Sunday

Good morning, everyone, and a pinch and punch for the first of the month!  September has arrived and we are now in the final third of this year with autumn peeping around the door.

Yesterday was a gentle day.  It started off with an early morning shop to the big Tesco in Baldock to get things for dinner.  Early Saturday morning is always a good time to go; it's not crowded but there's enough people there to make it interesting.

After that and after breakfast, I signed some papers relating to Mum's will (I'm one of the executors) and then I helped Dad get a box of old photos down from the attic as he is slowly working his way through them.  We also had a good look through a very old photo album.  It was bitter-sweet but good at the same time.

After lunch, I set to and sorted out Mum's cookery books.  I meant to several weeks ago, as you may remember, but didn't as things were quite fragile and they would have needed to be left out for people to go through during the week (to see if they wanted to take any of them).  It's different now.
So down they came and there were a few that are now in my car.  Mum was a great Delia fan, as am I, and I also have her files with her hand written recipes and things cut from magazines, etc, which I will go through at my leisure and sort out properly.

Once that was done, I moved the mixer and attachments up to the shelf vacated by the books.  Dad never uses it and hopes to find someone who will be able to make use of it - it's a fairly new Kenwood.  I have the same one but a smaller model, and it's a good machine. 
However, for now, it's out of the way and no longer collecting dust.

Beth and Alex popped up for dinner and we had a great old time talking about family funnies from the past.  I thought I'd made far too much dinner but Alex, with the appetite of a young adult, proved me wrong there.

This morning, Dad's off to a united service in town this morning as I will hold the fort at home.  We're having our main meal midday as I'm off home this afternoon so I'll be raiding the line of runner beans down the bottom of the garden!

Once home, the first job will be to water the garden (assuming it's not raining which, I gather, it might be) and picking the ripe stuff before unpacking and doing a bit of planning for tuition first thing Monday morning.  Everything gets back into regular routine this coming week.  I have lost all my last year's year sixes, of course, plus another who is doing well and no longer needs any support, and I have gained one new student.  School starts tomorrow but it's an INSET day so I won't be resuming my Foundation Stage granny-helping until next Monday.  Even then, they might not need me as the new littlies do mornings only for the first weeks and the staff do their home visits in the afternoons.

I'm now four years retired but, right now, I am still getting that tight little knot of a slight apprehension inside me about a new school year and not being completely ready (as if one ever is completely ready!), wondering how the new class will pan out and whether I will get on with them.  Strange, isn't it?

I'll stop rambling on now.  Have an enjoyable Sunday and, if you are in education, I hope you have a great first week of the new school year