The wonderful, inspirational Miss Polly Girton

I was reading an article about education yesterday, written by Noam Chomsky. You may not agree with everything he has to say, but the article yesterday really made sense to me.

If you are ‘of a certain age’, you probably remember education as being a very different animal to the schooling you see your children or grandchildren enduring now. Certainly I’ve seen UK education change very much for the worse. I remember so clearly when our daughter asked a question about her school day. I said “why didn’t you ask your teacher that at the time?”, to which she said she had, but the teacher told her there was no time for questions, they had to get through the material of the day or they would be behind before their (next) big exam.

No time for questions? I was stunned. When I asked the teacher, he confirmed it. He said that each day’s lessons were so schedule dependent, that you just couldn’t allow any discussion. At all. I don’t remember the exam that was so important at the time. Kids are tested for everything in the UK, all the time – SATs, GCEs, GCSEs, you just can’t keep up with it.

I remember so well my own education in the US – certainly at that time, I believe that a US education ranked as one of the best in the world. Yes, of course, you had to memorise facts and figures. There were history dates, times tables, the lot! But more than temporarily memorising facts, we were encouraged to figure out how to find out things for ourselves. “Look it up”, our teachers would say. In class, there would be races to look up words in the dictionary, or to look up information in the encyclopedia.

Then there was discussion on current events, too. As part of our civics lessons, we learned about our local, state and federal governments, and talked about how the system worked. As part of our homework, we had to read news magazine articles, and be prepared to discuss them in class. Teachers (and parents) believed that it wasn’t just trench warfare, or learning about the roundheads, that was important to learn about – it was also important to learn about what was going on around us in the world.

I’ll take you back to some of my favorite school memories. Children who attended Patrick Henry Junior High in Sioux Falls, SD may have been lucky enough to have the incredible teacher Miss Girton. I first had her for English and History when I was 13, then after that, I took every course she taught. She was a fantastic teacher! When we were studying the Civil War, she taught us both sides of the conflict. She did the same when we studied WW2 – we learned that there were actually some good reasons for the Germans to feel downtrodden, and that the Allies weren’t always the good guys. Awesome, and certainly not part of the normal course work!

She also taught English, but took me out of class and made me do ‘independent study’, as she called it. “I won’t give you an A unless you do twice as much as everyone else” said she. I thought it incredibly unfair at the time, but eventually realised that she was encouraging me to work harder.

She taught anyone who was willing to learn, that there were at least two sides to the story. 

I also remember one of her dire warnings. “Don’t ever let me hear of you committing a felony for stealing $52 dollars”, said she. “If you are going to risk your freedom, make sure the winnings are worth the risk of punishment”. Unorthodox, but effective, advice!

I read today that she is still alive and well, and that it’s not just me who remembers her so fondly. So Miss Girton, thank you so much, and I wish you a continued long and healthy life.

 

Sadly, my last blog was a bit precipitous. Spring has come and gone, but will it return?

This image shows a Large Cayenne – but will we ever see these at Casa Tyr this summer? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s chilly today. And windy. And rather cloudy. My newly-planted squash plants are happy with this weather, as are the potatoes –  but my poor tomatoes and hot peppers want the quilt back on!

 

OMG, spring has arrived…again!

We’ve been here before, and we’re here again. Springtime! It arrived in April – a few days of warm weather convinced the folk at Casa Tyr that spring was here at long last.

Enter the rain and cold weather, and we were back to fires and fleecy clothing!

Then came early May, and it was … dare I say it … hot! We then decided that we were skipping spring, and were going straight to summer. That’s what happened last year, so it wouldn’t have come as a total surprise to have a repeat.

Enter (again) the rain and cold weather, and we were back to fires and fleecy clothing!

At long last, it’s nearing the end of May, and the warm weather is here again. I sincerely do believe that it really (really!) is spring now, and that spring is here to stay. To celebrate, my roses are in full and robust bloom, and the wildflowers abound. 

And must I prove to you that spring is really here? OK, challenge accepted.

Here is photo taken outside our back door, by my lovely photographer husband!

Enjoy.

Running to catch up

It’s been a hectic year at Casa Tyr so far. In fact, how the heck did it get to be mid-May already, I’m sure it was just yesterday we were celebrating the New Year!

Since January, I don’t think Kenton and I have spent more than 2 weeks together No, it’s nothing serious, honest, no imminent divorce! We have been taking staggered trips to the UK, spending time with granddaughter Matilda, slowly getting to know her.

It was a deliberate strategy, designed to ease the problem of getting to know a new soul who lives several hours away from you. We decided that each of us would go on our own, and stay with Peggy and Dan, getting full-on time with the babe. Going solo enables each person to get to know her, and her them. It keeps costs down too, as there is then no need to put the dogs into kennels.

Having tea at M&S

I’m pleased to report the strategy has worked! Matilda recognises us when we arrive, and now there is no “warm up” time needed, she will go to us straight away. We play, we walk, we talk, we read, we feed. It’s lovely!

Of course, the down side is that, with hardly any time together, many of our big chores back on the farm are running way behind schedule.

The garden needs preparing. Our summer vegetables need planting. Our entire house, inside and out, needs painting. Central heating needs installing. Wind turbine needs servicing. Wood for winter needs cutting.

Then there’s Lujos to catch up on. New products to launch, research and development projects to complete, agents to recruit, PR to write.

Add to that photography projects to complete, photos to process and new business to win.

And so the list goes on… and on… and on…

No matter, say we. We have almost a whole month before the next trip to get cracking on our list of endless chores. Put shoulders to the proverb grindstone, we say.

But hang on, not yet…there’s a little matter of the weather not cooperating, it’s raining again!

 

The ears have it

OK, I know that’s not a common saying, but it’s pretty common in my house right now! That’s right, the ears have it. Or more precisely, my ears have something!

Unusually, I’ve been flying quite a bit recently, back and forth to the UK to do grandma duty, and to help out at Simple Click offices while Claire is on maternity leave. I used to fly long-haul all the time, to Vancouver and back once a month, but those heady days of airports and economy class long haul are far behind me – thank goodness!

But here I am again, flying back and forth once a month, on economy airlines, even if it’s only a short-haul trip. It is obviously taking its toll on me, with my much-drier-than-usual eyes, and now, my blocked up ear.

Someone else’s ear (Photo credit: Menage a Moi)

I first noticed ear problems after my urm…heady experience of a Ryanair flight. Not to be recommended, but cheap as chips, so hey, there I was. After I got home, it took my eyes several days to get back to normal – whatever do they do to that recycled air, and why?

Now it’s the turn of my ears. They have been prone to feeling clogged up for a couple of weeks, but since yesterday, the right one won’t clear at all. Will it clear by itself? Will I need to go to the doctor?

I wish I knew, but in the meantime, I’m trying Sudafed, warm olive oil, ibuprofen, anything that I think might help. I’m a bit dizzy and headachy, but as my husband so kindly pointed out, what’s so different about that?

The serenity of spring

I’ve moaned about our terrible weather so much this winter, that I thought I’d tell you all how, finally, it is gorgeous here! Heavenly, warm, sunny spring, at long last!

It happened almost as soon as I returned from grandmother duty in England, so I really must take some credit for it. One day it was cold and dreary, the next…it wasn’t! How does that happen? Didn’t we used to have a gradual move to spring, not this full-on, sprung spring? (sic)

I don’t know, and I don’t care. All I know is, it’s here! We celebrated in style by planting our potatoes, onions and garlic, a month late. Then we planted carrots, beans, peas and broad beans, 2 months late. We’re hoping for the best with the veg garden, planting late can mean poor harvests, but we’ll see.

We also laid in some sage, chives, lavender, and rosemary, not to mention loads of flowers! We planted our summer veg in the greenhouse, too – okra, squash (4 kinds), tomatoes (6 kinds), peppers (5 kinds), more herbs. Wonderful. Marvelous. Words can’t describe how happy it makes me to plant; it is truly something about the renewing of spring that makes me feel like this.

Talk about the best laid plans, though – last night, wild boar decided to trip the light fantastic through our newly planted, newly watered herb garden. The garden is only 20 feet from the house, what in the world are those piggies doing up here? They should smell humans, and dogs, and be terrified! Guess not.

The first veg of spring is ready now, too. We picked our first asparagus from the asparagus bed last night, and had it in an omelet – heaven.

The first of many asparagus omelettes

Springtime omelet

6-8 spears freshly-picked asparagus (don’t bother if it’s not super fresh)
1 onion, finely chopped
3 free range eggs, beaten
chopped ham (optional)
olive oil
salt, pepper

Cut the woody bits away from the asparagus spears and cut into 1 inch pieces. Fry the onion and asparagus lightly in olive oil until tender, then mix the hot veg into the beaten eggs.

Pour the mixture back into the hot pan, and cook until the bottom is golden, then flip and cook on the other side. Remove immediately and cut into  slices.

Great on its own, or in a sandwich!

 

To everything there is a season

And how true that is. I am just back home from a wonderful visit with my granddaughter Matilda (and her family!!), and from a week of work at the very nice company Simple Click.

Matilda was her usual lovely self, learning new things every day. I think she might even have remembered me from the last visit, because it seemed to take her less time to feel comfortable with me again. I feel very lucky to be ‘young’ enough to see many years with her ahead of me, getting to know Miss Matilda. 

Back home again, Kenton and I nipped into the village to replenish the cupboards. Sadly, we also received news of a death in the family of a friend. It hit me hard – how can something so terribly sad happen on such a lovely day? How can children be left without a parent? It is beyond understanding.

In our village, if they had been here, the family would be inundated with visitors. It is a time when everyone in the village comes to give you a hug, bring a meal, cry with you. Not for them the ‘stiff upper lip’ approach of elsewhere, where even grieving tears will make people look the other way.

I like the rural way. There is never a way to make the death of a loved one easy, but here, it is somehow easier to see it as a part of life.

You see nature, both good and bad. You see that on the other side we have a young child like Matilda to balance the sadness. She will live, grow and love; that somehow makes life OK for me again.