Looking up

Today we had a day off. Well, my husband did, and he took us on an outing:
We went to see the planes at a small airport not too far from where we live.

There were drinks and snacks on picnic benches, other children to run around with (Kaya called them his ‘airport friends’), time for Mama to sit and knit, and of course lots of small aeroplanes and helicopters to spot. Add to that sunshine, and even I enjoyed myself a lot more than I thought I would at an airport!

* The second one is almost finished. But I’ll save that for tomorrow’s Yarn Along.
See you then!

Whitsun

A day late, we sat down today to make some Whitsun (Pentecost) doves.
Well; I sat down and Kaya bounced around me blowing bubbles. It was a joined effort.

In the post-move chaos I couldn’t find any white card, so it had to be fancy craft paper and blue birds.

They now grace our little conservatory and gentle flutter in the breeze while the door stays open all day long.

 

* (Here is last year’s Whitsun mobile.)

Weekending

We spent the weekend outside. I am so grateful for this garden, where we can finally relax, run, play, knit, dig, sit, read, chat with neighbours (Kaya climbs a tree to peek over the fence and talk with the boy next door), and enjoy this glorious weather.
Apparently England was hotter than Barbados on Friday, who’d have thought?

Thanks to the sunshine mixed with some wind, I caught up with those piles of laundry.
I even hand washed the woollens that have been sitting at the bottom of the basket for I don’t know how long.

There was leftover banana bread and rhubarb cake. (Our very kind neighbours have an allotment with lots of spare rhubarb.)
My last memory of rhubarb is eating it at my mum’s friend’s house and not liking it. So now, some twenty years later, I thought I’d give it another chance.
And I’m so glad I did. I only found one recipe in my books, which wasn’t my favourite  - although the cake is delicious.
I’ll be on the lookout for more rhubarb recipes, there’s still some left. Any favourites?

Today we went to a Family Fun Day in a nearby park, organised by local churches. Live music, balloon swords, ice cream (only after a long queue, but totally worth the wait), and later a slow walk around the park. Squirrels included.

Weekending with Amanda. How was yours?

This Moment

A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savour and remember.

A ball of parcel string, a toy car. Enough time for Mama to put away the clothes in the new wardrobe. 
A happy weekend to all of you..

The Torch Relay

Yesterday afternoon we left our unfinished wardrobe in the middle of our bedroom and went to a nearby town to watch the Olympic Torch Relay.

The Olympic Torch is travelling the UK before the Games will begin in London in July.
I am not really into the Olympics, or sports in general, but I thought it would be nice to be part of the occasion.
Yes, one of those occasions where you wait a long time, see something special for a few seconds and then spend three times the normal amount of time to get home.

We didn’t wait for hours though; we arrived just ten minutes before the schedule torch-passing time and joined the people lining the streets.

We weren’t well equipped. We had no flags, no home made cardboard torch. Kaya was in a little bit of despair.
Luckily a man selling flags passed by, £1 well spent for a happy child.

Cheering for no particular reason other than that he was the proud owner of a British flag.

There were a lot of police motorbikes, cars and ambulances with blue lights flashing – making the outing totally worthwhile for Kaya – never mind that torch.

There it is.
Even I got a little bit excited about the Olympic Games. We’ll definitely have to watch the opening ceremony now, to see our torch!
It was nice to be part of a happy excited crowd of people; and our spot wasn’t too busy so we could see everything and just cheer along.

On the way home, after a little bit of shopping to justify us parking cheekily in the supermarket car park.
Ok, well, it did take us ages to drive the three miles back home in all that traffic after the event.
At least there were lots of traffic policemen around, so the little guy didn’t mind at all.
And we had bought some chocolate, so we didn’t mind either.

Yarn Along

I am glad to be joining Ginny again this week. After almost two weeks of no knitting, it is about time!
I unpacked my yarn and immediately my fingers got itchy.
There is the odd project waiting to be finished, but what I needed was something small and simple, little enough to quickly pack up and knit on the way to and from various furniture shops.
So a favourite go-to pattern, the pebble vest it was.

The colourful Noro yarn is from a project started and frogged a while ago; the plain coloured yarn is another remnant from my Mama’s Christmas present.

I was just going to do the main body in stripes, and then continue in the plain yarn.
But now I am just about ready to divide for the armholes, and I really wish I didn’t have to miss out on the purple and orange I know is still coming!

Now, do I knit the whole top part in Noro? Or go with the original plan and knit another stripey vest afterwards?

I would like to be able to say that I have finally started reading again as well, but I literally just picked the book up from the bookcase and read the first two pages, so that doesn’t really count quite yet.
Birdsong is the last book from this stack.

In other news, we bought our first punnet of strawberries today. It is sunny outside.
All is well.

19 weeks

I’ve been thinking about this post for such a long time, it’s hard to believe we’re almost halfway through this pregnancy by now!

Like I have heard from many others, second (and, I imagine, subsequent) pregnancies are so very different from the first. With a toddler there is not as much time to rest, and to think about the growing life.
The little pokes and rumbles are a good reminder though! Plus, the bump is starting to get more noticeable as you try and squeeze through narrow doorways or into your pyjamas.

Still, this pregnancy is a lot less present in our everyday life. Just the other day, my husband suddenly said “You are pregnant, aren’t you!”. Umm, yes.
Kaya is the only one who checks on the bumps progress regularly: “Is your tummy bigger again??”
He is convinced we’re having a girl. He is excited, but then, he doesn’t know how it’ll be. Neither do I.
We are not thinking about the birth yet, or what happens afterwards. Having two children. Discussed names. (Although I’ve been reading my name books. Adding to long lists. But then, I do that a lot anyway. I love names.)

There is still time. But considering how fast the first half of the pregnancy passed us by, it probably won’t be too long before the right time to think about all those things is here.

I’ve been feeling well; during both pregnancies I was lucky not to feel too sick in the beginning. I only went off a lot of foods in the first few weeks.
And I was always hungry.
With Kaya, I had bursts of incredible hunger and got very paranoid about having food with me wherever I went. This time round, I could eat constantly during those early weeks. Luckily that’s more or less back to normal now.
I do wish sometimes I had some exciting cravings, but I never do. Especially since my mother in law told my husband he has to get me whatever I want (as long as I’m pregnant anyway).
And he does listen to his mum, so I do get the odd hazelnut yogurt treat late in the evening.

Next week we have an appointment for the second and last ultrasound scan. With our recent move, I’ll be getting a new midwife now. I haven’t registered with a surgery yet here, but since I had Kaya in this district I suppose the new midwife won’t be a total stranger.
Next on the list, treat myself to a pair of maternity pyjamas. Luckily, the move has unearthed some maternity clothes from the depths of our garage, but I still have a gap around the middle section when I go to bed at night.

And as we slowly settle into our new home, I imagine we will soon begin settling into preparations for the new arrival as well.