Everyone has grown over the summer - the kitten who wasn't given away is all independent and leaping about and making himself comfortable on our laps.  The boys are wiser and huge and eat like horses. We have been digging up new potatoes from the garden every day and eating them with rich sour cream we get from our neighbour's farm.  The boys' hair hasn't been cut for 3 months.  Wild and woolly! Off to the hairdresser tomorrow so that they look a bit more respectable on September 1, when its back to school.  Miraculously, I've got news that Tiss' school, which is in the heart of Riga - right next to the old town - has actually been renovated over the summer, and he will be returning to there in the next few weeks.  This comes totally unexpectedly, because the school's Harry-Potter-like building is worth a small fortune.  This spring the school was moved out of the building, supposedly for renovations, and many of us believed that it was a cunning way for the local council to reclaim the building and sell it off.  But no!  O ye of little faith!  We are moving back into the school, from the outside the facade is looking amazing, and on the inside there's a whole lot of work being done.  Yipee!
After the insulting weeks of rain that assaulted us in early August we got a blast of balmy warmth and sun for the lead up to school. So we are in the countryside catching the last few days of freedom, and today we celebrated Tiss' 9th birthday. NINTH birthday! NINTH!  Holy Mary, mother of god.  I have a nine year old son.  Happy birthday, my big boy.