...Marching on

• I continued with my 100 Day Project, one square at a time, channeling poppies and primulas, daisies and forget-me-nots...

...then adding in some stripey squares for contrast. I'm still not sure what to do with them - make a baby blanket perhaps? I'm currently on Day 47 and thinking about a change of direction at Day 50, so maybe I'll wait 'til the project is finished and then decide!

• We returned to a walk we first did in early April last year, which runs between the canal and the river for approximately 3 miles. It's a mixture of industrial landscape (with its own incidental beauty)...

...and more natural scenery. The goat willows were just starting to come into flower, bright silver buds swelling into almost irridescent yellow-green honeycomb shoots before bursting into blossom where the sun shone brightest.

• We always buy pots of live flowers for my mother and mother-in-law on Mother's Day, so that they can enjoy them for longer, planted out in the garden. These stunners were our choice this year - my husband chose a big pot of the purple-and-white ones for his Mum, and I went with two smaller pots of the pink-and-white and plain purple ones for mine. The photos really don't do justice to the rich, vibrant colours of these flowers - they were eye-poppingly gorgeous!

• Our central heating boiler broke down towards the end of the month, and it took over a week to be repaired. The first half of the week we were blessed with mild Spring weather - blue skies and sunshine - but we had sleet, snow and freezing cold winds to contend with for the last few days, and it was pretty miserable indoors and out. The XXSCat dog chose one of those final Wintery days to have a comprehensive roll in fox poo at the park, and had to endure the indignity of an improvised bucket bath in the back garden. To be honest, she was lucky I didn't just throw her in the lake!

• I bought some cheap and cheerful seeds and propagator trays from the Central Aisle of Joy at Aldi, and I am so excited to see them growing - some of them almost visibly - every day. The photo below is the current vista over my miniature fields. Lettuce in the foreground, then spinach, beetroot and carrots. I'm very inexperienced with growing vegetables/salad, so this may be as good as my farming adventure gets, but a girl can dream...