August has already seen two of the three birthdays that fall this month. My Dad had his birthday on the 13th, my sister on 26th August and my husband's is on 30th August. Unfortunately I only get to share one of these birthdays being so far away from New Zealand where my family live. I have missed so many birthdays this way, it is so hard sometimes when you live great distances apart....while travel has brought many families closer, enabling them to travel further distances, it has also torn many families apart because of that distance. I think in particular now we are all getting older (and okay we always were) these distances are heightened and the need or want to be closer is all the more precarious - how do we bridge these gaps I wonder without making gaps somewhere else?
My younger son has gained ten GCSEs with the grades A - C, and we are immensely proud of him to have achieved this despite his difficulties that ASD can give him. He is all set to start sixth form on 2nd September and excited about this new stage. Of course I think the study levels will be a shock to him and he will need help and guidance with this which we are hoping the school will take a more active roll in with regards to his Statement of Special Educational Needs. They really do need to be a bit more proactive rather than just go through the motions at the yearly meeting! We have another suit to purchase and some more shirts and a couple of ties for his 'uniform'.
I have decided on my first course of 'study'. As I enjoy my roses so much I thought it was actually time I learnt more about the care of them. I basically just stick them in the ground do the odd 'pruning' and hope for the best, but now I have added to my rose garden I really ought to understand the care of them so much better than I do.
So my project for September, and possibly October, depending on how much I learn and achieve is:
The Rose
Aim: To learn about
the care and pruning of roses.
Materials:
- Internet
- ‘The Rose’ magazines from the Royal National Rose Society.
- Roses by David Squire
- How to Grow Roses by the Royal National Rose Society.
- Any other materials that come my way. Will need a journal to record all this information.
‘
Method:
Document my roses and draw plan of garden and the planting
of them.
Learn about specific needs and care.
Learn about the different types of roses.
Photograph the various stages of their growth and
development including any pruning that might be done.
A couple of other projects I have in mind that will actually be ongoing are:
The Seasons: This will tie in with my 'Schoenhut School of the Arts' blog - an ongoing joint project with a friend of mine that is starting in September.
Document and observe the seasons through written
observations, notes, drawings and photographs.
Cello playing
To make some decent progress after having to halt play earlier this year. I have just started gently playing again and hope to build up strength and stamina and resume lessons.
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Of course there are the more mundane ongoing aspects of home life that will need attention as well, but I hope to add these few things to break up my day and to focus on some positives that will hopefully be fun, educational and also have nominal cost. Who knows how things will go? Sometimes I wonder whether I should just give up on this blogging....but it has helped to document various aspects of my life and at the end of the day it is for me and no one else has to read it. I'm not quite sure what I am going to do yet, but sometimes think of making my blogs private again like they were originally. Something to think about anyway.
