Clik here to view.
First day at school
Indian Summer
I’ve decided that September is my favorite month in BC.
I love the deep cornflower blue sky and the breathtaking mountain vistas over Mount Baker and the North Shore. I absolutely adore the gorgeous Canadian maples that are beginning to turn red; and I love the crisp clear autumn mornings that turn into warm sunny days.
But more than anything, I love it when the children return to school after nine exhausting, relentless, and utterly mind-frazzling weeks of school summer vacation.
And this September is particularly momentous for yours truly, because all four children are now at school!
I have dreamed of this day for years, and seeing backpacked number four trot off excitedly on his first day was a wonderful feeling. Because not only was my happy and confident little man thrilled to be starting school, but after nearly 10 years of breeding, nurturing and slaving, I really felt like I was due some time off.
Back in 2003 at the start of our intensive breeding program, I thought my life was mapped out for the next fifty years:
1) Grow peppers in England
2) Have four kids and continue working
3) Employ a nanny to help out
Then real life intervened halfway through the final pregnancy with number four, the grand plan changed, and we had to follow the pepper-growing jobs overseas, and without our much-loved nanny.
Throw into the mix: a complete absence of grandparental support; substituting my professional life for fulltime motherhood and houswifedom; and then moving to a third country in as many years, and I’m sure you can imagine how desperately I was looking forward to some peace, quiet and solitude for a few hours a day.
And now that I have it, it is as sweet as I imagined. Indeed I am writing this blog IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY! Surrounded by nothing more than the tranquil, calming sound of running water in the nearby creek and birds tweeting merrily in the garden.
It would be almost completely perfect, if it weren’t for bloody Donald the Jack Russell tip-tapping manically around the wooden floors…
But seeing as it could be at least another seven years until we can have Donald stuffed and wall-mounted, then I guess we’re finally going to have to learn to get along.
