I love seeing the swallows arrive in the autumn. They stay for quite a few weeks on their way down south, hanging out in their hundreds on the telephone wires that line our road. Whenever we drive, cycle or walk along it, the swallows swoop off in different directions – it really is a sight to behold.

Last year, while cycling Indy to school in the village one morning, we called out to the swallows that they were invited to our house that evening to dive-bomb our pool to catch insects. And they did! This year, during one of my rare moments alone by the pool, a posse came down and did just the same, whirring around my head as I lay there.

But the swallows have also made me feel sad this year. After a very busy summer we can usually look forward to a relaxing rentrée, with the kids back at school and free weekends. Time to stroll up the lane en famille and wonder at the beauty of our little visitors. But this year, every weekend in September has been filled to the brim with parties and festivals. Now, we LOVE a good shindig so I’m not complaining about that but it did mean that we haven’t yet had the quiet, relaxed family time we usually do at this time of year.

Chris and I found we were getting scratchy with each other, which is not ok if you take the bold step of labelling your home, jobs and life ‘HAPPY’… So we made time to go for a walk along the ridge and talked non-stop for over an hour. Some of it was not pretty but whoa, did it clear the air. Literally. We both agreed that our family must come first and as we are the team in charge of making that happen we committed to making more time for each other. A week later and the swallows are making me smile once again.

Filed under: Happy Coulson

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!