Wish you were here...

Dear Kate

I'm still feeling really pathetic and look forward to getting back to normal.  I can't believe this month has been a write-off for me creatively, although I have to feel that perhaps the universe was telling me I needed to slow down?  Who knows, but it's getting a bit boring!  I wish you could have been with me when I picked roses on Monday.  I walked through the garden smelling them and remembering doing just that with you only a few weeks ago.  I made my selections on both smell and looks and have been enjoying them dotted all over the mantelpiece ever since.  The roses above are so exquisite looking - do you know what type they are?? 

We had a wild storm come through here this afternoon - only half an inch of rain though - and it felt like we might blow away at one point - and that's in a brick house!  We were lucky that nothing major came down on the house, but there are plenty of branches down around the farm.  Sophie slept through it, thankfully - it was enough trying to calm Tom, who is petrified of thunderstorms.  I had to talk him through all the good reasons there were to have storms - they bring rain, they clear the air, etc, etc. and then he calmed down enough to lie beside me on the couch and read.  It was so companionable having him there and he was so quiet, I kept on peeking looks at him and thinking: I can't believe he's going to school in less than 2 weeks time!

I loved hearing all about Archie and Hugo playing with the ice - can't wait to see the pictures.  Tom's been drawing pictures of buildings, cars, trucks over the past week and then cutting them out, ready to make his own city.  We still had your tent box here and I cut it down the side, turned it inside out and stuck it back together so you could only see the cardboard, rather than the printed outside.  We then stuck the pictures all over the box and he's had a great time playing with it.  At least one of us 'bunch of Bowlers (as Tom calls us) is being creative at the moment.

Speak soon.

Lots of love always,

Lucy xoxoxo

PS  Is one of your boys missing The Sleep Book by Dr Seuss??  It appeared in our bookshelf as if by magic - or as if it could have been left here by a Bruning...