And so September begins....

I say it every year but although I love the freedom, lazy starts and unplanned days of Summer, I do like the routines of a new school year.

Things are a little different this year with just Sam heading off for school. He's decided to stay at the Sixth Form of his old school, despite the local College being just a 5 minute walk away. I get it, all his friends are there, but his choice to stay at the Blue means getting the bus, as I refuse to do the daily school run for one! So this now involves a 6:30 alarm and out the door by 7:20 to get the bus. One week down! 

Jeff's lovely long summer has drawn to a close. He had Inset days last week and then fully back in on Monday, with his Boarding House evening duty until 11pm.

I've been working all Summer but still have Sophie at home until she goes off to Uni in a couple of weeks time. She's booking up my days off though, with trips to Bristol, Bath and on Thursday we went to Reading. 

Sensibly, she wanted to go down to do a recce, on where the train station was, remind herself of the centre, shops, buses etc. We only saw it briefly on her Open Day, a year ago now, so it was good to go back and remember what she liked about it in the first place. We found the best supermarket to do the weekly food shop, on a bus route to the University, that stocks most of the things she needs. It was a good day, less than 2 hour drive from home but still feels a million miles away. It seems a safe place, a good place to spend your student days, with London just a 20 minute train journey away too.

I've done a couple of early morning shifts, beautiful sunrise with a 6am alarm.

And we've enjoyed that beautiful late, warm, evening sunshine September brings.

I've also celebrated picking my second fig from the garden. The tree is full of fruit but not sure we'll get enough sunshine for many more to ripen fully. Something to look forward to next year.

Hope your September got off to a good start x