Donna Nook

Just another day in England.  You know the kind where you drive to the coast to see Grey Seals by the hundreds.
There is a small town called Donna Nook (http://lincstrust.org.uk/reserves) about a 45 minute drive from Grimsby.  It's here that the Grey Seals come to give birth from October to December.  So far this year they have had about 1300 pups.  I have been so excited to visit and take some pictures.

Crazy winds at the sea.

Onlookers at Donna Nook.

The coastline.

Mom and her pup playing.  This one is about 2-3 weeks old.  They are born with a yellow coat, stained from the amniotic fluid and within a couple days they are nice and white.  After 2-3 weeks they begin to molt and their adult coats show.

The mothers are not just kissing their babies, they are smelling them so they can tell them apart from the others.

This is a new born, you can still see the umbilical cord.  This is probably one of three born the night before.

Just laying around.

Lunch time.

Posing for the spectators.

This would not have been possible without Ange (the lady I live with) she drove and at one point she believed me when I gave her directions on how to get home.  I was right this time. LOL

I expected to be seeing buildings and learning about the history of England, I never imagined to be witness to something like this.  It was AMAZING, I said this so many times today that I got sick of hearing the word escape my mouth but I was in wonder.

Waltham

I had an exceptionally stressful week.  OFSTED is a governing body that overseas the education system here in the UK.  They came into our school with only 24hrs notice and observed the teachers/management/custodial/students and rated everything from 1-4 with 1 being excellent and 4 being "you're fired".  This school has been a 1 which stands for outstanding for the past 7 years (that's when it was last observed).  Since then the management of the school has taken over two other schools who rated at the lower end of the scale.  If we had not done well this week it would have not only impacted our school but those we support.  While the marks are confidential until they are published, it seems we did very well.  I personally was not observed but the stress was overwhelming.
So today was just a recovery day.  I went to Waltham, a small village nearby that still has an operating windmill.  Around the mill are a few shops.  One of which was a sweet shop.  Not much to show you today.

I couldn't get it all in, and I was starting to feel silly trying to do so.

Next week hopefully I will have some more interesting shots to show you.

Well, Well

I haven't much to tell you this week.  I worked all week and enjoyed most of my time with the kids.  I feel like the year 9's are finally comfortable with me and I know they like me which if you ask me is quite an accomplishment.  There are still one or two year 8's that challenge me but I am making progress there too.
I really wanted to give you some pictures this week but my plans fell through.  I want to keep it a surprise and believe me it will be a surprise.  You will have to wait two weeks and as long as the weather is not terrible you should have some great pictures to view.
For now this is it.  My Apologizes in advance.

New "Wellies"

I told you this was not very exciting.

This is downtown Grimsby, near the fishing heritage museum and main mall.  The weather looks nice but there was a strong wind and it seemed about only 8-10 degrees.  Better than snow LOL, LOL, LOL.  This was the exception to the rule for weather, it has been very grey and there always seems to be a light rain falling and sometimes it is very rainy.  I think the thing I find strange is how quickly the weather changes.  One second sunny, the next rainy.  I always carry an umbrella.

Happiness is ............

A WARM PRETZEL.  I know you are looking for some great pictures but I am sorry and you will have to wait.  I spent the day yesterday at Meadow Hall shopping centre. Its aptly nick-named Meadow Hell because of the amount of people.  It was the size of Square One in Mississagua.  The food court was two floors with the upper floor having about 12 sit down restaurant/bars.  The entire time I thought about my "shopping girls" (Marjorie, Theresa, Beth and our beloved Lisa).  I am missing our shopping day together this year and missing you more.  Don't worry about me sitting around and feeling sorry for myself, I am enjoying this opportunity and making the most of it.
The best part of the shopping(aside from the laughter with my friends) was always the discovery of a pretzel shop.  And to my surprise, Meadow Hall has Mr. Pretzel.  It was freshly made, dipped in butter and salt and made me very happy as I walked and reminisced about our years of shopping days.
Love you all.