Summer's Close

Hello there,

I guess for all of us (except you over there in New Zealand, Australia....), summer's drawing to a close. Not in the sense that the nights are drawing in and the leaves are turning, but in the sense that it's time to pack school bags again and to quietly realise that time will no longer, entirely, be our own again.

Yet, I know now that however busy and mad the months ahead may be, we've got memories to keep us going and to energise us when the going gets tough.

As I write, we're still in New Deer where, and here you may think I'm mad, the weather has just been perfect : 20*C cloudy with sunny spells. Now that's what I call good summer weather! We can sleep easy at night under cosy blankets and yet go out and play during the day. And each day has found us outside, not only doing the tour of the local playparks (there are some good ones), but also having barbecues on different beaches.... and that has meant the kids have discovered the fun of splashing in the sea, digging around in rockpools, and how the word 'sandwich' got its name!

In the last couple of weeks, I've had the chance to catch up with a number of great friends. Incredibly, 20 years have passed since I left school and 30 years have passed since we moved into the village. Yet, I still feel about the same as I did back then... and so the only way I can really 'sense' that time has passed is by looking at groups of children playing - for they contain my children, which seems incredible - and by looking at the trees. What? Yes, it's the trees which give the game away... for those trees which were young and spindly and not worth climbing when I was younger have grown tall and handsome. They're lovely to see... but they are the final signposts that so many years have truly gone by... and I do need them for I do still feel much the same as I did when I was six!

So, here's to the six year old inside all of us,
hugs,
Robynxxxx