Early One Morning

Up at 6 this morning as it looks like it's going to be a beautiful sunny day (and tomorrow too!). Lots of plans today, the hedge needs it's last cut of the year, we have our fortnightly food shop coming, I want to tidy up the shed and also do some cooking for the freezer (including cooking up our rhubarb crop :-).

Lots has happened since my last blog - my parents moved house last weekend and I spent most of last weekend helping them unpack and get settled with Peter helping on the Sunday with all the very heavy stuff in dad's new garage/workshop (and I mean heavy - one cabinet was a struggle for four of us to move). Anyway, the place is lovely and I think they are going to be very happy there. I am particularly enamoured with the fact that they have a stretch of the river test at the bottom of their garden so they get visits from lots of ducks, moorhens and swans. Unfortunately they can't fish the river (unless they want to pay the local estate £4K a year!! - I think not)

This week was the annual Presentation Day at the College where the students receive their certificates and prizes in the setting of Winchester Cathedral. We in admin always go and help to get the guests seated etc and it's a nice occasion.

This week is also my first week of dropping down to a four day working week - as I told my worried parents - it's sure as hell better than losing my job altogether which could easily have been the alternative as people I work with are still losing theirs. Peter is also encountering changes to his working patterns with his employer trialing some of its employees working from home for half a week. In principle this is great but it will depend if the employer will help with the costs involved such as heating the house in winter when he's working here, providing IT kit and phone etc.

My brother has also just purchased a property in the last week (a holiday cottage on the edge of Exmoor). It needs quite a bit of work before he can start letting it but I'll certainly be promoting it to my friends and acquaintances when it's ready. He's going to tailor it to couples who are into walking and watching wildlife as it's in a very rural location.

Although we are very much tightening our belts at home we have booked ourselves a treat for later in the month to go and see Alan Bennett's 'Lady in the Van' at the theatre: it's a book I love so I hope the performance is as wonderful as the book.

I must admit I love this time of year as autumn approaches, chilly mornings with dew on the grass, leaves on the trees starting to change colour and I don't even mind the evenings drawing in - we are so lucky in this country having such changeable seasons. I remember many years ago spending Christmas Day in Australia and eating turkey in baking hot garden followed by a trip to Bondi Beech - wrong all wrong!

On the book Front I've weaned myself off Kate Atkinson for the time being and am getting into my new discovery, Robert Goddard, who I hadn't' heard of until recently and who, looking at his back catalogue on Amazon, seems to be quite a prolific author.