Summer's promise

Every year our diminutive quince tree takes my breath away at this moment, when it's covered with flowers at every stage from tiny bud to fading blossom. I like the way the slightly furry leaves hint at the fuzzy fruit to come. We hope.

Normally we have Luca all day on a Friday. But Josh and Ruth have some demanding issues to deal with at the farm; partly because they're waiting for the last pregnant ewe in their little flock to give birth, and partly because they're having difficult times with one of their regular vulnerable students, who is very troubled.  She is intermittently very aggressive, and sometimes self-harming.  Sometimes, in her distress,  she starts fires or smashes furniture.  To put this in context, the farm is a small working farm, but also works in partnership with a linked college to host students with learning difficulties, and to provide experience in animal husbandry, craft activities etc.

In all the kerfuffle Ruth and Josh had forgotten that today was a teacher training day at Eben's school. Richard is away in London today, and I baulked at having both boys all day on my own, at a few hours' notice. The compromise we reached was that Luca and Eben would spend most of the morning with me, and Josh would come home after lunch and pick them up.

In fact we had a good time. Both boys love to spend time in the kitchen, so we chopped up mushrooms and cucumber together, in preparation for lunch. We played some Luca-level games with Duplo and building blocks, and watched some TV. When things began to get a bit frazzled indoors - and they began to fight rather than play -  we went out into the garden and I deployed the tools that almost never fail: the garden hose and the watering cans. By then the sun was warm, and getting a bit wet really didn't matter. Josh arrived while we were 'watering the garden' and stayed for a cup of tea in the sunshine. After they'd gone, I caught up with the Labour Party leafleting that I didn't manage to finish earlier in the week.

And after that I fell fast asleep for an hour and a half :-)  I'd been up at 6 a.m. to give Richard a lift to the station, so a nap was definitely needed.
It'll be an early bedtime tonight.