Monday 14 March 2011

Fun in the sun

The sun came out today after days of rain and gloom so we forgot about schoolwork and took ourselves off to the park, I sat and knitted, I'm in the middle of making some fingerless mittens with some gorgeous wool that is different colours, when finished I will share them if I remember!, I really love fingerless gloves at this time of year especially for gardening and planting seed, it's still a little nippy to go bear but normal gloves are such a faff, plus I love feeling the soil between my fingers it makes me feel like I'm really connecting with the earth. We saw lots of daffodils peeking through and some pied wagtails having a jolly time in the grass. Our park has had a makeover, it is an improvement but, and here is the moaning bit, why do planners etc not think further than the look of something, there are loads of patches of soggy mud where rain collects in puddles, these are dotted through the play area where children are meant to run from one piece of equipment to the other, there is no avoiding them or going around them either, some poor child fell face first into the mud and his mother was having a fit, I did smile to myself because I think by the grin on the boys face he liked being covered in mud, the mum (all in white) was not amused!
You would never know but I'm a size 6 under all my layers ;)
We had a nice time though just being outdoors for a while, we came home and the boys collapsed on the floor in a heap of tiredness, my legs ached like mad too, it showed how much we have been hibernating this winter, we are so unfit!
I want to mention too the appalling tragedy in Japan, I can't even begin to know how those poor souls who have lost everything must feel, we have been reading about the various natural disasters that have been happening, it seems so hard to believe that so many things have and are happening to one country. There have been mentions all over the net about various explanations such as supermoons, the rapture, pole shifts, HAARP etc but whatever your beliefs on the terrible happenings, we can all agree that we should be thinking, praying etc of those poor innocent people who have lost their homes, families, friends,colleagues, animals, lives. It is at times like this I feel so helpless and small in this massive world.

Friday 11 March 2011

Friends are like flowers....

I have been thinking a lot lately about how friendships are a lot like flowers, some bloom and grow over time, years even, like reliable perennials and others are like garage bought carnations, lovely at the time but don't last very long. I have always thought I am a good friend, I'm always available in a crisis, I think I'm a good listener, I'm funny so Ive been told and do make others laugh, I'm reliable and trustworthy. On the down side I'm late for almost everything and I am opinionated, perhaps I like giving advice about things a little too much, maybe this bugs people but I can't help being passionate about issues that are dear to me. At least I can take a step back and realise where my friendship skills are shaky. What I don't understand is why friends can't be honest with each other, if I talk too much about things instead of laughing at me behind my back, point this out to me, instead of having a good old gossip about the way I live with others, say it to my face, if you can't do that then I think the friendship has wilted and died off just like my snowdrops are doing in the garden right now. I won't feel bitter or bad, I will feel saddened because the friend I thought I had found didn't turn out to be a perennial after all.

On a much lighter note whilst trying to be creative with the small amount of food we had in one morning I made breakfast pizza, the children thought it was a novel idea and my fellow thought I had gone a little crazy, I made a spelt pizza base and added baked beans, a chopped up boiled egg and some very tasty organic bacon from Able and Cole, we have it as a treat about once a fortnight and it is so good, I made another breakfast pizza too, it had mushrooms, roasted tomatoes and beans on it, I and the rest of the family couldn't believe how tasty and filling it was. It's surprising what us mamma's come up with when there is little in the cupboards.

We also went to Showzam, a fab carnival that comes to Blackpool each year, it's so good in the way it takes you back to the circus/travelling shows of years ago when they had things like the flea circus and the amazing half woman. This year the boys loved the fire eaters and a magician who was an amazing juggler. I loved this:
I didn't know what to expect but the compare told us the story of how they had captured the butterfly girl in the Amazon and brought her back, he warned all the males not to catch her eye because she will transfix you with her beauty, when the curtains opened it was a lady who was on a swing with a butterfly pod instead of legs and big wings, they had done the background to look like it carried on forever, it was very clever, the compare was a really good story teller too which made it more real. I just love the artwork on the board.