What's going on here...

• Working oneself out of a job is, of course, an essential feature of parenthood,- but I'm not convinced that my emotional programming has kept up with the practical reality! Hattie Ghandi is off to Cardiff to begin her university career today, so the whole house is an amazing jumble of bags, boxes and musical instruments, topped off with distraught pets who all know that something untoward is in the offing. Mufti (the Australian terrier) who is actually HG's dog, is lying with her nose pressed against the kitchen door whimpering - and I'm half inclined to join her.

• A dear lady in the congregation has lost a son suddenly,- and is having to cope with his wish for a humanist funeral, when she badly needs to hear the familiar words of comfort shared to transform the crematorium chapel into a God-place. She's feeling pretty wretched all round, and the service was arranged for today, when I'm essential as a driver - so I can't even be there as a supportive presence. I spent a little time with her yesterday, but there was a constant stream of people coming and going, and we didn't get to pray together, which feels like a fairly major omission.

• Meanwhile, my psion has succumbed to old age, this time beyond resuscitation (recussitation? ressussitation?? they all look equally wrong) - so any illusion I might have cherished of being in control of at least my timetable has had to be discarded too. Once again, reminders of anywhere I ought to be in the next few weeks would be much appreciated. (I know I should have backed up, but the psion in question was too old to talk to any of the computers here, and the alternative backup strategies seemed like just too much hassle.) That's it for me with digital diaries. The filofax may be bulky but at least I can always open its pages.
  

• But that's really nothing - a good friend in a deprived parish not far away has suffered 2 break-ins in 5 days, - the thieves returning to repeat the damage they caused by way of smashed doors and windows, and taking anything interesting they had missed first time round. I am so so angry on her behalf...She does so much for that community and the disadvantaged there; she runs a food cupboard for the homeless from the vicarage, for goodness sake...and they pick on her. I'm finding it very hard to be loving on this one (and I hate that she's out of email contact too, since the computer was an irresistable target)

• In other news, Hugger Steward is fluting his way round Italy on tour with the school orchestra, and the sunflowers that LCM assured me were dead weeks ago have actually flowered. Not the largest blooms ever, but at least they're there! We have a very ignoble track record with sunflowers (our all-time worst being the year that a very small Hugger Steward entered a competition for the tallest sunflower at Beavers,- and his 10ft bloom was beaten down by a storm the day before judgement) so I'm quite excited about this.

• 
  Now, though, it's time to assume competent-mother mode and get on with loading the car. Normal service will be resumed a.s.a.p.