Swimming Lesson

R has been insisting that I organise swimming lessons for some time. Next school year the class will have swimming once a week, and he does not want to be the only one not yet a swimmer.

'But surely there are some others in the class who don't know how to swim?' I asked

'I don't know'

'Well what did they say when you told them you can't swim?'

At this R's face became rather pinched and he looked down and then he looked sideways, and then he looked the other sideways, and then he looked bashful.

It would seem R has told his colleagues not only that he can swim, but that he is a super good swimmer, a champion swimmer of the first order, hence his concern to start swimming lessons without delay.

Parents were not allowed in to watch the lesson, but R returned looking very pleased with himself but extremely shattered.

'Ooer it was quite hard' he said, shaking his head and blowing at this fringe.

It transpires he was not put in the non swimmers group, but the intermediate swimmers group. This is because when they asked him the following questions, he answered thus:

• Are you afraid of water? No
• Do you know how to breathe under water? Yes
• Can you swim? Yes
• Do you go swimming often Yes

None of which is true, apart from the one about not being afraid of water, although goodness knows why he isn't as last time he went 'swimming' he nearly drowned.
The swimming teacher cleverly tested the truth of these questions, but R managed to pass with flying colours. How?
He spent his first lesson perfecting breast-stroke.
'Weren't you scared?' I asked
'No, I have to learn quickly'. (If his sins are not to find him out). Which makes me wonder, if you are determined something is true, perhaps you can make it be true.

Hedgehog

JC leaves them the rind of the finest French cheeses, which they can sniff out from a long way off.

We have a mother tailed by 2 babies, and a baby which likes to go it alone, here pictured.

The children are very impressed because they have a bumbling mode which is very appealing, but when roused raise themselves up on long legs and shoot into the distance.

A proud moment for the Pride of India tree, which needs a hot summer for its flowers to develop.

Our exotic fruit tree fruits for the first time, it flowered in January. Our neighbour told us there are many of these trees in Portugal and the fruit are good, so we cut some down and ate them, like a mixture between an apricot, plum and sharon fruit, declared DELICIOUS!

African Trumpet Vine trumpets

No More School

Yes, it's over. The last soft drinks party has been held, the floor swept, the chairs stacked on the tables, the beautiful blackboard drawings wiped off, ready for a new design, in a new classroom, for a new school year. Already.