Notes From A Bank Holiday Weekend

I've been watching the morning light and liking the stripes.

I am procrastinating over this wall. More is needed but I don't know what. I have frames but nothing suitable to go in them.

I'm working on a blanket for Bella's bed.

She requested rainbow and white zigzags, so that is what she's getting. I'm about a third of the way through.

Urban bluebells. How have I not noticed these before? I never saw any in Leeds. They're everywhere, along verges by main roads, in between pavements, hiding in with the nettles and litter in the most unlikely places. Something I wanted to do this spring was go for a walk in a wood full of bluebells and take lots of lovely photos, and I'd still like to do that (although I'm running out of time), but these unexpected roadside flowers delight me.

I over-baked a batch of jam doughnut muffins.

I wonder how long I can use the excuse that I am getting used to my new oven.

My mum treated me to a vintage coffee pot. It's bright daffodil yellow, a sturdy shape and has just the right amount of wear and tear while still being able to hold water. 

Angus is lining up his toy animals again.

He spends hours lying on the floor, carefully placing them in some kind of strange two-by-two Noah's Ark queue.

I think Rodda's packaging is so stylish. I hope they never change it. I also hope they bring out some nice merchandise, like tea towels or aprons. I'd love a Rodda's tea towel. 

We created a flower bed on the long, boring but also sunny back wall of the garden. That was hard work. Angus is telling me about all the worms he's put in his bucket here.

We made a bird feeder. John says it's too near the kitchen window and they wont feed from it. I hope he's wrong as Angus's homework is to document the bird activity on the feeder, and if it's too far away I wont be able to photograph or look up the birds. I can identify a pigeon and a robin and that's about it.

We had a monochrome walk around Chichester Harbour this afternoon. 

A flat white sky.

I hate those skies. They make me squint. Too bright without sunglasses, too dark with, they suck the colour out of everything.

Grey sea.

Beige reeds.

Thank goodness for all that green. It's just emerging now, lush and shiny and new.

This one is obsessed with badgers at the moment, both the toy one he's holding and real ones. They're learning about nocturnal animals at school. His birthday is coming up and he's asked for a badger t-shirt (I can't find one anywhere, naturally), books about badgers and a badger birthday cake. Help.

Gosh, bank holidays. They're exhausting, aren't they? Ours started early with a school training day on Friday. The morning was a blur of errands and shopping but we had a small celebratory lunch at my mum and dad's house as my Dad retired this week. He jokes that he's not so much retired as moved from paid to unpaid work, as my mum keeps referring to something called The List. Happy retirement Dad. The weather here has been cool, wet and windy, just absolutely typical for a May bank holiday weekend, and has kept us on our toes by not raining when it said it would and then raining when it said it wouldn't. Lots of pottering, gardening, DIY, family time, gin and tonics, fish and chips. Nothing exciting to see here, just lots of happy normal.