Catching Up

Sadly, the snow melted away, and now that I have finally caught up on the chores following last weeks half term break, I am giving myself some time to sit down and catch my breath. It has been such a good feeling to give the house a thorough clean, throw open the widows and let the fresh air in. For the first time this year I have had washing out on the line. Oh, the scent of freshly laundered, line dried washing! A simple pleasure but such a gratifying one and it's always a sign of the changing seasons for me, the promise of warmer days to come.

We had a good week off. The perfect balance of entertainment and relaxation and it was a welcome break from the school routine, but it passed ever so quickly. We enjoyed time at the soft play centre, some short walks and we went swimming. It is such a long time since we've been swimming together, I'd forgotten just how much Lily enjoys it, so I felt really bad. I must make more of an effort to take her from now on.

My Lily's favourite part of the week, however, was the time we spent at Inflatanation in Manchester - a massive indoor inflatable with slides and ball pools. I would thoroughly recommend to anyone as a combination of exercise and/or stress relief (that's if you discount trying to chase after and keep up with an over excited four year old on what is basically a big bouncy castle!). A huge amount of fun and I'm sure we'll be going back soon.

We are now back in our usual weekly routine and I'm happy, once more, to have a bit of structure to my day. Even more so now that I have started working again, albeit only part-time.

The days are becoming brighter, sunnier and more Spring- like, although the temperatures are still bitterly cold and Wintry. The surrounding fields are dotted with lambs and the bulbs in the garden are poking through. All around the lanes the daffodils are just waiting to flower. We are on the cusp of Spring but, if the recent forecasts are anything to go by, we are in for one final blast of Winter later this week.

Yesterday I had the sweetest afternoon, helping out  during a class visit to one of the local village farms to see the new born calves and lambs. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the children all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I'm not entirely sure the sheep were very impressed with twenty six small people parading into their barn but the lambs were delightful - those little fuzzy faces! The calves were VERY friendly, much to the children's amusement. I hope they all washed their hands well!

In other news, I have finally given in to the fact that my phone was on it's last legs and treated myself to a new one before the inevitable happened. The camera is of better quality and I don't have to turn it upside down because of a speck on the lens, so I'm hoping this will lend itself to some clearer photographs once I've got used to it.
Wrap up warm folks!
J. X