Project 365 day 260: Courgettes

It's been a very full day at the end of a busy week. J had five online events today, and she does not currently have a PA to support her on Fridays, so I joined them all with her. She can use the computer independently with her switch access, but needs me to provide sign language interpreting and general troubleshooting with her technology and troublesome hands. 

At this time in September we would normally be returning from a few days in north east England, revisiting old friends and haunts from our former life there, followed by a few days at the annual Communication Matters conference at Leeds University. CM is the major UK charity focusing on AAC, alternative and augmentative communication, including the kind of computer communication aid with which J speaks, and it's an organisation which brings together people who use AAC and their families with professionals of various kinds who work with them - speech therapists, assistive technologists, teachers, suppliers and more. The conference combines presentations on a huge range of topics, from the highly technical to personal stories, and a lot of very friendly socialising which J really enjoys as she meets and chats to lots of other AAC users. This year's conference was virtual, run on a very well-organised online platform, so we have had five half days of pre-recorded presentations and live events, concluding this evening with an awards ceremony. The socialising was a lot more limited than usual, and we missed the cakes, but the pre-recorded presentations have the advantage of being available online until December, allowing us to explore more of them, and were all subtitled which makes them much more accessible to J. 

This morning she also joined her weekly online journaling/creative writing group run by her care centre, and at lunchtime a National Gallery presentation in British Sign Language about Monet's waterlily paintings (which she loves). She is always very engaged by professionally signed events; it saddens me that since she left her school for the deaf, her opportunities to interact with really proficient signers have been relatively limited.

At teatime we had a short break outside between events. I rushed to pick courgettes, as I didn't check them yesterday and know how quickly the tiny ones I left last time turn into marrows. This was also my photo opportunity: I love the curled, contorted shapes of courgette flowers, with the prominent green veins defining the golden petals. The courgettes are doing very well after a late start, and we are happy both to eat a lot of them in a wide range of dishes and to peel and slice the large ones and freeze them as a base for winter soups.