April ... ing

April in my world is always a short month. It feels short, shorter than February actually but of course this makes no sense whatsoever. I am done with the cold and wet weather and look forward to swapping the winter duvet for the lighter summer one. I still need a hot water bottle for comfort! 

:: Single parenting for 10 days while Richard was in Nepal for work.

:: Cooking a few nice meals, including homemade pesto, lentil soup and courgetti-spaghetti. The latter without the spaghetti makes an excellent filling for a lunch time wrap, together with houmous. I am not the most creative cook and have a limited repertoire of dishes that I like to make but the food I make is usually edible. The memorable exception to this a vegan lasagne I made a few years ago that still makes me shudder. 

:: Eating the above and much more. April also marked our first BBQ dinner, always an event. I'll try to forget that it was raining by the time we were organised....

:: Watching the crime series "Wisting" on BBC iPlayer. It is a Norwegian police procedural TV series. I have been following the book series, which I liked. The series is all in Norwegian, with subtitles. It is very well made, a good reflection of the books and I am eagerly awaiting the time it is acceptable to watch the telly after a busy day at work. 

:: Listening to Marian Keyes new novel, My Favourite Mistake. Everybody needs a bit of Marian Keyes in their life, it is good for the soul. I also enjoyed two instalments of a new to me crime series by Martina Murhpy, set in Ireland: The Night Caller and The Branded. I basically chose the first book because I like the narrator, Aoife MacMahon, then I was hooked. 

:: Not finishing two books... a bit of a record, I rarely give up on books. I didn't finish The Night Alphabet by Joelle Taylor and Memory Piece by Lisa Ko. The former I found too confusing, and to challenging. The latter, I just couldn't get into, I felt bored. 

:: Planting a hedgerow, the same one for the third time (with my fellow eco volunteers). The first, which also included a row of last year's saplings was mowed down by a careless council worker. The hedge plants were small but clearly visible, with some saplings in bloom... We spent another Saturday replanting a three row hedge with hawthorn, blackthorn, dog rose, crab apple and a few hollies. We went back to the site to add plastic sleeves to the front row saplings shortly after to make them even more obvious but found the hedgerow cut down once more. It is hard to believe that the council funding the planting would send two numpties out within two weeks... the alternative, wilful destruction, is even less pleasant to consider. It would not be the first time, sadly. It was fortunate that someone ordered far too many plants for another site, leaving us with with plenty for a third and hopefully final planting mission.

:: Sewing two white t-shirts. I love white t-shirts but I can't keep them white for more than a season. The ones with the stains are on garden and pyjama rotation until they lose all elasticity or disintegrate. They then become bicycle cleaning rags. I found three lots of white jersey in the depth of my stash. I sewed-up an organic cotton jersey and a bamboo jersey. The third white jersey is not of a good quality, I was no doubt lured by an attractive price with a large retailer before I was an experienced purchaser of fabric. I think this will go straight to the rag pile. We have many bikes that need cleaning.

:: Taking it easy as much as possible. 

That's it all for April. Thanks for visiting 😊