I don't know about anyone else but I always feel sad when the nights are drawing in, the curtains get drawn earlier and earlier the lights go on and the electricity bill goes up!
My youngest daughter will soon be going back to Uni to start her second year at med school and my eldest daughter will soon be setting up home down south with her boyfriend. I am not suffering from "empty nest" syndrome as they have both really left already. I suppose that the most important thing is that they will always want to come back here to see me for as long as I'm around.
My main wish is that they will be happy in their lives, that they will be loved, respected, feel fulfilled and will both one day realise the joys (and heartaches)of being a parent. One day too they will understand my protective tigress type attitude towards their welfare. It is hard not to be or at least want to be protective but at the same time you have to let them make their own mistakes, painful as they sometimes are but it is all part of life's rich cycle (corny I know, but true).
I wish them all the happiness life can bring and one day they will understand why parents act like they do. We are strange creatures just like them!
Meanwhile, I look forward to lighting fires and curling up on winter evenings. You have to look forward to it at the end of the day. One of these days I will get round to reading a good book.
More of this later.