Hellooo Summer!

And I have my results! What's more, they came through on my birthday.

A215 Creative Writing                            - Distinction
A230 Reading and Studying Literature - Pass2 (in other words, a 2.1)

To a great extent, I'm still coming down from the anxiety over the A230 exam - you know the sort of thing I mean...mentally re-writing each answer and knowing the bits that you cocked up.

The worst part for someone as picky as me is the fact that I will never see the marked exam paper to understand exactly where I went wrong. Even though I have a pretty good idea.

And I suppose that is the point.

As I move up to Level 3, beginning with Children's Literature in October, I know that I need to get Practical Criticism under my belt. I need to read the Critical Essays in the module books and decide what my stance is on them, especially with regard to the set books.

Now, the set books are a GIFT for me - I love all of them!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Northern Lights
Little Women and Good Wives
Treasure Island
Swallows and Amazons
Peter Pan (the play)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
The Other Side of Truth
Junk
Mortal Engines
Coram Boy
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Voices in the Park
100 Best Poems for Children
Tom's Midnight Garden

and finally, the Carnegie Medal Winner 2015 - Buffalo Soldier

So, my summer reading is pure delight, which is just as well because my bit of Devon is wet and windy at the moment.

What you find when you are clearing out.........

Since our move, I have been going through drawers and boxes that have not been touched in years and have found some "lost treasures" - my grandfather's Braille pocket watch, my great-grandfather's Naval Service Record (handwritten on vellum) and my other great-grandfather's certificate granting him the Freedom of the City of London. These are all precious family treasures, but the item that means the most to me is written by my father on three sheets of lined paper taken from, I think, a shorthand pad.

I have transcribed it here:

Standing Orders

re: Pamela Brodie Duffield

Born 9-7-56

Issued by Pam Management Committee

1. Pamela must not be kissed by well-meaning friends or relations.
2. Pamela must be treated as a human being and not be fussed or cuddled except by Parents.
3. Pamela must not call her grandparents Nannie or Dan Dan - because it sounds bloody awful!
4. Pamela must be introduced to things by their proper names i.e. NOT puff puff, bow wow, gee gee etc. Any offender will be torn off a bloody great strip.
5. Pamela must not be spoilt or left to mercy of doting grandparents.
6. Pamela must be treated for smallpox etc etc as and when applicable.
7. No unauthorised person shall have care of Pamela without consent of either parent, i.e. this includes:-
   bathing, pushing out [I imagine this means in the pram] carrying, nursing etc (even if it does upset Aunt Beat etc!!)
8. Pamela will be expected to know her ABC by the age of 3½. (Failure to comply with this order will entail a severe reprimand) [in point of fact, I could read and write fluently by the time I was 4 years old]
9. Subject to official confirmation, Pamela may be insured through her father's company (the Sun Life) for a sum as yet unknown, which shall be used if necessary to cover part or wholly her education at a place other than that laid down by the Local Education Authority. Should this not be necessary, the monies should be allowed to accumulate and be presented to her on her coming of age.
10. Pamela shall not be unduly forced to religion but encouraged if she shows the desire.
11. Pamela shall be dressed in a modern manner and put wise to clothing matters as and when necessary.
12. Pamela shall be fed only by her parents and not between meals. Feeding by others shall be vetoed (i.e. no sly bits from fond relations and friends in kitchen). Pamela shall not be allowed to eat in the street and must sit at the table for all snacks etc.
13. Pamela shall be instructed in the art of silent (mouth closed) eating - no slurp slop crunch slopp slopp eating  i.e. no noises on or off!!!!
14. Bed times shall be severely maintained, no TV, horror comics or space films.
15. Any musical interests should be encouraged and followed up.
    Further Standing Orders will be issued from time to time by the Committee
    
    Signed: P H Duffield (Parent)     Secretary
                 G W M Duffield (Parent) President
    

    These orders shall be made public knowledge in due course.
    Any infringement of the Orders will be dealt with severely by the President and Secretary; punishment to be decided by them jointly.
    

    Signed       G W M Duffield         President

                                          P H Duffield              Secretary
    
                       Sole Members of the Pam Management Committee
    This was written by my beloved dad, a young first-time and very proud father who, with my mother, was living with his in-laws and a variety of aunts and uncles in a large house in Kingston. We lived there until I was a little over four years old and despite all of the well-meaning Standing Orders, I was a much loved, kissed and petted little girl.
     I was not forced to religion, although I did go to church with my grandparents and was a member of the church choir, along with my younger brother. My parents left any decisions regarding faith very much to me and although Dad died before I became Pagan, Mum knew and understood the path that I was taking.
     I was taught by my Dad's sister, my darling Aunt Judy, to read and write (much to the annoyance of my first Infant School teachers who, I think, found me precocious).
    I was encouraged to love and play music, I never did eat in the street and I certainly never called my grandparents anything other than Grandpa or Grandma, followed by their surnames when talking about them to other people.
    
    So these Standing Orders very much reflect the child-rearing ideas of their time, but are they really so outdated? My brother and sister-in-law are raising their daughter as they and I were raised and she is, with no bias on my part, a delight to be around. She has her moments, as do all children, but she knows where her boundaries lie and how far she can push before she has gone too far.
    
    Whether the Pam Management Committee's Standing Orders were all implemented or not, I had a very happy and stable childhood. I miss my Dad and Mum every day and just wish Dad had lived to meet my husband and to know that we have as happy a marriage as he and Mum had together.

I've got those ol' TMA blues...

The TMAs (Tutor Marked Assignments) are beginning to come thick and fast now - the consequence of studying two modules at the same time! Not that I had much choice once I deferred, but that's another story.

 I have just submitted one for A215 Creative Writing and have a 1500 word essay on Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson to submit by mid-day on Thursday 26th.

So what, you may ask, am I doing here on my blog?

Fair question.

I am the Queen of Procrastination - I have to log on to the Open University website daily, to go over the Prose Skills Tutorials, but from there, it is a short hop to Facebook and the Open University groups, of which I am an enthusiastic member...and then I am lost. Posts about cats, things that my non-OU buddies are up to, more posts about cute Red Pandas, things that my OU buddies are up to... and then I look at the clock and OMG, an hour has passed and I haven't done a stroke of work towards the TMA.

So I am here, trying to convince myself to switch off the Internet.

Just for a couple of hours.

Surely I can do without my emails, Facebook OU Groups and the more legitimate uses of the Internet for research purposes?

It is now gone 17.15hrs and I won't get any more done on this TMA now, so I am setting down in writing exactly what will happen tomorrow.

I will get up, shower, have breakfast, switch on my laptop and DISABLE THE INTERNET CONNECTION for three hours, during which, I will work on my TMA04.

I will have an hour's lunchbreak and read my Kindle.

Then I will do another three hours on this damned TMA and break the back of it.
I want it gone before the deadline, so that I can get going on the next two TMAs - a piece of Life Writing and an essay on James Joyce and either the New York Poets or Metropolis. The Life Writing is to be submitted 13th April followed by another on 30th, but I should also be working on the EMA (Externally Marked Assignment), which is due on 28th May.

The essay (TMA05) has to be in on 2nd April, followed by TMA06 on 14th May and then, while I'm trying to get the EMA done, I have to be revising for the A230 exam on 4th June.

So you can see why the Internet has to be switched off. I have the entire summer after 4th June to 'play' (unless I screw up the exam and have to resit *sob*).

In October, I will start the first of my Level 3 modules - Children's Literature and frankly, it will be a relief to be studying just one module.

This will be my last blog entry for a while - unless I need to come on and wail about exams and EMAs. See you after June 4th

We are finally here..........

Well, we have actually been here six weeks, during which time we have:

1. Built the cat enclosure and laid new turf to create a cat garden for them. Collected the cats from their holiday home in Dorset. Watched them gingerly walk across grass for the first time to stare in disbelief at the sheep in the field that borders our garden.

2. Donated several items of furniture to the North Devon Hospice, as this cottage is way smaller than our old home in Camberley.

3. Replaced the vile cooker and refrigerator, both of which had not been visited by the Cleaning Fairy for a very long time. Bought a combined washing machine and dryer because the cottage is too small to accommodate two separate appliances.

4. Had the oil tank installed and filled and the oil-fired boiler commissioned, so that after several weeks using the electric shower to wash and Kevin's Swan Boiler for washing up, we had the luxury of turning on a tap, from which steaming hot water gushed (the pressure here is phenomenal). First long soak in the bath was absolute bliss (big bath with a lovely view over the fields and the garden). The central heating gets connected next week, but with an 8kw woodburner, we may not need all of the radiators switched on!

5. Unpacked a number of boxes and visited the Anvil Corner Recycling Centre on numerous occasions with cardboard boxes and other detritus - some of which was left here by the previous owners.

6. Hung curtains, altered curtains on the old Singer machine (because the Bernina is in a box in the Conservatory, under lots of other boxes that still need to be unpacked!) and ordered new cushions for the sofas which are third-hand to us and the cushions are somewhat "stale, flat and uncomfortable". to paraphrase Shakespeare.

7. Started to get to know our neighbours! I have already been asked to join the Ladies Choir (first rehearsal for Christmas is next week in the Village Hall Bar) and another neighbour would LOVE me to join the local brass band - had to 'fess up that I haven't played the french horn in years, to which he blithely said 'Oh, you'll get your lip back in no time'. Have ducked out for the moment as studying two OU modules at once is likely to take up most of my time this year.

As you can see, we are sideways on to the road - this was
taken when I first went to view the cottage.

This is the view of the cottage from the garden 

This is the sitting room - the woodburner was installed last year and
 our next job will be to build and stock the log store! 

Hobbes has, as usual, claimed his place on the sofa!

This is the view from our bathroom, just after sunrise

Our big blue Land Rover 'SallyB' - the farmer kindly allows us to park her here,
 while we wait for planning permission to widen our access.

The view from one of our bedroom windows.

Paddy and Bearz in their purpose-built Cat Garden.

This is the detached conservatory - once we have moved out
all of the boxes, it will be my studio

A view down the garden to the wildlife pond, taken on our third visit.

We are two miles from the market town of Holsworthy, half an hour from my cousin in Hatherleigh and fifteen minutes from the coast at Bude. Exeter is an hour and fifteen minute drive (I will have my tutorials there) and both Barnstaple and Bideford are about 45 minutes away.

We have been so fortunate with the weather for most of our time here so far; the late summer allowed us to get so much more done. Now it has changed, Autumn is truly here and we have had torrential rain, gale force winds, thunderstorms and hail. The wind really wuthers round the cottage but it has been here for the best part of two hundred and seventy five years, so it is only those new additions (the greenhouse and the conservatory) that might see some damage.

The cottage IS small, but it has made us think about what we truly need to have around us and how we are going to live our lives from now on. And frankly, there is nothing better than waking up and looking out over fields, or down the garden after years of living fifty feet from a road used by traffic twenty-four hours a day