as it happens.

Our summer ended abruptly and sadly just before Labour Day.

I won’t go into the details, but we were left reeling and panicked with worry over someone we love; and even now, roughly six weeks later, everyone having settled into a quasi-routine with this new normal, we are living with a degree of heartache which will, I feel, possibly diminish but never quite disappear.

As it happens, though, I woke up this morning and realized that we are just over a week into my very favourite month of the year – all of us (and all of you too, no doubt) having navigated September like so many hamsters on wheels, careening slightly from one moment to the next – and that there is some mindful celebrating to be done.

This is our month, friends, to give thanks and acknowledge joy and look forward with some gladness.

Just before we leap in to all of that goodness, I hope you’ll permit me this brief backward glance, a grateful goodbye to one of the dreamiest summers on our family’s record and a salute to the September that was – just as it was.

The garden was out of hand – in the best possible way.

New views were discovered, and new paths taken.

The training wheels came off.

We ate dozens of salads and piles of cake and drank glasses and glasses of Pimms.

We shared amazing moments with family and friends.

We made a pie.

My young son went to school for the first time.

The leaves began to turn.

And this dress sits glimmering in my cupboard, biding its time until the next celebration…any minute now.