Start of another school year...

Another summer holiday rolls to a close... Tomorrow is a teacher-only day, new scholars are in for a few hours on Tuesday, then Wednesday it is all systems go. I say 'summer holiday' but the UK hasn't really had a summer this year. We were lucky that it stopped raining long enough for reading festival, then the only other really good day I've had since returning from Borneo was yesterday. It was an absolute cracker! Sunshine, blue skies, & the temperature hovering around 26 degrees. Unfortunately it is now supposed to rain for the next 11 days or something silly like that! I think everyone must have noticed the big yellow sunshine amongst all the rainclouds on the weather forecasts, because we had 5 different invitations for Saturday night! In the end we plumped for a house-warming party up in Leamington Spa for Nic, a mate of Will's who lodged with him for a couple of years. It was a really good night, although we both drank a fair quantity of pimms, & didn't get to bed till after 3am, so are feeling the effects a bit today.

Driving back from Leamington Spa today we called in at Will's parents for morning tea as it is pretty much on the way home. It was lovely to see them & catch up, as I hadn't seen them since before I left for Borneo. Later that afternoon we had a visit from Goody & his wife Emma, who had just arrived back from a trip to NZ. It was great hearing about their trip, & I was very impressed by the fact that Goody turned up wearing a Waikato rugby jersey! They came bearing gifts; thanks Rich & Rach for your various bits & pieces, it was much appreciated!

Our garden is still growing like mad. As you can see from the pic below, it has been taken over a bit by various courgettes, pumpkins & squashes. We think the big one below is a jack-o-lantern pumpkin in the making. Does anyone know if they start green like that before turning yellow/orange? At the last count we had about 15 butter-nut squashes in various stages of development. That is encouraging because we go through loads of them. Our onions are ready to harvest & dry & in the shed, the carrots are absolutely divine, & we still can't keep up with our beans. I took a huge supermarket bag of them to rugby training on Wednesday which were very much appreciated by the girls.
No other news to tell. Soon we are off to the annual hog-roast at school. It's a party for all staff & their families which is always held the Sunday night before school returns, & is a nice way to start the year. I usually enjoy a glass of wine or two with my meal, but think I'll be giving it a miss tonight. I'm still recovering from last nights excesses!