blackberries and cookies

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We went picking blackberries today, yum... A friend of mine, Kate, recently bought a new house, on a bit of land, which happens to be covered in brambles! They've made jam already, and today, when Emm and I dropped in to bring cookies and borrow some maternity clothes, we decided to pick some more! Her two boys, and my little one, of course picked all the berries straight into their mouths, thoroughly destroying their clothes and covering their faces! Such a pity I didn't have my camera with me, it all looked so idyllic, Emm hasn't had the freedom to just roam around such a big area since we were at my parents'! The sun was on our backs and when we had enough berries, we picked a few cooking and eating apples to go with them. Kat's youngest started to get tired and cranky, so we headed back to the house to put him to bed, and I cooked the rest of us some sausage sandwiches.

When we got home Emm happily went to sleep, and I checked my mobile to discover to my embarassement that I'd totally forgotten about the window cleaner, for whom I was going to be home hours ago! He did my windows anyways, accidentally setting off the alarm, which called my mobile (unanswered in my handbag in the car), then P's mobile, who thankfully managed to switch it off remotely and then sent a neighbour around to check... How embarassing! I spent the rest of Emm's nap making phonecalls apologising to people, and the rest of the cookies went to support that cause...

Tomorrow will most likely be spent making something with the blackberries, maybe blackberry and apple jam? and something else with the last of the plums from our tree, i'm thinking german pflaumenkuchen! And I'll have to get the rooms ready for my mum and my aunt, there's some more tidying and bedmaking to do. And I'll have to try and spot and fix all the little things that i generally don't notice, like spiderwebs in the corners, the ironing basket, and dust behind the TV!

a perfect sunday afternoon

After an already great Saturday with cycling (with Emm and my friend Deb) and lunch (where P joined us), today turned out to be lovely too! I finally mowed the lawn (as the ground isn't like a sponge anymore, yay!), in the meantime Emm crawled around the rest of the garden, which resulted in her first set of clothes doing the rounds in the washing mashine by half twelve.

Then we headed out for a surprisingly good value lunch in 'Seasons', to the pound shop for a bucket and spade, and then to the beach, where Emm had an absolute ball, as did her parents. She was so content, she loved everything, the sand, the seaweed, all the stones and shells, paddling in one of the low tide puddles... She conked on the way home in the car and was transferred to her bed without even blinking an eyelid. Which gave us time to mess around in the garden a little more. In the evening we just picked up some pizzas, as we were all drunk on sunlight and fresh air.

We'll have to be good for the rest of the week and bring packed lunches and no more ordering out, the quota for eating out and lazy food is definitely used up already! Thankfully I have a stew ready to be finished tomorrow and fridge and pantry are stocked well.

Such a treat, a whole sunny weekend! My freckles have come out, my toenails are painted, I daresay, summer is here! Hopefully it'll be a good one for a change!