Family portraits don’t come much cuter than this.
Euan is back from a few days undertaking fieldwork for his elm work in Skye, so I am fortunately no longer the only person at home to do things like clear up half a tube of toothpaste smeared all over the sink and the bath, and wipe down toys which have been attacked with unicorn slime. Oh, the glamour of my life.
Somehow, today was Auri’s first day at school. Already.
As I did when Elfi started nursery earlier this month, I spent half the day flinching, thinking I’d misplaced a child somewhere.
Euan and I dropped Auri off in the morning, then went for a very civilised coffee and breakfast pastry in a mildly shell-shocked daze. Later, there was lunch.
Today I am celebrating it being exactly ten years since this hilarious photo was taken.
Today, Auri and I had An Adventure Day, featuring buses, a bank, a museum and art gallery (including a Highland Cow treasure hunt!), a trip to campus, and coffee and croissants. A tiny, tiny part of me thought Auri might actually be worn out tonight and go to bed on time, but no.
I have noticed (note-iced?!) these last few days, since I have had time to think (Auri-juggling, though exhausting and challenging at times, is nowhere near as constantly intensive as looking after Elfi every minute of the day), that my notebook is becoming more and more full of fresh ideas and scattered with observations. Previously, though I used a notebook almost daily, the content would be leaning towards lists: things to do, things I hope to do. Now it has a different flavour.
It’s strange how easy it becomes to assume, when you’re lost in the midst of the parenting jungle, that certain energies and abilities to process certain ideas might be lost forever when, really, they’re just lying dormant, like plants waiting for spring.
I have had my eye on this, by Jane Glue, for a while, and I finally decided to buy myself it to mark the end of my maternity leave. It arrived this morning, and I couldn’t love it more.
And it’s all change for August! A beautiful day, and a walk filled with pale, dappled sunshine in The Pinewood. Elfi has now started nursery, Auri has two weeks left before starting school, and I’m officially on annual leave rather than maternity leave now.
We are just catching our breath from a busy last fortnight, just in time to rush into another busy month.
Last week, we were all up at Stempster. Euan spent a happy two or three days (mostly) in the Wild Wood, taking down fifty-two and a half trees (the half being some serious surgery to a victim of lightning). Auri spent many a delighted hour on the swing and generally wreaking havoc outside, Elfi was her usual cheerful self, and Scapa got in some much-loved beach walks.
There are several photographs to share, which I suspect will crop up at odd times over the coming few days. But enough of us. How are you all?!
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