An April Postcard

April, what a washout! 

And I don't just mean the much mentioned fact that it was the wettest April since records began.

First of all, it started well. Hubby had a birthday. We went out for a lovely meal here, http://www.chinchinbarkitchen.com. A very laid back place where they do fab food and the staff are lovely - when or if you are in Bristol, I highly recommend a visit!

Then I caught a cold, a real stinker on Easter weekend! And all the plans I had for a very creative time almost evaporated, but luckily I got this bit of creativity in before the bug hit! Aided by my very artistic girls, I might add.

A few days were spent feeling sorry for myself and Youngest Darling Daughter, who also had the nasty virus, and thinking that as soon as the sun shines, we would feel much better. Did the sun shine? Somewhere, definitely, but not West of Centre.

'Oh well', I thought to myself, 'never mind we are off on holiday soon, at least I won't have a cold then.' We had booked a week in Sorrento and were very excited having never been to that area of Italy before. Sure enough by the time it came to leave for our holiday, I felt much better. 

Something inexplicable happened to Europe that week though. It rained everywhere. 

Sorrento was beautiful, even in the rain! But, oh how I wished we could see its beauty bathed in sunshine, instead of, well, just bathed!

We had rain everyday, most days it was heavy and torrential. We trudged round Pompeii in the cold and wet and it was flooded whilst we were there. It stopped raining long enough for the clouds to clear on top of Versuvius. The views from there were nothing short of breathtaking. And the sun did shine briefly at Herculaneum but on the way back to Sorrento, we spotted a twister in the bay - very impressive and very scary heading towards a cruise ship that had stopped there. Amazingly, we tried to get a photograph but it just vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, thankfully. I wouldn't have liked to be on that ship looking at a twisting tower coming towards me...

I thought of this poem as we faced the twister and floods:

 'O, To be in England

       Now that April's there...'

(Robert Browning. (1812–1889), Home-thoughts, from Abroad)

However, despite the damn awful weather, we had a wonderful time. Luckily, our Hotel was tip-top! Imagine how terrible it would have been if the Hotel was pants too! We ate far too much, drank far too much and generally took life at a slower pace. Beautiful, beautiful part of the world! Pompeii and Herculaneum are just fascinating. I hope to go back one day, maybe when Europe is in drought!

Then we had to come home. Darling Daughter First Born had exams to sit; Youngest Darling Daughter had to go back to school for her final term, gulp! And then Hubby got a cold. Poor thing, I sympathised having not long had one myself...

Then it struck again! Cold number two! How could this be, I usually only get one cold a year and here I was with two in a month. I was not happy! And it kept raining. I had all the holiday washing to do and it kept raining. Then Youngest Darling Daughter caught the cold too. We are obviously far too much alike and share far too much. I thought of this poem as I blew into a mansize tissue:

April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring 

Dull roots with spring rain.

(T S Eliot, (1888-1965), The Waste Land, 1922)

(Thank you to Darling Daughter First Born for the Easter Egg Photos)

Easter Eden

Hello.

Is there anybody out there?

I'm still here...

HAPPY EASTER!

This is supposed to be a photo of me and my girls painting eggs but Hubby uploaded the photos and now I can't find them!

Yes, I know! All that talk about blogging at least once a week and here I am, over a month later, finally managing to drag myself to the laptop to do a post. This is still the infamous old Apple PowerBook and it is still temperamental but is getting better following the acquisition of a new charge cable. 

I have had an eventful month, full of happy reunions and glorious sunshine.  Darling Daughter First Born is home for the Easter break, and a few weeks ago I met possibly my oldest, (in terms of how long I've known her, dears, not her age!), and dearest friend in London. It has been over a year since we last had the chance to get together and it was really nice to chat over old times and new. We drifted from cafe to park bench to pub for lunch and then back to a cafe again. The sun shone and I remembered just why we have been friends for thirty years - she knows me so well in every sense of the word. Thank you dear Nicky for a lovely day. Our lives have taken different paths. She is a successful and very hard working business woman with four children and is always looking for new challenges. I haven't had a paid full-time job since before my daughters were born and I am happiest when I potter in my garden or walk with my dog. I guess I have never really been ambitious, but now after our meeting, I am beginning to think I need to shake myself up a bit over the next year or so. Youngest Darling Daughter will be eighteen soon. She is planning on staying here for another year whilst she does her Art Foundation year but then she will follow in the footsteps of her sister and go off to university too. Then it will be just Hubby, Rosie and Me. Oh and Raphael, Darling Daughter First Born's bearded dragon lizard :) 

So I need a plan for the future.  I'm working on one right now and will reveal all in a future post. I have also been getting creative again. I am terrible at starting projects and never finishing them. Works in progress, yes, well, we all know what that means. Anyway, about fifteen months ago I started knitting my Mum a wrap for her holidays. Then as usual, life got in the way and the wrap was stuffed in a bag, unfinished and forgotten. Well, I decided it was time I finished it so that Mum could take it to Spain with her this time. So here it is, modelled by my Mum:

I'm pleased with the finished item and I think Mum liked it too.

I'm home alone today because Hubby and girls have gone to Devon to visit Hubby's Dad, who is 74 today. Happy Birthday Grandad! They left me behind because I am infected with a nasty cold virus. So I have been a recluse all day, feeling sorry for myself and watching the rain pour down outside.  It's hard to believe we were basking in the sunshine just over a week ago. Hopefully, tomorrow the sun will shine again and my cold will be a thing of the past, fingers crossed :)

Rainy Days and Sundays

We've had quite a lot of rain this week, and today has been no exception. I had hoped to go off on a jolly jaunt to some nearby seaside resort but nobody else was keen on that idea. The seaside can be so special in the rain though, don't you think..?

So instead, I have been doing the jobs  I like to put off until a rainy day!  

I have washed the kitchen floor - yes, I know rain, Rosie the dog and clean floors are never a good combination but why waste an hour on a lovely sunny day doing such chores when I could be outside with Rosie. 

I've dusted the living room and asked myself again: "Why do I have so many nicknacks and candles?" "Clutter" is how my Hubby refers to all my precious bits and pieces. 

I've remodelled an old favourite strappy t-shirt to make it look a little less nineties!  

I've read issue four of 'Mollie Makes' and was especially pleased to see Dottie Angel on page nine. I love her blog, she always makes me smile! 

I've checked eBay to see if I've sold or won anything, and trawled through the listed upholstery fabrics for any bargains - nothing doing there. 

I've edited and cropped some of the photographs I had taken earlier in the week for my blog and now I'm playing with the layout and fonts and wondering what else I can do to increase my blog following.

But, It's no good, I can't put it off any longer. I need to take Rosie out for her walk even if it's raining - a dog has to do what a dog has to do!