Bonsai, buttons, and a baby bump 💛

Hello and welcome back to blogland 🌈🌞 here is me and my little family exuding cosiness:

Juniper can't resist my lap when I'm wearing my dressing gown 😆

Some lovelllyyyyy lilac on our neighbour's tree, and my almost 30 week big belly 🐣 I can't believe we're in the thirties now, it really is starting to fly by! I feel the baby wiggling and jiggling around all the time now, I've been trying and trying to capture it on video but somehow he or she knows when I've got the camera out and will not perform on demand.

Viburnum and aquilegia flowers have appeared in the back garden, bringing some much desired colour:

I realised the snails hadn't featured in a blog post for months and months, so here they are! After the baby snail debacle of 2021 (in this post) I separated them into two tanks, but they became almost completely inactive (do snails get lonely?) and it was hard to keep two tanks warm in the colder months, so as a last resort I let them cohabit again. Now that we're in nice, warm, egg-laying season I've separated them again...I know (now) that snails are breeding machines and this doesn't technically rule out the chance of more eggs but I tried my best 😅

As promised, here is my finished baby cardigan! I'm so pleased with how it turned out:

It was quite simple whilst also teaching me some new skills, overall a nice introduction to following a knitting pattern! Plus I found the most perfect little buttons to finish it off 🍄🍄🍄 the only thing cuter will be seeing a real life baby wearing it 😊

A couple of colourful new faces that have popped up in the front garden, purple alliums and our one and only deep pinky red peony. Just like last year it has masses of foliage but only one flower! Any gardeners know how to fix this issue?!

Some proof that Juniper likes Ed's lap as well as mine:

I have officially entered the XL mens t-shirt stage of pregnancy (who am I kidding, I've always worn baggy t-shirts 😆):

Last weekend Ed and I took a road trip to Expo Bonsai 2022, a national bonsai exhibition in Crawley. After leaving home at 6.30am and driving for a few hours (accompanied by a decent playlist of course) we arrived soon after the show opened. After eventually finding a parking space, we got our wristbands on the door and were greeted by soo many amazing trees. I took photos of some of my favourites:

I loved this little ceramic toad plant pot 🐸

...and these teeny tiny trees on a miniature shelf 🌳

This really looks like a place you could climb around and explore!

After the exhibition we travelled on to visit Ed's grandma and spend the night at her house before driving home again the following day. We were blessed with such lovely weather and enjoyed helping out in the garden and then going for a sunny walk around the allotments 🌾 Although we were only away for one night it really felt like a little holiday and it was so nice to catch up with family, especially because it's probably the last time we'll see them in person before the baby comes! 

Back home and documenting the forget-me-nots growing in the carpark at work:

Our first couple + bump photo (courtesy of my thoughtful sister), plus a frantic candle-lighting session for my other sister's 18th birthday:

The jolly welsh poppies outside our church are blooming again, and so is this ajuga in a pot in our garden. It's an amazingly bright bluey purple:

My newest houseplant acquisition, an alocasia dragonscale 🐉 I have wanted one since I first heard of them probably a couple of years ago, and my patience paid off because I managed to grab this one on the reduced shelf hehe. Plus Juniper enjoying the new baby quilt, a beautiful, handmade surprise gift from a kind friend at work:

Here she is trying out the changing mat for size:

Today Ed and I spent some time in the garden, planting out sweetcorn and some of our tomatoes 🌽🍅 Ed thinned out the parsnip seedlings, and replanted some carrots as the last batch seem to have been munched into nonexistence! We also harvested an onion and a garlic to see whether they were ready yet, they looked good but we decided to leave the rest to get a bit bigger! We've also got courgette and chilli seedlings inside, growing food is exciting 😄

Onion twins, and Juni overseeing the garden work:

Queen of the castle 👑 (garden junk castle)

Thanks for stopping by again, hope you enjoyed this life/pregnancy/garden update 💘 see you sooooon!

The one with all the bluebells 🌿

On Sunday (1st May) I got woken up by the dawn chorus. I was so comfy just half asleep listening to the birds through the open window and feeling the baby kicking around, it was a lovely time. Then at some point I drifted back to sleep and had some strange, fun dreams. I usually don't really wake up before the alarm so it was purely coincidental that Sunday was apparently National Dawn Chorus Day, I had no idea!

Last post I mentioned that I had a new knitting project on the go, well here it is! My first time following a proper knitting pattern, and my first item of clothing that isn't socks or a scarf 😆

A sweet little baby cardigan is taking shape! I'm almost finished now, just sewing up the seams so next time I'll be able to show you the finished piece and I'm very excited. Especially because I've got some really cute buttons for it 😍

Juniper likes the baby room:

Our Easter display (which I am still reluctant to dismantle even though Easter was a few weeks ago now oops):

We had a bring and share lunch at church on Easter Sunday, my Biscoff rocky road went down a treat! 🐥 Plus an Easter bump update:

Some lovely April colour from the local area:

I am now almost 30 weeks pregnant (😮), when I hit the 28 week mark and officially entered the third trimester I decided to make a celebratory loaf of sourdough:

You can vaguely see a number 3 in the middle 😆

I am feeling big and round now haha. I get quite achey too, especially my ribs where everything is expanding and pushing against them. Pregnancy is still fun though, it's a weird feeling being so excited to meet this brand new baby but also wanting to make the most of this unique time and not wish it away.

My 28 week bump and a silly doodle from a slow morning at work:

Ed and I went for a nice walk one afternoon. It felt like the perfect spring day, warm and full of birdsong. The bluebells were out in full force and we also saw lots of pink wild orchids:

They don't really show up in this photo but there are lots of bluebells!

Some fun, colourful decor at a little cafe in town where my dad and I had a hot chocolate last week (we also shared a custard donut, yummm):

More bluebells!

Trago Mills looking very pretty, complete with a peacock of course:

My first daisy chain of 2022 (whilst sat on a grass verge of Halfords carpark waiting for my new tyres to be fitted!), and an extremely tasty, post-work fry up (a full English is for life, not just for breakfast) 😋

The route I take to work is looking very pretty at this time of year, a tunnel of bright green leaves and a carpet of bluebells on either side of the road. I decided to pull over in a slightly odd spot and take some photos one morning (which resulted in one of my colleagues worrying that I had broken down as she drove past):

Our garden is full of flowers now! Here's some phlox and also the bleeding hearts which I have been a bit obsessed with since they emerged from the ground a few weeks ago. I bought a little plant on the clearance shelf last year and then forgot about it once it died back so I was very excited to see it make a reappearance:

Some amazing caladium leaves at work, and Juniper asleep with her paws resting on the baby bump (cutest thing ever 😭):

Finally, my parting gift, this heartwarming photo of Ed meeting a fluffy black cat. Doesn't it look so friendly and innocent? Well this is actually The Robin Killer of 2020, who raided the nest we had in the garden during the first lockdown. It's still cute though:

And that's all for April, see you next time! 💚💜💛💗💙