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Happy Birthday Izzy!

Izzy's birthday has finally come around - it feel like it takes forever to get here every year. Instead of the big joint disco she was due to have with one of her friends, she had the pleasure of our company.... again. Despite not having a party, and not getting some great big shower of gifts, was incredibly pleased with all she did get and said on more than one occasion "I feel very loved" - that's worth more than any present.

It's the 5th weekend of lockdown and we did our best to make it special for her. She came down to balloons and presents, I completely let go and allowed the two of them to eat chocolate birthday cake (purchased from M&S I'm ashamed to say) for breakfast, and we had take away pizza from our local pub for tea. In between we did what we've done every weekend for the last month - walked, played in the garden and made the most of time together as a family - something we are all (well, me and the kids) enjoying immensely.

There are many things to be grateful for at the moment. We, and those we know and love, are well and thankfully unaffected so far by the virus. Working from home has meant no commuting which has been an absolute boon - I love the fact that I'm not racing out of the house every week day,  arriving home tired at night with minimal time to spend on myself and the family. With more time to spend together and no distractions, our relationships are stronger and deeper. There is more time to talk and I'm around for all the moments when the kids do want to talk, rather than at the times they don't.  Spending so much time at home and in the immediately vicinity means you really notice the little details. I don't know whether this spring is particularly glorious, but it seems so. I have the time to notice the fields and hedgerows springing to life. Time to listen to the birds singing. I paused at an upstairs window for 5 minutes this week and just relished the wall of sound coming from the garden and woods, not dampened as it normally might be by the constant background noise of traffic. I'm walking more, which means I need to squeeze in less 'proper' exercise, which means in turn I can do more yoga, even if it is by video. In short I, like apparently 85% of those surveyed recently, am going to be a very reluctant returnee to normal - whatever normal might look like when it finally comes back.

While I revelling in my appreciation of nature, Abi is revelling in hers. Her obsession with all things biological continues and this weekend she has been studying garden snails. She found some plastic boxes and filled them with soil, plants and little hiding places, then found two volunteer snails and popped them in for 24 hours. She fed them lots of very tasty morsels (they must have thought Christmas was early!) and then spent ages watching them to see what they do. after the 24 hours was up, she left the lids of and put the boxes in a quiet shady place in the garden. As far as I can tell, neither snail has chosen to move out of their new luxury pads yet!

Having had all this amazing weather - it was shorts and t-shirts again this weekend - the forecast for the week is decidedly more April like - rain most of the week. We definitely need it - I'm having to water every day at the moment - but I think the nation's mood might take a dip as the weather declines. BoJo is back tomorrow after 2 weeks recovery and so maybe we will start to hear more about the government views on starting to lift restrictions. One thing is for sure, we won't be seeing major changes for some time yet so let's hope the sunshine makes a return soon.

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