Mother's Day -Spring sprung

Writing this a day later and on a particularly stormy crazy day it's hard to believe that yesterday we played on the beach and imagined the summer! What a great day though! Mothers Day and no plans had been made so we let the day take us. Michael always maintains that I am not his mother and therefore not his responsibilty - but it's all bluster because he always ensures that I have a little head space, particularly essential as I have been really hit by the black dog over the past fortnight. The brightening warm weather suggested a trip out and I had discovered on Saturday that the sometime-cafe at Seasalter had been reborn and looked worth a trip so we headed down for a late brunch with the dog - her first trip to the seaside. After nearly losing her as her enthusiasm got the better of her - must work harder on the 'Recall' training - we all had fun, Georgia went off exploring and found a great collection of Oysters - still in their shells but I'm not sure that even I will risk eating them! After a good ramble around we went in for lunch - a very sweet place although could do with a stronger extractor fan! The food was basic cafe fare but good quality great sausages and real bread - I feel that Stan and I may become regular visitors - it would be a good reward for a bike ride! Then Jo joned us - ostensibly to steal the dog which she was thrilled about as she hates being locked in the car (Mouse not Jo!).

When we got home Georgia and I embarked on an oft requested and long promised project of creating a miniature garden in an old fruit box. I have fantastic memories of doing this with Granny Creeek and Honey or maybe Jennifer for the Battle Horticultural Society Show - perhaps that's where my passion for growing began? There will be real grass when the seeds grow and I managed to lift a few plants from the garden in flower, for that instant 'Ground Force' effect and we had collected shells which Georgia wanted to make into a series of ponds - Charlie Dimmock would be proud of our water feature! Finally a broken bamboo cloche was broken up to provide rails and posts for the fencing and an old pot gave terracotta paths, Georgia is thrilled so all is well!

After that I reckoned I had earned some time to potter and thought that a good head clearing job was to tackle my shed! Given that it hasn’t really been tidied for three years it was quite a tip, but I did enjoy having a good chuck out - five rubble sacks worth of stuff to go to the tip and now I can see the floor and the benchtop! I also came across a family of mice, so once I had cleared up most of the mess, I left a little untidy corner behind a board so that they could carry on living in peace. Georgia has an ongoing project in the space between my shed and the boathouse – her ‘hideyhole’ whose construction increases in complexity day by day - Michael came along to give her some expert input as she stacks boards and planks around various supports to make her very own den - Stan sometimes has more of a deconstructivist approach! I caused much amusement to the whole family when I tried to catch one of the two (we think) fish who have survived benign neglect in our pond so that I could re-home it in my new old-water-tank pond. Needless to say with such an audience I failed, but I can report that today when they were all at school, SUCCESS!

This perfect Sunday was rounded off by Michael cooking some wonderful onion bahjis. Or as they will forever more be known in this house ‘fried frogs’, Raff was watching them being cooked and Michael made the observation that they looked like frogs – which captured Raff’s imagination – he would of course never eat an onion bahji, but, being a boy of a certain age, thought that fried frogs were yummy – a testament to M’s cooking!

And of course, the clocks went forward - not they we knew anything about it until later in the day, so it's lovley light evenings from here on - if only this Mistral-esque wind would stop blowing before I go barmy!