A sunny weekend in March

After months of rain it finally seems like spring is here, well almost anyway. The past ten days have been warm, sunny and just bloomin' lovely, I've even gone out without a cardigan!!! Blue skies and sunshine means one thing, getting out of the house, so I did. There something about good weather that makes you really appreciate where you live.

Anyway this weekend Rich and I spent all day Saturday on the allotment, and Sunday running errands and catching up with family. I headed over to my sisters for some quality time with my nephew, playing tractors and being bossed around was great, especially when he would say "I need more petrol Aunty Sarah", which was my queue to fill his tractor up and give him a high five before he set off around the garden again. It was the perfect day to take some flowers up to my Mum's grave and take in the beauty of the church surrounded by buttercups and daisies.

The rest of the day was for housework and decluttering for me, and football for Rich. We even squeezed in a quick walk around the quay and the trading estate to look at fish - I want to get goldfish at the weekend.

Silverton church

Exeter Cathedral Green

Exeter Quay

 

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Sarah
xx

Pomps Patch #6

On Saturday I spent a whole day up on the allotment. This is a pretty big deal seeing as the weather has been so rubbish until now, but you knew that already anyway. There are finally signs of life up there, the onions, garlic, broad beans, fruit bushes and asparagus are all shooting up and it's very, very exciting. These little shoots are ours, we have grown them ourselves, our first crops. I really can't wait for our first harvest.

Anyway there is still a lot to do up there and we are really behind on preparing the other half of our plot. So for now the raised beds are ticking along, allowing us to focus on the jungle side and get the ground ready for all the seedlings that are growing on my windowsills at home. Rich has been making more raised beds and I have been pulling up all the carpet. Although carpet is great for stopping weeds in the short term, leaving it to sink into the ground for years is far from ideal, and is exactly what the previous owner of our plot has done. The carpet is EVERYWHERE!! And with it is grass, weeds, random planks of wood, that all need pulling up before we can even think about turning it over. I made good progress this weekend though and can't wait to get it all to the tip so we can really get stuck in.

My favourite thing by far however has been coming across hundreds of creepy crawlies. There are clusters of ladybugs, worms, snails, woodlice, spiders, frogs, centipedes, ants, slugs, caterpillars, maggots, etc, etc. It's fascinating, but also makes you really itchy!!

Ladybird family 

The ugly bug ball

The asparagus has started shooting

Sarah

xx

A change in direction

I'm not really one for making New Years resolutions, which is probably a good thing seeing as it's now March. In many ways I love to plan (list writing is definitely one of my hobbies), but at the same time I like to see where life takes me. Sometimes this is great, being spontaneous is great for the soul, but sometimes I definitely need direction. So this year I have made a couple of goals for myself.

1. Get more active. This is probably on everyone's resolution/goal list at the start of every year, but so far I am sticking to it and loving it. I haven't been skinny since the day I was born, fact! Like a lot of people my weight has yo yo'd over the years, and now I am ready to shift it and keep it off. My over all goal is to lose about 4+ stone, with at least 2 of those being going before my best friends wedding in June.

About 7 weeks ago I started 'Back to Netball' with two of my loveliest friends and ex colleagues. Bekah is the fitness queen/ninja and has been a massive inspiration to me, so much so that Anna and I now join her for Body Combat on a Tuesday and Thursday (back to back with netball, killer!). It's been great! Instead of dreading exercise and turning into a sweaty lobster face, I now look forward to it each week. We laugh, sweat, pull muscles (Anna), get hit in the face with balls (Anna) and just have a really good time. 

This also prompted me to get a full membership, so Rich and I now have gym dates. We still get to spend time together, but instead of just sitting on the sofa watching Netflix, we're getting healthy and fit, and have a whole lot of banter at the same time. 

2. Sort out my 'career'. At the moment I am doing an admin job within the financial services sector, absolutely nothing to do with my degree in events management. Living in Exeter is pretty restrictive in regards to jobs in events, but this year I want to try and get back into it. Over the next couple of weeks I will be blitzing my CV, signing up to every recruitment agency and trying my hardest to get back into what I love. 

I am also very lucky in that there is the opportunity for progression in my current job role. I have mentioned before that I have been taking exams in financial planning. Well they haven't been going so well/I have failed them a couple of times. This year I want to try harder. Exams are not something I thrive in, give me an essay and I will write, write, write, but an exam in something that I have no experience in and that I have to read and learn a mahoosive book, cover to cover, in order to pass, is something that I am struggling with. So now, for an hour each night, every night, I will learn these damn books. 

My next exam is next week so please bear with me on the blog front, passing this beast is my focus and blogging will no doubt die down until it is over.   

I'll be back to share some of my other goals with you soon.

Sarah

xx

Pancake day

Happy Pancake day/Shrove Tuesday everyone. To me, pancake day is up there with Christmas. Now give me some lemon and sugar because I've got some tossing to do...

source

Sarah

xx