Despite grand intentions of blogging our re-entry, we have failed to do so, but several well, two kind people have said they have missed the blog, so here is a wee update. And school. And the office briefly, that was banned again two weeks ago. And Edinburgh Ben, once, to buy running shoes. And Essex Harriet only, to see her father, who has been ill for years and did a valiant job of staying alive while we were away, but is likely not to be with us for much longer.
Our world is now as back to normal as will allow. So we have been settling back into our Covid-compliant routines. The children started back at school four days after our return, with Sophie and Aurora starting High School. That has mostly gone well, although there have been occasional bumps along the way calls from the school about refusals to wear masks mostly. Some activites have resumed, so various of us have done limited rugby, judo, hockey, violin, flute, trumpet and piano coaching.
No swimming or dancing though. The brass instruments are by zoom and the flute is happening by an open door. We will see how that works as the weather turns. The huge amount of reading for the latter has been made ever so much easier by the fact that Ben has taken up almost all the household management tasks.
We have three new chickens who are settling in nicely β although having to use a net to extract one of them from a tree on her first night with us was possibly even more traumatic for Harriet than it was for her. The guests in the holiday house in our garden thought it highly amusing. The seasons are turning and the woods are a technicolour array of greens, yellows, reds, purples and golds.
We resolved our differences with Real Russia the magic words Small Claims Court may have done the trick and have accepted vouchers to the value of the missing amount. However, as fast as the karmic financial gods giveth, it appears they also taketh away.
