Hello and happy April! 🌷 I always say October is my favourite month but there is something special about April...everything is coming back to life after winter, the birds are chirping and there is blossom everywhere. Maybe I have been converted to team spring after all!
The title of this post comes from a song which Ed and I have been playing for a few weeks now since we heard it in the film Moonrise Kingdom. We already knew the Cosmo Sheldrake version but didn't realise it was originally an old poem set to music by Benjamin Britten. It reminded us that it's almost exactly a year since we went for an evening walk on Dartmoor and heard a cuckoo for the first time so hopefully we might be able to do that again this year! Have a listen and enjoy (warning: it may get stuck in your head) -
In my last post I had just tested positive with covid and then 2 days Ed did too, so we had a nice week at home together despite being ill 😄
I think the warm weather we had that week made the sourdough starter happy and bubbly so we managed to produce a very handsome loaf of bread:
😍😍😍
I spent much of my time at home knitting baby socks! They are so quick that I could make one per day if I tried hard enough, they are also just extremely cute!!! I used the same Winwick Mum Sockalong pattern that I've always used but just scaled down the amount of stitches I casted on:
We enjoyed spending time out in the garden, especially on the sunny days before the weather turned chilly again. We sat out reading our books a couple of times and I even hung the washing out on the line for the first time this year (although it was still damp by the end of the day haha).
Juniper has taken on the role of chief tester, making sure that all the baby products we bring home are safe and fit for purpose:
A brand new leaf in the family:
The big crochet blanket I shared last time has now found its home on our sofa. I originally said it might go in the baby's room but after discovering how warm and cozy it is our seating experience has been elevated to new heights and we will not be letting it go 😆
On our final day of isolation, Ed made gingerbread biscuits and we had a lot of fun decorating them:
Just some pics of a sleeping cat:
Last week we took a trip to IKEA and successfully secured ourselves a cot 👶 though of course the highlight of the visit was eating meatballs (thankful for the opportunity to sit down, pregnancy and IKEA is a tiring combination):
Some blue snippets...my first forget-me-not bouquet, cherry blossom against a vibrant sky, and my growing bump at 26 weeks beneath my old denim dungarees 💙 (I got them in 2014 and they were always so baggy that I knew they'd make good maternity wear one day!) -
Ahh my favourite tree outside our church is flowering! And this year I finally did some research and discovered what it is - a malus floribunda, or Japanese crabapple! 🌸🌸🌸🍃 The blossom definitely is abundant and it's such a pretty shade of pink. I'm in love:
Here you can see Juniper helping put the cot together by reading the instructions for us, and then chilling with Ed in our newly acquired baby room armchair! I found the chair on a chance visit to a second hand furniture shop for only £10, it's comfy and only vaguely looks like it belongs in an old people's home 😆 It's covered in a blanket (the knitted one not the crocheted one!) to jazz it up anyway so we weren't too fussed about appearances. Juniper took a liking to it straight away and it is her current favourite place to sleep.
A few more different types of tulips have popped up recently from the wedding bulbs we originally planted in 2020. Our garden is starting to look colourful again which is exciting 😊🌷
See you again soon! I've just started a brand new knitting project and it isn't socks so I'll share that next time 😄👋💚🌞🌿🐈 xoxo
Hello and welcome to another post full of photos...lots of sunny March vibes, it feels like I've emerged out of hibernation! I'm feeling better and better pregnancy-wise and am finally not taking any nausea medicine which is great, also thanks to my new extra soft child toothbrush my gums are no longer bleeding every time I clean my teeth (pregnancy is a wild ride). The problem is that now, after managing to dodge the 'rona for two years, it has finally caught up with me and so I am currently curled up on the sofa on a work day feeling slightly sorry for myself. Juniper is keeping me company of course. Due to getting it during pregnancy I have to document my oxygen levels for the next 14 days which sounds slightly interesting but mostly annoying 😅 Never mind...back to the happy Spring photos...
I don't think I've ever appreciated the coming of lighter evenings as much as I have this year. Dark wintriness just reminds me of early pregnancy and being so ill so I think I just want to feel as far away from that as possible!
A 6pm sunset from early March
Juniper resting her head on my tummy as she sleeps is so cute, I like to think that the baby can hear her loud purrs:
On the Sunday afternoon before last there was a massive double rainbow! It was probably the most vivid rainbow I've ever seen and I spent a while standing out in the rain to enjoy it:
I felt inspired to make a mini Spring / early Easter display in our hallway 🌷🐇 the rabbits are actually a fold out card from my granny which makes such a sweet decoration:
More of the photogenic white cat...firstly, attempting to reach a huge bumblebee which flew past the window, and secondly, demonstrating that a bonsai pot makes a perfect spot to sit and contemplate life:
It's magnolia season! And I am loving it 😄🌸🌸🌸
Some golden hour light 💛
I finished my 13th pair of socks recently, these were a gift for a friend and Harry Potter fan who requested Ravenclaw house colours! It was fun to plan the pattern and see them come to life, of course I had to have a little photoshoot with them along with Ed's books:
Juni reading the Bible with me one morning...as you can see there is a mug in front of me which reminds me of a big update which I forgot to share in my last post - I am drinking tea again!!! ☕ Since some time in November I completely went off tea which was very out of the ordinary but now I like it again, and strangely Earl Grey is now my tea of choice whereas I used to not like it very much compared to breakfast tea. Mind-blowing stuff!
During the Winter hibernation I didn't bake any bread and we ended up throwing the sourdough starter away. But in this new chapter I have finally made another starter and we're attempting bread again! Here is loaf number 1, not particularly successful (flat as a pancake lol) but it tasted good anyway:
Last week my worst nightmare happened, I discovered mealybugs on my favourite plant! My archenemy pest vs my beloved hoya carnosa...after a trip to the shower for a good dose of bug spray I'm hoping the hoya will win.
Especially as she has a few growing peduncles at the moment and I am eagerly awaiting some amazing blooms! Another favourite plant, my big monstera deliciosa is currently growing a new leaf which is exciting too:
You might remember this big granny square blanket which I crocheted in 2020 during the first lockdown, it ended up sitting in a pile for all this time waiting for me to finish it off with a border. For some reason I really procrastinated doing that (probably because of my love affair with knitting socks oops) 😆 Anyway, I've finally finished it now which I'm very pleased about and I think it will make a nice addition to the baby's room:
It's quite large!
Juniper and her parents:
On Sunday afternoon, Ed and I went for nice walk just around our local area:
A sprinkling of daffodils
Magnolia stellata and some bright orange berberis flowers which were almost fluorescent in person:
My first bouquet of the year, and Ed demonstrating how nice this hedge smelt:
More magnolia! Visiting this tree was the main agenda for our walk as we drive past it everyday but wanted to actually appreciate it in the flesh:
Purple muscari and the red flowers which are finally opening on the quince in our garden:
The baby is approximately the size of an aubergine at the moment so I took a photo in Aldi to document this fact 😆 later that day I took littlest brother to the park and we picked some daisies (I picked them and he threw them):
Sourdough attempt 2, photographed in front of my Quality Street wrapper stained glass window:
Another piece of exciting news! After nearly 6 months of refusing to wear her harness, Juniper decided of her own accord that she was ready to be adventurous again and joined us in the garden whilst we sowed our first seeds of Spring. I think maybe she'd decided to hibernate along with me and was just waiting until the right time to emerge. She was very happy to be rolling around on the warm gravel and eating grass again:
And that's all for now! A very long post but I've got lots of time at the moment 😁 Hope you're all enjoying the change in seasons! xoxoxo
