Sunshine with occasional showers :: days 30 - 56

Although I've been making a note of the little incidences in my life in my notebook, I've not really shared them here. I’m not sure if a whole list of things is that exciting for anyone else to read but, then I guess I’m writing this for me, not anyone so here goes with 3 weeks of happy moments.

Day 30 – Another midweek dinner of pork chops. I did the mash in the food mixer and my goodness was it smooth. Goodbye masher and potato ricer. Hello Kitchen Aid – you truly are amazing!!!!

Day 31 - A solitary snail on the path in the garden. This was soon in the garden recycling bin. Safely chomping on my weeds not my plants!!!

Day 32 – A random accident in the kitchen resulting in a comedy child’s plaster. It’s all we had. Plasters are a form of currency here. We had a range of Peppa Pig, Hello Kitty and Princess ones that the ABO brought home from Italy. Now we’re down to monkeys and butterflies. I must remember some more practical (and plain) ones.

Day 33 – I gave a presentation for my day job and it went really well. It was one of those days where you’re on the top of your game and the audience appreciates what you’re saying. This was followed up with really delicious fish and chips for tea…yum!

Day 34 – Participating in my first rainbow flash mob. Green…chosen for me by Gillian.  Not particularly good pic but I did enjoy looking round for the things…and of course spotting loads more when I’d taken all the pictures!!

Day 35 – The doggy ears are almost finished…I can really see the dog coming together now…

Day 36 – Out for a meal with the ABO…alone and no children. Fantastic. Afterwards, we’re so full and as it’s a nice evening we walk home holding hands (unheard of as usually one of us buggy pushing and the other holding BigRs hand)

Day 37 – A joint effort lasagne – I made the meat ragu and the ABO made the cheese sauce. Delicious.

Day 38 – We both often try to get the girls to put their toys away but I love looking at the remnants of their games.

Day 39 – Taking the girls swimming to the University pool. Changing rooms clean and tidy with space for a baby change making life much easier. LittleR was much more confident in the water.

Day 40 – The ABO at work and it’s a bank holiday…hmmmm….what to do? Make a cottage pie, make an apple and strawberry crumble. Take small children to Hobbycraft and along with ‘necessities’ being talked into buying pipe cleaners and a pair of purple glasses!

Day 41 – Appreciating the frilly tulips that have appeared in the garden. Tulips really are one of my favourite flowers.

Enjoying the end of my book (although it made me cry!! In public!! Shhh no one noticed…I hope!!), a coffee and the plate a piece of shortbread came on.

Day 42 – The anticipation of starting a new book and realising a few pages in it’s going to be a good one!

Day 43 – It’s not nice when your children are poorly. It can be stressful and exhausting but the snuggles you get are unbelievable.

Day 44 – The ABO is on standby and I am working at home. He takes great pleasure in washing the car. I take pleasure in not washing the car.

Day 45 –  Today is a day of completion. I finish a superb book in 4 days (Apple Tree Yard – Louise Doughty coming soon with a Year in Books). I finish the knitting part of LittleR’s dog. I finish watching all of Eurovision.

Day 46 – we all enjoy the last football match of the Premier League season. Where has another year gone?!!

Day 47 – A coffee on the way to work and enjoying listening to the radio. TalkSport and Radio 4.

Day 48 – Getting a lift to and from work and having impromptu coffee and cake on the way home

Day 49 – The sunshine! Especially after a disturbed night with a poorly child.

Day 50 - Finally, after 5 years, sending off my work as a book chapter. I’ve grown 2 children  since I started the work.

Enjoying the clouds today, so white and fluffy against the beautiful blue sky.

Day 51 – Sewing up the dog – nearly there….

Enjoying a spot of gardening – after a trip to the garden centre…

Day 52 – More gardening…

Seeing BigR in her first ballet show. In spite of being in a dark room on the hottest afternoon of the year so far and LittleR struggling to sit still on my lap….it was fab. BigR took it so seriously, you could see her concentration as she danced remembering her steps and playing the tambourine or shaking her scarf at the appropriate point. Then her joy when she spotted us in the audience.

Day 53 – We have a ghost hoover. The girls’ toy hoover switches on by itself. Spooky. I’m quite comforted by this – if it is an apparition maybe it’ll start on the proper vacuuming?

Day 54 – My flexible working application has been approved and I start part time working in July. The relief is unbelievable.

Day 55 - The girls have a Daddy day as the ABO is on days off…BigR ends up running through the sprinkler in the garden as it’s so hot!

Day 56 – Making weekend plans with a friend over coffee…it’s not only a bank holiday here this weekend but the University is closed on Tuesday too. The ABO is working earlies over this long weekend so I need to have things planned for our days

Enjoying time in together in the garden when the girls are in bed. Admittedly we were trying to sort out a blocked water butt tap which in turn led to repositioning guttering and then admitting defeat but it was still good to be out at 9pm and not freezing cold!

A step into the unknown

Thank you for all the lovely comments I've been left recently, I will get around to replying soon!!

Even though the doggy of doom is not yet finished (all knitted now being sewn up and stuffed) I needed another project to get my teeth into.

So armed with my new dpns and 100g of wool I'm going to make a start on Christina's January socks.

Wish me luck. I may be some time.

Ten random things

Having seen a few of these random lists on various blogs (but most notably Annie and Gillian) I thought I'd compile one of my own.
Pic is a random cloud I saw today and liked.

1.  Growing up I wanted to be a marine biologist who specialised in crustaceans (not marine mammals that everyone else wanted!!).  When I was 11 I wrote to a Professor in Cambridge (who had written a book I found in Foyles book shop) to ask how to be one. I got a handwritten reply and still have it.  I did go on to study science but not marine science (even fewer jobs and opportunities in that than my chosen field!).

2.  I kept tropical and marine fish when I lived with my parents and would love to again but marine tanks are a lot of work.

3.  I wear skirts everyday to work (no need to...I  just do) but jeans and leggings at home.

4.  I'm not particularly tidy but I cannot bear knives, forks and spoons not to be in their correct sections in the cutlery drawer. I know the ABO frequently challenges this state of nature for his own amusement.

5.  My cookbooks are arranged in colour order on their shelves.

6.  I have strange food allergies being allergic to types of squash, pumpkin, courgettes. I have a severe allergy to beet root.

7.  In 1982 John Craven (of Newsround fame) was on the same plane as my family (to somewhere in Greece). My mum stopped me from bothering him on his holiday on the way out but didn't have a leg to stand on the way back. I spent the entire flight chatting to his daughter.

8.  My parents had a holiday romance (also in Greece!) and found out they lived 4 miles from each other.

9.  I hardly ever wear make up as I always look like a clown when I apply it plus for some reason it slides off my face within minutes even with 'primers'.

10. I love lemons and will always choose a lemon dessert over anything else.

A year in books :: May

April slips into May and I’m still reading. Not quite as prolifically as March but still 2 books…not so bad.

I seem to be on a bit of a crime fest with April’s two offerings being from the Ann Cleeves Shetland series.

The first ‘Red Bones’ investigates what is first thought to be a tragic accident but soon transcends into murder. The second ‘Blue Lightening’ surprised me by a turn of events which made me well up (!) into my coffee and shortbread. Over the course of the four initial books of the Shetland series (I can’t call it a quartet as another was published in January) the police characters become central along with the islands themselves. You learn more about them and their lives and in doing so become more involved and attached to their lives. Ann Cleeves is a super writer. I love the fact I’ve found a whole new series of books to read simply from participating in this. I have a huge list from others’ suggestions too.

I’m excited to read the latest in the series but I’m going to give myself a rest so not to have Ann Cleeves burnout and commit read Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty this month. At the end of May Mark Billingham published his next Tom Thorne novel so that could be a May choice or a June choice….David Morrissey plays Thorne in the TV series and was EXACTLY how I’d pictured him. This hardly ever happens.

Linking up with Laura and a Year in Books.