Thanks for all your lovely messages. I can assure you I am not overdoing it (most of the time), and to prove it here is a photo of what I spent most of yesterday doing.
During. The Price's Venetian Candles box is my crochet hook store, and came filled with all sorts of hooks and measures.
After.
I was in need of a rest - Weds was lunch in the Bathurst Arms near Cirencester with my lovely friend Gill, followed by a mooch around Cirencester. Thursday another friend came for lunch and some crochet (not too arduous a day!). Friday I was at school all day, followed by a Singstar night with several friends (none of whom were as competitive as I was, so I hope I get invited back to do it again!). I am making the most of my free time before getting back to normal!!
Sunday was spent at the allotment - the first time I've managed to get Andy down there this year. Sophie (who you may remember has the other half of our double plot) had her parents to stay from Sweden, and with usual Scandinavian efficiency, they had cleared all the brambles and debris from the edge of the plot during the week. We went to help burn the 3 mountains of brambles (again I was sans camera, sorry) and had a picnic. I managed to do some hoeing and we planted shallots, potatoes, lettuce, spring onions and radishes. Andy still has 2 huge beds to dig over, and has promised to do it this week so that we can get more stuff planted asap. I did however manage to take a photo of our first harvest of the season - white sprouting broccoli. It is exactly the same as purple sprouting, only white.
My favourite thing to do with it is to steam it briefly and then eat it with toasted pine nuts, a knob of butter and a squeeze of lemon juice. I also sometimes add some shavings of parmesan, but had run out. This makes a great lunch dish, and we have enough to keep us going for every meal for about 6 weeks! I think I'll be giving plenty away again this year as I can't bear to see it go to seed.
2 weeks and 1 day (and counting) until the brace comes off (fingers crossed). I'll still need to crutches for a while when out and about, but hopefully the end is really near now. Bodie comes home on Friday from 2 months at my parents house, and the girls are already making Andy promise to bring him to school to pick them up! I'm not sure I'll be joining them on walks for a while, but it will be nice to have his big soppy face resting on my knee of an evening (Bodie, not Andy).
Hope you are all having a great week.
Cathy XX