Some of the autumn colour has been truly stunning recently; when the sun hits the reds they glow. Its the sort of thing you just cannot catch with a camera, although I did try at work the other morning.
I have also been attempting to capture these colours in some drawings. Below are some crab apples along with their leaves, its a work in progress. Getting the reds right is always a challenge as nature is able to get such a "zing" in the reds which is very difficult to replicate.
I have also been sketching a Virginia creeper leaf and experimenting with some calligraphy at the same time. It seems to have worked out ok.
I am planning quite a bit of drawing this week along with some Christmas prep as I have the week off work. Its a week for me to relax and wind down a bit. Its been a difficult time here in the Su+2 household as the Teen has been battling with anxiety and depression for the last couple of years. These kinds of mental health problems take their toll on everyone in the family, not just the sufferer, and I needed some time off.
In brief, the Teen was unable to attend school for their final year. They simply could not get there, not because they didn't want to go but because they were unable to move (physically) due to anxiety. The school tried to help; the pastoral side which gives student support were brilliant but the business/management side couldn't wait to get ride of the Teen. That side of the school's aim was simply to get a good set of GCSE marks for the league tables and if one pupil looked likely to pull the average down, that pupil had to go (or so it felt to us in our dealings with them).
Now, the Teen wasn't expelled but we were told, erroneously, that the only way they could not do their GCSE's that year (so as to not get awarded a string of fails as the Teen had already missed most of the course work and controlled assessments) was for us to take them out of school and for us to home school. We agreed thinking this would give the Teen time to recover. However, the Local Authority, who were also helpful, told us the school had given us the wrong information and that the Teen could have stayed in school and not taken their GCSE's. By that time it was too late; the Teen (and us to be honest) had lost all trust in the school's ability to actually educate or help them.
The Teen has been under CAMHS for about a year (Child And Adult Mental Health Services). This service tried to help too but as the Teen's difficulties don't fit in a neat little box, CAMHS seemed to give up, or at least run out of ideas.
We are now wrestling with a local college. How hard is it for a 16 year old to take three core GCSE's? As it happens, very hard indeed. The college has been trying very hard to accommodate the needs of a bright but suffering Teen and its looking like things might be finally sorted there now but its taken the first 3 months of term, time which the Teen cannot really afford to have lost.
So as you can see some time off work for me to concentrate on some "me" time is long overdue. I am booked in for an aromatherapy massage which I have never had before so I will report back.
You have may have noticed in the paragraphs above that I refer to the Teen as they or their or them. The Teen is non-binary (does not relate to being male or female) and therefore they prefer their personal pronouns to be their, them and they. So its not bad English, its just good manners.
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