blink, blink

Is that the sun? How amazing to emerge from the chrysalis of exam marking to discover that it's spring. There's even blossom and greenery.

The thing about marking is, you leave the real world for three weeks and inhabit an alternate universe where time stands still and is only divided by the ends and beginnings of the essays. You no longer say "in an hour's time" but "in four papers' time". "Ten papers" is the new language for "this evening".

In this weird ellipsis of time, everything else gets a bit screwy as well. I have a pair of finished slippers that materialised during the marking period, but all my sewing needles have up and left while I was gone, so I can't finish them off (where you weave in the ends). I have two thirds of one, monster, sock, which is so massive I think I have to rip it out and do it again - though that might just be the marking-time perspective clouding my perception.

Blink, blink. I'm clawing my way back.

the view from here

Talk about the most bee-you-ti-ful Mayday morning. This is Bradgate Park in Leicestershire just before seven o'clock this a.m., where morris dancers were to be found "dancing in the May" - that is, heralding the coming of summer and maintaining the good order of mother earth and drinking beer (yes, at seven o'clock in the morning).

The odd-looking building atop the hill, in fact the hill itself, is known as "Old John", and morris dancers, hangers-on, dog walkers, and one druid, climb the hill every mayday morning to continue this tradition. This morning was an absolute cracker of a day - very breezy up top but the most wonderful blue sky and bright bright sunshine. I have a fantastic photo of Sarah with 6-month old baby Austin who, in his shades and bunny suit looked fit for a day on the slopes - but you don't just go putting pictures of other people's kids on the web, so you'll just have to imagine how cute. It was very very.

There is much more to say on morris dancers, and very much much more to say on visiting England, including turning up in Trafalgar square to discover the Public Art installation that was "Eat London" - an entire London map made of food. Also there is a sweater, which thanks to some very long car journeys and some understanding friends, was finally completed during an almost impossibly delicious morris breakfast post-Bradgate this morning. I never even showed you the denouement of the wool-dyeing experiment, which seems a very long time ago now and by the time I get around to discussing it, will be all made into funky slippers. Finally, there is the start of a sock, whose genesis is owed to the fact that my nice London friends don't get up very early in the morning and I wasn't at the time carrying the then-unfinished sweater.

However, the exam marking is upon us so I'll be laying low for a few weeks while I get that done. Still, all the pics will still exist after that, and you can use the time to anticipate my further eloquent thoughts.