Archive for November, 2012

Busy as a Bee – drawing for class

Thursday, November 29th, 2012

I often draw in class when I need to illustrate a point and don’t want to use Japanese. I really believe it’s better to use English to explain English as much as possible.

Occasionally I run into things that I either can’t draw or haven’t drawn.

That happened to me this week when I needed to draw a bee.

I started off with a rose, which, frankly wasn’t great.

I surprised even myself though with the bee. I hadn’t tried one before, and like instances in using language I haven’t actually learned because I just jump in and start trying to say what I really wanted to say without wondering if I had all of the vocabulary, I jumped in and started, and well, it came out pretty well.

As I was erasing the board after class, some students came up and asked if they could take a picture of the bee, so I of course said yes, if they paid a small fee 😉

Okay, I said it was no problem, and snapped one of them myself.

Here it is:

The Inside Fish Pond

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

So I have fish outside in my garden in their own little pond. They’re getting really big, and that pond is doing really well.

Last year we bought several smaller fish and put them inside the house in a large bowl.

Several of those fish didn’t make it, but the ones who did are doing very well.

This bowl is on the middle of our stairs landing and I enjoy walking by there every day and seeing them. They also are used to seeing me and sometimes come up and beg, like little puppies, to be fed.

I wish I could say I always take the time to watch them for a while when I fee them, but I just don’t always have time. I do enjoy sitting on the steps and watching them eat while I drink a cup of coffee when I do have some time. This is especially true now that it’s getting colder and the morning sun shining through the window there onto the landing makes it very comfortable.

Here are a few pictures of them: