ANTS

 I’m 78, a retired educator and living an enforced life-style because of the Corvid 19 virus.

I live in New Mexico, in a beautiful area called Eldorado, about 8 miles south of Santa Fe.

. An enthusiastic amateur naturalistI, I go for a 2 mile walk every morning, just as the morning sun lights up the beautiful  but very dry countryside - we’ve had just one day of what I call WET rain in the past three months. When I walk, my eyes are everywhere, looking at the dried grasses, the cacti, the cholla, the lively lizards, the occasional bird , and I’m always checking on the numerous ant hills that are in the middle of the path.. 

Ants fascinate me and I stand and watch the mass of activity over and around each ant colony…………..ants searching for food to take back to the queen who’s overseeing her huge family of up to 50,000 offspring

 I used to know a lot about how ants live, how the newly impregnated Queen makes a home (usually around August ), lays eggs that hatch into male workers (known as SLAVE ants that make the nest much, mjuch bigger, search for food and feed the next batch of eggs that are winged males and females), then eggs that hatch into winged males and females. I know that ants don’t like ants from other colonies.

In fact, I wrote a book on Ants for teachers way back in the late 1960s. 

I know about the process of trophylaxis, the way in which ants communicate with each other, how winged males and females leave the nest late in the summer, mate in mid flight, and, thus start a new colony.

But, now, as I stand and watch them scurrying around outside the nest, I’m fascinated by their individual strength. I see individuals carrying food bigger than themselves in their mouths. I see them pushing stuff much bigger than they are. This morning, I saw two ants, working as a team pushing a big seed towards the nest. How do they know when to help each other? Trophylaxis? Some kind of body language that sends the signal "I NEED HELP?

Dunno.......

Occasionally, I see a single big black beetle hovering around the entrance to an ant colony. Do they feed off ants? Don't know the answer to that either.............but I'll see one morning the answer to my question.

When I became a science teacher......................

 1963 Thank you,Tiger!

My teacher wake-up call!

Long ago, in September, 1963, I started my first teaching job. I was appointed as a science teacher at Trinity Fields. The school, like

all secondary modern schools of the time, was for students aged between 11 and 15, all of whom had failed the national 11+

examination, and thus seen to be undeserving of an academic education.

The day before school started, I was given my teaching responsibilities. I was Form Teacher for 1C, which meant I took the register

for attendance, school lunch and for dismissal at the end of the day.

After taking my class to morning school assembly, I was to teach the bottom classes in each of the four years (1C, 2C, 3C and 4C).

The Head of the Science Department gave me the textbook, pointing out the science topics I was to cover.

“Not to worry,” he said. “When they take the Leaving Test at 15, only mathematics, reading and writing are tested.”

The following day I began my teaching career. Well, teaching is perhaps too grand a word. It would be more honest to say that I

began to be paid for standing daily in front of loads of bored adolescents, opening a well-thumbed science textbook - then, scribbling

science words on the blackboard to be copied into science notebooks.

My science-teaching pattern was straightforward. The kids came in, I welcomed them, they took their seats, opened their science

journals, and I read from the science textbook. I then wrote the key science information on the board and the pupils, using their best

handwriting, copied my notes into their science journals.

Nothing to it, really.

What follows is the description of one significant thing that happened during my first, very challenging year with Class 3C.

Thirteen year-old Tiger always sat alone at the back of the science lab. As he was always looking for trouble (and he was really good

at finding it), he was, to put it mildly, a pain in the ***. Tiger made my science lessons a joke. School didn’t interest him and science

didn’t engage him. His dad had told him that he’d have a job with him as a bricklayer on the building sites when he was 15, so why

should he ‘do his best’ in school? What was the point of it all?

My monthly science topics certainly didn’t interest Tiger. Well, to be honest, they didn’t interest me very much, either. When I read

from the science textbook, Tiger would roll his eyes, run his fingers through his greasy hair, scratch his head, and interfere with

anyone sitting close to him. His science notebook was filled with dirty pictures and rude scribbles.

Occasionally, on his really bad days, Tiger shouted that he was fed up with school and very fed up with boring science.

Nothing I did in my science lessons made any connection to Tiger’s life experience or appealed to his sense of curiosity. The science

I read from the textbook was irrelevant to his world – especially, I suppose, the way I presented it. To be honest, the science didn’t

interest anyone in the class.

Most of the boys and girls did, though, sit politely through each lesson. They spent their time scribbling and drawing in their science

writing books, often whispering to each other. The boys, though, waited for Tiger to stir the pot.

The days, weeks and months dragged by.

In the first week of spring thank goodness, the miracle of miracles happened - a big, BIG change for the better came over my

teaching. Tiger, of all people, believe it or not, and a small garden spider were my divine inspirations.

Walking back from shopping at the Coop for the weekend food, I spotted the most beautiful orb-web spider sitting in her intricate silky

web in the black currant bush outside the steps leading to my flat. Surprised to see one so early in the year, I fetched a jar, popped

her inside, and took her upstairs, and made a proper spider home for her.

The spider reminded me of when I was a kid when my dad and I found some garden spiders in the back of our house. I kept two orthree of them in a jar tucked under the bed – quickly learning that you don’t keep spiders together as they eat each other. Looking after the survivor was really fascinating, though. Keeping her safe and well fed with flies and moths made me feel good, especiallywhen she deposited an egg sac for me on her silky web.

I took the spider to school the following Monday, put her in a large bell jar with a little soil, some greenery, a branch, and a couple of

Autumn

 

Trying to download some photos I took near Abiquiu Lake this morning. Amazingly beautiful!

Blogging again...........

 

Good to be doing so.....................have to figure out now how to share my blog with friends.

My dad's brother, CAPTAIN William Paull

 

Just came across a photo taken in 1919....................my dad's brother, William. I was told he ran away from home (1913, I think) and became a cabin boy in the navy. 

He eventually became a CAPTAIN!!

My dad used to take me to visit him when he was home on leave - I so loved talking with him !

He was murdered by a drunken sailor................................

The weather in Eldorado...

 

I should have mentioned in the previous blog, we've done a lot to the driveway, including having 20 Pinion trees planted. Jeannine created a garden area at the back that includes three small greenhouses and has grown some beautiful flowers over the past couple of months.

Gardening is a full time job, though. We haven't had any rain for over three months and daily temperatures in the 90s. Although the countryside's bushes and trees are capable of surviving in such conditions, maintaining planted plants and trees is a full time job. Jeannine waters every day, morning and evening.!

Today, October 11th, a day-long extreme wind is taking down hundreds of  leaves from the big tree in the back garden.... Yep, autumn is here!

CRIKEY!!

 

October 12th 2020

Crikey - I've just remembered that I have a BLOG!! And, when I dug out the access code, I see that I haven't written anything for ages!!

Coronavirus time gives me time and opportunity..........but, oddly< I can't get motivated to write!

Well, I'm going to try again, so here goes:

First and foremost I'm well (well, cranky and tired and old), as is Jeannine and Bertie and Fifi.

Jeannine has been working daily on her computer, overseeing the teachers she mentors, observing their virtual links with their kids. After each 8 hour stint staring at her computer, she gardens, cooks and cleans house............and, needing a new project, is working on painting the space in which we hang our clothes.

Me? I dawdle, cuddle Bertie and Fifi, paint a bit, read the NYT, and go for a two mile walk every morning..........well, not every morning, but certainly 5 times a week. When I return, I have a cold drink and check my email, hoping there's something from one or more of my English friends, and then read the BBC news on my phone.

And I fret about Trump, his big mouth, his lies, and the fact that he has millions of followers. OMG!

Every day a tweet says something again which proves he never puts his brain in motion before he clicks away on his computer. Imaging having to work for me and carry out his damaging project ideas.

Roll on, election time. C'mon, America..get him out of the White House! PLEASE!!

OK, that's a start.................another blog later when I decide what I need to write about.

Oh, one thing. I was able to support an application for a new teaching post by one of my former Teacher Candidates, Catherine. AND, she got the job! Well done, Catherine.

Toodlepip,

John