A new academic year full of possibilities...

So my challenge to myself at the start of this new academic year is to return to posting my 3 + 1 every day and really exploring those every day moments that have made me smile, laugh or just 'be'. Finishing each post with one thing I have been grateful for that day. The photos which will accompany will more often than not be taken with my iPhone but sometimes (when time) with my dslr. Always they will help tell the story of my day.

Three beautiful things:
- Picking blackberries to have with breakfast this morning. One of my fondest memories of my Greenland adventures this summer was the picking of the local berries to have with our porridge each morning. Just as we spend late summer/early autumn days picking blackberries and filling our homes with the smell of bramble and apple pies and jams, so do the Greenlandic people spend time together gathering bucketfuls of bilberries, rich in Vitamin C, for jams, jellies and baked delights. A shared tradition.

- A riverside conversation during my lunch break which was where today's photograph was taken. It was really important on this first day back at work after a summer spent mostly outside that lunchtime was spent close to nature. Luckily the Parke Estate was close to where I was based today and the river was a perfect spot for a quick lunchtime picnic. What made it even better was talking to a couple and their two grandsons and finding out that we had much in common including summer kayaking on the Sound of Arisaig.

- snuggling up with my two dogs this evening. I have missed them this summer as sadly my Greenlandic and French adventures could not include them. I think they have forgiven me (just).

One thing to be grateful for today:
A friendly face and supportive words just when I needed them the most today.