I’ve just had a week off, so popped over to Greece, swam everyday, ate freshly grilled fish from the sea washed down with buckets of local wine and slept under the stars – then I woke up.
Instead, I had the four days off after Easter, which I of course, spent at home and in truth, it was lovely and much needed. Work is full-on at the moment and there’s lot of pressure, mostly applied by myself as I want to do a good job, to support an industry that I feel passionately about.
I read, walked Bella, began making bunting (emphasis on began!), pottered in the garden, planted a load of shrubs and flowers that I had delivered from Thompson & Morgan, had many bags of compost, manure and David Austin rose food delivered from our local gardening centre (no contact of course, payment over the phone and delivered to the front door) and started de-cluttering clothes and bed linen.
There’s lots of books I’ve read and lots that I’ve yet to read, with ‘Rosa Parks: My Story’ being one that’s been on my list for the longest time. I knew is going to be hard, especially as I find racism a very difficult subject matter, but I know this inspirational story was going to stay with me forever, so I’m savouring every little bit of it and it’s every bit the powerful and moving story that you would expect.
From watching various YouTube videos and reading articles from Pinterest, I was pretty confident in making my own bunting to hang in the garden – let’s just say those guys in the video make it look much easier! The pressure of cutting the beautiful material I’d bought was more stressful than I thought and don’t even get me started on the sewing machine.
I bought a sewing machine last year that I got delivered to work and it has been in car ever since. What I failed to realise, until I was setting it up to stitch together the bunting, was that I was missing a vital piece of the puzzle, the thread. Honestly, what an idiot! Anyway, this has been ordered and hopefully this weekend, I’ll be able to finish it off.
I also perfected the easiest,ever pancake recipe! All you need is: 3.5 tablespoons of flour (self-raising will give you fluffier pancakes, but plain works absolutely fine and is what I used), 1.5 tablespoons of sugar, one free-range / organic egg and 100ml of milk. Whisk all of this until you get a nice, smooth batter, heat your best non-stick frying pan on a medium heat with a small knob of butter and then ladle in the mixture. You should get about 10-12 little pancakes and they are just scrummy! Even better when drowning in maple syrup and chopped up strawberries.
So now I’m back to work and it’s like I’ve never been away! However, I actually quite like the routine and keeps me out of the biscuit drawer (most of the time…).
A x
Abi in the Garden 