The West Country

I've just spent a few days back "home" visiting my parents.

Lots of sea and very blue skies,

boats bobbing in the river,

Devon teas to be enjoyed,

space and peaceful surroundings,

and beautiful sunsets.

I have come back recharged, refreshed and with a rekindled longing to return to the area I grew up and/or to live nearer to the coast.

Summer thoughts

Just a few days left until the start of the summer holidays but this year it all feels a little different. Usually at this time I am full of ideas, things to do and places to visit as well as planning plenty of time to read, packing lots into the summer holidays before the start of the next school year.

This time though there will be no return to school. My eldest will return to University for his second year and the youngest will be working during his gap year. That just leaves me. I will return to my part time job in September, the job I have done for years to fit in with the school day and the school holidays but now there are no more school days to fit in with. It all feels slightly odd, I have been helping my sons think through their choices and their plans and I have forgotten to think about what I am going to do now.

Do I stay in my part time job or do I think of getting something more challenging? Would I find anything having last worked full time over twenty years ago?

My husband doesn't feel this change in our routines as the children move on with their lives. He carried on with his career and is now busier than ever with many trips abroad and an active work social life. I was the one who gave up my career to be at home and then chose to work part time to fit in with their schooling.

Now I feel that I have been left behind (hence the photo above - on a walk with my sons at the weekend, both were so deep in conversation and striding out so fast, they failed to notice that their mother was getting further and further behind!).

So what will I do now?   - something to think about during the summer break.

Hello

Hello to anyone who is still there! Its been ages since I last posted, I'm fine, it has just been a busy time. Exams and end of school for youngest son, staff shortages at work meaning extra hours for me and of course the busiest time of year in the garden and allotment.

Yesterday after weeks of dry weather we got our first real rain, so this evening I have time to sit at the computer rather than water the allotment. It is raining again now so I hope that the water will soak the soil and refresh the rather thirsty plants. I have been harvesting broad beans, peas, courgettes, swiss chard, courgettes, shallots and rhubarb and this week picked the first french beans.

The crops are ripening in the fields as well. The first two photos show cornflowers in a field of wheat, such a lovely show of blue, part of the field was full of them and they were full of bees, unusual to hear the sound of bees in a crop of cereals.

The school holidays occur at the time of year when traditionally the school children were needed at home to help gather in the harvest. These days with so few people working the land and mechanisation meaning even fewer people are needed for harvest, I don't suppose many children will be working in the fields. The timing is still the same though, the fields are turning golden and school holidays are just over a week away.