Sid Vicious vs The Supreme Being...

The supreme being has started really getting into her music. She loves dancing to a whole variety of tunes and Daddy's Friday Night disco fever is a particular highlight of my week. She's also taken to 'playing' a full range of instruments. This generally involves bashing, blowing, strumming or shaking whatever instrument it is as hard as she can. Certainly plenty of enthusiasm there, although a bit early to tell whether there is any natural talent. In fact her recent renditions are somewhat akin to the early days of punk or thrash, and she has done some interesting remixing of all-time classic childrens tracks.

Videoclip: Twinkle twinkle (punk remix)

Spring is springing...

Ah Spring is definitely springing...daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops appearing. The sun starting to shine with a warmth that feels wonderful on your face. Lighter evenings and mornings. It all starts to make me feel good.

 Jumbo sized sweet jar

And then Mother's Day appears like the financial sting in winter's tail. If Mummy hadn't fleeced me enough with Christmas, her birthday and our anniversary, this year caught me particularly on the hop on the back of our recent house purchase. And so I resorted to assisting Emily and Mummy enjoy Mother's Day by munching their way through an rather large sized jar of retro sweets. All quite exciting until the sugar rush kicked in, which was quickly followed by the sugar crash. Not very pretty to be honest...particularly with 3 kids and 2 grown women (the Gurney's were visiting) all going through the same sugary cycle at once. Still am sure the dentists will be clapping their hands with delight.

 Butter wouldn't melt before the sugar kicked in

 It all started with just one lollipop

And before you know it she looks like a liquorice allsort

Emily's really taken to our garden now that the sun is out. Which is great news for us and great news for the inside of our house, as we hope this love of the outdoors will be reflected in a reduction of internal chaos. The supreme being has also taken to a spot of photography, filling my memory card with a toddler's eye view of the world.

 Ball on Grass: A spring retrospective

And then the spring sun really came out. I love the poem 'Today' by Billy Collins...and last Saturday reminded me just of that.

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

To celebrate the best day so far of Spring's arrival, I wanted to take Emily up the Campsies for a hill walk where, for once, she wasn't going to be carried all the way to the top. It didn't quite pan out like that, as she did insist on being carried for some of it, but I did have a really quality Daddy-Daughter experience, and she rushed home to tell Mummy how she had climbed 'Daddy sizes mountains'. It was most restorative and just what I needed after a winter that seems to have been really dragging its heels in disappearing.

 Snack time half way up

Stunning sunset in our new garden

I need an axe...

There comes a time in every mans life when he needs to purchase an axe. 2 weeks into the new house and it seems that my axe-purchasing time has come. We are really settling in, and whilst there isn't any really major stuff that needs doing, there are lots of things that could be done. Extending the gateway to the drive was one, to make sure DDU (now 4th favourite) gets to sit alongside the house rather than on the road. And so I needed to purchase an axe. That's me, man of axe, and now truly come of middle-age.

 Man and Axe

The supreme being is loving the new house. She loves the space inside and running around in it. And, weather permitting, she loves the garden too and running around in that. She has also really got back into her book reading since the move which is great. She must get through 20 or so a day. Her favourite place to sit and 'read' is on her new window seat made by Mummy. It's a lovely spot and so we often join her and read with her too. Family life has never been so good :-)

 New window seat and comedy glasses

 Discovering posing for the photo

 Videoclip: Reading stories - Pittipats