I feel that these words from Murphy’s Sketches (an excellent Instagram account) sum up the past few weeks, some days you are eeking out the last days of summer and other days you’re cuddling under the blanket watching Bake Off! It seems that you simply don’t know what day you’re going to get!

These past weeks have all been about new beginnings which have gone smoothly and so much better than we could have hoped for. It was good to actually live the life we have been anticipating and preparing for over the summer. Our son had the biggest changes with a new college, new class mates and even a new football club. He has taken it all in his stride and is appreciating the more adult environment. He also coped remarkably well when a tree branch crashed onto the taxi he was travelling in. Fortunately neither him or the driver were injured and when you see the images it’s unbelievable they both walked away unharmed.

We have tried to keep things simple at home over the past few weeks to ease ourselves into autumn. The first weekend was the traditional end of season folk festival in our town. I always like this weekend it has that special feel and with gorgeous weather it was a lovely event. I, of course, perused the craft tent and picked up some locally designed Christmas cards. They are lovely and the scenes make it easy to pick for friends. We also ended up in the pub to watch the international football, the match was a bit dull but the bar snacks were a good distraction!

The start of the school year sees both new and familiar routines. I love my Tuesday evenings watching Bake Off. My Monday nights are hectic with mum taxi duties til late so Tuesdays on the sofa always seems a little luxury. I don’t watch much tv but Bake Off and Strictly are my favourites and my tv viewing hours definitely increases in the autumn. I have also watched a 3 part series on a special school on BBC. As a SEN teacher it gave a great insight into our sector and I felt honestly reflected life in a special school, they are magical, safe places.

As it’s back to the daily commute, and it seems a route now peppered with different roadworks, I am enjoying my podcasts and audiobooks on my journeys, they keep me sane. I have listened to the Names and it is an exceptional book. I was savouring every moment to listen to it. It’s a great story about the life of a young boy according to the name he was given with 3 different versions, a sliding doors plot line. The ending is excellent but I really appreciated the attention to detail, the author’s notes on the meanings of the names of all characters, the art and culture references etc.. it’s a well researched and very clever book.

We have planned for a quiet September so we’re enjoying simply being in the season. Work and college keep us busy and the football season is in full swing, both watching our local team and for our son to play in his new team. He was at a tournament yesterday and had a great debut, he was so happy. Sometimes it’s good to simply pause and appreciate the moment.