Turning of the seasons

OK, so it's still August and technically summer for another month. But it feels like autumn is on its way, and my pregnancy feels like it's turning a corner too. I now have a bump that's visible from several angles, and after a few minor flutters in the last couple of weeks, yesterday I felt some definite tickling just below my tummy button.

I'm feeling more energetic and, after having hid from the world during summer's heatwaves, have managed a few good walks in the cooler weather of the last couple of weekends. On Sunday we strolled through Earlham Park in Norwich, scene of my husband's boyhood cross-country tribulations, and kicked around the not-quite-ripe conkers. Yesterday we walked to Forty Hill and back, a good 3-mile circular walk taking in duck ponds, herb gardens, fields, woods and one dodgy council estate. My new camera-phone's macro mode got a good outing, too.

Strolling through the sunshine, one hand on my tentative bump, the other in my husband's, on a chilled Bank Holiday, I don't think I've ever been so happy.