Finished: A knitting project which really shouldn't have taken as long as it did. The little bear's eyes might be a tad more staring than planned but at least it fits the still small recipient. And to make amends for the delay I went to the bother of making the card and wrapping paper.
Bought: Books and more books. Now I just need to perfect the art of reading at least three simultaneously. There was also a surprising purchase of a shirt/blouse (complete with tags) in the charity shop for not many pennies at all.
Visited: The optician. Though I have annual eye checks (thankfully no longer at the not particularly local hospital) because of a family history of glaucoma, I was more happy than usual to attend my appointment last week as I've been experiencing double vision of late. Of course, being my father's daughter, I'd self diagnosed something nasty in my brain. Turns out I had wonky specs. And breathe.
Baked: A lemon cake, classic Victoria sponge mix with a lemon curd flavoured buttercream and basic glacé icing to finish. And a batch of hinnies of the singing variety (recipe at the end of this post).
Walked. In the big park down the road on a gloriously sunny Sunday with the visiting Girlie and the littlest. 'We can take a short cut to the car park across here', said a certain Boy when we decided it was time to head for home. Turned out to be a short cut through a seemingly endless and bottomless bog. Which was followed by lots of hosing down and clothes changing back at the ranch. And maybe a little bit of swearing.
Overheard: 'Who would have thought we'd turn out to be family who ate crostini with prosecco before dinner?'. Actually, they were very tasty little nibbles (even the cheese-free vegan ones) - just thin slices of baguette, toasted on both sides, rubbed whilst warm with a garlic clove, spread with a slick of Boursin garlic and herb soft cheese and topped with sunblush tomatoes, mozzarella, olives and teeny basil leaves. Sadly, no pictures as they were very quickly demolished. As was the equally delicious prosecco.
Visited: One of the streets in town has recently undergone a transformation and what were derelict terraced houses are now, or soon to be, stylish (well, for us) eating and drinking establishments. We gave the excellent coffee shop a try (smiles all round) and now can't wait for the cocktails, burritos and woodfired oven baked pizzas. Things are definitely on the up here.
Spotted: 'Why is Boo so interested in looking at the garden?', asked the Boy on his return from work one evening. We joined the dog at the French doors, looked out and there it was....... a ruddy great heron sitting on the fence. Right next to the pond which is home to some very large and very expensive to replace fish. Cue one screeching fishwife racing outside as fast as her ancient legs would take her, closely followed by a keen to join in Boo. The poor fish are still traumatised. I can't speak for the heron.
Missed: For some reason (apart from a slight upper back ache) yoga was a bit of struggle (not that it's ever that easy but still) and not half as enjoyable as usual. Strange. I decided to simply draw a line under it last week and didn't participate in the second session. Hopefully this week I'll be full of the joys of Spring. And the proverbial beans. Namaste.
Grown: Littlest is now seven months and has recently been working hard on producing something (update: make that two things), which, it seems, he's more than happy to keep sparkly clean (supervised by his black and white feline friend) .