Skip to main content

Spring!

How lovely is a few hours of sunshine on your face, particulary when its the first rays of Spring beckoning. This weekend has been exactly this, and both days this weekend we have been out in the garden making the most of the fact that Spring is in the air. Bertie and Scooby are also enjoying the fresh air and freedom and have been roaring around the garden having a great time. I'm reconciling myself to the fact that Bertie has a little more learning to do in the category of muddy paws in the kitchen... Oh, and the fact that my garden is covered in sticks as Scooby introduces Bertie to the great pleasure that is 'chewing a stick and leaving the debris everywhere'. Hmmm. On the plus side while Scooby has never willingly shared his ball with any of us, if Bertie bounces up and asks for it he gives it to him - how can than be?!?

This week has been world book day and every parent of primary school aged children has had to drum up a costume appropriate for their selected category. I will admit that we took the easy way out and ordered off the internet. Its just not worth slaving over a red riding costume when you can buy one for under £10 including delivery. Abi was Henry, the invisible dog from Dick King-Smith's book. Henry is part of the reason we have Bertie so it was apt that Bertie thought the costume tail great fun and spent the whole morning before school running up behind Abi and either eating or pulling it off! Izzy bounced around as little red riding hood  singing funny little songs with her rosy cheeks - still so cute :-).

Having spent so much time last weekend trying to find books Abi might read, it seems I may have struck upon at least one that she enjoys. Unsurprisingly its about a little girl who befriends a wild foal and she seems really taken by it, Lets hope it lasts. We are still having battles over homework, but generally its only on a Sunday evening when they would rather watch Countyfile and Crufts than write about The Romans and read books from school. While I worry that they aren't doing some of the structured learning (neither are fans of Mathletics which seems to be the weekend past time of many of their classmates), they have both been praised for their general knowledge and particularly for their science and nature so we are obviously doing something right.

The next 3 weeks are going to be really busy at work. Lots going on which will be good eventually but may be a bumpy ride in the meantime. We've got a number of big tenders underway which mean I'm stretched very thinly but what's been great has been to meet some other partners who think very much like I do - as long as you are focused and set the agenda in advance, you dont have to be in the office until bedtime every day. I'm such a strong believer that to be energised you have to be refreshed, and that means a healthly balance of work and time away doing other things. I do worry that I've signed up to do a bunch of long bike rides when I have loads of other things I'm also wanting to do - this year probably isn't going to be one of many long training rides. Our garden renovation starts in 2 weeks time, I'm enjoying my (horse) riding and the girls have commitments which mean it's harder to get away. Glenn is racing much of the summer which limits a whole stack of weekends. I'm going to be relaxed about it - life is full of wonderful things and this year my focus will be the enjoy the variety of it all.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas...

I was sure I write the blog last week.... but, it seems another 2 weeks have flown by and now we are staring down the barrel of the Christmas holidays and the end of the year! Currently it's all about Doug and what a star he has proved to be so far. He has now been with us for 3 weeks and he is (so far, I keep thinking at some point it will change) a pretty chilled out puppy. As a second dog he has been thrown in at the deep end and has been to Sunday lunch with Alan & Sarah (which he loved), socialised at home with friends and their dogs, met babies (he loved Elsie) and started to go for walks. The walking has been a bit different to our previous approaches with new dogs. In the past we have ventured out carefully, making sure that our new baby only walks a short distance so they can experience all the new sights and sounds. Doug's first walk was after Sunday lunch last week, just him and 8 other dogs for bout 45 mins - he loved it! In our defence we didn't let him wal...
Post a Comment
Read more

Welcome Albert James!

So this week has been full of new things - Jess and Chris have welcomed Albert James Wilkinson Rayner to the family, a tad early but all doing well apparently (and so cute!!), I started my new job, Abi has her new shed and Dad got sorted on a phone that wasn't invented before the kids were born!! I always knew this week was going to be full on and it certainly has been. The first thing I had to do was try and sort out my diary which had been filled from dawn to dusk by my predecessor with meetings. I decided to set out as I mean to go on and immediately took out those that started before 9am. While I can get into  the office for 8am , it's a pain and requires me to be on the 6:30am train which is just a bit much every day (stating the obvious). I then made it clear that we don't need to be joined at the hip for the next 4 weeks which is a sensitive process - even though he is retiring it's hard to let go and he is understandably keen that the team are looked after. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Diary management!

This part of the summer is definitely typified by me trying to remember who is supposed to be where and when. Abi likes to be off doing something with someone while Izzy is happier to know she's close to home and so for the last week they've gone their separate ways. Abi has been down in Somerset making the most of Ben and Laurie being about. From what I can tell she's having a lovely time. Apart from the covert phone call one evening to tell me she was 'starving'  (Mum was cooking for the hordes and so it had been delayed), I've barely heard from her. The few calls I have had have very quickly ended in "can I go now" like I'm making her speak to me! Today she switches from Mum and Dads to a night or two with Kerrie - not sure who is more excited! Izzy didn't want to be away for that long so she opted not to go. She's very conscious that Abi and Laurie are joined at the hip when together and Ben has his own things he wants to do so she ...
Post a Comment
Read more