BTs

A really Beautiful Thing happened yesterday: I volunteer with home-start and for various reasons have gone back to supporting the family I saw earlier this year. I went with Mum to collect the nearly-5-year-old from school, with great excitement she told her friends "That's Jane, she's my (too old for her or Mum's friend, wrong colour for Granny)... my.....my.. my Jane"  a totally unique category just for me.
Anyone with time to spare should look at Homestart, a brilliant, useful and rewarding charity.
The second B T is that R got distinction for his final OU module, so a First, not really a surprise.
Primroses and winter jasmine out at the same time.

56: Crawl, Trolls.

A few years ago I decided it was time to learn to do front crawl, in the days I learnt to swim, once you were competent at one stroke that was it. I started with breast-stroke & picked up back crawl, but never mastered front crawl. I used to go to Swimfit, where there was a coach willing to help & still struggled but something's clicked & I managed 10 lengths of crawl without a break, and not gasping for air at the end. But my breast-stroke's still faster!
When L&A were little, the railway-sleeper bridge over the ditch to the common was naturally the troll bridge, we often saw heard him but never got eaten. A new generation of little girls has found this too, they have to be very brave as it's the only way into the Gruffalo's wood.

Fungal Jungle

Just back from a brilliant weekend on Dartmoor, mostly clear and sunny after an inauspicious forecast. The wet weather had encouraged an impressive selection of fungi. My Great Nephew would have loved them!