Sunday 3 March 2013

Snowdrops, Poems and Promises


Saturday afternoon in the garden. Lovely sunny day, blue skies, birds singing, bulbs burgeoning through the soil...another couple of degrees warmer and it would have been just perfect. But I'm not complaining.

When Jim goes for his early morning walk to fetch the newspaper, he takes a short-cut through the church-yard, and he came back with these lovely snowdrop images for the blog; what a star!



A toddle down the garden path revealed all this 'emerging' going on under our very noses.




                                                    RHUBARB! RHUBARB! RHUBARB!

Feeling positively springlike earlier this week, and knowing I was going out early for the evening to play some tunes with friends Rob and Marj, Jim suggested we have lunch out at a local pub.

                                                            Getting ready to go out.

   
So now onto the POEMS bit of my post. One of my musical friends from the Burwell Bash - indeed, she was the assistant fiddle tutor-  Lizzy Doe, Musician, Artist, Photographer and maker of stunning jewellery, was nominated for the Fenland Poet Laureate Award. I tootled along to the Wisbech and Fenland Museum, in a lovely part of Wisbech I'd never been to before, to hear the poems and watch Lizzy walk away with 3rd place!  The standard was very high, and she was very pleased with her placing and hopes to work with Aetelier East in the future, based more on her music and photographic work. Well done Lizzy!

                                    Lizzy looking bashful, receiving her certificate.

We got back to ours about 10pm, and unwittingly sat up nattering until gone 3am which really didn't do either of us much good the following day - Lizzy had work to do and I felt quite hungover, still getting over the tiredness of the journey back from New Zealand. Feeling my age!

Now as to the PROMISES, well, I made a statement of intention last post, about getting my act together, and getting myself organised. I've made a good start. I've been reading up on menu planning, organising food storage and other useful topics. I've been through both freezers and thrown out the really beyond it things, and listed everything else, labelled things which I had to identify first! Later today I shall sit with my lists, my diary, and a couple of my favourite cookery books, and menu plan for the next couple of weeks. Off the topic of food, I have been through my wardrobe and weeded out a pile of clothes which are now in a large black sack and heading for a charity shop in town later this week. So I feel that I am well on my way...the hard part is keeping up the momentum! I know I have more to do in the sewing room, stuff to do on the stitching front, and music to keep up with. Lists! I must make lists!

Reading the latest post from Penny (L is for Love blog) I see she has acquired a beautiful new journal for list making. Or rather List Making, as Penny is not doing hers the way I do, on cheapo Reporters' Notebooks! Looking forward to seeing her lovely pages.

So, anyone daft enough to have made New Year Resolutions this year? How are they going? And is the thought of Spring giving you the urge to clean, sort, organise, and make plans?

20 comments:

  1. Great start to the Spring proper, Lynne. Keep you on a-troshin', Gal.
    New Year Resolutions? I'm not that stupid! ;0)

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    1. Hiya Rob! No, I didn't do the Resolution thingy, as I would be hard put to keeping up with it, but this Organising and Planning is something entirely different.

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  2. Hello Lynne, What a sweet husband to take the camera for you on his morning walk. I've never seen "snowdrops" they are so pretty. I'll be asking my local nursery for blubs. It was so wonderful to get a visit from you . . . I've been following your vacation. From your comment, I'm assuming that you are home now. We, too, are having cold sunny days, but it sure beats the gray cold snowy winter. Spring is just around the corner. I have been walking around the front and back yards and watching my tulips starting to pop their little heads out of the ground . . . just that little thing warms my heart with thoughts of Spring :) Thanks again for your warm and wonderful visit.
    Your blogging sister, Connie :)

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    1. Hello Connie, now you have amazed me - do you not have snowdrops in the States? Perhaps they are called something else? Do let me know; they grow wild here in the UK and of course people cultivate them as well.

      yes we've been home a couple of weeks and just getting used to the change in temperature! However a sunshiny spring is lovely to behold in the English countryside, so I am not too downcast. Lxx

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  3. That's a great way to get started. I love a good sort out and yes you're right, it is the thought of Spring that gets me going. I too am in the throes of planning menus, shopping, cooking and freezing. Carry on the good work.
    Patricia x

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    1. Hi Patricia, yes, it's kind of traditional isn't it to have a major clear -out. Mine is something a bit more ....er...elemental, consuming, and very, very necessary! I'll be popping across to ead about your progress on the same front!

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  4. You really are an inspiration! I really need to get my life organised as I was feeling somewhat bogged down with all I have going so maybe I'll take a page from your book,
    hope it works for me!
    Jo x

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    1. Jo I am merely putting a toe in the water! It's a bit like trying to drive a coach with 6 horses - all with minds of their own! You think you've got one thing sorted when another part of your life gets out of control!! Fortunately one thing we've never had to keep tabs on is our spending, having had years of not much coming in we always watched what we bought, so I'm never in a financial mess, just about everything else though!

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  5. Congratulations to your friend - where would we be without poetry? I've never seen Snowdrops - they look like something out of a fairy tale. I'm not a big gardener but I don't think we have those in the States. Isn't it a great feeling to get organized!

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    1. The poems were wonderful - all reflecting a facet of Fenland life/nature. Yes, Cynthia, I'm hearing that snowdrops (galanthus) aren't found in the States...I wonder why?

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  6. You do sound as if you're on a mission at the moment!

    No resolutions here, but I am largely steering my year in the direction I'd hoped and simplifying where I can. I've a way to go though.

    Gorgeous snowdrop pics Jim :)

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    1. Trying to keep up the momentum, Annie, that's the hard thing - as any dieter will tell you!! Amazing how many folk are talking about 'simplifying' their lives. It's not a bad thing to be doing. Lx

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  7. I love the first signs of Spring - I always find it so exciting. Well done on getting organised - I wish I had half the inclination!
    Claire

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    1. Ahem...making a start, Claire! Not actually 'getting' yet! But it does need doing. I guess if I only manage improvement in one area it will be a plus. Lx

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  8. Hello Mrs! I did see the Kiwi version a few weeks ago when I trundled through ALL your posts! I should have commented then, but thought I would save it til I got round to blogging again. It looks fab! You obviously had a great time. I am still in the land of the living and, truth be told, have been busy on 'that other thing' I am working on. All coming good! See you soon. xCathy p.s. I spring-cleaned at Christmas? Does that count?

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    1. Oooh yes, hope 'it' is making progress, fill me in some time, won't you?

      ps. No it doesn't, do it again! Lx

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  9. Hi Lynne,
    Thanks for your comment on my post. I am so ready for Spring too, nice to see the flowers on your blog.
    Hen x

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    1. Hello Hen, lovely to see you here. I have fingers in so many self-inflicted pies that I really do need to rein them in and keep everything a bit more organised. Spring has that effect, don't you find?

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