I have just arrived at my chap’s cottage ‘in the shire’. It is a blistering hot day; it has been a long drive and this flying visit comes at the end of a long teaching term and a testing few days at the start of the school holiday. I am a tad grumpy, a tad…
Author: thedragonflyjar
I'm a sixty something working, single woman, navigating through all the challenges and opportunities of life - hopefully with a little irreverent humour and grace.
Tour de force
Something weird has been going on with my algorithms; despite being a runner, I find myself incessantly nudged by ads and pop-ups about cycling. First I am insulted – I am age-aware but have no need to be niche-marketed by a company called ‘Granny Gear’ – then I find myself strangely intrigued to discover that…
Late to the party
For the first time ever I have been commissioned to write a follow up blog. Admittedly my patron was a little bit wobbly bob at the time she tasked me with this new project, but I distinctly heard her ask someone to take our photo for her ‘follow up birthday post’ ; far be it…
A victory dance
The week begins with the first Year 10 mock examination, and it is not long until I am called out to the girls’ toilets to extricate a student; she has stormed out of her Biology exam in a purple haze after twenty minutes of multiple guess, telling the invigilator to ‘go and do one’. Sadly…
Getting shirty
My A Level students seem intent on kicking me out of my literary crenellations, ignoring my shameless plugging of 18th and 19th Century classics and steering us towards a vortex of science fiction prose as a federation shuttlecraft from which to launch their coursework. Selfish. I blame the pandemic. A gothic castle or a cloistered…
Long term gains
Far be it for me to offer updates on my latest foray into the world of ultra-running, for last year I promised retirement once completing anything over 26.2 miles. (I achieved this ‘first’ last May – proving something to myself in the process and ruining a perfectly adequate body and running vest by falling over…
Tequila little time
Since writing about the art of spectating in my last blog, the world has opened up to me in a pleasing fashion; I now have a guilt-free and legitimate reason to watch life pass me by, and some friends have invited me in from the cold to come inside and watch ‘interesting things’ with them….
Spectator sport
It would not be marathon season without a blog on long distance running from your’s truly. The game changer is that I have discovered a new strand to my marathon training schedule: Spectating. I am late to yet another party and I do wish someone had shared this wisdom with me earlier. I have some…
Benched
To stop myself disappearing into a world of carpet slipper domesticity, after finally getting myself into my old/new cottage, I prise myself away for a Cornish mini-break before returning to the school exam season. Away from the Shire I hit the coastal paths of Cornwall and soon become obsessed with the inscriptions on some of…
The Dragonfly Jar 