Tag Archives: snow

Across the park

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Aspland Road after the true grit treatment. Car in drive, stage left.
Aspland Road after the true grit treatment. Car in drive, stage left.

Weather still very wintry, but nowhere near as bad as at Caddington – to pick a village at random – where the snow has been deep and the power off. On Sunday we inched down the icy road to make it to church for the alternative carol service. Surprisingly large congregation: Ruth made it from Hethersett just in time to read my long poem, which she did beautifully, and Dot and Matt made a great job of the dramatic interlude. The music sounded pretty good too: Emily guested on violin, and Matt brought a small accordion. Amazing: I had been intending to do the blessing after Communion and found a Christmas prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson that I was going to use. However, Nicholas went straight into the blessing, using – unbelievably – the same prayer. It’s not well known; I just came across it on the Internet the same day. Spooky. Nice meal afterwards: Vicky and Jared excelled themselves, despite Vicky being under the weather.  Took Anne Travis home, then despite going the long way round to get a run at the slope, failed again to reach the critical point and had to park at the bottom. So more grit-spreading etc on Monday morning, which freed the road enough for me to get the car to the driveway again. All this exercise ought to be good for me. I walked into the city to buy a few presents, mainly books, but then relaxed fairly thoroughly. Missed the Christmas chess event. Too risky.

Local robin, very friendly.
Local robin, very friendly.

Today made a fairly early start. Got the bus up to Eaton Park and delivered Paul’s Christmas card, then walked across the park to George Borrow Road to deliver Sylvia and Jack’s. As I was putting it through the door, the Number 35 bus pulled up opposite and I was able to get it back to the city centre, once we’d made it past a big traffic jam by the RC Cathedral. Walked through to the Forum in case any ice sculptures remained. They didn’t. On to Jarrolds, for bin bags (very Christmassy), and another book from the new independent bookshop, the Book Hive. This time for Philip. Think I have all the presents now. Dot is busy wrapping as I write. She loves doing it, and I’m no good at it.

Made brave attempt to fix the shredder, but suspect the motor has gone. Did manage to put the alarm clock together after it had fallen apart – which certainly impressed me – and also repaired a tiny chess rook which had got smashed in the bathroom. It would be better if tiny chess pieces didn’t drink – they can’t handle it. Then Michael came and fixed a plug and a cistern, so it was clearly a mending day. Meanwhile, Dot had gone shopping – mainly for Amy. I walked to Morrisons to get food for tonight’s Tuesday Group. Turning quite nippy again.  Heather S rang to say her son Sam had been very ill for quite a while, with flu followed by pneumonia, necessitating several trips to the hospital. Happily he is now recovering, but it has been a difficult time for them.

Stranded cars

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Our two cars in their overnight slot before my attempts to dismantle the road.
Our two cars in their overnight slot before my attempts to dismantle the road.

Cold, cold, cold. Just back from Morrisons, where we ran into a crowd of Norwich supporters en route to the game against Huddersfield. Another first for BBC Look East, who listed the fixture as an away game last night – so that was nearly right. Pavements not too bad on the way there, but much icier on the way back. Managed to stay upright, however. Might be tricky for homegoing supporters. Quite a pleasant day, other than the cold, with mainly bright skies. Spent most of the morning retrieving our two cars from the bottom of the hill, where we’d had to park them last night after a lot of slipping and sliding. Took a spade and chipped some icy snow away to make some clearish ground for my car to make it to the top, but Dot’s MX5 was much more difficult, as it has rear-wheel drive, and the back end kept threatening to slip away. Linda arrived to cut our hair and made it to the top, encouraged by me from a strategic spot at the bottom! While she was doing Dot’s hair, I spread some sand on the road from the store at the top, using a spade and our brown bin as an improvised wheelbarrow. I also cut some more ice away. By the time she’d left, the sand had caused some ice to disappear, and there was also a slight, short thaw. As a result, my next attempt to reach the top – after Linda had left – was successful. The MX5 is now in the garage, and my car is in the drive, ready to slide down on its way to church tomorrow. During all this I chatted to Michael and to the family from number 11, as well as waving to Ellie at her bedroom window. She told me she’d made a snowman yesterday, and I think I spotted it up in the Old Library Park on the way back from the post office. Also helped a guy in a van to get out of the bottom of the road, with some use of the spade and a certain amount of traffic direction.

Yesterday was also cold and saw a lot of snow. However, Dot decided to go on her planned trip to Park Farm, Attleborough and Hethersett, which she completed successfully until she reached the bottom of the road: then, while parking the car on ice, she scraped the wheel that she’d just had refurbished. Not a happy bunny. I went to the Archant Pensioners’ Lunch at the Holiday Inn by the airport, though not everyone made it. Frances rang to say it was snowing hard at Cromer, and she didn’t make the trip, though Su Edgeler made it from Bacton on crutches. Well, not all the way on crutches. She did use a car. Sat with her and Robin and a group of ex-printers; we were joined by the current head of Archant Print, and all the printers had a go at him about the mistakes in the EDP. He took it very well. Had a chat with the new editor and others including David Paull, the input pool, Peter March, Alan Atherton, John Barlow from the stone, Ian Cunningham, Tony the ex-chief photographer, Ray Church, the guy from Surrey Chapel and Frances Pearce. Plus others. Signs of some cutting back: very small sherry to start and only one glass of wine, though that suited me fine. Meal was very pleasant Christmas fare, and there was a supplementary mince pie. Well staffed and organised. On the whole I preferred it to the previous venue. No sign of Brian or Bruce, however. Bruce has just been in hospital, but Brian’s status remains a mystery. We got a Christmas card from him and Tricia, but he shows no sign of emerging. I dropped off a Christmas card at his house afterwards. As usual, no reply to the doorbell.

The snow started on Thursday, when Sharon came for lunch, arriving mid-morning during a brief blizzard. Had a good time, featuring a variation on my chili con carne, using chick peas, which seemed to go down well. Dot took Sharon home (the snow had eased), chanced on Denise and elicited an invitation for Christmas Eve drinks, and went to Morrisons afterwards to pick up a cake for the evening, when we managed to reach church for a get-together for members of the various groups after picking up Matt from Lakenham, where it seemed to be snowing harder than it was our side of the city. Weather not at all good, but about 20 turned up for a bring-and-share, and we ended with a recital of various Christmas poems. Not one of the great evenings, but reasonably pleasant.

Have finished reading The Defense by Vladimir Nabokov. Beautiful writer: there’s a fantastic comic description of two guys making their way home from a very jolly evening and finding the protagonist, Luzhin, sitting on the pavement. As I write, Norwich and Huddersfield are drawing 0-0, and play has just finished in the South Africa test. No, wait, Hoolahan has just scored. Can Norwich hold on?  England, 352 behind, look likely to lose, but you never know. (Norwich 3-0 Huddersfield – result)

14 February 2009

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Busy week. Carrie turned up in hospital, but is recovering. Meanwhile I’ve met Sandra, who I’m collaborating with for the Norwich 20 Group exhibition. She lives off Earlham Road and showed me a series of pictures she’s doing on Norwich. Happily, I really like them, and we found we were on a similar wavelength, so it should go well. I have written a poem, and it may or may not be the final one: I’m quite pleased with it. It’s called Stretched Stone. At the moment, anyway. However, I was then approached by another artist who wanted to collaborate, and after some initial caution (wasn’t sure I should be collaborating with more than one artist for this exhibition) it transpired that she knows Sandra, who is quite happy about it. I should see her next week: I’ve left a message on her answerphone. Exciting times!

On Tuesday Dot went out to a couple of schools at Tacolneston and Wreningham, wearing her DSSO hat, and I had a long list of things to do, all of which were completed and have now been forgotten. On Wednesday she spent the first part of the day with Barbara at Metfield discussing the P4C project, while I walked to Surrey Chapel to deliver my talk to Joy’s afternoon group. Turned out I had completely underestimated the length of it, which meant it was rather unbalanced, with the poetry only just scraping in at the end. Rather too much on my early life, I suspect. Still, could have been worse.

On Dot’s return from Metfield we travelled to the King’s Head at Bircham, which is a lovely hotel, quite sophisticated in an unpretentious sort of way. Quite difficult sometimes to find a member of staff on the premises, but a very warm welcome when you did run into them. We had a good meal in the evening, and I indulged in steak, which was excellent. The next day I took Dot to her inspection at Flitcham school, about five miles away. One of her interviewees was the Queen’s chaplain, who is the local incumbent. I went for a brief walk in the Fring area. Found a white owl which looked snowy but was almost certainly barn. Followed it for a while. Walked up a hill on the Peddar’s Way to Dovehill Wood at the top. Not exactly a stiff climb, but the guidebook calls it “an Everest for Norfolk” at about 200ft (61m). Very cold morning, but the sun made it pleasant. The back roads were pretty icy. After I picked up Dot we had a sandwich back at the hotel bar and then went for a drive to Thornham on the coast. Brief stroll, but the wind was bleak and bitter, and we retreated to the car. We then tried Sandringham, but it was pretty cold there too, though the shop, restaurant and toilets were all open. We decided to go back to the hotel, but took an excursion first to Wolferton, which I hadn’t realised was so remote. The old station was well preserved. It used to be kept open purely for the Queen, but eventually shut in 1969. While we were there it started to snow, so we drove back to Bircham as the snow got heavier. It kept snowing for about six hours, and I was concerned about getting Dot to Flitcham the next morning, but by then the temperature had risen above freezing, and the roads were actually better than they’d been the previous day. Still plenty of snow, though: the photograph was taken from our bedroom window at about 7.30am. Another good meal at the hotel while the snow fell, and the only two other people there turned out to be colleagues of Birgit at the nearby Construction Industry Training Centre. They clearly liked her, and the hotel owner liked one of them (possibly both), so he provided all four of us with a champagne-type drink on the house. Which was very nice.

While Dot paid her second visit to Flitcham yesterday, I returned to the hotel, had a bath and packed and wrote a bit of a poem about the owl. Left at 11am, drove round by the training centre to see what it was like and then by a circuitous route to Flitcham, where I parked and looked round the church, then walked down to the River Babingley. Dot emerged a bit late, and we drove straight back to Norwich, eating as little as possible for the rest of the day.

9 February 2009

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Yesterday morning in the grounds of Eltham College, South London, where Paul Henderson is headmaster. Also in the picture are his wife Maryta and my wife Dot, and their dog, who may be called Jim, if I remember rightly. Dot is sporting a spectacular fur coat given to her by her aunt, and Maryta has a hat from Poland which originally has tassels on it. We were taking a walk round the playing fields, which featured a few giant snowballs but mainly green grass. We travelled down on the Saturday, and the roads were no problem at all. We left fairly early on the Sunday, after brunch, and the drive home was even easier. Both times we took the Blackwall Tunnel route: went slightly wrong a couple of times on the way south, but nothing serious. No problems on the way back. Paul has done a fantastic job at the school: lots of new ideas and some brilliant progress in the music department especially. Lots of work done by the pupils in the community as well.

On the Friday we went out to Park Farm, where we had lunch, then called in to Waitrose, where we ran into the vicar’s wife. Bitterly cold day, but almost no snow left, so no trouble getting around. On the way south on Saturday we saw plenty of snow in the fields north of London, and David and family are stiill grappling with deep snow, though today the roads are OK, and Vicky has been to work. Oliver has been quite ill with a high temperature and a cold that has now gone to his chest. Amy has also had a bad cold but seems to be over it. Both are at home today.

We had out hair cut this morning, and Dot is now in the city: she was due to meet Carrie, but she didn’t show up, and her answerphone is full up, so Dot is rather worried about her. I’m due to meet a painter this afternoon with a view to collaborating, but haven’t got a time yet. Have left a message for her. More snow is forecast, which is a bit worrying as Dot is due to visit two schools tomorrow, and on Wednesday we’re both booked in at the King’s Head, Bircham, in preparation for an inspection she’s doing at Flitcham. Not feeling in peak condition myself. Got a recurrence of flu symptoms, though of course only in a very minor way.

2 February 2009

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Snow arrived just too late to spoil the big day yesterday, when relatives converged from far (Wolverhampton) and wide (Portsmouth) for Auntie Ethel’s 85th birthday celebrations at her niece Angela’s house in Dereham. David and family were up for the weekend and came too. An awesome buffet defeated everyone, and goodwill was everywhere. Oliver and Amy were on best behaviour, and Oliver spent much of his time looking after Maddie, who must be some relation; let’s think – it’s his father’s mother’s cousin’s son’s daughter. That sounds fairly close. Anyway, she’s two and having fun. Justin and his friend Heidi drove up from Portsmouth (and back), Donna came from Wolverhampton with her friend Andy, and Rosie came from Buck Brigg with her friend Roger. Sadly Peter (Maddie’s grandfather and Ethel’s nephew: are you following this?) is in hospital with pneumonia. I am reading his autobiography and have just reached the bit where he went into hospital with pneumonia and hoped that he would never have to go through that again. Well, it would have been nice.

I have just discovered that you can generate primes by the formula x2 + x + 41, which is neat, and what’s even neater is that I worked out how to include superscript in that by using html. Very satisfying.

Anyway, David and his family arrived on Saturday. We looked after the children while David and Vicky went into the city, and had a generally pleasant day, culminating in a game of bridge, which Dot and I lost conclusively. It was the cards, you know. That and superb play from our opponents.

After the Ethel extravaganza they went straight back to Caddington, because snow had started to fall and it was bitterly cold. They got home safely, but today Oliver’s school was closed, and there was heavy snow over much of the country, especially the London area, which was pretty much crippled. It snowed here too, but nowhere near as much, and tonight it was above freezing and soggy rather than slippy. Nevertheless we felt it prudent not to go the PCC meeting…

On Saturday evening we went to the Eagles for dinner and met Roger’s brother Tim, who works at Hansells and knows Jonathan, who he described as “very good”. He was with Jackie, who was Scottish and knows all the places we do, plus a good many more. So there was plenty to talk about, and we didn’t leave till well after midnight.

Today I wrote an article on the Paston book with the hope that Eco Echo might like it. I also attempted to book Blakeney for our reunion in June, but found that their single rooms were booked up. Will try again tomorrow: Maureen has agreed to accept a double room if necessary. Dot is busy over-preparing her stuff for tomorrow – her big day.

8 April 2008

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A motley crew on a snowy April Sunday. For the record, left to right: Brian and Jacqui Quentin, Dot, Sue and Bob Bushell , Ruthie (Ann) and Ken Caves and yours truly, all gathered at Leatherhead Golf Club for the ruby anniversary of Bob and Sue, who was at teacher training college with Dot, as were Jacqui and Ruthie. As I often visited the college, Wall Hall, and the house where they lived – Otterspool – I’ve also known Ken and Bob for some time (very intermittently), but Brian is Jacqui’s second husband, and it was the first time I’d met him. Also there were Liz and Pete Stabler, who were also a couple back in Wall Hall days. They had just left when this picture was taken.

Quite an epic journey to reach Leatherhead. We came down the previous day (Saturday), and got stuck in a huge, extremely slow-moving queue on the A11. It took us an hour to go about four miles, because the road had been closed south of the Stansted turn, and everyone was merging into a single lane up to the traffic lights. We took the road less travelled – a B-road going south-east, and Dot navigated us across some of the lesser known parts of Essex, like Chipping Ongar and South Weald, with the occasional piece of intuition from myself, until we hit the M25 at the A12 junction. From there, surprisingly, it was plain sailing, and we reached Junction 9 without incident, Dot sirecting us by an interesting route to the Woodlands Hotel. The entire journey took four and a half hours – long enough normally for us to get to Hastings and halfway back.

Very smart hotel in country house style, with a friendly and efficient staff with no discernible English ancestry. Had a meal in the Brasserie in the evening. Expensive and good-average food. On the down side, the five terrestrial TV channels were unavailable (“aerial affected by storm”), so we were stuck with Sky News, which didn’t make me want to get Sky at all. Talk about repetitious. Talk about repetitious. Talk about repetitious. And in the morning the hot water was lukewarm (“maintenance are looking at it”) till after breakfast. You had the feeling that on a good day it might have been exceptional, but it wasn’t a good day.

Nevertheless, it was comfortable, and looked great after the forecast heavy snowfall that greeted us the following morning. Got some rather good pictures of the surrounding gardens. Still plenty of snow around when we left at about 11.45 (after coffee in the lounge – £6.50) to travel the short distance to the Leatherhead Golf Club, which we soon found after a brief excursion up the wrong road. Very pleasant afternoon there with a good carvery meal and wine which left me on the brink, and by the time we left at about 5pm, the snow had amazingly almost vanished. The M25 turned out to be straightforward, and we reached Caddington at 6.15pm.

It’s been very cold for several days now, and it was still very chilly when we left Caddington with Oliver yesterday just after lunch, arriving home after a straightforward journey at about 3.15pm. A former student, Sally Campbell, called in just after 4pm to pick up a reference I’d written for her, and in the evening I won a game of chess against a guy from Dereham – Oliver had been rooting for me, after he played me in the afternoon and “beat” me. He’s very keen on it at the moment. He’s also brilliant on the computer, picking up anything I show him very quickly. He produced a page of comic art in quick time this morning, though I wasn’t in the room at the time.

25 March 2008

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Grandchildren Oliver and Amy gang up on Dot outside our house over the Easter weekend, which was very cold indeed. Snow came and went, there was high wind and it was generally unpleasant. Nevertheless, it was full of pleasant things.

On Maundy Thursday Dot and I went to a meal at St Luke’s which was combined with a kind of meditation event afterwards. About 50 present, and food by Suzanne and Ali – therefore excellent. No-one was allowed to help themselves, so those who had perfected the art of looking hungry, or were sitting next to a generous and perceptive person, did best.

On Good Friday our family came to visit for an extended weekend. In the evening Julia and Barbara, a couple of friends, came round to share a meal with us, and on the Saturday I was involved with the Paston Medieval Fair and Open Day in St Margaret’s Church, sharing responsibility for a poetry and print workshop with Annette Rolston on behalf of InPrint. Had to get there by 9am. As I passed through Walcott, the sea was very, very rough and spraying the road. Chaos at the church as cars and vans unloaded in a situation that was totally unsuited – pretty medieval in fact. Added to the mix were mud and a gale-force, bitter wind.

Despite the conditions, visitors numbered over 500 – possibly 800, someone said. Annette and I were constantly busy, mainly with children wh0 wanted to print themselves a bookmark or letter/poem. Rupert turned up at the outset and helped us set up; Caroline and Lisa, with her family, came at the end. Mid-afternoon Dot turned up with the rest of our family – extremely brave of them – and Oliver and Amy printed some pictures – or at least Oliver did, and Amy chose some shapes to go on a bookmark, which Annette printed for her later. While all this was going on strange medieval events were taking place inside and outside the church – dancing and rabbit-skinning, to name but two. One particularly brave medieval group pitched camp in the graveyard.

Packing up took for ever, with a bit of hassle from the locals, who wanted their groundsheet back and their table in the vestry. But in the end I got back to Norwich before the others, who had been visiting Jessie in North Walsham.

No rest on Easter Sunday, when I organised our church service. Went quite well, but overran badly, which made us a little late for the second major event of the day – a family meal at the Red Lion in Eaton (a few yards from where my mother was born, as it happens). As well as the six of us there were Phil and Joy, Birgit and Joe, and Birgit’s brother Joe and his wife Ilona, together with her mother – these last three on holiday from Germany.

3 February 2008

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Snow hit East Anglia early on Friday evening, just as Dot was about to go to a friend’s house for a meeting of Dangerous Women. They don’t call themselves that: I call them that. As she felt she might like to drink a drop or two of alcohol, I gave her a lift. A short drive, but interesting, with blizzard-lite conditions constantly threatening to get worse. Made it there and back OK, and fortunately she was given a lift home by one of the more spectacular DW, by which time conditions had improved.

By Saturday morning there was a fair bit of snow remaining, as can be seen on the picture, but it melted very rapidly. We stood at the bedroom window watching little avalanches of snow falling off the roofs opposite.

It was very cold still, and the road remained slippery on our little hill, so we drove to the supermarket together before returning for an InPrint meeting at our house. We discussed the future of the group, news of which will appear on the InPrint website soon, then Dot and I took Annette out to Paston for the launch of the Paston Project. This consisted of a Latin Compline in a barely heated church, lit by candles. Quite a strange experience: it felt as if we were secretly carrying out some illegal rite under cover of darkness. On the other hand, there was mulled wine and nibbles afterwards.

Making my way back to the car through a fair amount of mud, I managed to slip over, but happily without dire consequence, other than caking my coat in mud. One other unexpected result was that when we returned home (dropping Annette at Lisa’s to pick up her car) I must have got some mud from my key into the lock, because this morning I couldn’t lock it from outside. I had to lock it from inside and go out the back door, which meant in turn that when we got back after church lunch (outrageously delicious chicken) and entered by the back, the alarm went off. As I was anticipating it, I was able to disable it in seconds, so I don’t think we caused any disturbance. Afterwards I freed the lock using WD40.

13 February 2007

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The other snow photo, taken the other day at Caddington: Amy looks on admiringly as her brother bravely throws a snowball at their father.

Of course it’s all gone now, and we’re back to a normal winter – chilly and wet. The weekend was very busy for us. I spent all day at InPrint studios, discussing the future and getting creative with ideas for exhibitions. Fun in a cold atmosphere – that’s the temperature, not the relationships. We had several heaters in the studios but didn’t quite get rid of the chill. I went so far as to buy fish and chips, which helped a bit. Studio 2 is leaking a bit.

In the evening Dot and I went to Heather S for a meal, and the three of us had a great evening putting the world to rights. On Sunday, as well as the morning service, Dot and I had to put together an Ambient Wonder event in the evening, which I was very unsure about – possibly because we hadn’t picked the theme, and not many people were offering to add bits. But the feedback was good – to my astonishment. Over 20 people there, several for the first time.

On Monday I had another chess win, amazingly, against a good player. I was turning out as a guest for the B team and played Trevor Ansell, of Fakenham. I was black, and the end of the game was quite exciting.

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cd 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Bg5 e6 7 f4 Be7 8 Qf3 Qc7 9 0-0-0 0-0 10 Bd3 Nc6 11 Nde2 b5 12 a3 Bb7 13 g4 b4 14 ab Nxb4 15 Bxf6 Bxf6 16 g5 Bxc3 17 Nxc3 d5!
18 e5 Rfc8 19 Qe2 Qa5 20 Kb1 d4 21 Ne4 Qa2+ 22 Kc1 Qa1+ 23 Kd2 Qxb2 24 Rb1 Qa3 25 Ra1 Na2 26 Rhg1 Qa5+ 27 c3 Rxc3! 28 Nf6+ (Desperation. Nxc3 loses immediately, but Kd1 makes it a little more difficult for Black) …. Kf8 29 Nh7+ Ke7 30 Rgb1 Rc1+ 0-1 It’s mate next move.

Today it’s a little brighter, and we had three adults and three children for lunch. Very tasty.

9 February 2007

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Yes, it’s been wintry recently. Not so much in Norwich, where we’ve had a little snow which melted fairly quickly; but in much of the rest of the country there have been quite heavy falls, as can be seen from the picture of my grandson (left) with the snowman he built – possibly with a little help from his Dad and sister. This is in Bedfordshire, and much of the Midlands and West have caught it. Here in Norwich it’s been bitterly cold, but now it’s raining. Warnings of ice on the roads, but fortunately I don’t have far to go tomorrow.

Today I did actually get out of the house and walked back from the plumbing shop – about two and a half miles with one or two detours, including a non-stop climb of Gas Hill – always a good test of how fit I am. Quite surprising, really.

The plumbing shop visit was to pick up tap inserts to repair the bathroom sink taps, which had been broken by a visitor. For reference, I hammered the insert into the tap head, then pushed the tap head on to the shaft. The shop suggested doing it the other way round, but it proved impossible. It’s working at the moment. I don’t think they really knew, though they were very helpful – for instance in getting the old insert out of the tap head.

Saw A on the way home – her father has had a massive stroke and is in a bad way.

Dot went to Watton in the snow yesterday, but it wasn’t too bad. Vicky has been in Hull and had a tricky journey back to Nottingham, where she spent the night. David had been going to come to Norwich to discuss the website(s), but he had to look after the children yesterday, and the weather was still dodgy today. So we had a webcam session.

During the last couple of days I’ve also written my page for Monday and written a couple of poems for tomrrow, which is InPrint’s Creative Day. We’re hoping to get well on the way towards preparing a presentation for the Welborne Arts Festival. I’ve also put together an Ambient Wonder event (www.ambientwonder.org) that Dot and I are curating on Sunday. The idea is for loads of people to come up with ideas and we sort them out, but there wasn’t much input, and I’m not very good at delegating. So I had to come up with some ideas, which is bad news.

Yesterday morning, one of Dot’s head teacher colleagues came round, and the three of us put together some questions for a music quiz for the National Association of First and Primary Heads annual conference in April. Very few on Bob Dylan – unprecedented restraint.