Easter, cookies, flowers, little trips, blossom, spring and all good things.

Spring has been really good to us so far, weather wise. We had gorgeous sunshine for most of the two week Easter holiday and last week was unexpectedly hot (and today unexpectedly cold). It has been a busy, lovely time of visits, day trips, decorating, DIY, gardening and baking. Good spring things. 

We travelled north at the beginning of the Easter holidays to visit family in Durham. 

We always try to have a few hours in Durham city if we can, to wander around the pretty streets, eat out somewhere, visit the cathedral and pop into Waterstones. 

The cathedral is beautiful and always worth a visit; they had a Lego model on display too which was full of incredible detail.

I bought a book - more on reading later. But is there ever a sight more welcoming than piles of books on a table?

While in Durham, I spied an unusual concoction (confection?) in a bakery: a peach melba pie. Of course I have heard of peach melba, as an ice cream flavour, but had never seen a cake like this. Peaches in a pastry crust topped with whipped cream then the whole thing smothered in icing. Delicious. I think this may be a North East thing - I never saw it growing up in the South.

Once home, it was time to nest and potter, to reset the house after a very busy term at school. Working full time (with a great deal of work in the evenings and at weekends) means that I push a lot of tasks back into the school holidays so that is when I really tackle admin, cleaning, sorting out cupboards, gardening etc. I go into the holidays with a big list.

Some tasks are delightfully unnecessary, such as creating an April shelf in the hall, full of the pinks and yellows of spring. 

Or ordering a set of solar lights (habitat) for the back garden.

Others are slightly more necessary, like washing all the cushion covers and throws.

Or adding a couple more pictures to the family gallery wall. 

This print and the tiny bird are from Budapest...

....and this little watercolour of a bunch of flowers was a mother's day card Bella made me this year. 

All the house plants (very neglected house plants) were taken outside to be rescued. It's amazing what just repotting in a larger pot with fresh compost can do.

I took lots of cuttings and they are all lined up on the kitchen windowsill, growing away.

It always amazes me how quickly they grow roots in water

The fireplace was cleaned out and the log basket moved into the garage, to be replaced by lots of greenery.

Then it was time to embark on the DIY and decorating. Always so many jobs to do. B&Q did well out of us over the Easter break with the money we spent on paint, plants and other bits and bobs.

Plants were potted 

and tables sanded.

We jet washed pretty much anything that would stand still and then I treated the decking with a couple of coats of decking stain. 

I will put all the decorating and DIY photos into another post as I think you may doze off but there's lots to show you: a decorated bedroom, newly-painted dressing table and a few other little things. 

It was not all graft over the holidays - we had some lovely walks and days out. I met my friend Abigail in Brighton and we had a fun day with all the teenagers: shopping, Five Guys burgers, going on rides on the pier, ice cream etc. I was bankrupt by the end.

Finding salted caramel and liquorice ice cream was a definite highlight too.

Easter was lovely. The baking is always the best bit. I didn't make any hot cross buns this year but we made Easter nests and some biscuits. 

My new flower cookie cutter was a lot of fun to use.

This was a delight - my Easter egg, chosen by me and bought for myself from Waitrose. A sort of caramel chocolate. Absolutely gorgeous, and a good amount of chocolate too.

I bought the prettiest Easter egg garland from East End Press which I really enjoyed having up on the wall. The garlands were on three for two so it's just as well I bought a summery butterfly one too (as well as a reindeer garland for Christmas) as I really missed the decoration when I took it down.

And when not painting, gardening or eating chocolate, I have been reading. So much reading! I absolutely loved The Wedding People, a beautiful novel about a woman who is persuaded out of ending her own life through a combination of friendship and comedy. It sounds depressing but it really is not - I thought it was an incredibly uplifting book.

I bought Crying in H Mart in Waterstones in Durham, on recommendation. It is a book which features food heavily, always my favourite kind.

Little Fires Everywhere was a recommendation which I have just finished. I'd say it was a 6/10. I liked it and was very invested in finding out what happened,  but found all the characters pretty irritating and unlikeable to varying degrees.

However, Moon Over Soho was brilliant. I read it for book group. I read the first in the series (Rivers of London, also for book group) a couple of years ago and quite liked it but didn't love it. This was so much better: the characters really revealed themselves more and the plot was gripping. They are crime novels, set in London, except in a strange, secret branch of the police that deals with all crimes magical and otherworldly. I love how much London is a character in these books and how much knowledge of and affection for the city the author has. This was an Audible listen, and excellently narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. The narrator makes all the difference on Audible. 

Finally, on a whim, I downloaded the Booker Prize-winning Orbital. A beautifully written novel full of observations on life, space, human nature, but it would have been vastly improved by a bit more plot. It felt more like an essay than a novel at times. The best bits were the details of everyday like in the International Space Station, like meal times and daily tasks. I often think about this book though. How much a book pops back into my head after reading is always a sign of how good it was, I always think. 

There ends my mammoth round up of life here lately. We are deep in the thick of revision: Bella has here A levels this summer (English lit, History and Law) and Angus is doing his GCSEs. Both are very busy and only seem to come out of their rooms for food. My role is feeding, buying stationery like flash cards and occasionally testing on random subjects. We are all looking forward to this phase being over.