A Dreaded Sunny Day....

... so I'll meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
While Wilde is on mine

Some lovely pink blossom

 I've been out walking the dog every morning for the last couple of weeks. It's to help stave off those first thing in the morning cigarette craves, to stop too much weight gain and the dog likes it too.  I've been able to get up at 6am with no problems - despite the broken sleep - must be better quality sleep or something.

Anyway, last week was rather chilly early on - even frosty some morning. Fortunately, I am rather well supplied with a choice of woolly hats, scarves, socks and mittens for just such occasions. This week though things have really changed.  It's been a lot warmer and it truly feels like the seasons have shifted. It has been a long and cold winter and the signs of spring are popping out quick and fast now.

There are lots of lambs and the birds are loud and flirty. There are crocuses, daffodils, forsythia and even some early blossom in the trees.  There is a hint of green in the hedgerows and small trees and buds getting bigger on the larger trees. It's just sooooo exciting. Every day there is something new to spot. I adore spring.

I have even managed to get out for a stroll at lunchtime at work and got some lovely pics from my stroll around the graveyard in Leyland today. I like walking round graveyards. It's probably an 80s goth throwback thing

Cheery yellow forsythia - always the herald of spring

Who doesn't love daffodils.

Yellow is such a spring colour. There's forsythia, daffodils, crocuses, primroses and lots more I'm sure.  Just so bright and cheery.

Bench Shot

Took a stroll around Spring Wood. Far too early for bluebells but decided to take a bench shot while we were there in any case so here it is!

Big Sky

Pendle Hill under a big sky

Saturday was lovely weather. A big sky kind of day. A decision was therefore taken to go to Pendle Hill and truly revel under the big sky.  It was fabulous.  Sunny and blue with lots of big clouds. The kind that you can sit and watch and look for interesting shapes in.

Girls cloud watching

Sally checking out the clouds too!

It was such a pleasant day. It really felt like spring. And lots of people were out too. Had to pick our moments to take pictures as it was so busy on Pendle. We took our little camera with us so that the girls could take some pictures and some of them were pretty good. As you can see below.

 Group Shot

Sky shot

Cold Turkey

Nick and I have given up smoking.  A spur of the moment decision and cold turkey the selected method.


Day 1 -  Ok. Knew what to expect and the excitement of it all and the positive mindset got me through.

Day 2 - Hmm... pretty spaced out day. Fortunately a weekend day. Lost track of time a bit and was a bit "foggy".  Intermittent sleep too. A few irrational psycho rage outbursts.

Day 3 - Still a bit foggy.  Sleep still intermittent and disturbed.

Milestone 1 - 72 Hours At this point all nicotine is out of your body and the physical withdrawal is over. It's all recovery and psychological stuff from now on in!

Day 4 - 7 A full week at work without smoking. Not as bad as I thought.  Cravings under control and fogginess going.  Sleep still not right.

Day 8-9 Second weekend.  Time back to normal now. Finally sleeping properly. Going great.

Conclusions.  I think this will be the successful attempt because of a few things. We both want to stop so that's a big help. It's just too hard when you live with someone still smoking. Times have changed. It's getting increasingly difficult to be a smoker and the temptations aren't there in the same way these days. It's sooooo expensive.

On the whole it hasn't been that difficult so far. The cravings aren't so much "I want a cigarette so badly" but more of a case of thinking that I'm going to have one and then remembering that I've stopped... just for a moment I'm a bit sad about it. Daft but there you go. It's all over in a minute or two.

The question we all want to ask

Baby Boy Blankie

A work colleague has just had a baby boy. Missed the collection so decided to make something for the baby.  Decided against knitting something to wear as I still have the cardigan I made for another colleague's baby (in need of buttons). Said baby is now 2 so that didn't go quite as I planned.

Decided on a crochet blanket. Quick and easy and something to do over the half term break.

3 balls of Hayfield Bonus DK in three shades of blue. Just a big granny square with a wide border of trebles. More importantly, finished and gifted before the baby starts school!!!

Vroom Vroom

It was my dad's birthday on Saturday. So we decided to take him on a mystery day out.  We arranged to meet my mum and dad in a layby at the Kendal turnoff of the M6, told them to wear outdoor gear, leave the dog at home and all would be revealed!

They followed us to Grizedale where the Malcolm Wilson Rally was taking place. We took a picnic and what a great day we had. Weather was ok - no rain which is always a good thing in the lakes.  I didn't really know what to expect as I've never been to a rally before but it was quite exciting.

Me and the girls picnicking and watching the cars whizz by

Nick found a good spot for photos and got a little bit carried away with the continuous shoot mode. We ended up with over 800 pics of the passing cars..... iPhoto is running a tad slowly now!

Subaru Impreza zooming past

The Winner - A Peugeot Cosworth

The noise was great too. Lots of backfiring and roaring engines - even saw flames coming out of the back of some of the cars.  Despite a few wobbles no-one swerved off this corner although we heard that a couple of the cars rolled over in a different part of the course.

Bit of a christening do

There was a christening.  H & O (stepson's boys) were christened at the end of half term.  Naturally, a bit of a do followed the ceremony.

We had four generations of men there and here they are all together. One great grandad, one grandad, two dads and three sons. And a fine looking bunch they are too.

The girls had better things to do.

Ooh... cakes!

More Bloody Thievery

Sigh... again there has been some criminal activity.

I live on a quirky street with nothing much behind the house but a footpath and a wood.  You don't realise this at all from the front of the house and this is probably why it's been relatively trouble free in all the years we've lived here.  Sadly, this is no longer the case and we have been discovered.  Last year lots of burglaries. More recently scrap dealers helping themselves to stuff without asking and now this

Our lovely victorian flagstones. Stolen.  It makes me so angry.

On a slight positive, the culprits were spotted loading them onto a van at 7.30am on a Monday morning and the reg no has been passed onto the police. Hope they catch them.

New Old Things

My mum is having her kitchen redone and has had a bit of a clear out.  I now own a couple of fabulous old tea sets.  They belonged to my grandmother and she got them as a 21st birthday pressie so that makes them 1930s.

They are just lovely and I'm longing for some sunny days so that I can sit outside and sip tea from them while crocheting doilies. Might have to have a floppy sunhat and a floaty frock as well.  Oh and maybe some gloves......

So pretty, so delicate

Loving the Art Deco colours of this set

Gloomy Days and Dog Parades

Hmm... it's been 2 weeks since half term already but here's an update on what we all got up to.

Firstly the weather.  As usual it was a typically gloomy and murky February half term.  Of course, we've had some glorious weather since going back to work/school but hey ho - so it goes.

Not really nice enough to venture very far we mainly stuck to nipping to Memorial Park in between downpours.

A rather gloomy Memorial Park

As it turned out, everyone else seemed to have the same idea and it was like a dogs day out.  Looks like we were all seizing the moment and dashing to the park before the rain came down again. We had to avoid this jolly get together as Sally is not the most sociable of dogs and gets a bit apoplectic when just one other dog is nearby. Can you imagine the fuss we'd have with this veritable canine crowd?

Bit of a doggy get together!

What do you mean you think I'm a dog!

We took another path and checked out the bird box.  The girls took part in a bird box making event last year and have decided that this one is absolutely, definitely, without doubt the one that they made. I just agreed and took the photo as instructed!

Could this be the box that the girls made?

That was pretty much the sum of our outdoor forays over half term.  We did go and see Tangled which was great fun and the best Disney film in a long time.