Hey Friend!
How are you?
According to the Met Office, Autumn officially began on the 1st September and the weather has happily agreed, flinging its rain and wind at us intermittently. And just when we think it’s ceased, up it starts again. Oh, England. We love you really.
But such is the phenomena of September that although we are in the throws of Autumn now, by Friday there’s talk of temperatures rising to 25 degrees. If it happens, I will enjoy it – the mornings are already getting darker and I’ll cling to every last drop of summer that’s left.
Speaking of summer, when you work in a school and go back after the holidays, that is the question on everyone’s lips: ‘How was your summer?’
I answered the first couple of people enthusiastically, telling them about days out I’d had with the children and the fun we’d had together. But after a while, I got bored of saying the same thing on repeat. There are also those people that don’t really care what the answer is and just ask because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?
For those people the stock answer is: “Lovely thanks. And yours?” To which they’ll reply, “Great. And now we’re back here.” This would be followed by a chuckle/groan/eyeroll, but that was it – conversation over.
So, I’ll share with you a bit of what I didn’t share with them (lucky you!).
The best thing about the summer holidays is not having to have my alarm on. Everyone wakes up when they’re ready to. Unless you’re Older Miss, who takes ‘sleeping in late’ to be some sort of art that needs to be perfected – she has to be prised from the bed, fingers gripping the covers, or else she’d happily stay there till mid-afternoon.
We watched a ridiculous amount of movies, baked a fair bit including a date chocolate cake (I enjoyed it. Everyone else? Not so much) and a blueberry and choc chip loaf (EVERYONE loved), the latter being baked more than once.
We took a trip to Clacton-on-Sea and, even though all week the weather had predicted a very respectable summer temperature of 26 degrees, on the actual day it barely reached 20 degrees and we shivered on our picnic blankets. The chilly air didn’t stop Little Dude from paddling in the sea, enjoying his favourite beach pastimes of throwing heavy rocks as far as he can into the water and digging a hole then watching the tide fill it in.
The girls (after dipping their feet in the sea for a whole minute), got comfy on the blanket next to me where we talked and giggled the hours away. We watched a curious group of men who were playing a game that involved them all to be topless while slapping each other… Each to their own, I guess.
We took a trip to the Saatchi Gallery to view the Flowers exhibition. The day started off bright with blue skies and warm weather promised once again. Yet, in the short time it took us to walk to the train station and get on a train, the sky was full of grey clouds and there was a distinct chill in the air. It was only after we’d been walking around the gallery for a while that I noticed it was raining and we’d all been optimistic and not worn jackets…
Anyway, back to the exhibition. It showed flowers depicted in different ways over many years. We saw pieces inspired by Van Gogh with heavy strokes of oil paints to create striking images. One artist created a floral sculpture using spoons she’d collected from boot fairs and antique markets, which I hadn’t even realised until I read the information card. The highlight was an interactive display that followed your movements. Older Miss and LD could have stayed in that room all afternoon. It was definitely worth seeing and thankfully, the rain had stopped by the time we were ready to leave.
Some time ago, I wrote about Little Dude’s love of the Dogman book series. Well, the movie came out and of course, I failed to organise a time for us to see it… Fortunately for us, Cineworld was showing it again during the summer just in time for a certain Little Dude’s birthday…
We didn’t tell him what we were going to see so when he saw the name of the film on the screen, he was so excited. At random points during the movie, he turned to me and mouthed ‘Thank you!’ which made me melt
After the movie, we headed to his second surprise – an hour of climbing at Clip n’ Climb! We were all initially quite cautious about the different walls, but I was so impressed with how the girls and Little Dude pushed past their comfort levels and just went for it. I didn’t get to climb very much as the three of them all wanted Mum watching them at some point to cheer them on, talk them down or navigate where they should go next. Little Dude said it was his best birthday yet – high praise indeed!
The final highlight I’ll share with you was the morning we learned to ride a bike. Yes, at the grand age of 46-years-young, it’s not something I’ve ever mastered. I remember trying to learn in my mum’s back garden but there wasn’t much room and I was so scared of falling off. My brother said we should go to the park but that was crazy talk – what if someone saw me?! He left me and came back sometime later saying he could ride the bike and I felt sad that I’d allowed people and fear to stop me from doing something I wanted to do, which was a bit of a theme for my life but that’s another blog post.
Anyway, back to the present day. Our borough does free cycle training so, I asked the girls if they were up for it and they were. Little Dude has surpassed us all and can already ride a bike so I didn’t include him in the booking. He was disappointed to only be able to stand around watching us. That was until I made him our official cheerleader and photographer – jobs which he took very seriously.
It was another grey day but it didn’t dampen our resolve at all. Our instructor showed us how to balance first and once we’d mastered that, we needed to put one foot on the pedal and glide. It’s so funny to me that I avoided learning in the tiny park behind my mum’s house all those years ago and there I was in a huge park doing circuits around a bandstand.
And you know what the best thing was? I didn’t give a toss what anyone thought. I was determined to finish the hour riding that bike!
While I was still at gliding level, along came LM with a look on her face that was a mix of terror and glee – she was fully riding her bike! OM wasn’t too far behind, surprising herself but loving the experience. I managed to get both feet on the pedals just as our hour was up, wobbling and skidding to a halt as I rounded the bandstand and heard the girls and LD squealing proudly at me.
On the bus on the way home, we relived the moments through LD’s action shots and videos.
A great end to the summer!
Speak soon xx
You're not gonna believe this... 