And that is what it feels like. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and there is that something in the air which means Spring is on its way. I love that feeling, it is a feeling I never get at New Year, but only in the Spring, the feeling that something joyous and lovely is on its way. Last year we formed a Residents Association for our little block of flats and we all got to know each other so much better and became better neighbours. Many happy hours have been spent in the communal gardens digging and weeding and planting and sweating and staggering indoors with back ache and now we are seeing the first results. All the crocuses I put in last year are pushing their way through the soil, the daffs are nearly out and two large tubs of hyacinths are also nearly there and will be in flower in a few weeks. It is simply wonderful and we all have such plans for this year too. I think it will take about three years before we have the gardens just how we want them and am looking forward to seeing how my rose bed, which I also planted in 2011, turns out this summer.
Planning on a border of white alyssum, red flowers (not sure what yet) and blue lobelia so we can be all patriotic in the year of the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics. We are also planning on having a tea party at the Jubilee Weekend which will be tremendous fun so it is all go here in our Close.
I have just finished reading Recipe for Love by Katie Fforde and loved every single minute and every single word. Her books always cheer me up and leave me in a happy mood and will be reviewing this in more detail later. The post also brought me another three books for review and then the library wrote and told me that Dear Dodie by Valerie Grove had arrived for me so was pleased about that. Of course, the postman delivered this after I had already left and gone to the library so on returning home had to go straight back and collect it. No matter, I have already read the first chapter and know that I am going to thoroughly enjoy it. I am having a Dodie month and, as already mentioned, some of her novels are being reprinted next month which is excellent news..
So a random rambling post today, do I give you any others? No need to answer that...
Now apropos of nothing at all, I have decided to try and eschew tea bags. Have tried so many different kinds and cannot find one that is particularly satisfactory and then a few weeks ago I read an article about the Joys of Proper Tea by Alexander McCall Smith, he of the Precious Ramotswe and her Red Bush tea, and he was extolling the proper use of tea pots and totally dismissive of a tea bag in a mug. I love AMS and his lovely gentle attitude to life and his writings so decided to take note and now hae a little tea pot with a built in tea leaf holder so that you don't suffer all those awful dregs at the bottom of the pot which used to plague my childhood. Nothing worse than soggy tea leaves and I used to dump them in the sink and, of course, the pipes eventually got blocked and my mum got cross. So I have just bought my first little packet of leaf tea, nothing exciting, Twinings Breakfast Tea, and have just drank my first pot. And how do I feel about it? Well, I really enjoyed it, fuller flavour and I let it brew for a few minutes and squeezed a second cup out and, yes, will continue and will try other varieties of tea. Only thing I must remember is that if you make it in the pot and then pour into the cup it gets cooler quicker than if the boiling water goes straight into a mug. So don't hang about. I shall let you know how I get on. Has anybody out there drunk Redbush Tea and can you tell me what its flavour is like please?
Restful weekend as I have had a busy, but lovely week, and by Friday evening was totally exhausted. Florence utterly enchanting, but she is two and full of energy, and grandma is neither so in bed by 10pm last night and slept for ten hours and now feel OK. Hard to face up to the fact that I cannot do all I want to do as I did in the past, but must be sensible. Busy days followed by relaxing weekend and vice versa must be my motto for the future.
To that end I have some DVDs to watch tonight, feet up and same to morrow as I am off to London on Monday to meet a very good friend (she is a grandmother too so we sit and drool about our grandchildren) and we are going to the Cecil Beaton exhibition at the V&A and then will hie us off to Carluccios for lunch afterwards. These lunches usually last at least two hours and sometimes morph into tea as well so am looking forward to that enormously.
I hope the the sky is blue where you are and that you all have a lovely weekend.
Au reservoir.
