I've really enjoyed the last few days, spending lots of time outdoors, thinking and reflecting.

Sensing that summer is almost certainly coming to an end I suddenly felt quite panicked that I hadn't visited my favourite beach with the children this summer. Bags were packed hurriedly and off we went to what we call the 'Cat and Dog Steps.'

I love that place. My Nana used to take me almost every day of the school holidays as a child. We went come rain or shine. Many a day we sat in a tent building sandcastles, the only people on the beach, the hire man pacing about wishing we would pack up so he could go too. She would tell me about how the beaches were closed during the war and when they reopened everyone flocked to them. I have lots of wonderful memories of my Nana but our beach days are certainly some of my happiest.

The beach has a full tidal range so it's always quite clean. There are toilets near by and a great little cafe hut serving the customary chips plus tea and coffee in real mugs which you are trusted to return. There is also an old guy there who has baked himself on that prom for well over thirty years that I know of. He is old, wrinkled and a sort of tarnished mahogany colour. If someone had told me as a child that he would still be there when I took my children over thirty years on I would not have believed them. But he's still there. Some things never seem to change.

We went again yesterday and I'm hoping we will go back again soon.

Back at home we are watching the leaves turn colour and start to drop. I've given up collecting the small ash branches - they are dropping by the dozen. The silver birch is looking quite sparse now too. We have collected and looked at seed pods from the garden.

Hermione would like to make a leaf mobile but we haven't gotten round to it yet.

The changing season and revisiting an old haunt after quite a few months seem to have had a really sobering effect upon me. I've been reflecting upon life and our life as a home edding family quite a lot. I realise that I feel quite isolated these days. I know a lot of that is to do with Miles being a home bird and the time it is taking me to convalesce from having glandular fever. I hope things will change. Life is fine and we are all plodding along nicely as things are. I just feel it would be nice to be able to reach out to other like minded folk a bit more often.