Under sky

I spent most of today at Hill End, 65 acres of tranquil rolling grassland, just three miles from Oxford, used for outdoor learning. It began as an outdoor school in the 1930s and is many Oxfordshire children’s first experience of a residential trip, as it was for my two. As well as education for children, there are courses and events for teachers, families and the public. It was at Hill End, twenty odd years ago, that I learnt how to tell the age of a hedge.

Today I was doing the first half of a course in Grounds Care, alongside some of the trainees from the organisation I now work for. When I was recently offered a job setting up learning for long-term unemployed people, it never occurred to me that on day 9 I’d be out in the sun being trained how to trim hedges and control hefty grass-mowers. I loved learning alongside people who’ve had a lot less training in their lives than I have, but who were much more experienced in what we were doing.

And how lucky we were with the weather! All our time outside was under bright scudding clouds in a blue sky. 90 seconds after we finished there were spatters of rain and ten minutes later there was hail.

This image is back in Oxford as I cycled home: the Castle Mill Stream still not returned to the banks where it belongs. The foreground orange is thanks to streetlights.