Inside/Outside

Inside: We woke to this on Saturday morning so abandoned our plans to get started on the exterior paint jobs. (As I'm sure you can imagine, we were devastated by that turn of events...)

Outside: So then of course the sun came out, but a cold wind blew and the rest of the weekend was a typical April mixture of sunshine and showers. This is my neighbour's forsythia. Isn't is glorious? I wish mine had blossomed like that.

Inside: We tried a new breakfast recipe from this book: Persian eggs with halloumi. Very tasty, the oily juices mopped up with sourdough bread, but next time I would use less cheese and more tomato.

Outside: The grass had it's ceremonial first cut of the year.

Inside: The filing cabinet was tackled with similar gusto, as I did battle with old bank statements and the paper shredder. We have a very mature and responsible attitude to filing in this house which involves ignoring the bulging folders for as long as possible, then a day long purge accompanied by lots of muttering, huffing and under-the-breath swearing.

Outiside: My first run in weeks on Sunday morning, accompanied by two very good friends and lots of resolutions to go more often.

Inside: New trainers for Bella (hot pink and white with Hello Kitty designs, the last word in cool) for outside PE lessons at school in the summer term. She will be very unimpressed when they get muddy.

Outside: More garden foraging for posies.

Inside: Name labels were sewn into new school summer dresses.

Outside: The new wooden growhouse was assembled and will soon be - I hope - bursting with growth, once I get around to re-potting the sunflowers, basil and tomatoes that are currently residing on the kitchen window sill.

Inside: Another new recipe tried from my Mother's Day gift, Jaffa Cake Cupcakes. Plain sponge cake, with a little spoonful of marmalade hidden inside, topped with chocolate buttercream and mini-jaffa cakes. Very, very tasty.

So there we have it, a weekend that was all about the changing of the seasons, a weekend of firsts and of the new, of sorting and clearing and planning, of getting the house and garden ready for the coming months. Not exactly a bumper "look at me!" weekend, but one of those quietly productive ones that are so pleasing.

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Many thanks for all your kind words about friendship in response to my last post. I know that my friend and I will stay in touch - we have the wonder of the internet to help! There is email, Facebook, Skype and probably other ways that haven't even occurred to me yet, not to mention good old hour long chats on the phone.