April month in numbers...

Another 30 days have gone by bringing us to the end of April, and hopefully all the showers it brings with it! The end of the month also signals the time for a Month in Numbers round up - the meme of Julie Kirk of 'Notes on Paper' fame. If you are unfamiliar with the numerical round up then pop over to Julie's dedicated MinN section on her blog here to find out more about the concept and maybe even join in.

25.6 miles: The distance travelled from Carlisle to Allonby to visit the beach and try out the local fish & chips. I have a problem with north west fish & chips; they just don't taste *right*. The Allonby ones are the nearest that I've tried that taste like the ones at home.

Whilst on this bank holiday day trip I also saw 3 countries. Sort of. 2 and a bit really. To the right is Scotland, in the foreground England and to the far left [out of shot] is Ireland. I think some super strong binoculars would be needed to really see Ireland but I'm counting it anyway.

2 and 3/4 hours: The length of time spent in the hairdressers for the new look above. I was long over due a colour with my roots being about 2 inches long. I kept the length though. Sorry Mum. [She doesn't like me with long hair!]

5 days, 8 buckets of weeds and 3 buckets of red clay: The number of days I managed to spend in the garden this month. Nothing major was achieved at first just a mass clearing of the weeds, leaves and general winter debris but slowly and surely a tidy garden appeared.

With this tidiness 6 rows of veggies, 6 new herbs & 1 pumpkin were able to be planted. Hopefully you will see more evidence of this planting as the months progress.

6 or 39: My shoe size for bowling at Center Parcs. They were a tad on the large side but a 5 was too small. They don't appear to make half sizes in bowling shoes!

28: Moorland View our address at Center Parcs this year. Our visit was also 15 days earlier than last year.

2: The number of knitting projects started and finished. 

Now those of you that know me will know about my haphazard relationship with knitting. I try, I try really hard to get on with it but somehow it has always been a craft which has never really *clicked*. I love the process of knitting but am completly useless at following a pattern. Until now. The headband on the left is something that I made up as I went along as was the main body of the second one. The flowers and leaves however were from a pattern! Ok, a simple pattern but it is progress. There are two flowers attached together on the cream band; one from the Knot Garden here and the other from Tiny Tidbits here. The leaves are from the Natural Suburbia here. Thank you blogland for making these instruction accessible and thank you to the blog writers for leaving instructions even I can understand. [sort of].

3: The number of super and relevant to the moment books found in a local charity shop. Personal favourite patterns include a 'Blouse coat for the not so small figure' and a 'Cardigan for an older woman'. Not sure which of these to attempt first!

Almost 15 exactly. The age of the bestest bagpuss in the world when she died. I don't really want to share much more than that at the moment but I've no doubt that there will be a baggers mini book at some point.

So that's my April month. How did yours go? Pop over to the dedicated Pinterest board to find more folks blogging numerically. Until next time.

♥

a [random] tale of two halves...

There have been quite a few blog worthy events over the last week or so and I did contemplate doing something fancy such as scheduling different posts for each topic but then thought better of it.
So forgive the somewhat eclectic style however those of you who are regular readers will probably not be at all surprised.
The first event came last week on return to work. I know I rarely blog about work [this is meant to be a nice blog; not one filled with rantings and frustration] but this particular day at work was in a league of it's own.
I have upped my hours this year and one day a week I'll be teaching on the Foundation Diploma. Each year during induction week the Foundation team take the students away on an overnight trip into the Lakes.
This year they went to Derwent water where I was asked to accompany them for the day.
Packed lunch in hand and a sturdy waterproof and walking boots I set off for the lake. I had also taken with me [and got rather excited about] a copy of the project brief that the students would be working on but more about that in a later post when I've finished the project!
We set off around the lake in absolute glorious sunshine, picnicking and taking photos along the way. We walked for a few hours or so then decided to head back. Marion [one of the other staff and fellow lover of found industrial objects] had had a paddle earlier in the day but I declined due to not wanting wet feet for the rest of the afternoon. Just before we reached the end of the walk we stopped to rest on a beautiful grassy bank where I took it upon myself to find a suitable steadying stick, rolled up my trouser legs and away I went, with Colin the dog at my side.

The ground was a little precarious at times but with my stick I ventured as far as my trousers would let me.

And to look at that view you can see why...

You know, as much as I moan, sometimes I really do have the best job in the world.
I promise to upload the results of the project brief soon, lets just say I'm a few letters short of an alphabet at the moment.

To move on slightly with the rather tenuous link of sunshine I was out in my garden digging yesterday. I like to dig when the sun is out - I feel rather wholesome, especially when Gardeners question time is filtering out of the kitchen door to keep me company.

This is my veggie patch - or rather part of it. Guarded by my two 'watch flamingo's'. As you can see my radishes are now knee high to a flamingo and ripe for the picking. So were some of my tomatoes! I cannot express through the written word how seriously exciting this is!

So yesterday I enjoyed for the first time the fruits of my labour...

Three tomatoes and three rather hot, but very tasty radishes. Happy times.

Right I'm off to live the good life, till next time readers.

Au revoir!

♥