A big project

Yesterday I was overcome with an urge. An urge to get started on my garden! Our garden needs a lot of work doing to it before it can be as lovely as I imagine it, and yesterday was the day I got to work. I hired a skip and began getting rid of all the old flags and bricks that were cluttering it up. It felt so good to get my teeth into a project, and I've already cleared quite a lot!

I dug up one of the beds which had become overrun by weeds, and imagine my delight when I dug up about a dozen of these little beauties:



Pasnips! Rather suprising too, as I haven't planted any parsnips since we first bought the house - three years ago!

I think my project to turn my garden into something beautiful is going to be hard, but it will be so worth it in the end. Mind you, it probably wouldn't be quite so hard if I didn't try to rescue every last ladybird that I saw!

Looking Forward

The weather here for the past couple of days has been so light and mild; it's really making me look forward to Spring. So much so in fact that I dragged Adam to the garden centre today for a look around on the promise that I would buy him a hot chocolate and a cream scone! I'm so excited to get growing again, this year I'm actually most excited to grow flowers, which I've never really done before. I work on a community garden with children aged 8-18, and we grew some flowers on there (basically, we put some seeds in. And the flowers went wild!). It looked so pretty and made me excited to do the same in my garden this year, too.



We've acquired a load of wooden pallets from somewhere which I'm planning to take apart and build some raised beds with, so I'll be sure to post about that. I also want to grow blueberries, herbs, jalapenos, peas, potatoes, sunflowers, squash and salad. Do you enjoy spending time in the garden? Have you ever grown your own food?

Our newest family member...

Meet the latest addition to our family:



Bert!

Bert is a one year old Boston Terrier who we adopted from someone my husband works with. We brought him home for a couple of days to see how he would get along with Izzy. Izzy is still a bit unsure about him - they get along, haven't fought but she is keeping her distance a little - but we absolutely love him. He's so sweet and affectionate and loves to cuddle up to me!

I've been quite busy with photography related stuff lately which is great! Last weekend I shot a civil ceremony, I had a baby shoot and I'm meeting a prospective client today too. It's exciting!

Sex, Marriage & Fairytales

I saw this today on Mama loves Papa and wanted to share because I found it very powerful. I've only been married for a month, but I've been with my husband for eight years, and sometimes it truly breaks my heart to think of all the divorces that happen. I think we're so used to having a culture where we want everything to be easy and instant and relationships can be hard.

Easy Cookies

This past weekend I was craving some cookies. I didn't want to make a full batch as there would only be Adam and I eat to them, and I couldn't be bothered weighing ingredients or making loads of mess so I experimented with a recipe and ended up making just three cookies. These were so good, they were soft and cakey and lovely!

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp granulated sugar
3 tbsp self raising flour
3 tbsp oats
3 tbsp raisins
½ beaten egg

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C
Melt butter and peanut butter together (I did mine by microwaving it for 30 secs)
Add dry ingredients
Add the egg, but add it carefully as you don't want it to be too wet
Shape into balls (I got 3 out of mine) and place on non stick baking tray
Press down with a fork slightly
Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown