Briar Rose

A brisk, drizzly evening walk up the hill under heavily overcast sky, but the hedges are full of briar roses and elderflowers - it's time to start making cordial. Iwas glad of the rain - the garden and trees need it after this long, dry spring.

It was a positive day for J: the gesture recognition switch software, introduced on Wednesday, is working well for her on both the Gridpad communication tablet and her desktop computer. Her long-established switch scanning skills have transferred very easily to this new access interface, and she's now both composing messages and using computer control grids to open web pages and do some of the things she wants to do. After nine long months without this one little bit of independence she had enjoyed for many years, it's hugely encouraging that she now seems to have a manageable way to access her computers again. She has made progress with the eye gaze trial too, but it's still more challenging for her to hold her head and eyes sufficiently steady so I have little doubt that the gesture switch will be her preferred option.

She also hugely enjoyed the penultimate episode of the current Doctor Who series, and is excited to see how the story concludes in next week's season finale.