| Our Little Princess, preparing for rain or shine! |
Early this morning I wrote a letter to Andrew Sutton. I wrote
in response to his recent posting about keeping cool in conductive centres...
‘Feeling the heat’ –
Andrew just replied, thanking me for my response and
he wrote that his first response was to publish my letter on his own blog, but then he thought twice and decided to ask
me to publish it on mine. So here I am!
(All you busy CE bloggers will recognise
Andrew’s lovely method of encouraging us to get something posted after a bit of a lull on
our blogs.)
Here is what I wrote –
On 20 Jun
2015 07:43, Susie Mallett wrote –
‘Dear Andrew
As well as
being inventive with our games with ice when the temperature rises we are also
experts on do-it-yourself air conditioning, not forgetting that our building is
purpose-built for people with disability it is relatively easy to keep it cool.
When the
temperature hits the mid-thirties we are used to closing the shutters
over-night, opening the doors and windows early in the morning to let cool air
in and then closing the shutters again to keep out the sun.
It also
helps that our buildings are positioned so that the blazing midday sun cannot
shine directly in the windows during the summer months but the low, cooler
winter sun can brighten our sometimes grey days.
Our
children are also on the ball when it comes to keeping cool
When the
heat gets too much for the children and young adults wearing their hot and sticky,
plastic-splints and thick, orthopedic shoes they often ask us for a bucket of cooling
water to put their feet in.
On very hot
days often a child will phone to ask us to please go out to the garage
where the paddling pool is stored and prepare it for the afternoon sesssion.
Stop the rain-dance, please!
Unfortunately
we have none of these problems with heat at the moment; in fact it is quite the
opposite.
As often
happens around the summer equinox, and also on Mid-Summer Day, the weather
turns cold and rainy. It looks like we will have to put the bad-weather-plan
into action tomorrow when we celebrate our twentieth conductive anniversary – the
weather forecast tells us that it will probably be held in a downpour.
Instead of
all six of our conductive centres coming together for a rare gathering and filling the tree lined
courtyard with activities that represent our work and with discussion amongst ourselves and with
our invited guests, (who are coming from as far away as Budapest), it looks like
we will be painting, drawing, singing and cooking in separate far-flung corners
of the cellar in the buildings belonging to our association's sheltered housing.
I am not the
only one wishing for a sudden change in the weather.
All we wish
for is just enough blue sky to make a sailor a pair of trousers. This would be
much appreciated by all in the conductive groups who have been so busy
all week preparing for this occasion.
From Susie
Mallett CE Nurnberg for 22 years !’
Notes
‘Feeling the heat’ –
(2015)
Des nouvelles, Association CEC du Gard, 18 June –
Mallett,
S. (2015) Beating the summer heat, conductively, Conductor, 14 June –
