Family Sunday

After yesterday's gloomy ranting, today has been calmer.  I channelled all that energy into transforming some of our enormous quince harvest into 12 jars of quince jelly.

Josh, Ruth and the boys needed to do some small weekend jobs up at the farm, and I went to join them there this afternoon. It is such a wonderful place. It's designed to be a therapeutic environment for the students who attend courses there, reflecting care and nurture in the physical surroundings and in the ways of working.  There's a bit about the ethos of the umbrella organisation that the farm belongs to (the Ruskin Mill Trust) here:
https://rmt.org/

So the market garden areas, and the organisation of animal care, all show the signs of quiet attention and good organisation.  Eben and Luca love it there. Eben collected today's eggs from the hens' enclosure and stored them away carefully in the barn. Later he helped Ruth to catch two young goats who had broken through the fence from the main paddock, and found themselves separated from their mother. Luca helped Josh with some jobs in the barn and the small orchard, and later we all gathered some apples - many of the trees are still laden.  Ruth chatted to me about how much she is enjoying the chance to learn about woodland management: about coppicing, and about gradually improving the mix of trees. The woodland areas have several places where staff and students can sit, either for some quiet time, or to talk. Eben loves finding 'secret' pathways under the trees.

After that I went over to have tea with Jack, Marianna and Frieda. Jack's just finished the introductory week for his Documentary Photography MA; lectures and assignments all get going from now on. He's feeling excited, though also apprehensive about juggling this with family time and with work. Marianna's work with teachers, and with families, about autism is going well, and she and Frieda have a two week trip to Greece coming up soon too.  This will be partly a working trip for Marianna, delivering teacher training workshops - and for Frieda, a chance to hang out with her Greek granny and granddad.

Richard, in Larne, has been immersed in family gatherings too, as today is the day for a family celebration for his sister Diana's 75th. So we've shared a few Facetime chats, over the weekend.