Back in the driving seat

If you look ever so closely, you can just see the first tomato forming.  Green, and a bit on the small side, but I have every hope that it will be the first of a bumper  crop this year.  I am nothing if not optimistic! 

I seem to have got a little behind in recording our daily happenings here, so I'm trying to have a quick re-cap on what we've done. 

The gloss painting in the hallway is finished - phew!  It might have taken a lot longer than I expected (I just did the upstairs doorframes and the stairs/bannisters - one of our neighbours has done the downstairs bits) but it really has made the entrance area so much brighter.  It was worth it.

We had a wonderful surprise on Friday when N quite literally bumped into an old friend we had lost contact with - we thought they were still in America but they actually moved back to England some time ago.  Phone numbers had got lost when mobiles had been changed and they had not known we had also moved.  Anyway, to cut a long story short, N met up with his mate the following afternoon, and they were both over the moon to have made contact again.  We have arranged to visit their family this coming weekend, and are so looking forward to being able to catch up properly.  It's strange, because we have so often thought of them and wondered what they were doing (as we thought, in US), and all the time they have been just a few miles from us.  I think there will be some plans made for the summer.  It is great news.

This morning, whilst I was having breakfast, I recorded no fewer than 12 different bird species in the garden.  It was just one of those days where they all seemed to be out and about at the same time.  For the record, I saw: pigeon, magpie, robin, greenfinch, goldfinch, house sparrow, blue tit, great tit, startling, blackbird, dunnock and jackdaw.  I haven't seen goldfinch for some time, so I was really pleased to see the flash of white, gold and red catch my attention as several flew across the garden, then a couple came back onto some shrubs.  

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I had been wrestling with a problem and was looking at a way of moving forward with it.  So this weekend I have been trying to do just that.  I have made some decisions, and taken some practical steps.  Sometimes it is better to try to do something rather than do nothing.  

And I have decided to make some changes to this blog, too.  Some things have been deleted - they have no place here - and I think a new name is in order, too.  So from tomorrow, this will be Simply Pottering Along, which is what N and I do here.  We potter through our days, taking life slowly and simply, and we are happy with the lifestyle we have chosen.  I am enjoying recording our ups and downs through the seasons, watching the garden grow, and the little changes we make to our lives.  Personal and private stuff is just that, and won't be found here.

Onward and upward.