Spring just

The weather is cold and drech! (fab Scots word to cover any dull, wind blown, wet or miserable day, when the colour is mainly grey, with some grey to make a change) The nights are getting shorter but not fats enough and Easter is a long way form us. The winter storms rattle round the house and work, and the clouds have as much chance of carrying snow as rain.

In this darkness  I have just decided to go away for the a few days in Easter, flights are booked and train tickets to the airport, how to get and get back all planned, and months yet to go. The internet allows you so many easy short cuts, flights booked after we checked 3 different airports for a variety of dates and then chose the ones that suited and were cheap. Everything else will rotate round these dates. Then train journeys to the airport, allowing for a not too rushed trip down, and a hotel in central Glasgow which we can take our time in. Our destination is our next plan, Segway trips and climbs up Italian churches in our future! all in all the planning is as much fun as the going.

But that is many weeks away, first I spent my morning voting for the Scottish Children book awards, I had made a mistake but with the Scottish Book Trust staff help all was well. (Thanks to Laura and Sarah for that) I am finally going to talk about the books :-) I read both the middle and the older range of books.

The older range included a thick book called Black Dove, White Raven. which was based in the past in Africa, in Ethiopia during the war and in a time of upheaval. Some of the back ground was things I already knew while others I either had never thought of or had not known. The detail and depth was fascinating. The history and background something I will reread and follow up, but the story didn't grab me half as much as the detail. The next one is The Trouble on Cable Street, another historically heavy book full of things I heard in history as a child, and came from my own families past, troubles in Ireland, Spanish revolution, and the world wars. The voice was very real, I could hear parts of my own family talking, bits of Ireland, bits of past. But found it hard to get through in the allowed time, one I will be going back to when I am not time constrained. The third book of the awards was the Piper, which I totally misunderstood from the glance at the cover, another world war book, or a trenches book, turned out to be a tense, family horror, that pulled you in and twisted and turned until even at the end you were not totally sure you had the truth of it. Left a lasting impression on me.

The middle range of books was The Fastest boy in the world, which had a good draw, and pace, felt a bit like a biography at points and while it took you far, I didn't feel I knew the people at the end. Good read though and worth a revisit and a recommendation.  The Mysteries of Ravenstorm Island, I had this book out for the longest time but never got past the first page, for me I didn't find this book drew me at all, but it is aimed at 8-12 year old, but wasn't my choice. The third book in this group was the first I read, The Nowhere Emporium, the very premise drew me in. Of all the titles I had this one already and so read it while the other came from the supplier. Really good read which drew me in and kept me there, I would tell a different story but as a friend said when I said this before 'go on then and write.' Some bits I wanted more of and the ending was an opening to a series, but you forgive that as that is what a good writer wants. I will be looking out for the future series.

The youngest age range for the first time ever was also read by me, mainly to small folk in classes. I had so much fun, bright happy focused faces all sat listening with awe in their eyes, I can live along time off that sort of adoration :-) again I am glad not to have a voice here, as the range was exceptional this year, I am still not sure which one would get my vote. The class from yesterday are taking the end of the never tickle a tiger, where Izzy goes off to Poke the Polar bear as a start point and will be writing their own stories, which I hope to go back and listen too at the end of next month. It tied in with their Arctic Theme they are just started, and the igloo, and penguin they are currently looking at. I was asked to judge their drawings, gosh now that was hard, how can you choose between 15 drawings all done with love, and energy and hope. They had covered each of the titles and all were of such vigorous and colourful style it took ages to find just three! I could choose from all titles but ended up picking the best of each title.

Wanted Ralfy Rabbit Book Burglar,

The rest are on the same section if you want to have a listen too!

The next library plan is the world book day tokens and the readathon as well as the big quiz which I need to find a teacher to support. I also have had fun doing The Write Path by Bev Humphrey, which has been a fun event run each autumn with first years. For this we get a pass the parcel story, and an hour! the latter often is harder than the former, and I underestimated the amount of time it would take to get the stories typed and checked to send off. Last year we got the first parts straight from the authors who bravely set up their work to be mangled and zombied by the pupils as it gets passed round in the hour. (Every year someone brings in Zombies, not always in the story that looks like you could use it but then kids imagination is amazing).

We are in the first Prelims of the BGE (Broad General Education) generation of the new Scottish curriculum, the 4th years are the first pupils that have been doing this system since P1 and this is their first year to do Nat 4 and Nat 5 exams. The change in attitudes is noticeable, the first stop point or go to for them is google, this isn't a bad thing, but they expect the work to be there and they can copy and paste it into their templates, to then be sent off! One staff member took the class to the reference books and showed them what they needed to do and left them to look, within minutes they had left the books logged in and were asking how to find the right level in google, when the book had that already at their level. This year will be interesting across the board.

The School blog has a great visit by some of our kids to the new school site, which looks good. The seating is the first floor of the pool which is backed onto my office and the top floor of the library. There is also a fab shot from the local Sinclair Aerial Survey folk who have been taking shots as it has been going up. Again some nice shots of my windows and the space, I plan to go visit soon and bring back my own shots.

Now I have a confession to make, I am not very sporty and tend to wards the 'why does any one bother' in most conversations. But I have two small exceptions to this, two forbidden pleasures I rarely ever admit but both are coming up in the next few months. The first is the six nations rugby, my school was a rugby focused school with much support put into players and skills, with a small handful over the years becoming professional and even playing for their countries, despite not bothering for a number of years I do like a bit of Rugby. I tend to not bother with the clubs and counties level but I do enjoy a good game so tend to follow the countries, of course the Scottish team, and due to old links I have cheered for the English but up here I do this very very quietly. My other small sporting weakness is the Grand National (9th of April this year) I have been known to put a bet on, sit and cheer my horse on, and even watch all the build up, drink in hand. My mothers family are from Liverpool, and my mum tells of jump Sunday being the same date as mothering Sunday year after year and her family taking a picnic out to the course to have a family day out. Was her birthday on mothering Sunday so often her birthday treat.

Fastforward

I started this with comments on how the blue Monday wasn't very blue for me but then Monday got harder, I planned to pick it up on Tuesday, and that too, didn't happen, Wednesday was out of office day and much manual work got done. Thursday I had half a day with a local primary class, a composite class of P1-3 with 5 P1's and 12 or 13 pupils in total! So only a half day at my desk and I have a meeting later today, but for a few minutes I will have a break and rest!

Finding time to be properly reflective gets hard when work keeps coming at you. I find writing this blog helps me get a perspective back on my world and work.

Again I have got to a Friday and a blog post and again I am a week behind my last note, this is my last working day in January! where did the month go! I have plans for the next three weeks at least so I am nearly at the end of February already mentally. My plans of the new year and getting things completed have gone up in smoke, and I am needing to do lists to get the basics of my world completed on time.

The power is flickering, I may end up finishing this on yet another day :-)

I have heard this recently which had me giggling and sharing to everywhere (and now here) which is a parody of the song Hello by Adele, but re written as Snow by Mary Morris.

I love my job, and find much to enjoy every day and week. I do get out of bed and head to work with only basic moans about being up and nothing to do with going to work. I miss my desk even when I am busy at meetings and out for a afternoon or two but even saying this I am totally onside with this song :-)  watch and enjoy.

We had our latest meeting for the north branch of Cilip Scotland this week just gone. Despite using a mix of platforms including one that was new to us and the UHI we all got connected and had a productive and pleasant meeting, from the Western Isles to Caithness to Inverness and beyond we all got connected fine. Technology is the only reason we can run this group as the area we cover is just too diverse to allow us to meet face to face. With this in mind we have set up a facebook group to help get more connected and we have plans to run a blog, one of the things we suffer form in the highland is our geographical distance. My nearest colleague is 20 plus miles, then 60 plus and then 70 plus! we all work days and esp when the school is in, so getting together is hard! just chatting is impossible unless we have the channels to chat already open. But we must start somewhere.

Spent part of my week out meeting primary ones again, refreshing their memories and reading the 3 award books for the Scottish book awards, I get to read Wanted, Ralphy rabbit, never tickle a tiger and mouse first night at midnight school. I have found each one has its own voice and fun, I know as an adult I love the never tickle a tiger as the language used is very emotive and the story very real, but then Ralphy is about libraries which are fun and the back grounds are fun too, but the first night touches on the little ones first day at school! so I have no idea who would win! My own pupils have been putting in reviews and choosing which of the older titles they like and I am finding that hard too!

I am off to write myself some info for the North Group Blog and hopefully the facebook there :-) have a nice blowy weekend in the teeth of the gale!

countdown to Christmas

I survived the 'Grand Opening', but due to so much happening and so much to do I do not have a single photo, in fact I didn't sit down from 9am until 4pm, and didn't even get my lunch until after 4pm! But everything went well. We had loads of people and a great session with little folk and the book bug visiting, which was amazing. The library filled with many folk and the staff were exemplary, we had every one from  the heads of committees down to the normal folk who just drop in anyway. The atmosphere was warm and friendly, the chat was full of smiles and laughter, while the compliments of the new layout and refurbishment were very welcome.

I feel like I aged about a year over the day and it has taken me several days to recover from it and now I need a weekend to get myself fully back, but never mind. The whole day was met with success and if that meant I didn't stop, due to running round making the next thing ready, and tidying after the last thing, then so be it, I see it as a dry run for my own new library due next autumn!

On another note I managed to read several books in the same week, mainly as an escape from the emails and other plans. The one I am half way through and thoroughly enjoying is The Bolter by Frances Osbourne, The background and surrounding story is as interesting as the main heroine, the setting for her childhood is the back ground of most of the start of the 20th century. I am finding it very interesting and the picture being painted feels very real and modern.

The second book I have been reading and finished was Returning: The Journey of Alexander Sinclair by Sharon Gunason Pottinger, written by a friend I bought it to see what she had done but swiftly became immersed in the story and lives that are woven in a dance or rug pattern that glows. I found myself breathless to find out what next and at the same time sad as the story passed. I didn't want to finish it as much as I wanted to know how they move on. The epilogue was almost another story in itself.

I am also taking part in the Scottish Children's Book Awards and I have been reading the two older age groups with my pupils. This is the same book list that I had the joy of reading the youngest age range to the P1's locally and I can honestly say those I thought I would like are not the ones that I have enjoyed the most. The oldest group includes Black Dove, White Raven The Piper and The trouble in cable street. All three are history based reads, Black Dove White Raven is about The build up to the second world war and flying but is based mainly in Ethiopia in the 1930's a good read with heaps of history and settings, fab snap shot of the pre-second world war Africa. The Piper which is set in the time of the evacuations of the second world war, again you start thinking it is one ting but it changes and I wont say more but worth a read and proving to be quite popular with my kids. The trouble on Cable street is the one I haven't finished yet so I will not say anything about that yet.

The middle age range includes the titles; The fastest boy in the world, The nowhere emporium and The mysteries of Ravenstorm Island; The lost children. Again I enjoyed The fastest boy and the story and surrounding based in Africa is very real and the feeling of time passing and the need to keep running is apparent, The nowhere emporium is an amazing idea, the moving shop and the lost folk who inhabit it very spooky, but while it has a lot to recommend it I would have liked to see a bit more of the end, but it is open for the next book. The last one The lost children I have also yet to read, I must have both unread ones done by next week so that is my task!

Today is two weeks to the school closing and I am not sure if I am in a rush or really can't be bothered, for only the third time in 24 years I will be in Scotland for Christmas. I have got all my cards posted that I will be sending this year, I have some of the dinner already in my freezer and some gifts organised, but I am having trouble getting myself organised for it. This will be the first Christmas and new year that I will have with my whole family home, One back from the city one back from Milan, we will be stuffed to the gills and probably falling over ourselves but it will be nice. I need to remember to enjoy the good bits and not to expect too much.

The New build comes along well, I see my office built and the surrounding building getting finished when I drive in, in the morning, the windows are going in to some bits and the walls are being finished. The shape is appearing and the final outlooks are being put in place. The excitement has not yet started to build but the potential is there, I shall wait until I get a look in in the spring to get photos of my space!

Otherwise life goes on as normal.

Rushing too much

This month seems to have just gone, I am sure I last looked at the start of May and now its coming to an end. This month is too short, and I have so much still too do. I am enjoying my writers course on future learn, my skills are increasing noticeably, but I am not brave enough to put work up here yet, maybe a poem or two after my trips away early next week.

This week and next I am doing much travelling, I shall be in Dundee by the end of the week at the Cilips Conference and I can't wait. There is always so much to see and do, and I get a bit flustered trying to do all of it at once :-). So I will be either blogging from there or blogging about there for next week.

My latest plan it to write a piece for the Scottish book trusts Home challenge, it has made me think about what is home and why I choose to call somewhere home. I have something written but I am coming to understand that I can spend time and draft and redraft to make my work better, so I am going to revisit my piece next week when its not fresh in my mind, I know what I want it to say but I am not sure it says it.

I went to the Highland Wool Festival at the weekend and I had so much fun, I planned ahead and booked myself workshops to keep me entertained, and I am so glad I chose well. The first was a bag making course, which we turned up slightly late for, but I still got my bag made and it is very professional too. All lined and fulled gusseted, and better still the right length for my body to carry it and not get it on the floor! This Christmas will be bag making gift time! :-) The workshops were a new idea and the venue and even the time of year was new and it all worked so well, I would have liked more money to buy things but that was my only real complaint!

The first shot is my half made bag, while the rest are the stalls and all the goodies, and the final shot is the decorated 'coo' that greeted us on arrival at the mart in Dingwall. I didnt stop all day, I chatted and did and made and spun and learnt and played and saw and so enjoyed myself. The next is due to be in October in Eden Court again so unlikely to have workshops but I do like the stalls and the sheer fun folk have at it.

I am now sorting for a meeting tomorrow all day and then my desk for Friday then packing for Dundee and back to my desk for Wednesday! Either next weeks blog will be stuffed or missing :-).

Information Wrangler

The longest day, shortest night has come and gone, I took great pleasure in walking round on the 22nd of June saying that the nights were drawing in! I also took part in an event called Nite Kirk, the librarian side of me so wanted to correct the spellings, which is an all night open night for a local Church (Kirk up here) where you can drop in or spend the night, chat or just sit in silence, with music being played or readings or poetry. I went and read poetry for nearly an hour and a half, which was scary and fun, and very very rewarding. I put details up in my Blipfoto of the day which also include links to the Kirk's newsletter.

I was chatting to a friend and we were talking about how our part of the world is seen by others, how people coming here think we have no culture and no aspirations. The back woods feel of the place isn't a good measure of how intelligent we are or how much we are capable of. This linked into another issue I have encountered this week of not valuing ourselves, that horrid Scottish attitude of downplaying our own skills, I know how easy it is to do, I did it myself in Dundee! I have some friends applying for what can only be described as their dream job! They want to live in a particularly beautiful part of the world, close to family and friends, which sadly isn't here. I don't want them to leave if they get it, I will miss them if they do go, they love being here and love the place and people, but, and its a big but, they want to be there eventually, and if they don't try this now they may never get a chance again! This is linked to two things, one my often noted idea that its better to try and jump and do then to sit and worry about it. Found a quote on FB the other day that said it is' scarier to not do, than anything you do'. The journey is never as frightening as the thought of the journey, applying is so scary, and the world feels like it is in turmoil at the moment, but I do hope they get the job and the changes happen, even if I am left behind (as it were). The other things that came to light was how hard they are finding selling themselves! We know how good we are and what good we do, but when someone asks what do you do, well the shutters come down and the self deprecation pops up. Maybe we should have a friend write our CV's :-) or get a group of mates to fill in our application forms. An advert ion the TV had pairs of women being stopped and asked about their own looks and their companion, without fail they couldn't say which bit was good on themselves but always spoke well of their friend. I will try to do one good thing in my blog for a bit, and sing my own skills, and now I want to hide under my bed.

My good idea and skill for this is my writing, I have had the odd thing published and am putting together two pieces for publication possibly now. First I have written a piece for the Scottish Book Trust's Treasures, It is finished and needs a pic and to be sent! I also have a story in development for the Bloody Scotland Competition, I have written before but never entered! this year I will enter. And finally in the same vein I have signed up for Teachers Write 2013 which is a summer long programme of writing ideas, workshops and events. I will be in and out though out the summer so shouldn't miss too much when I am on holiday at an internet dead spot. I will be typing up my blog ongoing as well and hoping to keep up with everything else in my travels. Yes I know I have made my summer busy again, but I do myself no favours stopping altogether, yes break from work, yes break from various tasks and jobs but I need to keep my mind working, and this may fit the bill.

 My grass is growing and thriving as the sky has been very generous with the rain for the last few days, and the flat roof over part of my bedroom has decided to drip, and the end of my path has a small lake round it, I make the choice between wet feet or climbing next doors fence to get in! Only good point is the very lack of watering I am having to do for my veg plants, but I think some of my peas drowned!

Only a few days to the Umbrella 2013, I hope to blog from Manchester next week, and I will organise my Dundee notes before then so they don't end up mixed up.

Thing #12

I am behind as I thought I would be, so I am rolling several together and I shall do the same again later int he week :-).

Thing #12 putting the social into social media, reflect on how you put the social into your social media use.
I started using twitter and being more social on facebook after doing these tasks in last years CPD23, and while I was very wary at first I now love my social media, so much I am currently looking into a phone that allows me to keep my access to twitter etc while I am out and about, to lift it from my work computer or home computer to a life tool! I started very carefully and didn't sign up for loads of tweets, I haven't signed up for everything and sold my soul on media, but I am gradually finding my first non work task is to check twitter, my last task before bed is check facebook and then sign out and shut down, My interaction with the 'real world' of library has increased. I asked a twitter friend for an idea and he sent me some, I loved it and shared it to colleagues and found out the twitter friend is a cutting edge guru! and I just found him nice and useful! I chat to all sorts and it has helped my professional side as well as playing the pun books game Friday lunchtime with @scottishbktrust and I see articles like this http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/08/how-many-new-libraries-are-being-built-3.html which is so part of the wider profession, keep abreast of this while living further north than Moscow, and being closer to Oslo than London is hard with out social media. As a mentor I am keen to promote interaction with the wider profession, we do get locked in our little boxes, Public library highland, school library highland, long way from anywhere, long dark winter nights, wrap up warm and no one understands! Being a part of the rest of the library world isn't a location thing anymore and we can gain so much from social media, and be able to contribute no matter where we are.

I did plan to roll several things together but now I will leave this to stand alone. Social Media isn't a toy but a tool to open the world, and to participate in it.

Thing 4

Well I have just spent a while doing thing 4 for the CPD23 and it was interesting, I use netvibes already and so didn't find this as a great new thing, I like being able to save RSS and I have been twittering for ages, and I liked the new suggestions and added a few as well as adding Shappi Khorsandi who I have come to really enjoy! With Netvibes I can see my twitter ongoing and even from work and miss so little that way, and one of my faves is the Scottish Book Trust! I am not so sure I will get as much out of the google reader but I haven't tried much on it. I don't know what I am doing with pushnote! I have joined it but don't know what more to do? I don't run the browsers that support the button and am not sure what I should be getting out of it? I shall ask on my fb and twitter.

I was visiting a colleague who I am mentoring through her portfolio last week and we had a wonderful time, she is my first mentee so I worry that she is getting what she needs. I am a fairly over bearing person, I take people with me in ideas, I wander off on tangents, and occasionally roll over people and don't always notice. One of the lessons I brought from the training many moons ago was I don't do the work I help facilitate them doing it, I bring a fresh eye and an open mind. How things get done may be different from how I would but that is because it isn't my work. I did tell her about the 23 things and other sites I was enjoying, and I left her all fired up and with some work to set out and to do a few sum ups and I hope our next visit will be the final polish, and to make the final form physically. I am so happy with her work, she has done all I could possibly have asked (even if I haven't) I hope her portfolio is as good to others as I think.

One week left of being a school librarian, found myself awake at 7.30am pondering the changes to come, worrying, turning it all over in my head, pointing out the rational and sensible aspects my awake mind knows but my sleeping mind ignores and forgets, a nightmare isn't right, it was fear just mind bothering. I just hope it is a glitch and a one off as a week of broken nights will just about shatter me.

Chatting to a friend doing a OU qualification last night and asking 'good' questions. Found out she missed the last deadline so asked her about the next one, confidently she named the 26th of September but she hadn't done any work yet! I asked again later (cause I am nosy) what her unit was and she pulled out her paperwork to find it is due the 6th! of September which gave her a shock, and sent her off to look over it then. So the moral of this tale is I have to leave 'work' at work, and she needs to write her deadlines on her calendar :-D.