Summer wild flowers

We had such an enjoyable evening last night at Strictly Come Dancing at Luke's school. The head boy has to support a charity of his choice and he chose Great Ormond Street (This is a children's hospital, for those who do not live in the UK) and then asked some of his prefects to find a partner and learn to dance, and in so doing would raise money by ticket sales and an auction at the dance. No small task during the all consuming A level exams! So during study leave and since exams have finished, while many of Luke's school leaver friends have already been holidaying in Croatia and travelling over Europe, he has been practicing dancing (amongst other things!).

Yesterday afternoon I asked Luke if he would be okay in the competition, and he said he was hoping not to embarrass himself. When I got to school the teacher who had helped teach the boys the dancing told me he was very concerned about Luke as he had missed so many practices and he hoped he would be up to the standard. His friends had nicknamed him The Plank as he was so stiff and wooden....this did not bode well.

What we did not know was that Luke had been practicing at his dance partner's house, as her elder sister is an accomplished ballroom dancer, and she had been helping them. To say we were gobsmacked when Luke and Emma started dancing would be an under statement! They were superb - they went on to win the waltz category, did okay in the quickstep, came second in the cha cha, and won the jive....and they WON overall!! We were all so surprised and thrilled, it was totally unexpected. It almost made me feel more proud then when he produced stellar exam results last year and when he scored a try for the 1st XV rugby team, as dancing is a completely new skill to him. They also raised a huge amount for the charity.

The girls looked beautiful in their dance dresses and the boys looked not half bad either - you can see some photos of the dancing here.

Oh, and theses are some beautiful wild flowers that make me know that summer is here.