Simple Pleasures

Funnily enough there were no January Blues this year not until today that is and this one was caused to the imminent departure- albeit very temporary 4 days at most- of JJ  to the African continent . When he said Nigeria I was really petrified as I read all those government foreign office warnings on-line, but apparently   Uganda will be safer.
It could be also the after effects of going to see the film LES MISERABLES which is aptly named because truly miserable it made me feel. Endless singing and dinginess and rags and dirt and misery and no crochet possible! Give me a bit of Father Brown on i-player and my crochet and I'm happy as Larry! Not my cup of tea, too slow it was and it seemed endless at the time. One longed for the fast -forward button.....
So back to those simple pleasures: what are they?

 My hyacinths in full bloom and the lovely scent they fill the kitchen with first thing in the morning.

 A sunny walk with the dogs in lovely countryside:

 The river was very high.

 The dogs got playful on the only bit of snow and ice that was left:

 Pippa is looking all trim since she's been groomed last week.

Lucy had a wash in the snow:

And I have a new toothbrush which is absolutely fantastic and makes my teeth feel amazing twice a day!

Fancy that, loving a toothbrush?

And a perfectly shiny de-scaled kettle is a joyful sight indeed.

We had a leak and a hole in the ceiling which is not so pretty but the new toaster is another delight : it has defrost, bagel and thick bread settings and I can't wait to try the cheese and ham toasties in the toastie bags we used to have!

And the daffodils are staring to bloom:

 And I wasn't quick enough to photograph today's brownies: they were gone in 10 seconds hot from the oven! They came out in this square Pyrex dish and wham on went the icing sugar( snow) and off they went upstairs to be munched while the girls watched i-player or did homework... It's a WW recipe that I first baked in September 2001 and it's been a family favourite ever since! Odd to think it's been going more than 11 years.....

 Miss Y took up crochet again this weekend and she's busily hooking away at this blue snood:

 This is how far I got on Friday thanks to several episodes of Father Brown and Death in Paradise:

 The yoke of the angora cardi is done and now I'm onto the body part and splitting off the sleeve portions.I wanted a deep scoop neckline and it was all a bit scary at first :I'm writing my own pattern for this.

This is how I started on Friday at about 13:30: as above with the good old half treble foundation stitches.

More of this in a later post, no crochet done on Saturday because we were building THESE storage units and these are a HUGE source of joy at present too: aren't they lovely?

 They're LAZZARI modules from GLT and they are going to help me store all my knitwear and crocheted garments in an easy access way, in our bedroom I have a wardrobe with a rail but only one large and two tiny drawers in a pine chest so many items were often lurking about or stuffed into boxes under the bed or in weird corners. This used to be the nursery- see the old stencils I did when pregnant with Miss E , I did them in 1997?!

 Then it was JJ's study for many years and after that the hub from which his business started, but he's in a unit on an industrial estate now and I'm getting some storage at last!

Oh that last one has not come out very well. It's 15 new drawers in total so I have made sure I have capcity built in for the things I'll make this year and next..!
The room is going to be re-painted ( by moi) and I'll make new curtains too, a little less nursery- ish.

 Bye bye to the cat chasing the chicken and the matching curtains, blind and tie backs I made to coordinate with the mothercare changing mat and cot quilt and bedding at the time...

 I pieced all the strips of gingham and made the serrated edgings...

 Sponged the walls and stencilled the alphabet, numbers and animals, the teddy with the heart balloons was a personal addition. He's saving the cat from being chased by the chicken...

So here's the good bye.

And we had a chocolate egg filled with mousse to mark the occasion:Yummy!
And the lilac try out patch was JJ when it was still his office, I'm painting it cream not lilac.