Snail Racing & Socialising

Weeks have passed since I updated my blog...there is just too much going on! We have had lovely visits from Mike's family throughout April. My parents seem to have found a house near us so we hope that all goes through smoothly.
We held a charity garden party for Martha's birthday for a children's charity and it was well attended and fun. I baked lots of things including 99 cupcakes. It was a melting hot day and we sold plants, 2nd hand books, my Phoenix cards. We served Pimms, tea, cakes and we held snail races which were lots of fun!





The next day was Martha's actual birthday so we had a quieter day for her - we went to the swings, had lunch with all the grandparents in the garden, ate cake and strawberries and unwrapped a mountain of unexpected presents.

It was a perfect couple of days!

Things are growing around here. My amaryllis has shot up and flowered, the daffodils are springing up, opening their petals and then being blown around like mad in all the wind and rain that we are having.

I've planted my seed potatoes in a new patch - more than last year so we are hoping for a bigger crop. It felt good to get this years' veggies started. I was reminded recently that the fashion for having a lawn was started by the French aristocracy to show how wealthy they were in that they didn't need to cultivate all of their land to produce food .. made me realise we could be producing much more food than we do...my neighbour does some veggie planting in the front garden too. I might try that this year as we were running out of space last year.

And Martha is growing too...we go to music group now which she loves. Life is constantly changing... she says "mum" and "mumma" which is lovely and she has had her first homemade curry. Lots of new experiences and all good fun.

Birthday

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday. It was a sunny day and we walked into town first to decorate a family plate which was fun and then to have lunch at the Almanack in town which has a great menu and is very child friendly. I had gorgeous moroccan lamb pie (light pastry) and shared a hazelnut parfait for dessert.

Decorating the plate at The Crazy Kiln

Later we had dinner at home followed by cake and bubbly and lovely gifts including flowers from my old schoolfriend Linda.
It seems incredible that another year has gone by and I'm sure only old people are this great age!

Is It All Gone?

Martha is just checking in case there is any lunch left! She loves her food and we haven't found anything that she doesn't like so far...I'm sure that we will go through different phases of eating in future though!

Reading

I am trying this year to get more reading done - have failed miserably so far by only reading a handful. I'm on Goodreads but can't seem to put finger to keyboard to update it very often.

So far...

Anne Enright, The Gathering
Tom Barrett's motivational books - Dare to Dream, Work to Win and Success Happens
Helen Dunmore A Spell of Winter
Genesis study chapters 1-18
Cecelia Ahern The Gift
Donna Tartt The Secret History - just started.

On the waiting list....

Philippa Gregory The Virgin Queen
Andrea Levy The Long Song
Jenny Ditzler Your Best Year Yet
Margaret Atwood The Year of the Flood
Greg Mortenson Three Cups of Tea

I've also emailed our local bookshop to try to join their book group. It seems small which is appealing but it meets on a Wednesday night which is not the best for us but I am keen to try it out so I will see what happens.

Wee Sleekit Cowerin' Timorous Beasties

We celebrated Burns Night with haggis, neeps, tatties and whisky cream sauce. Was very good haggis.
That's it for another year now.

Tea Jenny

I can barely have a cup now without Martha reaching out to have some
With Daddy

Lovely flowers

We were given some lovely flowers from church and we were also given a tub of hyacinths at Christmas which were gorgeous. Am just waiting hopefully for my amaryllis to bloom now!

Phoenix Conference

Rosie came to stay for the Phoenix Conference in Kettering. It was such an inspirational day.
I bought Tom Barrett's books and have been reading them avidly.
This January business has been the best ever!! The pressure is on to make sure every month this year is the best ever business-wise!

We Love Boo!

Build a Bear

Our first party invite was to cousin Naomi's 4th birthday at Build a Bear. This was a great outing - lots of fun for little girls. We went home with Boo the Bear in a box and a birth certificate.

Hogmanay and New Year's Day

Coffee at The Old Mill after our Jan 1st walk

Firstfooting at our old house

Dressed up for Hogmanay

Friends Visited, Family Visited, More Friends Visited

We had a lovely time with all of them

Boxing Day Duck Race

This is a lovely day out - a duck race for charity. You "buy" a duck and walk along the riverbank in Abbey Fields to see which duck wins. Lots of families and camaraderie and a good walk after the inertia of Christmas Day.

Celebrating Christmas Day

Catch Up

Since moving house in December our computer life has been a little slow hence the lack of blogging so it's time to catch up. I'm still debating about phones, laptops, notebooks, Apple etc and really could do with making a decision for business reasons but I'm still weighing it all up.

For now...a Christmas selection...


The fab cake class I went to at the Centre that we go to. Martha went into creche and I made a cake, made almond paste and then made royal icing. It was a nice switch-off time and I knew it was the only way I would get a cake made this year.



We had a fantastic meal at church with amazing entertainment and a sing-a-long. The tables were beautiful, the food wonderful and it was a lovely festive evening. Martha was great all night and we got to stay for it all which was another bonus.




Cradle Club Christmas Party - they had reindeer - it was very exciting for mummies!



Martha cried at Santa at first but then she was quite taken with him.

We moved house on 5th December and my parents moved down from Scotland on the 17th December - what a mad month it was. They sold their house after 40 years to come and live nearby us. We celebrated with a bottle of Bolly and a meal.

6 Months of Fun

Martha was 6 months old on 24th November so we commemorated the day by going to the Crazy Kiln and doing foot and hand prints onto coasters and Christmas baubles to give as presents. It was great fun - it was just the two of us and the lady in the shop (Laura) helped us and fed Martha while I painted. It's such a nice place to go...we have been back since and I plan to go again soon.

The last 6 months have been amazing!