Thanks for the good wishes. Things are a little brighter on all fronts today. The weather has improved a little and Amy & I have dodged the intermittent showers to head off to the pick-your-own-farm.

We picked 4lbs of strawberries and then came back home for our annual jam making session. Unfortunately, I've got it into the jars a bit too soon and now it's cooling I can see it's not fully set so tomorrow it will have to go back in the pan for another 5 minutes of boiling – I find it really hard to judge when it's just right! Once we have it back in the jars again we're planning to make some bread to go with it.

In the meantime Toby has been a little happier after a good bout of swinging in the garden.

The weather is looking brighter for next week so hopefully we'll get the chance to squeeze in that overnight camp-out. Enjoy your weekend whatever the weather with you!

…have come and gone and are really best forgotten about. The weather has been mostly wet and windy which has meant postponing many of the plans we had for outdoor activities. Toby has been extremely agitated with lots of aggressive, self harming tantrums and we're not really sure why. It could be the lack of routine or not being able to play in the sunshine or he might be feeling unwell – it's always a guessing game with him, although no-one in our household (and probably our neighbours too judging by the amount of screaming he's done) has been left in any doubt that he's a very unhappy boy right now. When he's like this he needs constant attention so there's not really been much time for knitting which has meant my little bag of lovely new yarn that I treated myself to a few weeks back is still waiting to be got stuck into. 

I'm hoping that the next 3 weeks bring a bit of dry sunniness so we can have some fun outside before school starts again. Amy is desperate to camp out over night and I'm sure that a garden day with a little paddling pool action will improve Toby's mood no end! I know that dipping into that bag for a little knitting in the sun would make me a happy bunny! Still, it does make me glad that we're not away on holiday at the moment as life would be much harder if we were dealing with Toby like this in unfamiliar surroundings. There is always something comforting about home, even when things aren't as relaxed as you'd like them to be.