Sandra Ashenford reflects on the ups and downs of her week

THIS is always a quiet term for me, as schools are busy with SATs and my services as a peripatetic history teacher with a suitcase full of weird and wonderful objects are not much in demand.

It is a good opportunity to do a spot of stock-taking and to carry out any repairs required.

It’s also a wonderful excuse (not that I ever need one) to scour all the local antique and second-hand shops to see what new gems I can add to the collection.

In Stroud over the past few months I’ve managed to find a wonderful selection of glass bottles, Victorian curling tongs, a delightful tiny Victorian hand-warmer, a chamber pot and stone hot water bottle both dating from the 1940s and even a fabulous large wooden bucket which I use for my Great Fire of London workshop.

My collection, which includes everything from Stone Age arrowheads to a Victorian dolly tub, with something from just about every era in between, now fills numerous plastic storage boxes.

Some items are too nice to hide away though, and are on display throughout the house. I have to go round and scoop them all up when I need them for a particular session.

Recently I’ve also been absolutely delighted to welcome a new ‘member’ to the team. Dilly the crocodile from the Nile isn’t an historic object as such but a wonderful knitted specimen made by the highly talented Emma Bilous.

Emma is a mum I know from the Cheer gym, and while we wait for our children she sits in the parents’ room and always has a knitting or crochet project on the go.

These have included soft toys and blankets but recently Emma has been creating creatures on a large scale.

At Christmas, Gloucester Cathedral featured a life-size knitted nativity scene, which included a camel courtesy of Emma.

So I set her the challenge of knitting a crocodile to replace the taxidermy specimen I had borrowed from a museum. No problem, said Emma, and shortly afterwards Dilly appeared.

We’re off to help some Cheltenham children learn about the Ancient Egyptians next term, which is very exciting.

There’s just one problem though – where do you store a life-size knitted crocodile?

While I was busy clearing a space in my wardrobe, the cat thought she had found a great new place to sleep.