Here we all are, sittin' in a rainbow...

Yesterday was perhaps the First Day of Spring.  I think it's my favourite day of the year, because it means that winter, with its miserable cold, rainy, long days is on the way out.  I like snowy winter days, yes, but I love seeing the daffodils and spring flowers starting to grow and make the green grass that little bit more colourful.  To be fair to the British weather, I am pretty sure we've had a few nice days recently but yesterday gets the title because it was actually a Lazy Sunday, the nicest day of the week and best day to enjoy spring.

And we totally enjoyed it.

The morning cranked into gear with a little dog walk alongside the riverside walk, past the old Jarrold Printing Press and Cow Tower. I was having fun playing with my camera and taking photos of the new buildings and old city wall while Gav made Pepper a little crazy and sent her off running amongst all the flowers.  I really love blue-sky-days and think that they make wherever you are just a little bit better than normal.  I especially love walking along where we are - we're lucky that we've got the Cathedral on our doorstep and lots of really quite beautiful buildings nearby that make the daily walk a little bit more interesting.  Norwich is my adopted home town and it keeps on providing me with new little gems that I didn't know existed before - I'd been living here eight years before I really discovered the riverside walk.  While it's no mammoth trek through fields it's a nice wander with ducks, swans and a little bit of history (not to mention a few memorable pubs, but this was a morning walk we took so the only hairs of the dog we encountered were Pepper's own) along the way.  

With all this blue sky, the allotment was calling.  Well, it called Gav at least.  He headed off after brunch, dressed to dig.  Pepper and I moseyed on up an hour or so later, having spent a little time making sure our hair was pretty and looking at the photos we'd taken.  She's such a poser, honestly.  Any day now she's going to get all Mariah Carey on me and start telling me which side is her best, but for now she's happy to work for tidbits and affection.  

We found Gav hard at work and busy creating his own little store of dirt.  The grand plan is to clear out our allotment and remove all the carpets that had been left by the previous tenants.  Once we've done this then we'll rotovate (that's the royal 'we' and mostly means 'Gav'll play with a big petrol powered toy and dig up lots of dirt') before we start the fun stuff and start growing all our food and really living the good life.  I didn't want to get too involved in this dirty work so set myself the task of cutting up some bramble bushes that were threatening to take over our carpeted allotment.  We have some nice 'before' and 'after' pictures, to show you the fruits of our labours:

The pile Gav started with... I think he was digging for treasure.

Gav's dirt store.  This will be emptied to fill in the  pond and then filled with some smelly muck that'll give us the best tomatoes you've ever had.

Bramble-tastic

The sun came out to celebrate my clearing.  It was impressive, I tell you!

A strawberry shaped bird feeder found on our digs.  Our allotment will be sponsored by Kath Kidson.

Of course, no allotmenteering is complete without a visit from the BEAMs. Our little helpers came and encouraged some worms to live in our allotment by mushing up the mud just outside.  I'm pretty sure that one day soon I'll get those little wellies marching up and down to aerate the soil and get all sorts of creepies and crawlies to come and help our garden grow.  As long as I provide their mum with some extra washing powder, no doubt!!!

Sadly all lazy Sundays must come to an end.  Ours ended with a nice little wander with Pepper dog on Mousehold.  Have I mentioned how awesome Norwich is?  There's a giant heath waiting for dogs to explore and kids to race dirt bikes on.  We set our little four legged friend free to run in the forest and chase squirrels and look for frogs before we headed home to rest and be happy.  

Something new

About a year ago I realised that there were lots of things I wanted to do to become the accomplished woman I knew I could be.  I wrote out a little list on facebook in which I wanted to learn how to use my 35mm SLR camera, sew, learn Spanish and start growing in-house tomatoes like they were going out of fashion.  I chucked in a bit of 'computer language' on the list too (not quite sure what was meant by that, but it sounds pretty smart) and also thought that losing a couple of pounds wouldn't go amiss.

Well, how times have changed.  Today you'll find me photographing with my fancy digital SLR, knitting up a storm and kicking Gav out of the house to spend time on the allotment with Pepper dog.  And of course my computer geekiness has been verified with the slow start of this blog... but that doesn't stop me from wanting to do more.  I thought a nice little 'What I Could Do' list would be a great thing to talk about because I am finding (is it my age?  Is it the economic times?) that people seem to be a little bit more back to basics now and I'd love to know what it is that you're doing to keep yourself entertained, challenged or generally out of trouble.  Or, if you're doing none of the above and spending a good portion of your time sitting watching Kirstie's Homemade Home and thinking 'I could do that' then maybe you could come up with some bits for me to add to my own 'What I Could Do' list.  Cause your ideas might be better than mine..


So far I have got:


1 - Now that I have the Digital SLR camera and have finally realised how to actually focus it manually (don't ask) I hope to take some beautiful pictures this summer.  Of Norwich, of friends, of Pepper, of the seaside, of family, of little bugs sitting amongst the bluebells on my walk to work.  You may all get photos for Christmas presents.


2 - Knitting, ah yes, my newest phase.  I have learned the basic knit and purl and am getting fairly accomplished at using the 8mm, 7.5mm and 4mm needles, sometimes even as a mix of the three.  At once, I'm that good.  I have Googled 'how to knit' and seen a pretty neat cable knit scarf pattern that I might actually understand.  You may all get scarfs for Christmas presents.


3 - Sewing, my mama's provided me with the most BEAUTIFUL Singer sewing machine.  I've never seen anything more wonderful and will leave it at that for now, I will do a whole post dedicated to its beauty.  I am hoping though that I will be able to create more practical delights along the lines of the doorstop I made earlier this year and learn how to put zippers in stuff.  You may all get a doorstop (or eyemask, cause I can do those too) for Christmas this year.


4 - Languages.  Well, I am getting pretty nifty at using the 'link' button on the blogger website.  Does that count as programming?  No language books for y'all for Christmas.


5 - Green fingers aplenty, I will be attempting to grow tomatoes, shallots, potatoes and many more vegetable delights with Gav on our allotment.  It's exciting.  You'll probably get veg all summer long, you lucky devils you.


6 - Read a book a month.  Cause I have more than enough to last me a lifetime, and I've not even considered a Kindle.  


So, Spring's given me the energy to create this list......what do  you want to do?

Shilly-shally do it?

So, I am going to start by saying that you know you are procrastinating when the first thing you can think of is to look up the synonyms for procrastination so you can write a blog about the best things to do when you are procrastinating.

My online thesaurus came up with gems including to 'drag one's feet', 'poke' (ah yes, that Facebook classic), 'tarry' and 'temporize' before offering my antonyms including 'accelerate', 'complete', 'do' and the all inspiring word, 'finish'.

Ah, to finish.  That'd be nice.  For those of you who don't know, I decided to improve myself by taking a marketing course to supplement my already extensive knowledge of events.  It's very interesting to finally fully understand why I do what I do on a daily basis and fill in any gaps that had been left between managing national roadshows in my day job and studying Steinbeck, Kerouac and the rest in my student days, but by golly doing homework hasn't gotten any more interesting in the eight years since I last attempted it.  Which made me wonder what it is about procrastination that is so attractive, when really you're just delaying the inevitable (getting the work done) and not actually enjoying yourself as much as you will when you have finished and get to curl up on the sofa with a good DVD and have a snuggle with your beloved.  Because when procrastinating, you must appear to be busy. Hmm.

When I was at school my favourite way of procrastinating was to clean my bedroom.  Because I have a whole house to help keep tidy now, that doesn't offer the same novelty factor.

The dog always needs a cuddle and to be walked.  Except I think it's raining (I haven't opened the curtains in my study room, out of protest and fear it's a beautiful day I am missing).

I could cook lunch.  Except my lovely fiance has already made me a big old bacon roll to start my day off, and I'm not hungry.

Weddings.  I am getting married in just over a year - there are some fun websites with ideas on weddings.  Yes, I have had a look at a few this morning.  Except I don't think even an experienced procrastinator like me can go and make beautiful lace covered vases this afternoon, without completing my homework first.  Which is annoying because I have the perfect vase to start with.  But no lace as yet...

Music.  iTunes offeres a form of distraction that I don't remember from my days of GCSE revision and listening to Jo Whiley on the radio.  Now I can create a really kick ass playlist to study to.  My ears are grateful.

Ah, and the infernal facebook.  I am truly grateful for my age and knowledge that it was just instant messaging and emails that could distract me in my youth because there is no way I would have ever managed to graduate university with the constant distraction of facebook.  Thankfully I am not into gaming and had forgotten, until this moment, that Bejewelled was out there waiting for me...oops. 

Anyway, to finish.  I've sorted out the comments section on this (yes, more procrastinating...check) and would love it if anyone out there fancies sharing their top procrastinating tips.  I have an exam in just over a week so really do need to find new ways to distract myself!!

Every dog has a silver lining

After having had Pepper in our home for just over a month, it was decided that our little princess deserved some special treatment. She'd been taken for walks, fed plenty of treats, bought many toys and there was only one thing left to do.De-scruff.Research was carried out, Tickles were checked (nope, none for her...but a bargain for me)and a dog groomer found. Sonja instructed me how to find her home, "it's not a shop, it looks just like a house...because it is my house" and informed me that Pepper's hair care programme will be more expensive and frequent than my own.

Friday, Dog Groom Day, arrived. Money was organised, Pepper was brushed (well, we didn't want her to look a mess!), Pepper was fed a little bit of breakfast (we didn't want her to embarrass herself), Pepper was walked and then tricked into the car with the promise of tidbits and, if she was good, a trip to the pet store later. Gav and I drove off wondering whether she would look like the dogs in the pictures - would the groomer suddenly discover how to give her pointy ears? Would Sonja bleach Pepper's beard? What would we do if we found out that our scruffy one wasn't really a little grey dog after all? With some trepidation, we arrived, met Sonja (a jolly lady with an inside out t-shirt, which made me pleased I wasn't being styled that day), left Pepper sniffing around the hallway and went to the supermarket to buy food. It was next on our list of things to do.

A remarkably short while later Sonja telephoned to say that Pepper was ready for collection, with a strange timbre in her voice suggesting that the grooming hadn't gone quite as expected. "No, no need to rush," she said, "Pepper is fine here...she'll still be fine when you're ready."

Which isn't quite what you expect, is it, when your little princess goes to the beauty parlour. Fine? Beautiful, stunning, glamorous, those are the words Paris Hilton would have expected and while Norwich is no Beverley Hills, I still think that is what I should have heard. Hmmm.

Time to head back out, neither of us wanting to voice our concerns.What was so fine about our dog? We didn't feel any better when we saw Sonja, still wearing her inside-out t-shirt, this time with a few extra stains. "Hi," we said, peering past her. "Hi," she said, blocking our view a little. Hmm...I thought. "So," she said, "Pepper's been cut and it had been quite a while since her last haircut, which means..." (and I know that I NEVER want my hairdresser to start out with a sentence like that!) "...you may be a little bit shocked. BUT I have spoken with another groomer, and while we have never seen such a, well, I guess, white Schnauzer, we think she might not be a pure Schnauzer?" Workman never blames their tools? "But having said that," she rushed on, noticing our faces, "I've gotten used to her and you will to." With that, she turned around and headed into the hallway (hallway of doom in my mind, I can tell you. Dog groomers are now in the same group as dentists I think) before returning holding the familiar yellow lead attached to a slightly familiar, very white, very bouncy and very happy little dog.

"So," she said, "I think it is slimming?"

I'm not so sure "slimming" is the word. Less scruffy, and, after a trip to the beach on Sunday, less dazzling than it was initially. If only she had been able to perform the same whitening trick on that ginger beard.

Flirting with February

It'd appear that we're already in mid February - goodness me how did that happen!! There's always such emphasis on January starting and resolutions forming, I think February gets a little bit forgotten about. It is such a short month, after all...but still quite important.

After two years of waiting, we finally got our allotment at the end of last year. Last weekend, Gav donned his heavy gloves, grabbed an axe and disappeared into the heath. To tackle the brambles from our neighbouring allotment, and trim some dead wood from the little apple tree that I will spend my summer relaxing in the shade of while reading a nice book, of course!!

This is all what makes February exciting, the preparations for summer are starting all over. Every day as I leave work recently someone has said "it's nearly 5 o'clock...and still nearly light out!" until yesterday we could triumphantly claim 5 o'clock had indeed passed but we were enjoying daylight (albeit sunsetting) hours. When we're out walking Pepper (nope, not bored of that chore yet) you can see the snowdrops and other bulbs making their presence felt and it feels like the daffodils are just around the corner. I found myself in a garden centre pondering exactly what we should grow - I feel some onions, potatoes and beetroot are likely candidates, alongside my obligatory field of tomato plants. I am sure that we will get totally over excited and then learn the hard way about what actually works on our little patch of ground but I am looking forward to working with the seasons again and getting into a natural rhythm of digging, planting, tending and eventually harvesting the results of all our hard work. After several years of working hard, especially through the summers, when Gav would temporarily relocate to living in a truck on the road, I am very excited about spending the summer together and hopefully encouraging our healthy active lifestyle that we know we really want. We're also very pleased to have seen another little dog running about on the allotment so our newest family member will be able to enjoy our patch too; I'm hoping that she'll be a great scarecrow in the crucial seed-planting stage.

Talking of Pepper, she's doing great. Pepper has settled nicely into our home and perhaps a little too nicely into our sofa. She's going to be a lot of fun this summer and plenty of excuse for us to go out and play on the beach or the Broads in coming months. If anyone knows how to make a dog chase things though, we'd appreciate any tips you have...