Snowdrops, pancakes and a birthday

I always like February. It brings with it pancake day, half term and my birthday. Even better if my birthday falls in half term (which it did not this year, sadly, but I have already checked and it does in 2025!).

Some of the highlights include beautifully sunny walks, the kind where you forget it's the middle of winter and get overexcited that spring is coming. 

Everything opening up and growing, little flashes of colour here and there.

And then there were walks like this, in which we waded through puddles up to our ankles and everything was soaked and splashed with mud.

Half term was lovely. We did not have to go anywhere in particular so, while we were pretty busy with things at home, there were slow mornings when I was able to go back to bed with a cup of tea and a book. I have just finished this. I enjoyed it overall. I don't read much history and I found it really interesting but at times a little leaden. Lots of facts. 

Pancake day was joyous. We ate them for breakfast with fruit and yogurt (me) chocolate spread and banana (Bella) and drowned in maple syrup (John and Angus). I tried to persuade everyone that we should have stuffed savoury pancakes for dinner but it did not go down well, so we made English style pancakes for dessert instead

There were trips to garden centres

and the pots of the front door step were given a little spruce up. Such a happy sight to pull into the drive way and see cheerful tete-a-tetes and white primulas instead of a dead cyclamen that has been there all winter. 

I always feel such an urge to bring all the greenery and new flowers into the house at this time of year. I think that the last fresh flowers I bought were some sunflowers back in September, and some eucalyptus at Christmas, so it's lovely to buy cheap daffodils and pots of hyacinths. 

Truth be told, I had been waiting for daffodil season to fill this beautiful vase my mum gave me for Christmas.

We bought it at a vintage fair in West Sussex before Christmas and I just love its symmetrical shape and handles. It also contains this clever wire mesh inside, so that you can arrange lots of stems without them all flopping all over the place. 

I really enjoyed being in the house over half term, doing domestic tasks and giving the house a bit of love, imposing a bit of order. I did jobs like sort out all the food cupboards, using up packets of things and auditing the spice situation. Conclusion: we are terrible about checking we have something before buying a new one. No-one needs three jars of star anise and two of saffron. 

I spring cleaned the bedrooms, moving furniture and actually cleaning behind things, rather than running the duster over the surfaces. I refreshed the shelves in our bedroom giving them a late winter/early spring feel. Truly, it is such a pleasure to have the time to do things like this. To have a day where there is no rushing, where all there is to do are some gently domestic tasks which make our home feel a bit more loved, a bit more cared for.

My mum helped me paint our bathroom (more on that later) while my dad helped me hide this horrible corner of the kitchen under some strips of pine stained an oak colour. You can see below where Ziggy chewed the end unit of our kitchen, right at the bottom, when he was a puppy. We've been looking at that for six years.

I had the idea to cover the front with a thin strip of wood, then also along the side. I like it a lot. It adds warmth and texture to our white kitchen, and also hides something ugly. I plan to add more to other corners. 

There were lots of other lovely moments. New hair cuts for Bella and I.

New nails for me.

And lots of time spent crocheting. I finally finished my trio blanket, which I started back in lockdown, I think. I can't remember exactly but I know it was a long time ago. I know I was glad to finish this blanket.

I chose three quite similar shade of yarn (Slice o' cherry pie, Liquorice Yumyum and Caramel Core Blimey) so the colour variations are subtle. It's easier to see when the the blanket is folded rather than laid out.

It looks good draped over the foot of our bed, or on the back of the sofa.

Despite having my birthday on a work day, it was nice and I received some lovely gits, such as this jigsaw, some new books, scented candles, new bags, a voucher for Seasalt and all sorts of lovely bits and bobs.

  

I am so excited to read these two, I have heard such good things about them!

Finally, what was already a nice month ended beautifully with a trip to Unravel Festival with my friend Abigail. Our birthdays are days apart, and the location of the festival easy for both of us to get to, so we've been going over the last couple of years. 

This year, I was certain I would buy nothing, yet came home with some new yarn (from here) which I bought purely because it reminded me of summer and I thought it would make a nice lightweight scarf.

And also the yarn to make this hat - very much my kind of colours. 

The month ended in the best way, with a mantel crammed with plants, cards, flowers and candles. Signs of the seasons, signs of life. 

Bunting and Cake

Thank you so much for your comments on my embroidery sampler, and all your brilliant suggestions on what I could sew for the letters O and U. So many good suggestions! Thank you.

There has been lots of good stuff to celebrate round here over the last couple of weeks. It's been a lovely and much needed distraction from lockdown and home school.

Last week Angus turned eleven. I was really worried that being in lockdown was going to make for the worst birthday ever but actually, I think he had a really good day.

We cancelled home school for the day which instantly made him delighted. Seriously, I think that may have been his best present.

(You may notice a theme to his gifts...)

He requested French Toast for his birthday breakfast....

and peppermint Oreo brownies for his cake, which was very easy and pleased me greatly. I used this recipe, leaving out the nuts and scattering a packet of broken up Oreo biscuits over the batter before it goes into the oven.

We had a Zoom birthday party with family near and far and all sung happy birthday to him. His best friend dropped round a present and card and they had a socially-distanced doorstep chat, as did I and his mum. He requested a takeaway pizza for a birthday tea and overall it was a really nice, chilled out day, and didn't feel in any way sad or depressing. We've talked about possibly having a party in the summer when lockdown is lifted. 

We didn't do anything big for the 75th anniversary of VE Day, but celebrated it in our own quiet fashion. Bella and Angus made bunting and we had a cream tea in the garden.

Our scones didn't rise much but they had the lightest texture, I will definitely make them again. 

 The weather was gorgeous for most of that weekend, warm enough to hang out in the garden all day and have a barbecue.

Angus was invested into the Scouts via, you guessed it, Zoom. He was really shy and proud, it was so sweet. Do excuse the haircut though please - it's a home special. He's now sporting a grade 4 all over. The lack of access to hairdressers has proven to be one of the most unexpectedly stressful aspects of lockdown.

I planted out my sweet peas - all grown from seed! At the moment they look very weak and pathetic but I'm hoping they will be ok.

The pink and white ranunculus are coming along nicely.

I also moved my tomatoes out of the cold frame and into bigger pots on the decking. I now need to research what to do with tomatoes - something about pinching the tips?

I always think the garden looks prettiest in May, largely because the two big rhododendron bushes come into flower.

The bees absolutely love them.

My pile of EPP hexies is slowly growing. I have around 500 now; these are all my colourful ones and I have a box of white, grey and cream. I think I might start sewing some together soon.

I've started treating myself to a bunch of flowers when it's my turn to do the food shopping. Usually it's a £5 bunch of tulips but yesterday they had peonies which I couldn't resist. I can't wait to watch them open up.

My sampler is bringing me so much joy every day. I love thinking about each letter and trying to pick something just right.

I'll do another post soon with lots more photos and details but I thought you might like to see where I am so far.

Have a fabulous week everyone. Stay safe.