We started off September with a camping weekend away at Stoneywish Nature Reserve. After our few days away last month at Blackberry Wood, we decided to get one more camping trip in before the cooler weather set in. We mostly spent the weekend around the campsite, with a walk into Ditchling on the Saturday afternoon for some ice-cream and the rest of the time near to camp.

On Tuesday the 3rd the kids went back to school after the summer holidays, with Ellen rather excited for Year 2 and Ian starting back full time at Busy Bees. Was rather quiet around the house that week compared to the previous five weeks :)

That first weekend was really rainy and grey, with Saturday being an indoor day at home and the SA vs New Zealand game on TV in the afternoon, with SA defeating the All Blacks and winning back the Freedom Cup for the first time since 2009. On the Sunday I had tickets which Una bought for me to see Tim Peake at Brighton Dome as part of his "Astronauts" tour which was really good.

The following week felt very chilly and cold, what could only be described as inclement weather: "severe or harsh weather that is cold and wet which is undesirable for outdoor events". Certainly not ideal and definitely feels like summer is over, even though it didn't really seem to officially kick in this year :(

At the end of the week, on the 13th, the paddle steamer Waverley (the world's last seagoing paddle steamer) made a stop in at Shoreham Port as part of its cruise along the South Coast. Since I had the day off work, Una and I took a walk down to the port to take a look and watch it depart out to sea.

That evening we had Ben, Alice and William over to ours for dinner which was a good evening - Ellen, Ian and William entertained each other while we got to enjoy dinner :) On Saturday we had a good catch up day at the new McLuckie house since Si and Suzie were over from Australia with the family. As it turned out, Si Davies was in the UK too that weekend, so managed to catch up with him as well. Paul and Carol came through, as did Marty, so a good afternoon at their new place. On the Sunday we managed to get out on the cargo bike down to the beach for some rock climbing and playing with the stones.

The following weekend we had Cliff over for a steak dinner on the Friday evening, and then a Saturday afternoon party at Adrian and Geri's house with Sunday being a more relaxed home day.

This past weekend I had taken Friday off work to try sort out the garage a bit and then that evening met up with Adrian, Ben, Ian and Harvey at The Ship Inn for a few beers with them. On the Saturday I was around the braai for the best part of the morning slow cooking some ribs on the Weber. And then yesterday, while Ellen had gone to Lena's house for the afternoon, Una and I took Ian up to Devil's Dyke for a run around there before fetching Ellen and heading back home.

As we head into October tomorrow, it now officially feels autumnal with the change of weather, the leaves falling and the darker evenings...