Autumn

… yes, it is here. This morning I drove to the swimming pool in the almost proper dark; I had to wipe the dew away from windscreens and mirrors and even crank up the heating to eliminate condensation after my swim–and the car had only been parked in the lot of the pool for an hour and a bit! Time to put on the heating and change the duvets… speaking of heating, we’ve been having intense talks about times etc. The way energy costs have gone up and the issues around climate change are showing themselves to the world in real phenomena have had a lot to bear in the process. For now, we’ve settled for 4 hours a day, evenly divided between am and pm. we’re lucky that the house is well insulated, so hopefully this will work til later on, once the winter bites…

Boy positively happy on the way to school–we’ve started with regular homework and we’re enjoying the letters and the sounds. Geraldine la Giraffe is amazing, such a great help, and so are the sounds we get from other school resources. Next week it is time for numeracy… but our boy is ready, enjoying it all and giving it a go!

as I sit here and look at the sun, in a pause between work bits and before a meeting, I think back to the Autumn of 2020–the pandemic heralded another lock down and we all more or less tried to survive it. I spoke to a student yesterday, sick with long Covid, and worried about her studies. I felt for her, and am determined to protect myself as far as I can, masks and all–it is not all gone, and in my view what we can, we must do.