Once upon a time....

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Balinese shells


I'm waiting for Peter to take the boys swimming. Then my mom and i will go out to jus wander the town a bit before i go for class tonight. I an sooo exhausted, and i'm lazing. I have tonnes to do, especially for the course. But i can't bring myself to do it. Sigh.

It has been great now teaching with the boys. I have the same holidays as they do, which money cannot buy really. When the course is over i will be able to finally spend all the holidays with them, technically at least. Whether i end up doing so is anyone's guess.

Who could have told me that life would wash me up here. We made these lovely windchimes in the forest school session about the wind elementals. They were made from beautiful claypots from the 50s and 60s found in a garden, raku fired pebbles made by the GSCE pupils, i found these adorable clay birds which looked gullesque in these delicious colours in the second hand shop in the school and shells which i had collected over the years. We strung them round a willow hoop woven by the older children and they made the most wonderful sound as they clinked together. One of the children came round as we were prepping them. I looked for shells which had holes in them, heavy ones. I told her these shells come from all over the world. They come from the beaches of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Norway, England... and now they will live in the forest of Glencraig. So i said to her, you never know where you could end up - you could start life on a beach on the equator and life could bring you elsewhere, even if you are a little shell.

She looked at the shells and she said, So, we could end up anywhere in the world then? Yes, we could, i said to her.

Those windchimes which were sooo beautiful cost us precisely nothing to buy. We had jus found these pieces and put them together. They were gleanings, findings which life had left around for us. They were so beautiful because they had all this wonderful history about them and they were put together by these children. It was quite magical.

Right, Peter has returned, so i'm going out with my mom. So remember, you could end up anywhere...we all start our lives with that Once Upon a Time...and how we live it, where we live it...well that's life.

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