Morning all,
Happy Belated Birthday 2Jays and Slugsta xxxxx Cake looks lush!
Amy, glad all is OK with you, and thast you managed to get away and see friends xxx
Autumn seems to have arrived very abruptly, Spamar - last week, a change in leaf coulour - though not seemingly tthe vivid colours quite yet - ths week, leaves on the ground everywhere! Having to dodge falling conkers when I visit the garden site in work.
I haven't yet been near Mil, work has been so manic. Once again this week, no clear day off, due to red tape type meetings to do with clearing the garden site, and dealing with 3 very large tree's there - 2 projects today, tomorrow a meeting with our garden planner and gardening tutor, Thursday we are meeting with the tree surveyor, who will push through planning to allow us to get crown reduction and lifting on 2 of the trees - and maybe, tree 3 removed (mainly because its situated in a place that will be hazardous to the young people using the garden - its in a narrow spot, making wheelchair access a bit iffy). I had a meeting with the college yesterday, to discus the work I can do with the students prior to the site being cleared and made safe for them to work on, now on a search for old palletts, old tyres, plant pots - and an expert in building bottle greenhouses. 3 Projects yesterday, too, including a group that are nothing to do with the garden and who are starting off doing some work on awareness raising, involving them doing disability access surveys on a series of locations around the town. One of the group suggested that whilst they were doing the surveys, it would be a good idea if one or more of them wore a blindfold so they could really understand how difficult things were for someone visually impaired and I agreed. Later, when looking over their workbooks, in the section entitled 'what we are planning to do', 4 of 'em had written 'Ann is going to blindfold us' - just that, no explanation (though one had added a smiley face!) - I'll have to get them to enlarge on that statement, otherwise goodness knows what the funders and my bosses will think when they read them!
I've been starting early, getting home late and still behind on the admin, so just no chance to get near Mil. I'm hoping that once Fridays meeting is out of the way, I can call time and go to see her then - in between shopping and sorting everything ready for oldests' visit. We are hoping to head up to Betws Y coed - which is a beautiful wee village in Snowdonia - and back to Tatton park for the day at the weekend, so I really only have Friday to get the mundane house type chores sorted.
On a side note, the big boss has set a meeting date with myself and my Welsh counterparts to deal with some of our specific issues raised at last weeks meeting, so it looks like we are being taken seriously. Which is good. At this point, I've lost track pretty much of how many additional hours I've done, just since coming back off holiday.
And I have to get cracking now, work beckons! Sending lots of Love to you all xxxxx
He is still young, so here's hoping that the habit can be broken with consistent, loving, handling. 
