Midsummer madness - Polly's late June reflections.

The solstice and midsummer are such a magical time for me. For years they have marked the end of exams, the anticipation of a long hot summer and my sister's birthday. I always intend to go up to Clee Hill for the sunrise, or stay in the garden until the very last minute. Last night we left my sister's birthday party at ten and although the sun had sunk below the horizon, or more accurately, the earth had turned away from the sun, it was still quite light. This morning I woke and took my first coffee of the day to sit on the lawn. My garden has several mature ash trees, and therefore a lot of shade, but I found a square of sunset and sat cross-legged on the grass listening to the sparrows, and some indignant rooks who seem think it's their garden now.

I really want to move away from using my phone and live off-line, only consuming books. As you will know if you have read my previous blogposts , I am in the process of leaving mainstream teaching; now only working two days a week supply cover. One of the aspects of modern teaching that has made me unhappy in recent years is the reliance on Interactive Whiteboards, where everything you show the pupils is filtered through a Powerpoint Presentation and a visualiser, and you must respond to emails within a day, even at weekends, so you never get offline. Added to that, the fluorescent lighting that means sometimes you never see natural light. I felt choked by the modern world.

There's a bit of a hitch in my plans. Yes, I now have a barn full of books. I have access to all the books I could ever want.

There is no time to read them!. There is always another piece of paperwork, or tidying up that is more important. As for getting offline, well you have to post something on Facebook and Instagram everyday, otherwise people apparently forget about you.... Even worse, you can't just post and then leave the internet for a while, you have to check for messages and comments, in case someone says something incorrect, or something that could damage your burgeoning, still slightly delicate, reputation. The other type online activity that I am currently engaged with is checking book prices to make sure we are competitive with the internet booksellers. So, ironically, I am now on social media more than ever.

As I write this in the shop I can hear a group of women laughing about the large pile of photography and history books they are intending to buy, in the cafe my son is persuading a mum and daughter to buy my 'midsummer cake' and I am planning to spend twenty minutes at the end of the day walking through this outrageously pretty village before I head to the river Teme for a solstice swim. I think that's all pretty off-line, so I will leave this blog here. I hope you filled the longest day with equally wonderful experiences. Polly