P&P IN THE SPRING

Spring was slow (late) arriving this year… But when it finally did it was spectacular. The 20 degree temperature rise inside 4 weeks was a bit of a surprise but there were no complaints once the snow and rain finally departed!

March

March so often dawns with the smell of spring. Not this year. None of that lovely petrichor smell after rain showers. Just snow. Lots. More than once. And the heavens stayed open the rest of the time!

I don’t remember the last time it snowed on my birthday. And the depth of the drift of snow we had in the garden was insane. We were truly snowed in for my birthday, I didn’t even have any cake… So we put a candle in a snow ball!

Thankfully we were able to delay my birthday getaway (adverse weather warnings) and enjoyed a relaxing weekend at Timbrell’s Yard a few days later. Big fans of the staycation it was fun to visit somewhere new having planned nothing!

It has been years since I’ve been to Bath and whilst neither of us had energy for shopping, we had a lovely mooch. Ambling round the Roman Baths, the Royal Crescent and then stopping for a Bath bun. In Sally Lunn’s, we were the only people not playing on our phones. I am amazed by people’s need to be permanently online. Rather than present.

The biggest excitement in March was the arrival of baby cows in the field at the end of the garden. Daffodils blooming used to be my highlight, but this year it was all about the cows. Despite having hundreds of daffodils in the garden!

We loved watching the cows grow up and in confidence. It’s so cute to watch the calf friendships develop and how protective some of the Mummy cows are. They certainly like to stop and stare at us! They seemed perplexed by the snow and the vanishing grass, but were pretty thick skinned!

The calves charge around like puppies and clearly love that they have four legs. Then sit down to recuperate before doing it all again! Easter was a complete washout. It was nice to switch off and do next to nothing. But four days of bleak wintry weather wasn’t much fun. Our treat was going to see Peter Rabbit. Laugh out loud hilarious, we loved it! For extra cuteness, a rabbit took up residence amongst our spring daffodils!

The rabbit had to pick his moments to play though, as Mr P decided to remove the hedge at the end of the garden and have a big bonfire… For 2 days! He then spent the next few weekends digging out the roots and cultivating a vegetable patch! I decided to memorialise his instagram stories!

We had a weekend in London with Mr P’s mum. I’ve long wanted to go to the Duck & Waffle to see what the fuss is about. And that is what we did for Saturday brunch. My waffle was dairy free and the flavours were surprisingly good!

Nice view too. I think we were the only people that ate warm food – most people were arranging their plate and faces in front of the view for an unreasonable amount of time!

April

For our 8th wedding anniversary (8!!!) we used some hotel points to stay at the Radisson Leicester Square (check out all my London hotel recommendations here) which was surprisingly good. The real treat though was supper at Evelyn’s Table, the latest offering from the Palomar/Barbary/Machneyuda stable. It was excellent, in an intimate setting with the most attentive chef team.

It had been a while since I was away with work. So it was nice to do a mini-European tour. I always forget short haul business trips are as tiring, it not more so, as long haul. Three evening flights in a row and busy days in Oslo and Zürich. Exhausting. Geneva airport sells some lovely lactose free chocolate. My boss and I trawled Zurich airport for it to no avail sadly. I did buy Mr P the most expensive Lindt chocolate cow, because well it was a cow. Predictably the only plane that was late was BA and it was the grubbiest and oldest and had the grumpiest cabin crew too!

In mid April, it finally stopped raining. A month after it had been -5 degrees and snowing, suddenly we were basking in the high 20’s. Blissful! Being able to sit outside and eat lunch, or just doze in the sun, is so nice. For us this year has been about the simple things at home. One of my favourite spring things are the bluebell forests and oil seed fields that surround the area we live in. Just stunning for an evening sunset walk.

More baby cows arrived in April. In fact the new herd were all pregnant, we just hadn’t paid enough attention to notice them lumbering along! Anyhow, at 12 hours old the whole herd doted on the first born. Later in the day we saw its mother charging up the hill at pace… Why? Because she’d left it behind somewhere!

Over the next couple of weeks babies kept appearing! We now keep binoculars on our bedroom windowsill to get the best vantage of the field. One evening three new little ones were staggering around! Another day we watched the farmer deliver a calf feet first with rope and a ratchet set up! Closer to home the garden has been alive with fancy bird life.

May

The highlight of spring for us was our week in the Algarve. For a variety of reasons we wanted somewhere short-haul, warm and where we could do very little apart from relax and enjoy sunshine on our skin. The Algarve has beautiful scenery too which meant it was perfect for an adventure too. Well we definitely had it all and came back fresh as daisies and with a nice sunshine glow! The first hotel we stayed in was the perfect country villa. More to come soon about our second hotel (dreamy pool pictured below) and our adventures.

Most of May seemed to be taken up with having our house decorated. I can’t tell you how much I hate living in a dust pit. But… A new boiler that appears to work! No more artex ceiling. No more grubby magnolia walls. No more worn carpet and dodgy light shades. No more creaky floorboards. Instead it is all clean, smooth and grey or duck-egg. With new inbuilt cupboards too. The new carpet goes in very soon and we will be done. Without lifting a finger! It finally feels like our home.

The royal wedding was obviously a highlight too. Such a beautiful day and lovely to see it done their way, not just using a royal text book. Also that weekend it was the Alresford Watercress Festival. The perfect sunny weekend for Mr P’s parents to visit and the perfect English weekend too! We also finally got ourselves to The Pig in the Wall in Southampton for a deli-style picky lunch. Having driven past so many times saying ‘we must stop’. We did. And we were impressed. Really friendly service, a relaxing spot and an excellent mezze type menu.

And so to summer, although it feels like you overtook spring a month ago! Let’s see what you have in store!

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