1. It’s a stripy kind of day in our household today!
2. The older girls head out with Mat on a 25k trail on their bikes so K and I watch Princess and the Frog on Disney+ and eat Grandad’s chicken’s eggs and soldiers for lunch.
3. I couldn’t resist the Sweet William in Tesco – £3 for a massive bunch that filled up two vases!
1. K has been meaning to make this for a while but she follows a youtube video to make her own cupcake out of a carwash sponge!
2. We take a picnic and head for a walk we’d actually done before in the autumn but had forgotten we had! It looks so different in the sunshine. I return home to find a lovely bunch of lavender and a card from a friend.
3. We’d promised the girls fish and chips in half term and they don’t disappoint. So tasty.
1. I love I’s profile that she has written for her care home penpal. I think I should redo my CV to look like this!
2. A WI friend has sewn the whole committee a mask. It’s reversible so you can wear whichever side takes your mood…
3. Forest school returns next week. It’s lovely to see fellow teachers in the forest after a 10 week absence (at a 2m distance natch!) for our pre restart briefing.
1. Strawberry picking with K and I followed by ice creams to recover from the polytunnel heat.
2. A friend gives me some red orach seeds, a sort of thai red spinach apparently. I plant some in the veg patch. In for a penny and all that…
3. A glass of Ribera del duero takes me right back to this time (ish) 15 years ago when Mat proposed in Galicia and we enjoyed this wine. Imbibed tonight whilst chatting with the lovely Elliotts in Sale.
1. The kind of text everyone wants to receive from a friend at 7.42am – ‘want some croissants from the bakery?’ Just half an hour later there they are on the doorstep in all their laminated glory. Thanks Bryony!
2. It’s a produce kind of day. Radishes from the garden, elderflower cordial in their bottles and K planting out her sweetcorn seedlings.
3. The first Doris pinks of the season. Uncle David bought a plant for Mum after D was born and I bought one a little later. The girls still can’t quite believe there is a pink with D’s name!
1. A trip to sit in Dad’s garden, 2 metres apart, just to check in and say hello. Good to see the chickens too!
2. It’s time to make our annual elderflower cordial. The girls help me pick it from the black elder tree and K helps dissolve the sugar, add the lemons and stir it all up.
3. Uncle Andrew sends us some giant sunflower seeds to plant. We each label up a pot and will run a competition to see whose grows to be the tallest.
1. We usually leave it too late to go walking and then have grumpy kids who don’t want to budge. So today we are out and about after breakfast and walking up above the village of Shoreham. Flask coffee and crisps on a bench above the valley never tasted so good. I’m sure someone will be able to tell me the name of the lovely pink flower…
2. I never normally make stuff from magazines so I’m glad this butter bean, pepper and walnut salad worked out. And it included the basil I’ve been growing from seed. Only taken 10 weeks for it to be ready!
3. Pudding for our bank hols BBQ is ‘affogato’ – sounds fancy but it’s just vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso and topped with smashed up crunchie. Reminds me of our days in Ealing when we went to Carluccios for lunch and had it for dessert there.
1. I’m laughing with the girls about something or other in our bedroom and Mat calls from the other room ‘your laugh sounds just like your Mum’s.’ A lovely compliment – I haven’t heard that laugh for nearly a decade but it makes her feel closer somehow.
2. D makes me some cookie earrings and then I has an idea to make some clay food charms and sell them for charity. I craft the burgers for her and it is SO addictive. I feel much more clay creations coming on…
3. A five-mile circular walk in the Kent countryside near Mark Beech where we barely see a soul and the scenery is just bucolic. I fill my lungs with the wonderful air from the array of beautiful trees all around.
1. The girls bake K’s birthday polymer clay into some cracking pieces – cookie earrings for D, a Saturn key ring for I, and K makes me some lovely earrings.
2. The fresh smell of Spring rain
3. A clean and tidy house after a week of mess. I have a little helper to polish. She later helps in the garden too.
1. I’d spotted a vegan chocolate cake recipe in the Guardian so we make it for a treat. As K’s photo attests, it’s absolutely delicious!
2. On our walk to deliver pen pal letters, we spot the most beautiful yellow roses.
3. I and K create the rainbow bus from the printer box. “It looks like Elmer!” says D.
Three Happy Thoughts 