September September September

It seems no time at all since we began thinking of the school holidays.

Tomorrow my big boys go back. We then have a home appointment with 2 of Liams teachers then he begins his new nursery on Thursday.

Where has the Summer gone?

Last week we noticed an abundance of berries on bushes and trees, the leaves are already turning and falling, the nights getting longer.

Summer in England has been good this year. I note this now as it's been against the normal pattern for the last few years of hot but wet. Let's be honest,on the whole we Brits LOVE to talk about the weather, we LOVE to complain about it. It's too hot, too cold, too wet. We'll find something to complain about. In the summer it's light too early, the kids won't sleep as it's light too late. We have people who complain about the lot.

I however, always state to be a realist and I enjoy the little bits of nature that we can't control. I like the light evenings, I like the bright mornings. I don't even mind if we have a wet summer.  We are an Island, rather a small island compared to many places and common sense denotes that islands tend to be wetter. Why? Water surrounds us, the water cycle is something we all learn young (Year 2 or age 7 over here) but it seems 90% of people forget that. They don't seem to understand the laws of science that states that the hotter it gets, in theory, the more water is evaporated into the sky, creates clouds and therefor rains. Air pressure has been different this year so we have had a drier summer but we recently had a really bad rain storm which caused a lot of flooding not too far from where we live.

Last week, I had a moment and got my hair cut shorter. About 6 inches shorter to a choppy jaw length bob. Whilst I don't hate it it's something I am getting used to. I will be growing it long again.

Two weeks ago, we were rather busy with the electrics. Tv on, computer on, all general things working as normal, heating the oven for dinner and so forth when the power went off. It turned out something had tripped the fuse. We restarted everything and it went again after about 15 seconds. Worried about electrics we unplugged a few things in the living room and tried again. This time all was fine. We, for some reason decided to boycott the original plan for dinner and get a takeaway. The next day was our anniversary so I cooked Steak, chips, salad and the like. The Thursday I put the oven on to do lunch and after 30 minutes I realised that the oven wasn't heating up. The fan was on, the light was on, no heat. So I did a little investigation work a la Google to discover the element that heats the electric oven had gone. We were able to use the hob and top oven in the mean time (dual oven) but it was frustrating that the main oven wasn't working. We got it fixed last week for a nice little set back of £72. We could have got the part off ebay for £10 but whilst hubby is normally good at DIY type things, he didn't want to risk taking apart our £600 cooker and getting it wrong. He intently watched as the repair man did the job and said if it ever happened again he'd be able to do it.

When the kids are back at school I am going to start baking again. I haven't made a cake for a while but I want to do one and I have an idea for Liams birthday cake in a couple of weeks. I just want to practice it first. Watch this space.