Sunflowers

A constructive day at school for Reuben. Being assessed by California Deaf/Blind services (he's both visually and hearing impaired), it was reassuring to know that aided with glasses and his bone conducting hearing aid, he's functioning great in class. Whilst a year ago we deliberated whether he should attend a signing only programme to allow him to become totally immersed in what was his first language expressively (receptively both English and sign), with the tracheostomy behind him, his stoma surgically closed, stronger vocal chord muscles and a closed airway, the direction for speech has been paved for him. What he completely needs is intensive speech therapy which has been on hold (I scold myself) for many reasons till you find that suddenly the months have rolled by and he's been without.

Callum had been immensely patient all morning and when he asked to eat, we hopped along for Mandarin before heading home.

Tomorrow's my 500th. Blip will probably tell me I have a 10% chance of posting given my current track record. All the images of the last year lay buried in my iMac. I'd love to share them and fill in the growing number of gaps, one day?

I'm thinking about beauty in relation to images and how very personal a choice it is. There's the inevitability of what looks good to me on my screen will look different to you on yours and then there's taste. We all experiment when learning, a natural part of our journey, but I find my images often carry a similar palette simply because it's immensely pleasing and appealing to me. It's painstaking because I'm a perfectionist and yet it soothes me. I always want the skin tones to be as delicate as they are in nature. It reminds me a little of this Enchanted Garden.

How funny life is when there's a great deal of satisfaction in actually getting a daily Blip out! This evening, a tumble in the garden for the boys as the light faded and Callum started singing out of nowhere "Ashes, ashes, all fall down", the American version of Ring around the rosy. Yeah, bet you didn't know there were two versions! and then I always start wondering, why were the lyrics altered in the US?