April Parade of Adventures

April at last. Spring is here finally, despite that last weeks unseasonably warm weather turned rather chilly with the arrival of April this week.

The forsythia is looking beautiful, and I noticed a couple of days ago that the clematis which runs all the way along my fence is full of bud. When did that happen? I have been watching it for weeks, it seems that the moment I took my eye off it, it burst into bud. Looking forward to it coming into flower soon, the mass of little white flowers are quite lovely.

I am planning to enjoy April. I am really looking forward to next week's four day weekend. We have a 21st Birthday party to attend on the Saturday evening (Happy Birthday Coral!), which is fancy dress. Easy for us, out comes our Saxon kit, and we will go as a medieval thegn and his wife, or as I like to say, Thegn and Thegnetta (Do you remember Harry Enfield's programme? I expect I am dating myself there!) I like an excuse to wear it, it is so comfortable. The rest of the weekend is free, though I think the Prof is planning to study, and we have some major decluttering to do in the loft. We might also fit in a day trip to Saffron Walden, we visited there briefly a few weeks ago and would like to go back. The Prof's birthday is later this month, and so is our first wedding anniversary, on St George's Day, the 23rd. We are going away for a few days to celebrate the latter a little later in May, but on the day itself the Prof has booked a day off work so we can celebrate.

There are a few other things I would like to do this month. When I do these lists, there is always a very fine line between writing down everything I would like to do, and overwhelming myself, so I am just choosing a few things. Here is my proposed parade of adventures for April.

• Go out for lunch with the Young Philosopher. We are often in the house together, but he usually seems to be asleep, as he works shifts. When he is up and about it is often the middle of the night, and I am asleep. It is really nice when we do manage to spend a few hours together.

• Make a blanket bag. I am a chilly mortal and have recently started keeping a blanket in the car, an old one that my Auntie knitted for my son's cot, in fact. As I leave it in the car all the time I am concerned the sun will bleach the colours, so I want to make a fabric bag, maybe a kind of pillowcase-style thing to keep the blanket in. No idea how, but I do have some fabric I could use so I'd like to try and work something out.

• Try a few new vegetable dishes. We have a weekly organic vegetable box and I have invested in two new books from Amazon this week, River Cottage Veg Every Day, and Less Meat, More Veg and they both look quite inspiring. 

• Make a cake. I haven't made a cake since my son's third birthday, he is now 20, and I haven't made pastry since school! I enjoy cooking, but have never really got into baking. I would like to change that, and I think I will start with a cake. I need to find a recipe, and then buy the necessary paraphernalia. I don't even have a cake tin, or a sieve....I don't even know what other things I might need. 

• Buy some new jeans. I possess two pairs these days, a horrible baggy black pair in which I feel like a builder, and a pair with Lycra in that look nice but are uncomfortable and make me itch. It's always the same with stretch jeans, I hate them. However, after much searching, I have conceded defeat and given up my mission to find non-stretch jeans in my size, and am at the point where any jeans will do!

• Do some badly needed decluttering of the loft. It's full up! (and I MEAN full up. I am surprised the bedroom ceiling doesn't fall in)

• Write four letters. Feeling very inspired by Kim's project. Kim wrote a letter every day in February, including one to me. I am starting small, one a week this month. 

That's enough for one month, I think. Now I am off to cut some of that gorgeous forsythia to put in a jug on the kitchen windowsill.