Another week of lockdown, and this week I decided to make a note of some of the little things that made me smile each day.

What made me smile on Saturday



Garden pottering with Andy

Finding bluebells growing in the hedgerow

The glorious sunshine

Hot cross buns

What made me smile on Sunday

Clearing brambles around the pond with Andy, followed by tea and hot cross bun mini-picnic in the sunshine


Chocolate Ferrero Rocher squirrels for Easter

Discovering Sarah Millican IGTV How to be Champion Storytime and catching up on all the episodes I'd missed. She mentions biscuits a lot and encourages viewers to partake, which prompted me to rummage in the pantry and find a long forgotten packet of Bourbon Creams.

What made me smile on Monday

Mended the zip on my green skirt

My amaranthus seeds sprouted

Seeing an advert for another series of The Great British Sewing Bee (starts Wednesday 22nd BBC1 9pm)

What made me smile on Tuesday


We discovered 17 ducklings on the pond!

The dishwasher salt I'd ordered ages ago finally arrived, normally this wouldn't make the list of things to make me smile, but not being able to get my hands on some was really frustrating - I know, first world problems.

My cucumber seeds sprouted

Hearing Andy learning to play something new on his guitar (I can't remember what, he did tell me). I love hearing people I know play instruments. It's something I simply can't do and hearing someone I know play anything fascinates and delights me.

I sat reading in the sunshine for a while late afternoon ...



... sitting with Socks. He was being very affectionate, leaning against me, purring and wanting attention.

Later, when I went for a walk, Socks came with me, just trotting along by my side.

I ran out of my favourite tea, so I had to plunder my neglected tea collection and tried two new teas, Whittards Chelsea Garden, and Mango & Bergamot green tea, both of which are delicious!

(This was a really good day)

What made me smile on Wednesday

Wore my green skirt for the first time in months

Saw an advert for a TV adaptation of the book Normal People by Sarah Rooney

Video chat with Mum

What made me smile on Thursday

An early morning chat with my Dad



Drawing Eugene the Owl with my nephew and nieces (#DrawwithRob)



Captain Tommy Moore smashing his £1,000 target, raising £15M for the NHS. A further £2,000 was raised in the time it took me to watch the news story. This morning the total is £17M and still rising.

What made me smile on Friday

The news that Michael Ball has recorded and released You'll Never Walk Alone with Tommy Moore. I'll smile even more if it gets to no.1 for Tommy's 100th birthday.

A good chunk of time spent in my greenhouse watering, tidying, thinning seedlings, planning, and complete immersion in it.

An invite to a Zoom based family quiz night, it's bring-a-bottle and wear something on your head.

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We're in lockdown for another three weeks. I was pleased to get confirmation of this yesterday. I know it might be extended again but having confirmation means I know what I'm dealing with for the next few weeks, and a little bit of certainty - about something, anything - is really helpful.

I hope you've had a nice week, what's made you smile?

Hope you're staying safe and sane.
xx

I thought I'd share a few happy little things that made me smile and chuckle over the past few days.



The cat bed I purchased weeks ago is finally being used! Both my cats had been stubbornly ignoring this bed. It looks very warm and comfortable, I'd be tempted to get in if it was big enough. A month after I bought it, I finally found Tinker curled up in it looking very comfortable indeed.

My first spinach shoot emerged. For me the most exciting part of growing veg is seeing them slowly emerge from the soil, watching them grow, getting bigger by the day. It's very satisfying. I've got lots of this to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Seeing 'then and now' photos of my family and friends on Facebook. Here's mine.



Having the patio doors open for the first time this year. The sun was out, it was pleasantly warm and I had washing on the line. It felt like spring had arrived.

I woke up to find myself pinned to the bed by a cat sleeping on top of the duvet on either side of me. I found it amusing that I couldn't move my arms and therefore couldn't sit up to get out of bed. What else could I do but stay there a while longer?

Another bit of Facebook entertainment - people's quarantine nicknames, which is how you feel right now and the last thing you ate out of the cupboard. Mine was Tired Bugles. Others included Drunk Gummy Bear, F**ked Off Toast, Old Porridge, and Perky Kit Kat, all of which kept me amused as they rolled in throughout the day.

What's your quarantine nickname? What's made you smile this week?

This week has seen lockdown introduced. At this time last week I was only just beginning to feel the effects of coronavirus on my life - appointments cancelled, trouble buying cat food, questioning if my reason for leaving the house was valid enough - and now it feels like I'm living in some kind of weird Truman Show style reality, I mean this can't really be happening, can it?

When I look out of my window every thing looks exactly the same. My husband is still going to work, I'm still working for myself, my days look very much the same but I know that beyond what I can see from my window, everything is different.

At times I feel unsettled and have moments where I feel quite upset, but for the most part it just feels very unreal.

Putting the current situation to one side, I'm going to share one happy thing that happened this week.



I know I told you about our Remembrance Tree - pictured above are the first blossoms we had in 2018 - but I don't know if I told you that in June last year, despite having a fence around it, deer stripped the bark off the lower half of the tree and chewed off four of the lower branches.

Every one I spoke to, and everything I read, told me that the tree wouldn't survive, that the bark was too damaged. But there were new shoots at the bottom of the tree, where the bark was still intact, so we just hoped that the shoots would continue to grow and we wouldn't lose our tree entirely.

I kept an eye on the shoots, and they were doing really well until they were nibbled off a few weeks ago by something that had managed to wriggle in under the chicken wire we'd added to the fence.



But yesterday I noticed buds. Lots of healthy looking buds. So maybe, just maybe, it will survive after all? The thought of this made me really happy. I'm looking forward to the buds bursting open to reveal the first blooms.

What's made you smile this week?

In the midst of Corona Virus, panic buying, quarantine, and self isolation, all made worse by the media frenzy, I'm contemplating how to turn the situation on it's head and relish the alone time at home.

I work from home already, so my working week looks very much the same as it always has, but the constant assault from the media has worn me down. I've switched off. I know what I should be doing, what precautions I should be taking, but the constant barrage of doom and gloom I can do without.

We have a well stocked pantry so if we need to self isolate we'll be OK for a few weeks. We might not have coherent meals by the end of it but we certainly won't starve. We have been known to enjoy one of my 'stuff teas' (a random collection of food that normally doesn't go together but needs eating) on more than one occasion, usually after Christmas when left overs are becoming scarce but I can't be arsed to go shopping.

I'm thankful that we decided to buy loo roll in bulk last year - not to stockpile, but to limit plastic packaging - and have medication in the cupboard should we need it. We're sorted.

My plans were cancelled last weekend, and this weekend my friend and I have decided to postpone our meet up until another time. It's disappointing as I was very much looking forward to it but it's the right thing to do.

Andy will continue to go to work, so what shall I do with my Saturday?

I came across this post from Lena Dunham on Instagram that made me think about what I could do instead of just bumble around doing this and that, which is what I usually do on weekends when I have no fixed plans.

What would my perfect day look like?

An early breakfast followed by an hour of yoga. My first cup of tea enjoyed looking out over the fields.

A soak in the bath with my current book - How To Be Happy. Followed by some of this maybe? (apologies if you're not on Instagram).

A potter in my greenhouse, perhaps sorting through my seeds to decide what I'll try to grow this year.

A nutritious lunch - poached egg with smashed avocado and homegrown chives on toast.

And one of Lena's suggestions - try every product I have (including the large eye shadow palette that is rather more orange that I realised when I bought it), keep what I love, throw out anything out of date, or recycle that doesn't suit me.

Start that craft project that's been rolling around my brain for a while. Listening to music played loud.

Making a huge batch of chilli con carne, eating a generous portion, saving some for the following day (it's always better the second day anyway) and freezing the rest.

All the while drinking tea, perhaps brewing up some of the flavours I often forget about and leave in the cupboard, the loose leaf stuff that I usually overlook in favour of the easier and quicker teabags.

And why not do it all wearing my favourite outfit, or that dress I love but hardly ever wear.

In fact I think every weekend should be like this! Let's find the good stuff, and under no circumstances turn on the news. Let's make ourselves smile, enjoy the alone time, dance, play, laugh, relax. Take a moment. Breathe.

What would you do on your perfect day at home?

Last year it seemed to finally dawn on me that it's not enough to simply say 'I want to do X' or 'I'd really like to start doing Y'. I actually have to do something about it, I have to take steps to make it happen.

Some of the things I wanted to change were so simple - exercise more, eat more fruit and veg, try new recipes, set about some much needed DIY, see more of my friends and family.

These things aren't ground breaking or daring, but I felt they would make positive changes to my life and overall well being.

This isn't the first time I've tried to make changes such as these, but having failed on more than one occasion I knew I had to find a new approach.

What I came up with has been so helpful.

At the beginning of the year I wrote a list of the things I wanted to change, then I made a tick chart so I could document my progress over the course of a week. Each week I've been reviewing my progress.

And three months into the year it seems to be working.

It makes me look at the things I'm doing or not doing, I'm more aware of what's working and what isn't. Anything that isn't gets a new approach.

I wanted to up my intake of fruit and veg, fruit is no problem but I found vegetables harder. I realised that I find preparing and cooking veg really boring, and tend to cook just one variety for our evening meal to save on pots and pans. So I'm looking into a getting a steamer. Being able to pop everything into one pot and leave it to cook seems like a simple solution, not to mention that it's a healthy way to cook.

The tick chart helps me to see when I haven't done something for a few days and spurs me on to make sure it does happen, and continues to happen.

For example, I took vitamins sporadically and I wanted to take them everyday. Now when I take them I tick it off on my chart. Before there were days, sometimes weeks, when I would simply forget. Some days I couldn't remember if I'd taken them or not. Now I know for sure, and I have only missed 4 days so far this year which is a vast improvement.

Breakfast is another thing I didn't do well. But, it sets me up for the day, keeps me upbeat (no one likes me when I'm hungry), and helps me concentrate. Now I have my tick chart I am reminded daily to take the time to eat in the morning. I also have a rule that I have to eat before 9am. Again, this method is working.

Trying new recipes keeps cooking interesting and I try for a new recipe once a week, not all of them are well received, but it feels good to get into the kitchen and try. I write on my chart what recipes I've tried (and more importantly which ones have been given the thumbs up) which will help with future meal planning, help me cook to cook from scratch, and hopefully stop me cooking the same few dishes in rotation, or chucking convenience food into the microwave.

Some things on my list I only expect to do once or twice a month e.g seeing family or friends, or undertaking some home improvement but the daily reminder on my chart helps to keep it at the forefront of my mind, it nudges me into taking action, to make plans. I'm hoping that one day all of these things will become second nature and I won't have to remind myself.

This might seem a bit of an odd thing to do, what 40 year old really needs to remind herself to eat breakfast with a tick chart?

This one. Me. I do!

Anything that helps me achieve the things I want to achieve, no matter how small or insignificant they might seem, is worth my time.

How do you go about introducing new changes to your life?

I've decided that I'd like to keep a record of the lovely things that happen over the course of a week, that make me smile. I've always considered the little things to be every bit as important as the big things.

Soft, kitty, warm kitty...

Eating the first roast dinner of the season with Andy. My roasties were the best yet and I cooked extra so that Andy could have some cold for breakfast #excellentgirlfriend :)

Talking to my Dad about Christmas and chuckling about Andy stealing all my tools, even my pink and purple tape measure that I selected hoping that the colour would dissuade him and his light fingers. Clearly it didn't.

Finding the perfect nest of coffee tables for our lounge. I've been looking for ages.

Lots of sleepy cat time in front of the fire.

Completing a job for a notoriously tricky customer with minimal stress. In other words I nailed it!

Losing a few hours looking at photos, I haven't done this in a while and it left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling which was, strangely, rather festive.

Thanks to Jenny, I found out that there is such a thing as Violet syrup for flavouring gin! OK, so not just gin but cocktails, sodas, juices, teas and flavoured milks too. But I'd use it for gin.

Discovering the possibility of a trip to the Harry Potter Studios! Eeeep!
What has made you smile this week?

Love