Late Spring

Every time we go to the beach, Ziggy ventures just that little bit further into the sea. Today, he went in up to his armpits. Some of the things he loves the most - Bella and Angus, other dogs - all go in the sea but he is very wary. I can't see him doggy paddling any time soon.

I think its still late spring, but the weather feels like summer, and I bought my first bunch of peonies this week, always a sign that summer is on it's way. It's been gorgeous here this weekend, just the right amount of warm and sunny without everyone feeling like they're wilting. In fact, as I sit here at the end of a week off with such a sense of contentment, I think that it's been a pretty successful half term. Our friends from Yorkshire, old and dear friends, came to stay this weekend and it was such fun. We ate and drank a lot, chatted, stayed up late planning holidays, went out for lunch, to the woods, to the beach. The weather has been mixed but good when it needed to be - the bank holiday and this weekend - and the rain midweek meant that I haven't had to water the garden much. We've completely worn out Ziggy and he's now slumped on the rug in the living room, out for the count.

We've eaten well; barbecues, ice cream-cookie sandwiches, pavlova, plus a few lunches out for half term treats. There was also Nigella's chocolate coca-cola cake to celebrate John's birthday. I went a bit overboard with the icing but I don't think anyone minded. 

There are nineteen candles on the cake because that's all I had left. Add another twenty one and you'll have his age. His gift was a shiny new coffee machine which he's having fun getting to grips with. I'm having fun drinking all the coffees he keeps making.

We have spent every moment we could in the garden and it honestly has been like having another room. Fed up with our hard wooden garden bench which is crippling to sit on for more than ten minutes, we bought a new one. John happened to see it was on offer and before you knew it we were discussing which colour we should get. 

It's the most comfortable bench I've ever sat on, like a sofa, and everyone wants to sit on it all the time. 

John sanded and painted the railings that encircle the balcony at the front of our house. They're a lovely period feature of our 1960s home but not the most fun DIY job to do, and one we'd been putting off since we moved in over three years ago. The whole job was hot, dirty, fiddly and awkward, and John worked really hard on them. Everyone else around us has painted theirs black so of course we went for mint green. They are glorious now, and the colour goes with the grey roof tiles and hot pint flowers I planted in the hanging basket by the front door. Every time I drive down the street towards the house and see them it makes me happy.

Meanwhile, I was sanding and painting something else indoors: one of our chairs, which Ziggy had chewed really badly. (Incidentally his chewing is much better now, although don't ever leave a pair of sunglasses lying around, and he hasn't really destroyed anything for a while. He's moved on to digging. So that's good.) Anyway, the ends of the chair arms were so badly chewed that we just sawed them off, then sanded the rest of the chair. 

I then painted it white (three coats of water based undercoat, two of water based eggshell) and I feel like we have a new piece of furniture! It's not an expensive piece of furniture but one we like, and I see no reason to get rid of it when it can be salvaged. 

As well as all this DIY and gardening, there was lots of craft time this week too and I got a few projects finished, including this large floor cushion for Angus's room.

It's based on a pattern I saw in Supersize Crochet but I just couldn't follow the pattern exactly because it called for ten balls of t-shirt yarn and at around £9 a ball that's one expensive floor cushion. So instead I found some super chunky acrylic yarn and played around with hook sizes until I was happy. Actually, the design is really fun - you crochet a kind of square cushion shape and then, when you're ready to sew it up, you lie it flat, then pick up the centre of the front of the top row and match it to the centre of the back row and then make that your seam, creating a pyramid shape. It's hard to describe but really effective. I made an insert with cotton to hold all the beanbag filling - my, that stuff is hard to work with, it wants to go everywhere, and any you drop on the floor pools together like mercury -  and I'm happy with it, Angus loves it, and so we're calling it a success. 

This stitch sampler from the Spring Craftpod is another addition to the hoop wall. I enjoyed the reduced colour palate of just a few shades of green, and the simplicity of the design. I also enjoyed sitting in the garden quietly working on it here and there.

So yes, a good week. It's back to school and work tomorrow for seven more weeks. Deep breath, dig deep - it's going to be busy. But I am hoping for lots more good weather and time in the garden between now and then.

Around the Campfire

Camp NCT, Derbyshire, 24th - 26th June 2016

Highs: the teacher training day which meant we could get on the road early, good weather (despite the wet forecast), beautiful, craggy scenery, long walks, children running free, bacon sandwiches, toasted marshmallows, wine around the campfire, but most importantly friends - dear, life long friends - (including some who recently moved to Australia but were back visiting), and laughter, chatting, hugs, children and adults all picking up where we left off last year, catching up with each other, talking long into the night. 

Lows: Brexit shock, the journey, feeling cold at night. That's it. The rest was amazing and the feeling of being with my kindred spirits kept me warm all week long when we were back at work and in reality. 

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"Camp NCT" is our name for an annual camping tradition that has grown over the last five years and become an event that keeps a group of us in touch. Previous years are here:

2015 - when we camped for the first time, in the same place near Ashbourne in Derbyshire.
2014 - sleeping in a pod in Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire.
2013 - visiting for the day in Appletreewick, Yorkshire.
2012 - Pateley Bridge again, when the children were really small. 

Coming up for ten years ago, we all met at our local NCT coffee morning in Leeds, hence the name. Our NCT days are long over now and many of us have moved away from Leeds, but the connections remain and there were nine families there that weekend. The friendships we form when our children are young are often enduring. If you have children, are you still in touch with those people you met when your babies were small and new?

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Sorry for the absence. I missed you all, but I needed to take a little blogging break for a while there. I had everything to say, and also nothing at all. Recent political events in the UK left me first shocked, then angry (not with those who voted differently to me, but with the behaviour and actions of our politicians), then just downright depressed. Not depressed in the mental health sense of the word, but just disappointed and weary. Flattened. Also, I am so very tired. I've been on antibiotics for the last two weeks and I don't think they've agreed with me, and work is exceptionally busy at the moment. But, I am coming out of it now; life goes on and there is a summer out there, ready to be enjoyed. 

This Is Why We Have Weekends

We spent this last weekend camping in Derbyshire with our friends from Leeds and it was completely glorious. I am still floating.

We drove up after school and work on Friday night, arriving at about 9.30pm with just - just! - enough daylight left to put the tent up. It was a mad rush and a nightmare journey which included us having to turn back due to a road closure and pull over on the hard shoulder because something was flapping out of the top box on the car roof. But Saturday morning dawned bright and warm, just as you'd want it too, and we ate breakfast outside. With our friends, all 28 of us embarked on a walk in the countryside surrounding the campsite. After a few hours some of us peeled off and went back for lunch, others stayed and walked longer. I spent the afternoon lazing around in a meadow with magazines and drinks, chatting about this and that. It was too hot to work on the crochet I'd brought with me. As the sun dropped, fires were lit and more bottles opened. Someone had the good sense to bring Pimms. The children who'd been largely absent and feral for most of the day, coming back only for food, returned filthy and suntanned, ready to toast marshmallows. 

There was a perfect moment when the sun was setting, when the atmosphere was convival and easy and warm, which I wanted to go on for ever.  One of those rare and magical moments where time is suspended. Happy children, happy adults. Food, drink, warmth, laughter, friendship. This is why we have weekends. And fire pits.

Of course it rained on Sunday morning and so we had to pack up a damp tent, and the journey home was long, and the washing mountain is huge, and we are all very tired. And all the jobs I would've done over the weekend didn't get done, so I'm playing catch up there as well. But was it worth it, just to sit in that meadow with our friends for a few hours? Absolutely.

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Doesn't my crocheted blanket look at home in that tent? I was glad of it's warmth this weekend for, while days were largely sunny, the nights were still cool. It's too nice to be folded on the back of a chair, it needs to go on my bed and so, as some of you suggested, I'm going to buy some more yarn and crochet some more rounds on the border. But not any time soon, because it looks like warm weather is coming. YAY!  (Shh, don't say it out loud, it'll get scared and run away and normal British Summer will resume.) It's time to get out the paddling pool.