“There is a time in late September when the leaves are still green,
and the days are still warm,
but somehow you know that it is all about to end
as if summer was holding its breath,
and when it let it out again, it would be autumn.” 
―Sharyn McCrumb

Just like the changing seasons, life has to change to keep moving forward, no matter how desperately we want to hold on to life and it’s normalities, we have to open our hearts and our minds and move forward.
September for me has been all about change and learning to adapt to what is becoming our new normal.
Change is inevitable, it comes at you hard and fast. But the good news is that even when you endure such a huge and unwanted transformation, there’s almost always a silver lining. 
The silver lining for me is, that every great dream begins with a dreamer. To follow these dreams takes strength, patience, and passion to reach for the stars to change your world, while doing so changing the whole world for the better.
As I packed up my baby boy’s belongings, getting ready for his next huge adventure, university, my heart weeped for what our family was about to loose, it suddenly hit me, that this change was always going to happen, because he is a dreamer. 
He had a dream and made it his reality and although as a mother it was almost unbearable to see him step out into this scary world on his own, pride overcame all my other motherly emotions, as my heart overflowed with love and pride for him.
As mothers and fathers, it’s our roll, our destiny, to get our children ready to face the big bad world and for them to follow their dreams and shape their own future. 
I sincerely couldn’t be more proud of our son, Calum, for following his dreams, opening his wings and taking flight, for starting a new life, away from home. 
He’s a damn sight braver than me.
Although we already miss him terribly, and our home is not the same without his presence, I’m overwhelmed my his strength, his guts, his grit and determination.
I just hope that when he thinks of Mark and I as parents, he thinks of fairness, caring, love and integrity but more importantly that he thinks of us as home.
I wish him all the luck in the world, as he steps into the real meaning of adulthood, and I know deep within my heart that he doesn’t need luck because he is more than capable to take on any unforeseen battle, and to follow his dreams, without luck, because he is stronger, more capable than what he believes he is. He’s got it in the bag and the world is his oyster.

September changed the world as we knew it, for each and everyone of us, when we lost our Queen, Queen Elizabeth II.  And although her passing will not effect us on a personal level, as a country it’s a great loss.
Most of us have never known The United Kingdom be ruled by another monarch, so I’m sure the change will be an interesting one, although a sad one.
I for one, am very interested to see how the monarch will move forward with King Charles on the Throne.

“A great soul serves everyone all the time.
A great soul never dies.
It brings us together again and again.”
RIP Your Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II

Still talking of change, the change between Summer and Autumn has been brutal. After having such a beautiful summer, my mind and body has taken a battering by the change of temperature and the damp air that comes hand in hand with autumn days.
I had forgotten the impact that slight temperature change would have on my health and well-being. I’m sick of feeling sick already and it’s only just begun. I am dreading the next two seasons and how unwell they will make me feel.
I soulfully wish that I could move to kinder climates, as it would open so many doors health wise for me. 
Roll on spring I say. 

As the weather started to changes, Mark and I bit the bullet and booked ourselves a little holiday for 2023, it seriously cannot come soon enough, not that I’m wishing our lives away.
When we first decided to book a holiday, our plan was to go as a family, our two boys, my mum, Mark and I.
We desperately wanted to book the same villa we had last stayed at, unfortunately they have changed the company they advertise through and it just couldn’t be done. 
So we asked, Selina Gorman at Hays Travel, to do what she does best and find us the perfect villa. 
She pulled out all the stops and worked extremely hard, to find us what we needed, which in total honesty was not an easy task.
Our holiday plans had to change at the last minute and took on a totally different direction. 
Mark and I would be holidaying alone. 
Even though we were utterly disappointed that our boys and my mum, wouldn’t be coming with us, we decided to make the best of the situation and finally have the honeymoon/vow renewal-moon, we never got to go on.
Selina worked her butt off for us, but sadly our budget was rather on the ridiculous side and with my health needs, like sensory issues, a heated pool, etc. She gave us many fantastic options, truly she did, but my worry about my sensory issues, especially noise, held us back from booking.
I feel extremely guilty as she had worked so very hard for us.
If you are planning to book a holiday and need some help finding the perfect fit for you, please consider using Selina and making the most of her expertise. You will not be disappointed.
You can find her here.

We definitely will be using Selinas talents, when we book our 2024 holiday.
For now though, we can not wait to see what Corfu has in store for us. 
I would love to hear your recommendation for day trips, places to eat etc, if you wouldn’t mind sharing.

🧐

Family Research.
Throughout September I worked aimlessly on researching the life of Elizabeth Hillier, Whom you can read about here.

Elizabeth dedicated her life to caring for the sick, in Essex Lunatic Asylum. I can’t even begin to imagine the horrors she saw, her courage must have been impeccable and I take my hat off to her. It could not have been an easy job even more so for a women working in such a volatile environment. I feel extremely proud that Elizabeth, was part of the much needed change towards mental health. I’m sure the  mental heath system wouldn’t be where we are today without the love, respect, courage, heart and determination, of the caregivers at the asylum’s.

I have continued my research into our O’Connor line of our family tree, and although I actually haven’t found a great deal, only more dead ends, my heart is on fire with the love I have for each and every one of our O’Connors.
You can read a little more about them here.

I’m not sure how much research I will get done over the next month or so, as I need to focus on another passion of mine, Crochet.
It’s been far to long since I picked up my hook and yarn.
I’m sure I will research on and off but I’m not to sure how many, if any, life stories I will have time to write.
They seem to be taking longer and longer to put together and certificates are taking an extremely long time to get delivered even pdf certificates. Add to that, wrong certificates have been sent and I’m still waiting for them to be corrected so I can continue researching.
All things considered I feel it is the perfect time to concentrate on my others passions.

🌼

Garden.
It’s been all go in our garden, we have started the mammoth task of redesigning the back area of our garden.
This area has always been a problematic due to  the denseness of the trees behind it. 
In the past we have laid turf, which died due to the lack of sunlight and moisture. We replaced the grass with slate, but this caused its own problems, due to the vast amount of leaves and debris that drop from those beautiful but pesky trees, it always looks untidy, which drives me a little bit crazy. 
We made vegetable patches, for this area, but I failed desperately at growing my own veg, so they became flower boarders instead, which have been a delight.
The untidiness unfortunately got the better of me, especially as the leaves are now changing colour and already falling. 😖

We spent the last few weekends bagging up the slate, ready to be reused at my sisters house.
We moved the raised boarders, staking them on top of each other. They need some tlc but that will have to wait until the spring.
I replanted some, Rudbeckia, Achillea ptarmica ‘The Pearl’ and some zinnias which were still looking pretty. I planted some of my biannual flowers, which I have grown from seed and added a few daffodil bulbs.
We levelled the ground with new topsoil and sprinkled, sun and shade grass seed, mixed with a small amount of clover seed and now we wait.
Fingers crossed we will have a beautiful lawn and not a huge mud patch.

In the greenhouse my seedlings are growing nicely and it won’t be long before I can plant out.

However the garden especially out the front of our house, though tatty, is still full of colour and I feel a little resistant to pull the flowers out yet.
I really should do it as soon as possible, as the weather will only get colder and damper.

🏍

Warpspeed Racing.
The Warpspeed Racing Team, headed to, Santa pod, for their last meet of the season, The Euro Finals.
The weather was pretty much against Stuart and Mark aka Smithy, and all the other racers, the whole weekend.
Only managing to run, 1 run on the Friday, after a six hour wait in the pairing lanes Stuart ran a 6.80 at 194.70 mph. He shut off the throttle after getting a little close to the wall.
Smithy was pushed back due to clutch issues resulting in no time.
On Saturday the 10th of September, Stuart ran a 14.81 at 43.0mph, with smoke bellowing out the engine, although no serious damage was done, he decided against fixing the bike and enjoyed the rest of the long weekend.
Stuart’s season has mainly been about concentrating on testing new rods which he designed and manufactured.

Smithy’s first run on the Saturday was a 6.92 at 161.8mph with thankfully no damage.
Rain sadly stopped play.

On Sunday the 11th, smithy pulled off a stonker and ran a new PB of 6.75 at 195.4mph
What a great way to end the season.
And to top it off, Smithy came 4th in the FIM Top Fuel Bike European Championships.

Although it was a slow weekend with lots of hanging around, it couldn’t have been more pleasant.
I really must thank Stuart, Melissa and the rest of the team for making me feel extremely welcome.
And extra thanks to Melissa for keeping our tummies full, with the most delicious food. With so many mouths to feed, I don’t know how you do it, especially to the highest standards.
I’m very much looking forward to tagging along with the team next season.

I best not keep you from your day any longer.
Have a great October.
Stay safe, stay true, stay you.
Too-da-loo for now.

🦋🦋🦋