As this week saw the end of ‘meteorological summer’ I perhaps shouldn’t be surprised to find it a time of change.  Autumn colours are appearing already, particularly along the riverbanks in Durham. Ed and family returning to China ready for the new academic year is one of the least welcome changes but it did provide an opportunity to visit some more surprising nature sanctuaries en route to Heathrow. Travelling long distance with a small child and an electric car is something of a balancing act – our regular stop at Grantham services on the way south has a good number of electric charge points but no outdoor play area for Casper to run off steam.  Fortunately, though, watching sparrows dustbathing provides at least a short-term distraction.  Better, from Casper’s point of view, was a stop at South Mimms services on the M25, which backs onto Wash Lane Common nature reserve. The reserve is not particularly special ecologically but is a welcome green space and Casper enjoyed hunting for blackberries. In his world, plants are classified into just two categories; “I eat this one?” and “I no eat this one?” He has really enjoyed picking apples and blackberries but needs careful watching around any other sort of berries!

Sadly, Casper was no longer with us the following morning when we stopped at Donnington Park services on our way back north.  Last year, we stopped on our way south to charge the car and let him run around the grassy area behind the services.  We worked out it backed onto a section of the National Forest but didn’t have time to explore far. This year we wandered a little further and discovered a fantastic area of untamed grassland, full of late summer delights – Wild Carrot in flower and seed, Blackberried, Sloes, Robin’s Pincushion galls, Red Bartsia and a few lingering Bird’s-foot Trefoil and Field Bindweed flowers.  Warm sunshine had brought out the second flush of Speckled wood butterflies too – what a lovely spot to recharge mentally.

One thing I’ve been reflecting on a lot, unsurprisingly, is the pleasure and value of being a grandparent – it’s such a different experience to being a parent. As a parent, however patient you are (and I was often far from patient!) you are always looking after your child/children whilst getting on with ‘life’, whether that is paid work, household chores or life admin tasks – it’s no easy thing to juggle everything well and you are always worried about the amount of mess you’re going to have to tidy up once they are finally in bed. You are desperate for your child to get the best start in life so there is a temptation to expect them to ‘make the most’ of all the opportunities you are able to offer and to be learning and constructively employed all the time.  As a grandparent I feel much more relaxed and am happy to sit back and watch Casper exploring the world whilst I vicariously enjoy his sense of wonder at all the new things he encounters. There is something very refreshing about the way a small child lives in the moment.   I know that he will meet all his ‘milestones’ pretty much whatever I do or don’t spend time doing with him and it’s enormously liberating! Hopefully it is lots of fun for Casper and gives his parents a little time off from the juggling too.

In the garden everything is looking very dry and I’m waiting for an opportunity to hack the grass back – a scythe would really be much better than a lawn mower for this job!  Our first apples are ready to eat in time for Casper to do Harry’s old trick of grazing everything within reach, rather like a giraffe eating Acacias! My Echinacea has joined the Helichrysums in flower, bringing a welcome splash of hot pink to the garden.

In the allotment I’ve been picking lovely purple French beans as well as autumn raspberries and the last of the blackberries. I found an Elephant Hawk moth caterpillar there after Casper had gone, sadly – he’d have loved that.

The week’s culinary highlight was undoubtedly lunch atBarrio Comido in Durham – delicious Mexican food with fresh, home-made tacos. Casper was fascinated watching the machine cooking the tortillas so the waitress gave him a chunk of dough of his own to play with, which kept him very happily entertained while we waited for the food.

I’ve been reading Across a Green Ocean, by Wendy Lee, a novel about family relationships in an American-Chinese family. One of the protagonists travels to Qinghai Lake in northern China, visiting a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, the description of which makes me think very fondly of trips to Ladakh in northern India, on the other side of the Tibetan plateau.