be quick and simple to make.  You can see various ink pads, applicator, ruler, pen, pencil, a couple of stamps, post it notes (used to mask areas of the card) and my mug of tea.

This is the final card. What do you think?  Would it be acceptable for a Christmas card?

I have been continuing with my outdoor swimming, either in the lake or the river plunge pool (11 swims so far in November) with temperatures ranging between 8 and 9.5 degrees in the water. The difficulty now is that as it is getting dark earlier, I am struggling to find the time - when meetings allow, I sometimes swap work around and work later in the evening in order to get a swim in! 

The art form to cold water swimming appears to be getting dry and warm layers on asap afterwards, something I am getting better at.  Someone once described open water swimmers as looking like they had been dressed by toddlers who insisted on them wearing everything Michelin man style- its not pretty, but its warm!

That's all from me for now - keeping it short and sweet as I am off to Uni now to teach face-to-face. We have 20 students in a massive lecture theatre, all 2m apart from each other and we all have to wear masks - as I am slightly deaf, it does make hearing what they have to say a little challenging. Still, I am sure we will cope. 

Take care and do stay safe everyone, give me a shout if there is anything I can do to help anyone.

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 597

 Hello and welcome back for another edition of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, hosted by the lovely Julia.

Here is my desk looking rather empty - I have to confess that the photo is staged - it was taken late last night after an evening of zoom meetings, when I had put away my computer. On it is my empty mug of tea ready to go downstairs and be washed up, my two new notebooks/planners that I intend to use for next year (the paper quality is lovely), and my new swimming medal (for swimming 10,000m outdoors in October).  I have signed up for a November one, but with the colder water, darker nights and tons of work it is going to be hard to reach 10,000m so I have signed up for 5,000m which is more doable.

I have only done a little crafting this week - making Tim's birthday card as he celebrated his 50th birthday this weekend. 

As it was a lockdown birthday we celebrated with food (lots of food!) and films, and family silliness.

Other than that there is not much more to report. We are all staying safe and well. I am involved in our church online services, working hard and happily swimming whenever I can. I mostly swim in a lake, which is actually an old Victorian reservoir in a park in Sheffield (about 2 miles from here), or in the river plunge pool in the valley just below us.  They are both very different in feel as you can see from the photos so where I swim is a mood thing, especially as at the moment they are a similar temperature ~ 9oC. 

Standing under the waterfall is wonderful when it isn't too strong, as it feels like a massage. For those of you wondering, I don't wear a wetsuit due to a shoulder injury (I can't get them on or off by myself and getting dry and warm quickly after getting out is essential), but I do swim in a hat and have neoprene gloves and socks - they make all the difference.

That is all from me for now. I hope that you all have a good week. Take care and stay safe, and let me know if there is anything I can do to help anyone.

With love & God Bless,
Caro

xx

WOYWW 596

 Hello and welcome back to my blog for another edition of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday hosted by the lovely Julia.  Firstly, an apology for missing last week and failing to comment the week before.  Work went completely insane with the announcement that Sheffield was moving to Tier 3 - in the end despite everything we were told to continue with delivering blended learning - some live on-line teaching and some hybrid teaching (face-to-face for those in Sheffield, but simultaneously online for those who are not).  This is still happening with the national lockdown. I have had to meet with over 30 students individually for pastoral care as well as my usual teaching load and running two courses - it has been what you could call pretty full on, hence the lack of contact. So once again, I am sorry, but I am here now and hope to do better!

So here is my desk as it was last night after work.  I was working in my journal so stickers absolutely everywhere!

These are my latest journal pages, including the monthly one for October. 

I also got the paints out on Monday when it was too windy and wild for much else and attempted to paint me swimming in breast stroke in the rather choppy water of the lake.  This has been tucked into the back of the journal - I really cannot draw!

Despite the sadness of not being able to visit Mum at half-term, and me having to work three of the days, Alex and I made the most of our time together, with some walks between the rain, some games, a much needed hair cut, pumpkin carving and lots of laughter.

We also did another Home Tasking challenge: create a spooky creature out of things found in your kitchen. As Alex is often found in the kitchen raiding the fridge and cupboards he became the creature - a vampire bat.

For those of you who were asking, I am continuing my outdoor swimming, although it is harder to find time now that the evenings are dark, and the weather isn't as kind.  I have signed up for a challenge to try and motivate me to keep going - I have to swim at least 20 times between now and the end of March! Let's see if I manage it. 

I hope that you are all keeping well - don't forget to shout if you need anything. Take care and stay safe, and remember that you are loved.  

With love & God Bless,
Caro

xxx