Fairy garden

Furzey Gardens in Hampshire is definitely my kind of garden. It is like a magical woodland inhabited by fairies and possibly even talking deer and rabbits à la Snow White. It certainly doesn't feel like the sort of place where actual people have to do things as mundane as planting and weeding. We went this weekend with the intention of getting inspiration for our own garden which is a long way from being magical. The border along our back wall is rapidly turning into the forest of thorns around Sleeping Beauty's castle and it depresses me every time I look out the kitchen window. I have let it do it's own thing all year in the hope that it will surprise me with an amazing display of flowers or some stunning foliage but so far nada. The whole thing will have to come out and I don't know what to plant in its place. All I do know is - no more thorn bushes! Predictably our garden improving mission fizzled out early on, as who wants to think about that, when there are fairy houses and maybe even real live fairies to track down.

French summer

We are home after a wonderful couple of weeks in south west France. We stayed with old London friends in the their fabulous farmhouse in the Midi-Pyrenees. I am trying to hold onto that summer feeling of sunkissed skin and lazy days by the pool before we have to rush headlong back into real life and the start of the school year.

This is how we spent pretty much every afternoon. Little M learned to swim with a snorkel, a really big deal for a boy who hates getting his face wet. Little P regained her confidence in the water. She was completely freaked out by going underwater at a swimming lesson last year. And I got to practice butterfly, which I am always too self conscious to do in a public pool. I don't mind if it's just family and friends laughing at me for kicking up a mini tsunami. We stayed in the water until our lips went blue and the sun started to dip down behind the hill.

And of course, we ate well and drank well.

I loved how the children were welcomed everywhere. Not so much in the effusive way of the Italians, more that it was completely normal to bring them along to cafes and restaurants... and dancing in the square at the night market.

I think we were all equally excited by the medieval towns and castles.

The kids because they love knights and princesses and Big M and I because we recently finished a marathon viewing of seasons 1 and 2 of Game of Thrones. Not all in one night clearly but enough in one go to feel almost hungover the next day. This fortified town made me think of the Lannister's stronghold, where Charles Dance masterminded the battle against the Starks.

 

A kind passerby took a rare photo of us all together.

We had one uncharacteristic but fun day of adrenaline-fuelled action at a tree climbing centre. Big M did us proud on the black run.

 Little P was pretty impressive too with her barefoot climbing.

But mostly we just chilled out, read books, ate impossible quantities of salami, soaked up the sun and enjoyed being somewhere different.

A tout a l'heure!

Easter escape

We are back from ten glorious days in the sunshine. We escaped this insanely cold British spring of endless grey skies and biting winds for the hot dry climate of Fuerteventura. I could actually feel the sun’s rays leaching into my skin as my vitamin D deprived body suckered up every drop. We are not exactly tan but we have lost that milky blue pallor we set off with. 

I had hoped we would fly back to the start of a proper spring complete with white puffy clouds and daffodils but we seem to be locked into an eternal winter. It was actually snowing as we drove home from Gatwick. We are back in our winter coats but feeling stronger, healthier, more happy and relaxed than before.