April abbreviated.

I trust you will excuse me if I have a little rant about plumbing, or maybe water. the bungalow in which we stayed had been done up fairly recently. I showed a picture of the strange 'taps' on my last post. There was also a square toilet, not at all comfortable to sit on, but fashions come and go in what is termed sanitaryware, who can forget the awful coloured bathroom suites of the seventies? We managed to get rid of our turquoise suite about 10 years ago, it came with the house. Apologies to anyone who has strange taps or a coloured bathroom suite.
The real bugbear for me was the boiler. We still have a boiler which heats the water, and the water is then stored in the hot water tank. But with these modern boilers which only fire when you turn on the tap, the hot water takes ages to come through, so there is a lot of water wasted. Not very good for the environment. There! Rant over.
Life hasn't been over exciting since we returned. Someone passed on a tummy bug to our Daughter and Daughter in law, whilst they were away, so they both had quite an unpleasant week. Daughter and family had to stay at home for Easter, as Lydia then got it. They had been hoping to visit Mum In Law, but fortunately hadn't actually arranged it.
One morning I was planning my day, and husband called out that he had seen a mouse in the back porch. So he started taking everything out of one side, then he checked the other side, but couldn't find evidence of a mouse. Whilst everything was out of one side, garden chairs, workmate, walking boots etc, I decided it needed a lick of paint, so dug out a big tin of paint and painted one side of the porch; I also gave the floor tiles a good clean. We sorted some stuff for the bin and for the dump, and piled a lot of foodstuff onto the bird table. We had a trip to the dump, and  took some stuff to the charity shop. I don't quite know when the other half will get painted, but husband has said we must tidy the other side. What is it they say about the best laid plans of mice and men? That mouse certainly changed my plans.
The daffodils are over, but we still have some colour from the many polyanthus we have planted over the years. I am reluctant to plant anything else yet as there is still foliage to die back from the daffs. Both of my non hardy fuchsias have survived with their original foliage, this has happened with a few of our fuchsias. Our ceanothus are coming out in the front, and a peony which hasn't flowered before has a bud on it.
On Easter Monday, I told husband I was planning to do a walk I had done in the Autumn. He said he would like to come with me, but would like to take me further across part of a walk we used to do when the children were small.So we put on our walking boots and set off. As we approached the field which used to be scrubland, but is now covered in small trees and bushes, we felt a few drops of rain. Later there was an almighty clap of thunder, but no more rain. We returned along the canal bank, and when we got home our front paved area was quite wet, so we obviously missed the worst.

This fellow was on the local river

Early bluebells

Trees are budding

approaching a lock

Expensive flats being built behind the trees

Willows

Later that week, I couldn't get to sleep one night, as I coughed so much. It was gone 4 before I slept. We looked after the children, Son In Law started his new job on that Thursday. I managed to walk to town on the Saturday, but on the Sunday my throat was sore and I struggled to sing the lovely hymns.
Daughter started her new hours last week, but as she had a course on the Monday, we ended up having them for 2 and a half days. In future it will be a day and a half, Lydia will go to a local nursery, Nat will stay for an afternoon session, then someone will collect him from the other nursery, and their Mum will pick them up from there. This will be just one day. Hopefully we will have a bit more spare time.

Lydia empties the toybox and climbs in

Unfortunately husband has caught my bug, so we have coughing competitions. We were a little bit like zombies looking after the children.With me, it seems to have attacked my sinuses. Husband alternately snores and coughs at night. We didn't make it to church today, both feeling tired and ropey, and not wishing to spoil the sermon for others by coughing. My short shopping list the other day was Disprin for husband, Olbas oil, mentholyptus sweets, and nasal irrigation stuff for me. Happy Days! Hopefully it will pass soon.Another Bank Holiday tomorrow, but I doubt we will manage a walk.

A lady I know from Sainsbury's lost her husband, quite suddenly a couple of weeks ago, he was only 61. It was discovered that he had had pneumonia, her Son is due to get married this week, and her Daughter later this year, all very sad.
 The lady who told me said we should be thankful for the husbands we have, even if they be Meldrews, at least they are there for us.
Our Son has started some more staff training which he enjoys, long may it continue, and pray for his safety on the roads. Ethan has started to crawl and pull himself up, keeping his Mum on her toes. He is now eight months old.
During the last couple of weeks I managed to wreck the screen of my laptop. Fortunately, husband had a spare screen which he hooked up, but I lived in fear of it being knocked over by the children. However the replacement screen which I ordered arrived fairly quickly, and husband managed to fit it, wearing his magnifying goggles, as the screw holes were tiny. What would I do without him?
We watched Jamaica Inn on iplayer. Apart from being irritated by the changes to the story, we were at a loss trying to understand Joss Merlyn's speech, well at least I have read the book. Perhaps they should have called it 'Jamumble Inn'. Hinterland was quite gorey and spooky, but we loved the scenery. We know Aber fairly well. Well methinks I am up to date, for a while anyway.