school – Page 6 – Jennifer Michie

March 20, 2014 / 0 Comments

The First Day of Spring

It didn’t feel like Spring when I left the house this morning. The air was bitter and a mist was shrouding my little world like a blanket. By lunch time however, the clouds had passed and the sunshine came out to play for just a little bit, until the skies turned grey again and it began to rain.

While the sun was out, I snapped this picture coming down the staircase in the Science building where I had ventured over to get some distilled water for the dark room. I loved how the light was dancing across the glassy green tiles and I stopped for a moment to watch it. It is cold again this evening, but that little taste of Spring today was enough to make me happy.

March 19, 2014 / 0 Comments

Magnolia liliiflora

Magnolia liliiflora, or as I have always called them Japanese or sometimes tulip magnolias practically line a particular street that I stroll down on my walk to school in the morning.

They are all in full bloom and every single one, is this blushing creamy, pinky, purpley hue. They are dazzling to see. The ground is strewn with their petals. I feel guilty walking across the delicate fallen who mark my path. They look almost sacred as if they line the pathway to a mountain temple where a little Buddha sits in waiting.

February 25, 2014 / 0 Comments

A Man and His Dog

I know this photo is a little grainy, but today I don’t mind. I was working in the main studio yesterday, which is nestled on the third floor of the main school building and overlooks the park across the street.

I like to people watch from my little perch while I’m doing things. There are always the sounds of children playing and laughing, joggers, friends meeting for a chat on one of the benches and there are always dogs. Sometimes I feel like Pongo in 101 Dalmations, watching the dogs and their owners stroll by. Do you remember that scene? Where the dogs and the owners walking by the window of his flat, look like one another, I think that is true.

I watched this elderly man meander down the path yesterday, his little dog leading the way. They both walked with a certain gait, they both kept their heads bent down. If you put a tiny cap on that dog, he could have been the furry version of his owner. Ever so often if the man slowed the little dog would turn around and look at him waiting for him to catch up.

He would run back to check on his master every now and then, jumping up slightly to lick his hand. When the elderly man finally decided to rest and sit down on a park bench, his dog jumped up right beside him and sat on his haunches. The two of them sat there in agreeable silence and watched the world go by. I liked it.

February 24, 2014 / 0 Comments

The First Day Back

The first 4:45 wake-up in over a week! I don’t know what was worse, the fact that the alarm was going off or that I was lying there waiting for it to happen, watching the minutes slowly tick away.

It was cool here this morning and something happened in my week off, the sky has started to brighten earlier than before. One week ago it was still dark on my journey in, this morning the sky was ribboned with pale blues, blush pinks, violet purples, mangos and gold. Spring is coming!

It was a long day back, the first day always is. I stayed late, got caught in rush hour tube traffic. I was pushed, smushed and stomped on. I’m telling ya mean people are MEAN! I then had to walk home in the rain and got absolutely soaked through! Well it can only getter better from here, right? RIGHT!

P.S. This was my calendar page this morning, it made me smile! I hope it makes you smile too!

February 19, 2014 / 2 Comments

Cleaning

I love this image. I wish I could throw open my windows, stick my head out, purse my lips into a whistle and have a herd of animals come and clean for me! We seem to spend half of every school break really attacking the cottage. Yesterday we cleaned all of upstairs. Dusting everything in sight, going through all of the closets and reorganizing clothes, gathering a collection to take the the charity shop and putting up a few of our heavier sweaters, because in this weather we don’t seem to really need them.

We scrubbed, mopped and polished our way out of the bathroom as well. We did all of this while also tackling “Mount Laundry”. We have almost defeated it! Now, don’t ask me why, but as we move closer to a school holiday, you would think that things would become a little less chaotic. In fact it is the exact opposite. The closer we get the busier, crazier, more late nights we have than ever before, so everything in the house just seems to pile up.

The upstairs of the cottage is entirely clean, now the downstairs needs a good once over. So, I suppose that is my day laid out for me already as I did attempt to whistle out the window this morning with no luck! I guess the woodland cleaning company is on holiday as well!

{image found}

February 11, 2014 / 1 Comment

Painting Film

Today I got to help with a group of students who are creating an abstract film that will be shown in London alongside the school orchestra’s performance of an Elgar piece.

The film will be projected on to a screen in the back of the church and will appear as a moving abstract piece of stained glass.

First things first, the students were painting strips of film that will be digitized so they can more easily manipulate them to process and edit their final films.

As this is a medium I have not worked in before, I was very eager to give it a try myself. This is the closest I will ever come to being the cel painter I always dreamed of being at Disney. The strip I was working on was almost 10 feet in length, yet this will only equivalate to about 10 seconds of actual film time. I hung up my strip to finish drying when I was done alongside everyone else’s, now on to the next phase…

December 20, 2013 / 0 Comments

Off For The Holidays

The last day of school has arrived! Christmas Break is finally here!

November 14, 2013 / 0 Comments

We’ve Almost Made It!

I could be on this swing today, with my toes flying over the rising tide as I sail higher and higher. We’ve almost made it, we are almost at the weekend and I am so ready!

{Image PINNED here}

November 11, 2013 / 0 Comments

Jennifer Juniper

I think this might be my theme song and I didn’t know it. I had a colleague at my previous school who would sing this to me as she walked down the hall, past my room and onto hers and I have a colleague at my new school who serenades me with it as well.

I got serenaded this morning as I headed indoors and out of the cold. It just makes me smile.

Happy Monday!

October 16, 2013 / 1 Comment

Me and Bobby McGee

“You are what you settle for.”

Janis Joplin

As I traveled home tonight, watching the sun slowly descend and the evening mist begin to roll in, my Ipod on shuffle, this song came on:

It is my favorite Janis Joplin song, it had been such a long day it took everything in me not to jump up and start singing it! When I was in college, my business professor, did the usual “break the ice” routine. We all had to say our name, where we came from and something unusual about us.

There was a sweet, petite girl, with a short pixie cut of brownish hair, dressed very conservatively, who sat by me. When her turn came round, she told us that at the weekends she worked in a big club at the beach that impersonated music legends and she was Janis Joplin. The whole class just stared at her, I couldn’t imagine her doing that, from the looks and gaping mouths, I don’t think anyone else could either.

Well, my professor made her promise that on our last day of class she would come in, dressed as Janis and sing. And, boy, did she ever! I’m telling you, it was like Janis Joplin was reincarnated on my business professor’s desk! She was on fire, the class went WILD! I’ll never forget it!