It’s 1st September – hello autumn! I don’t know about you but there has been a definite autumnal feeling over the past few days where I am, with heavy rain and thunder storms so it’s been feeling a little bit like summer had come to an end already.
Normally I feel a little bit melancholy at this time of the year as I mourn the end of the summer weather and lighter evenings, but this time, I’m feeling that as we had into a new month and a new season, it’s a time for fresh starts and new challenges – I’m not entirely sure what they are, but if I hear of any, I’ll keep you posted.
Summer Craft Challenge 2026
My summer craft challenge is about to come to an end for another year – this one being my 10th which is a little bit crazy. Again, it’s been lovely to give myself permission to carve out a little bit of time every day since the start of the school summer holidays in our house to be creative. It all started 11 years ago, when I was a stay-at-home Mum with three young men to entertain during the long summer break in Gibraltar (which was 2 months-long). I found those long summers very hard going at times and something which is as true today as it was back then, is that if I don’t manage to do something creative (crochet, painting, sewing etc) for a while I tend to get very grumpy. By setting aside at least a few (guilt-free) minutes of me time each day, it made the summer run a lot smoother.
Even though my boys are all a lot older these day (one has left home, another is soon off to university) I have kept the challenge going and I have loved doing it. It’s so easy to be busy and not find the time for such things, but this summer, as always, it’s been a fun endeavour.
PARIS!!
We didn’t make our annual pilgrimage up to Scotland this year, it felt like the end of an era with just one child still in school, and I have the feeling the older two may not still want to go on holiday with their old mum in the years to come, so we decided to do something different.
We opted for a city break and hopped on a flight over to Paris. Half of our traveling party had never been before, so it was fun to be able to share the city with the other two. We did all the usual things, the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre (from the outside only – they didn’t fancy the queues to see the Mona Lisa etc). We also caught a double-decker train (very exciting) out to Versailles.
As I didn’t have my brain in gear early enough to book tickets to go inside, we just did some of the outside areas. We took a walk through the gardens and watched the lovely fountain displays accompanied by classical music. We also hired bikes and rode them around the wider estate for a couple of hours. I’m so glad we did this, because this is the one thing that everyone has spoken about being their favourite bit!
We also took a ride out to a beautiful park called Buttes-Chaumont out in the suburbs which I visited with Eldest on our previous visit a few years ago, and we visited the Paris Natural History Museum for the first time too with its amazing gardens and stunning interior (would highly recommend even for people visiting without young folk in tow).
All in all, it was a brilliant 4 days – including some gorgeous food. We found a favourite new eatery called Bo & Mei which had the most amazing pastries for sale. We visited two different branches, one was near the Louvre and the other at Bastille en route out to visit the park. I can highly recommend a visit if you find yourself near one. The Pain au Chocolat was out of this world!
A trip up to the Lakes
We had a very quick turn around when we arrived back home from Paris – less than 24 hours later we were up in the Lakes! I had to do some emergency washing and speedy packing to be ready in time to load the car up for a trip up to Grasmere to visit some very dear friends who live up that way now. We had such a lovely time with them out in the fresh air, star gazing on our way home from an evening playing pool, riding bikes through the Langdale Valley and generally having fun.
Back to reality
And then, as if by magic, the summer was over and it was time to get things ready for school and an impending move to University for Son number 2. Just before we headed off on holiday, A-level results day happened. I’m very relieved to say things went well in our house and he’s off on his next chapter very soon. It’s going to be strange in our house with him gone…..
There’s no podcast news this month, as I have taken a break from putting episiodes out, but Making Stitchest Podcast will be coming back again soon. Watch this space…
That’s all for this time, I’m off now to do an emergency shop for school stationary which I forgot to grab at the weekend! Thanks for stopping by!
Happy September!
Lindsay x
