Wishing the sun would shine and the third eyebrow .

Well , the sun did shine , for 30 minutes the last two days , i really needed it  but we have bad weather on the way in again , and its freezing . No joke i had the heating on all day and i was wearing my coat indoors . Me that doesnt feel the cold .  
I woke up this morning unwilling to move but i managed it with the thought of a hot coffee and in one hour it would all be over ( the school run ) .   My son saw me said hello mum and i realised he had a third eyebrow . Not a good start . it was deep purple  , he slept on a felt tip and no , it didnt come off . Then my daughter said mum i cant move my neck it really hurts and i felt so low and drained i called for help . Mum came and gave us a much needed  lift to school my daughter would have been in too much pain walking 20 minutes in minus 6 degrees c with a stiff neck .  I had coffee at mums and walked back past the aAbbey on the hilll in the sun , it hurt to breathe but i enjoyed the walk :-) 

I planned gardening , so i went out , fed the birds more seeds , bought in a planter full of soil and happily dug my trowel in , ortried to , Frozen solid .  I thawed it out in front of the radiator :-)

I planted it up with some Polyanthus i bought and i love the finished look . This was an old trug i had for collecting garden produce but it went a bit rusty so i recycled it into a planter .

Another great discovery this week , some Hyacinths that i can grow on and enjoy the scent from , i chose white ones  , and these are the plants i planted up in the trug ..

Please note the sunshine !

This fruit came from the local market , we got there just as he was closing down and we got it super cheap ! i let the kids loose on it they are now stained with cherry juice :-)

On the baby news , we now have four baby Platies and a LOT of new baby Guppies , to many to count ,. they are all in the same breeding trap now which is bigger than the other one and they have a constant flow of bubbles to airate and cool the water because they are trapped under the light and they may overheat . The sides of the trap are perforated to allow the water flow in . If you enklarge this image you can just make out small grey brown babies in there with the orange ones . there are about 20 you cant see :-)

This also happened , the Golden nugget Plec is just above the Snowball Plec and this is danger ! amazingly they didnt fight . so close ...

 Ive been finding things hard . Im so sleepy and i hurt , everywhere hurts . the doc tells me its stress and he has upped my tablets for depression again . Ill take them and see . but im so tired...... and im having intense dreams  , side effecs i know , and the joint pain . Still , im willing to suffer a lot to get better , and i am . Im still healthy eating , tonight we had chorizio sausages which twizzled the kids tongues up :-)) spring greens , new potatoes and baked butternut squash that my smallest girl and i loved .   Im keeping it up and im determined to enjoy my life to the full  . Im really feeling the lack of sun . soon , hopefully soon it will come back .

snow

It snowed on my unfinished decking this morning , this is before i walked on it .

Snow on my left over pine branches from christmas . And on my candles , in fact , IN my candles .
The birds were starving , i had to fill up the seeds and fat balls AGAIN and put put warm water for them . We have more snow and freezing temperatures on the way . This is the first real winter i remember in years .
Today I went to the farm shop . Ive been looking at other peoples food blogs and balcony gardens and i was imspired so i bought fresh fruit and veg and got cooking .  I did spaghetti bolognese with a fresh salad and balsamic vinegar dressing , then I did a spiced fruit crumble since it was so cold outside . Not the usual dinner and desert combination but i wanted to cook . It all tasted great except for the plums . The crumble was great but im never buying out of season plums and cooking them like that again , they needed much more sugar than i was willing to put in and plums dont usually , ive cooked with them often but i should have tasted one first . trouble as the door repair man came at the same time as my mother in law phoned and husband was out getting kids from school and i just didnt have time . so in it went , i will remember that recipe though . for another try later .

 I cant wait to start growing things on the balcony again , fruit and vegetables . last year i had Mint , Basil , Tomatoes , Grapes (we got two )  an aubergine that didnt fruit and a whole pot of strawberries that the kids ate faster than locusts can . Also some lettuce that got strabge eggs laid all over it , ill try that indoors i think .