It must be spring

The weather's turned cold and rainy here and I've had to go back to wearing a coat and shoes. But it must be spring, because look at the ducklings on our local pond! There were about ten of them. One kept rushing off on its own and being chased by the geese. It looked so cute skimming across the water with its feet going full pelt like it was on a pedalo.

Volcanic dust threatens aircraft

The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland has erupted again for the second time in a few weeks. I first heard of it as a news clip warning of flight cancellations in the UK. There is a huge cloud of volcanic ash heading our way and it is dangerous to aircraft. I hope sylvia wasn't planning on flying anywhere today.

The poor people living in the region of the volcano have huge floods to contend with and many have had to be evacuated.

We are so small and vulnerable on this huge planet.

A walk into town

I was asked to show you some more pictures of my area, so here's what I see when I walk into town. It's a fifteen minute walk.

This is the path about five minutes into the walk, with the road running along on the left.


There's a lot of greenery around all the houses.


You're looking right at the main road here.


It's not all pretty. This is the railway bridge I have to go under. Luckily, it's very well lit at night.


This is the town itself.


And an English shopping mall.


What is it like where you live?

Nature is good for you

Psyblog has just posted some research that shows that a walk in the country is good for your short-term memory. What I find interesting is the finding that looking at pictures of nature has a similar effect. So as a public service here is today's short-term memory booster, just for you:



It was taken at Pyrford Lock. The very best picture I have of that area is on my desktop but it has a picture of my Beloved* in it, so I wasn't sure that I wanted to post it up here for all to see.

When I first started working in a school, about eight years ago, I had a cupboard of a room for an office but with a glorious view of a huge tree in the school grounds. I regularly stopped work just to gaze out of the window at the tree and draw sustenance from it. When I moved to a much larger, pleasanter room I missed the tree. I wonder if indoor plants have the same effect.

*Yes, "my Beloved" is the same as "my Husband" just in case anyone was wondering.