Today is Toby’s last ever day at school. Fifteen years in the same severe learning difficulty school is a long time and it’s hard to know how he’ll react to not going there again. In many ways it feels like we are sailing into uncharted waters, I just hope we don’t lose the paddle along the way 🙂

With the long summer break on the horizon, I decided to make the most of the last few weeks of familiar routines to go on a couple of solo mini adventures with my rucksack and camera. We’ve had perfect growing conditions here this year and the countryside around us is so green with lush summer growth. There are summer flowers everywhere: wild honeysuckle, cow parsley, daisies and buttercups.  Fruit is swelling on the trees and the brambles are thickly tangled, studded with flowers and busy with bees. So many of the things that I love about our local countryside. I also love picnics and am happy to have had five of them recently, including two lovely ones down in Surrey with Amy, who is staying in her uni digs until the end August. We’re very proud of her as she’s done really well in the finals of her English and creative writing degree, getting a 2:1 mark and is now looking for her first full time job, not an easy task in these chaotic times, but hopefully something will come along.

I hope to post periodically over the summer break, but might not manage to be here very much until the autumn. I will definitely be back though to celebrate my 15th year of blogging in early September. I hope you have a good couple of months, J xxx

Pictures taken at Tewin Orchard, July 2021