Sitting here at 11.30 at night, darkness outside, everyone else tucked up in bed, I think that I must be crazy wanting to stay up for even a few moments longer in order to "Blog".

It's a Diary thing though, isn't it, and I've enjoyed keeping some kind of Journal on-and-off since I was very young. For whatever reason.

This morning my son managed to do the 'out-of-bed-food-teeth-clothes-grab-stuff-exit -to-work' thing in 30 mins flat, quite good for him! The girls and I still managed to leave 10 mins later than we should, again!! It's a 14 mile drive to school and we always pray that we don't get held up behind a lorry or tractor, or suchlike. As usual, all was ok, just, and I continued on to work - with Radio Four instead of music.

School was busy, lively, frustrating, amusing, annoying, challenging and the usual hive of activity it always is. I never seemed to have enough time to chat to colleagues today and really fancied a great big mug of hot chocolate by lunchtime. How is it the middle of March already? We only have three and a half weeks until the Easter Holidays...and I'm just not ready for that quite yet. The year is catapulting itself forward far too fast.

My two daughters went to visit their father tonight, they will stop over because of the distance, and he will run them to school in the morning. The house has been so very quiet without them, I have never really got used to them not being with me all the time. Because of this I went up to help my partner with the ponies tonight and on the way to the stables we saw this wonderful sunset. I took the shot through a hedge so that I had some contrast in the picture. I just loved the deep orangey red, it was like we were looking into the glowing embers of a fire.

Good night!

A day for doing....

Sunday may be a Day of Rest for some, but in my house, more often than not , it is a day for getting those jobs done that you didn't get done the day before, or even the week before.

We began by driving up to put out ponies; feed, change rugs, put out, muck out, hay, water, tidy up - leave to do next task.

My Partner dropped me off at the house whilst he went on to see to his mother's livestock. My kids, 14, 16 & 20, were still in bed. All right for some! Cups of tea, sleepyheads wanting someone to prepare breakfast for them, old dog wanting to go out. What bliss Sunday is.

Cleaning and cooking , tidying and chucking stuff into the bin. ( until it gets microchipped...horror of horrors) That was my day. Girls seemed to want to use the computer and watch trashy imported soaps, singing along to the more musical ones, playing the piano over the top of everything else and regularly disagreeing with each other.

My son has his 'project car'. It takes an awful lot of his time up, buying bits for it, surfing the net looking at 'how to do..' tutorials or sourcing more bits for it. His friends come round to help take more bits off it. There never seems to be much being put back on! Thats why I posted this photo. That was it this afternoon. He thinks thats progress.

Sunday Dinner happened, ending the 'doing things' phase.. A glass of wine, good food. A program about Lambing with Kate Humble followed by a very young looking Prof explaining the wonders of the universe with passion and ease. That provided perspective, reminded me how amazing the Northern Lights looked one evening up in Sutherland a few years ago, and that nothing lasts forever. Not even Blogs....thank goodness.

We bought a bed

My youngest daughter, now definitely into her teens, needs a new bed. When I say 'needs' I should really say 'wants', because she has a perfectly 'ok' single bed but thinks she really NEEDS a small Double, now that she is almost as tall as me!

So today, after our venture up to the Livery Yard to sort out the daily needs of ponies, as well as the girls having a hack up the road -the fields being too wet - we rushed home, changed into normal clothes and headed eastwards to the Gateshead Metro Centre to search for a suitable bed for an aspiring 14 year old.

We did find one, just what she wanted, metal, 4'6'' wide, and 30% off! Fantastic! But do tell me.....when M&S have a 'Sale', one guesses that the store is perhaps overstocked or suchlike, then why do they tell you that Delivery will be in 10 to 14 weeks time!!!!!!! And try explaining that to an eager Teenager who has already designed the entire bedroom in her head and just wants to get on with her creative journey.

Ho, hum.......Chilli for tea!

A New Beginning

I saw a new-born lamb yesterday, the first for me this year. Like these snowdrops they are proof that Springtime is finally squeezing it's way into the year, between all the icy temperatures, rain and snow.

Someone I work with said this morning that we should take more care to treasure those special moments in our day to day lives, times that we all too often take for granted. We should, although reading it on Facebook this morning before breakfast set me on that train of thought over and over again, throughout entire the day! It reminded me of something Sam Keen wrote, that he designated specific dates each year to celebrate special things, such as when the lilac came into bloom, much the same way as we might celebrate a birthday. Great idea.

So what did I see today? Two stoats chasing each other down a lane near the Livery Yard where my daughter's pony lives and some buttery Winter Aconites spread over an otherwise gloomy bank in Hexham when I was there doing a spot of food shopping after school. Those two caught my eye.

And tomorrow......