Thursday 27 March 2014

Pretty


Bringing in some of spring. I've not got many daffodils in the garden, so the few that are there are staying there, so I can hopefully enjoy their cheerful colours for longer.


I walk past blackthorn in the hedges nearly every day, and today I could not resist the temptation to pick them and bring them in. They're making the table by the sofa a bit more happy.


These helebores are making me even more happy. There's three or so colours in the garden, taking over a large chunk of a border and flowering profusely. They seem like such big bold flowers after all the delicate snowdrops and crocuses, but the petals are papery fragile at the same time. Normally they're shy and hang down on their stems away from prying eyes, but bunched together and using each other as support, you get to see the delicate patterns inside.

Nice flowers to make your heart sing.

Monday 24 March 2014

Happy birthday

Happy Birthday Mr! OK so it's a bit late, but this weekend has been a heck of a one. This happened on his actual birthday:


Only a little low speed accident, but enough to need the AA out and a courtesy car (nasty scrapy noises from that wheel). However, as we only have the one car, we needed to ask a neighbour very nicely if we could have a lift - a bit awkward as it was an hour round trip. They were very lovely though and gave us that lift, and it makes me think again how we live in such a wonderful place, both beautiful and with such lovely people!

So, lime green car with us, we headed on to R's Nana and Grandpa, only to get caught in an hours traffic jam. We got there eventually though and spent a lovely weekend there, lots of chatter and time spent with grandparents, some playing in wendy houses (if only we had space and a spare £2000, some were so lovely I would have lived in them!), exploring the garden and staring at cows over the fence. On Sunday we headed home tired but happy, to be caught in another traffic jam! Another hour of trying to entertain a car-seat bound little one whose favourite activity is walking, and worse yet it was dark - she can't see her Mummy or Daddy and so got very upset, despite near constant talking/singing from us to reassure her we were still there...

So um... Happy Birthday (?!?)... may the next year be better than it has threatened so far!

Monday 17 March 2014

Sunshine!

My husband always says I'm solar powered. I think he's right there, as when it's grey for weeks on end I'm grouchy and tired, but when it's sunny out, I have so much energy. R's sleep is getting better (we think she may have had an ear infection, though there wasn't much to report by the time we got to the doctors) but I'm still feeling that waking up at least twice a night is too much for me, however this weekend, I've been so happy and bouncy.


It's definitely partly the weather. This was the sunset from our bedroom window on Saturday.


Just stunning! Some of my good mood is from the sheer joy in the sunshine, I was happy even pottering about indoors. Some of it is from being able to just go out - shoes on and off we go, no faffing about with layers of coats and scarves, wondering are mittens are needed? No, R shuffles over to her shoes and waves them at me, we pop them on her waggling feet, and then out the door and down to the park, bliss! I've also been able to do a little bit of gardening which I've been itching to do. Nothing much, not enough to satisfy the itch, but a few plants taken from pots and put into the front garden, others put into bigger pots.


Something else that made me happy happy happy: a morning phone call from my Dad asking if we were doing anything much today and if not, would we like to meet up with him, Mum, my sister and her boyfriend? Yay! My sister is currently living in Switzerland, so we don't get to see each other that much, so a chance to see her and catch up was wonderful!


We met halfway, at Lydiard park in Swindon. It was beautifully warm and sunny, and consequently heaving! R spent a fair amount of time pointing out all the interesting things: dogs, balls, scooters, bikes, birds, other small children...


So we didn't get to do much catching up, but R did an astonishing amount of walking, all the while saying Da, Da as she pointed at those Most Interesting Things.


I found some pretty interesting things too (at least to me!) The buds on the horse chestnut on the edge of bursting open,


and the delicate white blackthorn flowers. Yay for sunny weekends and family visits!


Thursday 13 March 2014

A while

It's been a while since I last posted. I can mainly put this down to a lack of sleep. R has had a couple of weeks of waking every couple of hours, so we've been desperately trying to catch up on sleep in the evenings, leaving little time for anything fun. The last few nights have been even worse, with her wanting rocking for hours in the middle of the night. Hence a break from blogging. There has been a lot going on though, so this may be a long post while I record everything!






R is starting to want to climb things, the car seat base being one favourite. She has also been starting to walk! At the weekend she did a couple of metres with me hovering just in front of her, and today she voluntarily walked from the sofa to me (usually we have to trick her by having her start walking using our fingers and then letting go). She also stood on her own for about a minute on Tuesday... and then started crying as she didn't know what to do next! Last week she walked to the park! It's about 250yards so a very long way for little legs! She's started vocalising a bit more too; dog is used fairly frequently, and she can say woof with a bit of a prompt, 'ish is used for fish, and 'iya for hiya. Daddy is a very well used word, but she's only said Mummy once yet.

The weekend before last was lovely with a visit from P's parents. R absolutely loves having her grandparents, so it was a wonderful weekend all round - R and her grandparents spent some quality time together, and P and I had a bit of a relax! This weekend was great too, a visit from her other grandparents.


We went down to the park on Saturday, and then on Sunday we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a walk. It was wonderfully warm, rather muddy, and rather picturesque.


The circular walk took us through Berkeley, along the Berkeley Pill and back up along the Severn. R had a good time in the back carrier, looking at everything, and then having a good snooze.

Well, that seems like a fair chunk of blather, so I think I'll stop here!