Thursday 14 February 2008

Fix-it-Friday

Today I decided we'd have a bit of a change! I've been staying with my parents all week which has been wonderful. I don't really do lying around doing nothing so I have actually been working every day except one this week. It's been nice, I feel ready to face some kids again on Monday (or at least I will when I spend Sunday planning lessons and printing them out!)
My Dad runs a work based learning project for people with learning difficulties. They basically make garden furniture (and other things), with the aim of giving people the skills they need to be able to work.
They also make a range of nest boxes, and by coincidence it's National Nestbox week in the UK. If you do have a garden then putting up a nestbox is a really great idea. If you do get birds in it watching them fly back and forth feeding chicks is great fun. Its also good for our wildlife. If you don't have a garden them maybe you could try putting up a bird feeder. You can get window mounted ones now and the birds don't seem to mind coming so close to the house if there's food involved!

If you feel like being ultra- creative then there are directions for making your own nest box here. It's really not that tricky, I'm actually really enjoying playing with power tools!
If you have a really big rural garden you could even try a tawny owl box!
Just click on the picture to see the measurements, these things are huge!


Edited to add that a commentator has let me know that this tawny owl box design might not be the greatest. I don't know enough to really comment, it is however taken from the RSPB website. Feel free to make your own (educated) decision, we're all about personal choice here at chez hilltop. I'd say that with any bird box you need to make sure it is well constructed, can you imagine the guilt if it broke while having chicks in it! I have no doubt that whatever design is made at my Dad's project it is well constructed, after all it would have been made by my power tool wielding mother!

Tuesday 12 February 2008

Another job interview

Well yet another job interview, and yet another job where I'm told "we wish we had 2 jobs, you interviewed really well, your lesson was really good and we were really impressed. You'll get a job very soon."
Well that means I need to sort out the next lot of job applications, but that is a job for tomorrow evening. Tonight I am going to relax, and carry on enjoying being looked after by my Mum. It is so nice to be able to not think about what to cook for tea each evening.
Tomorrow I'm going to go an do some work for my Dad doing all the safety checks on the equipment, will be nice to completely forget about teaching for a while, well apart from getting some feedback on exactly why I didn't get the job!