Pottering

Well who would have believed it? Just look at us enjoying some fine Spring weather - blue skies and everything! With L back at uni revising for finals, E and I have been pottering around at home and enjoying time in the garden. 

Here are a few photos to sum up our week:

Washing my quilt for the first time - I was so worried that it was going to shrink or that the colours would run, but it all turned out fine and feels so soft and lovely.

 Hanging a wooden Ladybird postcard that I bought in Blackwell's bookshop; there were some lovely ones and I had difficulty choosing from so many much loved and well remembered books - the duckling won the day though. The hearts were part of my Christmas hamper made by the girls a couple of years ago.

 This week's library books. The Hummingbird Bakery one has been well used ....

The buttermilk pancakes were delicious - I'm not sure who tested the recipe though - it made far more than the stated 8!

We also enjoyed our first cream tea of the year. Sadly, R had polished off the strawberry jam, so we had to make do with apricot. Somehow we coped!

 Making mandalas. 

I'm a bit late coming to the mandala party - not unusually for me - but I really enjoyed making these with some left over yarn. I made 2 .......

 ..... one will be for under a vase of flowers but is currently under E's bowl of tadpoles:

The other is cushioning my clock radio. It tends to have a very faint 'hum' which, when you tune into it in the wee small hours, can be rather annoying.  The mandala helps.

 Other happies include:

Tulips in the front garden: 

 E having a little wander on the island with my camera:

 There are birds nesting in this fissure:

 Our ex-bat girls coming to see me watering the greenhouse - their feathers are now starting to grow back in earnest: 

 My favourite combination - blue sky and blossom:

 E revising in the garden:

 Me keeping her company with a  few knitting blocks:

 Dusting off the hammock when it got a little too hot - yes, April and I'm talking about it being too hot!

 Bees enjoying the Forsythia:

 Me enjoying listening to the baby blue tits in the nest box:

 Finally, brushing the cobwebs off my bike to cycle to the library:

 I cycled all the way there before realizing that L had borrowed my padlock over the holiday, so had to ride home again to collect it!
Anyway, that was my week. How was yours? I hope that the sun is shining for you too. I'm just off to Planet Penny's Happy Friday to see what everyone else has been up to.
Toodle Pip for now. x

Just a Minute

Hello everyone. I trust that a fine Easter weekend was had by all. The weather has been rather lovely recently and we managed to get out and about for a few walks in between all the wretched revision for exams. I feel I ought to apologize in advance for the rather photo heavy post. I was going to clump several together in mosaics, but (being technically challenged) that always seems to take me quite a while and after a long day yesterday, I'm afraid I can't muster up the energy.

Anyway, here are a few photos that sum up my Easter:

Essential Easter nests (there were far more to start with!) :

..... and, of course, Hot cross Buns:

Our very own Easter Bunny:

The traditional Easter egg hunt in the garden:

Hamish 'helping' with the Easter Egg hunt!:

Cheery daffs:

Basil and Olive Focaccia:

To be made into bruschetta with guacamole and feta with roasted figs:

Finally getting around to tidying the greenhouse - I know compared to some it doesn't look great but, believe me, it's infinitely better than it was - I was too embarrassed to take a before shot!

Sowing some seeds before running out of compost - I've just bought some more, so I can get on and plant the rest.

E's new passion - jasmine green tea with tapioca pearls:

 Our walk on Easter Sunday was an old favourite to Donnington Castle:

I hope you can read the sign - I think you can click on it and make it bigger if necessary. We've been coming here in the school holidays for 16 years now and it's always a delight. 

E had brought home some tadpoles from the biology department on the last day of school. They are thriving and will soon need to be released. I think our river is too fast flowing for them, so we checked out a large pond near the castle. I think it will be suitable when the time comes.

There were swans building nests:

.... and geese on the river:

Our walk on Easter Monday was the circular one we did in December for my birthday picnic. This time it was far less muddy and we did it in reverse just to ring the changes.

We started off along the towpath:

Saw some lovely narrow boats - one had a ship's cat; we wondered if he was Olav.

Crossed the canal:

Waved to the oak tree where we stopped for our picnic last time:

 Saw a really cute little cottage:

 .... and waited for a while for the horses to turn round so we could take their photo - they didn't!

 The weather was so warm that it could have been Summer but all too soon it was back home to hit those books again.
My final happy this week was a trip here:

A few months ago, E had applied for tickets to see the Radio 4 show 'Just a Minute' being recorded. 

Luckily for us, she was successful, so yesterday we set off early to the BBC. It's always lovely to see a show recorded, the only problem is that , to ensure a full audience, the producers give out more tickets than there are seats available. They work on the assumption that some people will book tickets but then be unable to make it on the day. Quite understandable, but it does mean that you can trek all the way into London, only to find that you can't actually get in. It pays to be early, so we had quite a wait. We filled some of the time sitting on the steps of All Souls Church hand feeding the pigeons:

Also, quite a lot of time sitting in a cafe with me knitting and E learning Latin vocab!

  For those who haven't listened to the show, contestants have to try to talk for a minute on various subjects without hesitation, repetition or deviation. The 4 panelists this time were Paul Merton, Giles Brandreth, Alun Cochrane and Susan Calman. All were brilliant but Giles Brandreth shone. Given any topic, he would half close his eyes, turn to the audience and talk AT SPEED for the full minute. He was also very sweet, looking after Susan Calman who was doing it for the first time and rather nervous. Nicholas Parsons, the host, is 91 years of age and looks 30 years younger - I'm sure he must have a portrait in the attic somewhere!
The only down side of the day was trying to get home on the train. After about 9 pm, the trains stop at Reading and we are usually left getting a bus home. The sad thing is, we are now so used to this appalling service (considering the price of a travel card to London) that we don't even think of complaining any more.

Anyway, that was my Easter week. Have a gold star if you made it through all those photos! I'm just off to plant some more seeds. Have a wonderful and, I hope, sunny weekend.
Toodle Pip for now. x

Croquet

Hurrah for the Easter holidays! E has had so much going on at school recently that the end of term was more than welcome. Friday lunchtime found us whizzing up to Oxford for a sleepover! E stayed with L in her room and R and I had booked the college guest room for the night. Even though we only live 25 minutes away anyway, it was a lovely treat. 

Here are a few snaps of our room:

 We didn't make use of the little study, other than to make tea, but the en-suite off to the right was very handy.

 I loved the old windows:

Waking up to the chapel bells ringing, this was the view that greeted us.

I found myself laughing out loud at the thought that my baby gets to wake up to this every day; it's quite unbelievable.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. When E and I arrived we collected L, bought a mozzarella flat-bread and a veggie samosa and went to a Chinese tea room. My jasmine green tea with tapioca pearls was lovely. The tea room was small but very cute. Shoes had to be removed and a fine time taking selfies was had by all.

 Walking back to the college, we came across Kes, the kestrel:

 ..... and Toby, the tawny owl.

 Apparently, they are invited along to a local pub every so often for educational purposes. They were both stunning and seemed very relaxed, despite all the attention they were getting.
We had arranged to meet L's boyfriend, J, who, being on a croquet team, had volunteered to teach us the basics. L had played before but E and I were complete novices. It was such FUN! A bit like a cross between snooker and crazy golf and very tactical. J was amazing and EXTREMELY patient with those of us  who hadn't a clue and who insisted on referring to bats and goals!

 A couple of views from the croquet lawn: 

 We played for hours, just finishing the game as it began to get dark. R joined us after work and we walked to 'The Opium Den' for a delicious Chinese meal before returning to the college for the night.
Next morning, we had breakfast in Hall and I couldn't resist taking a photo of this beautiful door - one of the oldest parts of the college:

Then, L had booked a table here:

 A 'meeple', for those who have never heard of them (including me!), is an object used to represent a player in a board game (I've always referred to them as counters!). There were over 2,300 games, all divided into various categories - word, fantasy, children's etc. We chose light strategy and the chap working there made a few recommendations. His knowledge was incredible - when we had chosen a game, he sat down and explained the rules, testing us to make sure we had been paying attention (fortunately, L had!) and then kept popping back to see how we were getting on.

Our game, 'Ticket to Ride', and my maple latte!

 After our game, we had a quick look round Gloucester Green market before going back to college for lunch and then packing L's stuff and bringing her home. We were only in Oxford for just over 24 hours but I felt as if I had been on holiday for a week. It was so lovely and I'm really glad we did it.

Other happies this week:

Making L a 'Don't Panic!' lavender bag to help with revision for her finals: 

 Finally, a visit to the local antiques fair at the racecourse:

 I bought this little sewing basket:

 The following items were still inside:

Even though I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them, I love them for their sense of history. The smaller thimble will come in very handy - my hands are quite small and I find most thimbles a bit on the large side but this one is perfect. I also have no idea what the pink plastic item, top right, is - answers on a postcard please!

Anyhow, that's all for now. Wishing you all a lovely, restful Easter weekend.
Toodle Pip. x