I Spoke Too Soon

That didn't last long! No sooner had my hours been reduced at work, when I was asked to provide cover for a colleague. To be honest, I don't really mind, the shifts are much more convenient for me and I realise how lucky I am to have a job I enjoy, which fits in so well with family life. 

Aside from my mild excitement at getting on top of all the housework recently - oh, how wonderful that feels - day to day life has become fairly mundane. Life is quiet just now, albeit pleasantly so, and all feels good in my little corner. Weekdays are busy with work and school, so weekends are precious and I have been trying to balance going for days out with spending some of our time relaxing at home. 

It's all a bit mixed in the garden just now. The weather has been so dry that the grass hasn't needed cutting and, even though the wildflower seeds appear to be sprouting now, the sweet peas and sunflowers are not enjoying quite the same success. I'll see how they look in another week's time, then I may choose to sow some more. The strawberries are flowering though, and the runner bean is doing well, so all is not lost. After seeing some very creative ideas on one of the gardening programmes, Lily and I decided that we would make ourselves a small container pond and last week our new planter arrived. We needed to fill it from the outside tap so we're leaving it to settle for a week before we get some plants to put in it. I did, however, fit a small solar powered fountain, which is making me very happy indeed - you can change the nozzle to create different sprays :) 

At the weekend we enjoyed a walk from Grasmere up to Easedale Tarn, then beyond up to Tarn Crag. There is a clear and often busy track which leads out from the village but, thanks to our usual early start, it was lovely and quiet while we were there. The path climbs alongside Easdedale Beck and past Sour Milk Gill before reaching the tarn. Here, we enjoyed a short rest and a slice of flapjack before taking the faint grassy track heading north east to reach the summit. Another bright, clear day meant we were afforded some beautiful views from the top before walking the more direct, and less steep, path back down the fell.

The footpath then took us down alongside a drystone wall, and where a small wooden bridge crossed the beck, we sat to eat our picnic lunch, while watching the now steady stream of walkers make their way up to the tarn. I must admit to feeling rather pleased at my decision to have made an early start to our day, which was rounded off perfectly with some chocolate ice-cream when we arrived back in the village.

In other 'exciting' news, I made Honeycomb. And I might just have made myself feel a little bit queasy from eating too much of it :)

J. X