Pipping ...

Apparently the term given to an egg carrying a chick, which has a tiny hole in it! So, one of our eggs has started to pip, and we have also heard peeping from inside the shells! Most of the day was spent standing over the incubator watching the eggs do a strange kind of rolling dance while holding a hand held peeping fake chicken to make the pre-hatchlings feel more at home. The things we end up doing in the name of education!
Nature has been left to take its course tonight, and hopefully tomorrow there will be some additions to Year 2.

In Anticipation ...

Today is Monday, nothing too unusual about that, but also day 18! Day 18 is the reccommended day that the hatching tray is put into the incubator, so we have put it in! And ... for the next 20 minutes, we just watched!

Not exactly sure what we thought would happen - it is not as if the addition of the hatching tray induces chick-birth, but still, we watched in silence, anticipating what is to come!

We are expecting the arrival of our wee ones over the next 3 days!

What came first, the chicken or the egg? ...

Well, in all honesty, I can only answer ... neither!

The first thing that arrived was the incubator! A few weeks ago, along with some colleagues, we decided that it would be exciting for the children in our classes to watch as we incubated and hatched chicken eggs. We had a very good contact, and an incubator funded by our PTFA, and after reading the comprehensive set of instructions, were all set to go ...

My colleagues will try to hatch eggs with their class this half term, and I will try next half term. However, the "Very-first-cermonious egg-placing-in-the-incubator" happened yesterday, and we all feel equally responsible for them!

All was going so well until ... we put the eggs in the incubator and it bleeped ... and bleeped ... and bleeped some more!

So ... what does one do with a bleeping (and by bleeping, I refer to its physical condition) incubator full of eggs? They ... turn it off and start it again ... 3 times. I've heard of the dizzy ducklings game, and as the incubator we have purchased turns the eggs automatically, it seems as though our wee banty eggs are having a similar experience!

After faffing around for some time, it seems as though the bleeping problem was to do with a loose lid, which could be fixed with a wedge of blu-tac cemented to the internal incubation switch (Problem to be rectified by reputable company sending out new incubator after they required us to send incubator back ... Hmmm slight problem there until chicks hatch which has been explained in a lengthy telephone conversation with them!)

For the first time, I have sense of parental responsibility.

Incubation period ... 19-21 days. Watch this space for updates!

(per·spec·tive)

A view or vista.

A mental view or outlook.

The relationship of aspects of a subject to each other and to a whole.

Full Circle ...

Today, I guess has been one of those marker days on the journey where past, present and future colide. The reason for this marker day, is that I found myself standing on the cliff-top at Whitby under the shadow of the Abbey where some three and a half years ago, a number of us left, the wind whipping in our faces, to walk on a journey to Rome. (Rome of course then turned into Jerusalem, but that's another story!)

This was not by any means, an ordinary walk, as there was something resonnating with those who pounded the hundreds of miles of tarmac of the UK, Europe and Asia to see an end to Empire and institution and something new to rise in the lands in which they set their feet. So ... this morning I found myself gathered with others, back at the departure point of this epic journey which spanned nations and continents. Full circle!

To add to that, today, April 19th, is the day on which the Celtic Easter date would have been celebrated. The difference in date between the Roman and Celtic Easter? Well that's a very long story, and too much to go into now! However, April 19th 2009 is now the first date on which English Heritage can officially chronicle that a celebration on the Celtic Easter date has taken place within the Whitby Abbey site, since the Synod of Whitby in 664. A passing of some 1300 years or so. The past has been pulled up, and the present is shaping the future. A sense of what a number of friends today commented upon as being "Completion."

Incredible days!

I wandered lonely as a cloud ...

...over vales and hills,

And there before my eyes I saw,

A host of ... tourists, traffic jams and a severe lack of car-parking spaces!

Okay, so I decide to visit the Lake District on what is probably the busiest bank holiday weekend of the year and disagree with my inner-self, which suggests to my conscience that I might actually be part of the problem!

The noise of the bustling crowds and nose to tail traffic left in the busy town was soon silenced however, by the crunch of stone underfoot and the gentle breeze sweeping down the valley.

Ahead, nothing but wide open space. Above, nothing but wide-open skies!

Now I remembered the reason why I came!

Strange but true happenings from Northumberland!

Strange but true happening #1

Firstly, the very fact that I find myself blogging is strange, and yet at the same time, true! I started my blogging journey in February, and yes, just as I anticipated, it has not started strongly. (Hence, the first post for approximately 8 weeks!) As I type it is 12:13 (after midnight, as opposed to it being midday!) remembering that I had created such an account approximately 23 minutes ago! So .... "why now, am I blogging?" I ask myself!

Maybe it's a holiday thing to do, it now being Easter, or perhaps I have had just too much time on my hands, otherwise, it could be that I am in need of a space to begin to put the whirlwind of thoughts rushing through my mind down onto paper ... or should that be "screen?"


Strange but true happening #2

As an avid walker, much of my time is spent pounding the sands of the Northumberland coastline. It is not uncommon for a range of debris to be washed up on the shore. Lobster pots, huge tree roots, shattered sledges (presumably used for dune-sliding!) and old crates being just a few of the delights spotted on a regular basis.

However, more recently there have been more perculiar items spotted including a whale, a 10 foot oarfish, a number of seals (unfortunately deceased!) and, as of Sunday, a rather large squid!!!

I was glad to be walking with a good friend of mine on Sunday, as otherwise I probably would have dismissed my own judgement about what I spotted. But, sure enough, it was indeed one of the above. Bulbous body, smaller head, eyes either side and ... tentacles ... lots of tentacles ... coming from its ... face! Very squid-like. Definitely a squid!

Random indeed!

Then, just yesterday in Tynemouth, something caught my eye. At first I considered my mind was deceiving me, or that what I saw was more to do with the caffeine and sugar infusion that I had just injected myself with in Crusoe's. But .... there it was ... sure enough ...

A spring bubbling up in the sand ...

Hmmmm ...


Strange but true happening #3

Due to the time spent customising this blog, tomorrow is now in fact, today!