My Pocket

sewing and butterflies

For the moment I'm sewing voile curtains for the boy students' rooms in the cloisters. Their living quarters are called the cloisters because it's a building with an open central square with lawn, trees and a pond. The 30 odd rooms all face in towards this and there are covered walkways all the way around to the doors. The walls facing inwards are all window so they need a thin curtain to complement the thick one, just so you can have some privacy but not keep out the light. That's what I'm making, as some need replacing. It's a lot of fabric...

On a completely different note: butterflies.

no, let's not

The forecast for this weekend and until Wednesday is showers, showers, showers and more showers, so we decided not to go on our planned Cornwall holiday. Yesterday the cheeky weather showed it's sunniest, warmest and most pleasant face in a long time however, just to tease I think. I've never been so relieved to find a misty morning view from the window and take such delight in steady drizzle.

It will be a weekend of pottering around indoors and getting some things ticked off our to-do list. Apart from putting up shelves, clearing out and putting together I intend to watch films, have hot soup, do some sewing and some studying. For me that beats getting soaked in a tent down in St Ives, though I would have loved to see the place.

I'm still touched by the performance of the students last night at the last Informal Evening. Informal Evenings are events the school has every so often when anyone who wants to perform can get on stage and play their instrument, sing, do a skit, perform an act or read poetry etc, mostly people sing and play and often together. Saskia, a 16-year-old girl, sang the Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah to acoustic guitar and it was amazing, can't do it justice by describing it really, it was just spot on and so touching.

OK, enough of the rambling, I don't have much to say today. Have a great weekend!

farewell

Last night was the night of the Farewell Dinner. All the leaving students, mature students and staff make leaving speeches at this formal dinner held for the whole school. This year there were 37 people leaving, which is a lot for any given year, and it took more than three hours to get through all the people saying something. Each year it humbles me, hearing all these wonderful people speak about their year or years here. I always feel like I haven't got involved enough, never get to know enough of them, don't spend enough time at the school. The students live such an intense and unique life here, close together and learning about themselves at a terrific speed.

There's no comparing to that really, but I still set myself the challenge each year to push myself a bit more out of my comfort zone. I run and hide as often as I can, feeling awkward and out of place with all these people around. There is always something going on and opportunitites present themselves to learn something new and I am mostly too scared to take advantage of it. I learn lots on my own, but I would like to learn about sharing time and experiences with others more. In any case, there are several students I did get to know somewhat and this is their last day, so I am off now to hand out hugs. Take care.