Weekend...
Sunday, 15 February 2015 09:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
...weird weekend. It started well - will hopefully end well - but I went to bed at about 1am this morning and found myself awake around 2.30am and couldn't get back to sleep after that! I eventually gave up and got up and watched it get light, but now I'm sleepy and don't dare go to bed cos I won't sleep tonight. Ack!
I did go off for a wee wander yesterday though, to Stourhead, which was feeling very pagan in the winter light. There were giants of trees...
...and pools and groves...

...and grottos where lurked silent gods...
(That's Flora, a minor goddess of fertility and spring. Which reminds me of Michelle in The Almighty Johnsons, who was always peeved at being described as a minor goddess... *g*)
There were robins zipping about too, and snowdrops...

It's almost getting to be spring... *g*
In other news I've been very good this morning and have pulled apart my old teaching practice folder (1989!) for recycling. It was interesting to look through, and if I'd carried on in that direction it would be worth keeping, and I was always interested in my mum's old nursing notes and things, but I don't supposed I'll go back to anything in education where I need those lesson plans etc. now, and I'm clearly not going to have kids who might want to look at them and go Ew, why'd d'you keep that? so... I should choose shelf-space over keeping-old-work... But I hate throwing away things like that - so many times it has turned out that I've wanted something I've chucked away, to compare with something more modern or whatever... *but is brave and determined*
Okay - I'm off to carry on staying awake. I hope you're having good weekends!
I did go off for a wee wander yesterday though, to Stourhead, which was feeling very pagan in the winter light. There were giants of trees...

...and pools and groves...


...and grottos where lurked silent gods...

There were robins zipping about too, and snowdrops...


In other news I've been very good this morning and have pulled apart my old teaching practice folder (1989!) for recycling. It was interesting to look through, and if I'd carried on in that direction it would be worth keeping, and I was always interested in my mum's old nursing notes and things, but I don't supposed I'll go back to anything in education where I need those lesson plans etc. now, and I'm clearly not going to have kids who might want to look at them and go Ew, why'd d'you keep that? so... I should choose shelf-space over keeping-old-work... But I hate throwing away things like that - so many times it has turned out that I've wanted something I've chucked away, to compare with something more modern or whatever... *but is brave and determined*
Okay - I'm off to carry on staying awake. I hope you're having good weekends!
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Date: Sunday, 15 February 2015 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 15 February 2015 01:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 15 February 2015 12:36 pm (UTC)I hate chucking stuff like that out, and of course I now have a bunch of useless clutter plus huge regrets for some of the things I didn't keep - it'll always be wrong, no matter what you pick!
Beautiful photos again, what lovely places you find ...
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Date: Sunday, 15 February 2015 01:35 pm (UTC)I was ever so brave and took out two more folders worth of stuff - my archaeology of the first millennium notes, and the notes from the anthropology course I took when I was doing archaeology. Actually looking back at it, oddly enough I think I did better at the anthropology than the archaeology even back then - if only I'd realised at the time! Not that I don't enjoy archaeology too, but I'm less keen on the dry scientific measurement of it. *g* Anyway - I think you're right, whatever we choose will feel wrong, because actually there's right on both the side of keeping and of throwing away, just as there is for most things. I shall remind myself that I clearly got rid of all the notes from the other classes I took, and haven't missed them yet!
Stourhead is lovely - if you're ever out this way you should drop by! *g*
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Date: Sunday, 15 February 2015 02:36 pm (UTC)Hope you'll manage to keep awake till night. Years ago I could fall asleep in the middle of the day and fall asleep again in the night but now I can't and it isn't a pleasant feeling to want sleep and not to do it. All day sleepy and unfocused. Hope you will get a proper sleep tonight!
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Date: Sunday, 15 February 2015 09:35 pm (UTC)I'm still awake so far - I reckon if I can make it to 10pm, then I'm allowed to go to bed. Maybe I'll even be up nice and early tomorrow! *g* Oddly enough I haven't felt too bad today...
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Date: Sunday, 15 February 2015 03:12 pm (UTC)I love the photos - I haven't been to Stourhead in years, and I'd forgotten how magical it is.
I hope you can keep yourself awake till bedtime!
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Date: Sunday, 15 February 2015 09:36 pm (UTC)Stourhead is pretty, even in the bare winter. I've been once before, in summer I think it was, and it was so different! Mind you, I was chatting with someone all the way around, and things always look different then!
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Date: Sunday, 15 February 2015 04:47 pm (UTC)how are you doing with the wakefullness, now that it's late in the afternoon? *g*
I'm sorry that you had trouble sleeping last night, though! It's really aggravating, when it happens, especially, if you have to work the next day, and can't be all foggy.
Your pictures are lovely and enticing! If/when Mr. Siskiou and I manage another trip to the UK, can we ask you for suggestions where to go and what to see? You always seem to find the best places! *g*
And good for you, weeding out old papers, though it always hard to do.
Mr. Siskiou still has boxes of stuff, that hasn't been looked at, and I have some old homework books from my middle school days. Though they come in handy, to show students what it was like having English as a second language. *g*
If we ever want to sell this house, we will have to really deal with the accumulated clutter!
Wishing you a restful sleep tonight!
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Date: Sunday, 15 February 2015 10:07 pm (UTC)I've still got some old books and things from high school, and even primary school. One of the high school essays I kept was basically a fanfic based on Pros too - I found it again a little whilst ago! I might post it one day, just for fun (well, I'll read it properly first... *g*) It's fun to look back on what we did all those years ago, isn't it!
You know, I reckon their accumulated clutter is one thing that keeps most people in the same house for a very long time... *g* Hope you're having fun in yours meanwhile, though!
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Date: Sunday, 15 February 2015 10:41 pm (UTC)Lovely photos! How ever did you get so close to the robin? Mr. Antrim counted the birds at our feeder yesterday for the St. Valentine's Day count, and saw one American robin, but so many of them stay year-round that they don't herald spring or anything but a mess under where they roost.
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Date: Monday, 16 February 2015 09:58 am (UTC)I had my telescopic lens with me, so I didn't have to get too close to the robin - but he was six feet or so away, I guess. *g* There was a trio with a dog walking the path behind me, and I was desperately trying to get a shot in before they caught me up! *g* Robins are winter birds over here too - in fact to me they mean Christmas and snow (I blame the Christmas cards of course) even though I see them all year around too. The American robin is very different to the English robin (oh, I just looked them up to double-check, they're not even in the same family - the American robin is a thrush and the English robin is a flycatcher (though they used to think it was a thrush!) They look very different when you see them side by side, too! *g* Like English magpies (which I've just started seeing around here alot - I wonder if they were away somewhere for the winter, or if I'm just more aware of them now because of the KJ Charles books?!) and Australian magpies...
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Date: Monday, 16 February 2015 11:13 am (UTC)I'm glad you got a good sleep last night, after your earlier wakefulness. I wonder what that was all about? You must have been feeling rather zombiefied by the time you made it to bed last night.
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Date: Tuesday, 17 February 2015 11:44 pm (UTC)I passed more snowdrops on the verges as I drove around today - so nice to see!