Happy New Year

September 1 is always the beginning of my new year no matter how long ago school years ended for me or for my children. This September Bibs begins pre-school, so the cycle of the school year calendar begins again in the family. We haven't had too long a break from those calendars, as Susan only left Cambridge two years ago, but that was such a different calendar: Michaelmas Term, Lent Term, Easter Term. . .

Yesterday was the August Bank Holiday, the official national end of summer day, so autumn has truly arrived. Even the weather is appropriate with a cool breeze and fading sunshine as the day progresses, after a sunny, warm and humid day to mark yesterday's last day of summer. A summer that was a great disappointment to most of the nation. Predicting weather is nearly impossible on a small island land mass surrounded by huge and stormy bodies of water -- the Atlantic Ocean on one side, the North Sea on the other -- but the population has great faith in those who predict, and when last spring, they said a hot, break-out your barbecues, summer was on the way, the nation was ready. London's sunny southeast corner of England was not really too bad, but the rest of the island suffered endless clouds, gloom, and rain according to news reports. And experienced first-hand by Bob and I when we spent an August weekend in Devon. So now we can hope for a peerless autumn of sunshine and cool breezes.