I have volunteered to help with the St Michael's Preserve, very close to us.  340 acres, it used to be owned by the Catholic Church who had an orphanage there.  That was closed down in the 1970's and, according to some ex-pupils, it was 'not a happy place'.
But we, the new volunteers, had a good walk around with Bill Flemer who is the site manager, and learned about the seed plans, the problems with deer (too many of the buggers), the plans for clearing away invasive vegetation, the difficulties with dealing with bureaucrats and managers, and our role in helping with all that.  Starting on 15 March, working every Thursday morning under Bill's supervision.  I have also offered to help out on an ad-hoc basis if he needs to do something that requires two men.

Whilst we were there, a flock of a couple of hundred geese rose into the sky, honking away.  Unusually, they were a mixture of Snow and Canadian geese and it was fascinating to see the flock break up into small groups and head off in different directions, only broadly northwards.

Joey had a great day Friday after all the emotion of the Thursday.  Both his teachers said he had a good day - and that he made the maths teacher happy!  Which, given that he almost has a phobia over maths, is quite something.  He was also asked, again, to come up and show the other kids how to do proper press-ups. At home he read 3 books.  He still needs some help and the standard is still well below what a non-dyslexic child would manage.  But it is a vast improvement, both in what he can do and his attitude.

Then he had a really good swim lesson and one of his wee friends from school, Bruce, came over with younger brother and parents.  They had a great time.

As did we with Lorna and Bruce senior.  She is great, and we had a blast, and did some damage to our new wine bill!   What is really helpful is to talk with other parents of dyslexic kids as they understand in a way that others cannot.

Wine bill was a bit higher than we anticipated.  Bit scary!

Speaking of wine. Jim told me that we will get our bill in the next day or so.  Will be the first time that we will be able to see exactly how much we have drunk at home over the month.  Should be interesting!

Another annoying battle with the ice witch from Sweden.  I am clearly a selfish, unthinking bastard who doesn't care what Alexander wants.  Very wearying.  Time to open the wine.

Need to get bloody spellcheck working on this new computor!

Despite all the progress, Joey still has his moments when the pressure and anxiety bursts out.  As it did today on returning home from school and then after returning from a pizza.  Usually something very minir starts it but Joey will not back donw and it then becomes a majot outburst.  We all get angry and then Joey gets very, very uopset and we feel very bad.  Joey needs support and encouragement but he also needs clear boundaries and discipline and it is not always easy to get the baalance right.  Anne and I are broaadly in agreement but there are also subtle differences with, I am sure, me having less patience and more insistance on firmness.  But it is a matter of degree rather than anything else.  Ah well, it wwas never going to be easy and, on the whole, Joey is coming along great.