Head in the sand - and garden and books

The past month and a bit has been unbelievably busy, especially as I started the teaching English (to foreign learners) course about seven weeks ago now. It has been nothing but late nights, loads of lesson planning, assignments... and I've still got another five weeks to go. It's a part-time course but the word must be used very loosely because if I was working in an office I have little doubt that I'd need to take a day off here and there just to work on course stuff... In fact, the other woman on the course with me is hoping to take Monday off work - and not to enjoy a long weekend, but to keep up with our case study assignment (due next week) and our next two teaching pracs.

We have got real students, which is the silver lining to what otherwise is actually a very dark cloud. While I'm enjoying the learning and planning and thinking and the students, there is a lot more that I'm not enjoying. More on this when I wrap up the course at the end of October - time then to reflect.

On Saturday morning I'm doing my English teaching lesson with my case-study guy -  a Russian chap.
Part of our course work involves making games (I think it is actually my next assignment theme too, after the case study one). I've created this board game for practicing present and past tense (and each of the four aspects).

FEAT is SOLD OUT! Delightful news. I'm in the fun, final stages of planning where printed items are coming back from the printers, deliveries are arriving and my wonderful team is lined up and ready for event night. I'm testing some stuff at the theatre next week... three weeks to go.

My veggie garden is happening! I haven't had much time to work in it although I do steal 15 minutes here, a half-hour there...

A few weeks ago I put plants that I'd purchased into the main bed - pansy flowers, sorrel, celery and egg plant. I also planted nasturtium seeds. The egg plants got zapped in the brief cold spell about three weeks ago but they're recovering and should be fine (I think I only lost one completely). The sorrel and celery are looking very good.

At home I've had seedlings in trays for weeks. They've been progressing too slowly but this week are doing better. I transferred some across to the outside bed this past week - Asian leafy veg, butter lettuce and two sunflower varieties. I've still got beetroot, swiss chard and some cherry tomato varieties in trays.

As for my Atlantic Giant pumpkin plant... I so need to get them into the ground. Two of the six seeds germinated and the plants are growing really quickly now.

Much to my dismay, I haven't been able to get around to much crochet. Over a period of a month I made sections for my first tree yarn bomb. I put it up on a Sunday night and by the Tuesday morning it was down. A gardener from a neighbouring complex, who brought it to me, said that the people were complaining... Yes, there are all types in this world. I expected as much but I'd hoped. I spoke to the one complainant through the intercom system and asked why she was complaining. "Well, we don't know what it is or who put it there," she said. I replied that it was yarn on a tree, created to be fun and pretty. She hung up on me...

The good news is that a friend has put me in contact with Little Eden - they're not far from me. I hope to get around there during next week to put it up there.

Back in July (and into August) I completed a crochet project that I started in Argentina (the blue shawl) and finished another that I'd started in December last year. The latter only needed a bunch more flowers made. Both look quite fancy but they're actually easy patterns.

I couldn't resist the temptation of starting a new project. With crochet time at a minimum, I'll make slow progress until November. But, nice to have something on the go anyway. This is a sample I tried the other night to test the gauge.

Carb watching has been very interesting and educational. I'm feeling great, which is a bonus. I log daily on fatsecret.co.za (superb resource) - it's the only way to assess your intake; just as nutritionists get clients to keep a food diary. Same thing. I'm eating loads of green leafy veg, which is always a good thing. And I'm also being more creative in my foods and combinations. Just the kick up the butt I've needed for a while.

Running hasn't been great but is definitely better than the first five or six weeks after getting back from Argentina. Three weeks of a bad cough, recovered for a week, two weeks of a cold... I'm running nice and easy and comfortably again. I see my husky friends once a week and I've had a couple of other really pleasant runs in the last two weeks. I've been musing a lot about stress and running. Was chatting to a friend about this during a run on Wednesday. I'll save for another post. Still getting my head around some thoughts.

till the next one...