Have I said how much I love autumn? For one thing, the light is different. The sunsets become liquid gold, and the day time sky is a deeper blue around this time of year. The contrast with the red-turning maple leaves on the trees that line many streets and accent the parks around here is deeply satisfying.

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll see I’ve shared a few photos from my walks around the neighbourhood over these school holidays. I took most of the two weeks off work to be around for the kids and extended it to a couple of days after they went back to school.

It’s been so good! I tend to use my annual leave days for school holidays coverage, but overlapping my leave with their holidays by a just a few days has given me some time to potter around and catch up on a few jobs like filing my tax returns and shopping around to upgrade our six-seat outdoor dining setting to an eight-seater. Exciting stuff I know, but it makes me feel better.

It’s also been nice to have the odd afternoon walk or cup of tea with the uni student when she’s around.

Speaking of whom, Naomi and some of her friends are going to Poland in July to volunteer teaching English at a non-profit organisation supporting displaced Ukrainian women and children.

They want to donate money too, but they’re spending everything they’ve saved just to get to Europe. They’ll be going on to World Youth Day in Lisbon after their Poland stint.

They’ve set up a gofundme appeal to help cover the costs of programs and hampers for the refugees and have reached $2750 of their $5000 goal so far. Will you consider chipping in to help them reach it?