Feels like spring

I enjoyed a quiet start to the day after a decent night's sleep, followed by breakfast on the bench in the garden where I captured this blackbird singing beautifully in the bare branches of the old plum tree. (As usual I've jazzed it up as it was taken on the full zoom of the iPhone 5 so was never going to be sharp. I liked the concept of the blackbird singing, as the robin pottered about collecting nesting material and the jackdaws swooped around so wanted to use it anyway). It really was a lovely 20 minutes and felt very Springlike. The whole day has felt like that... :-D

I met up with the family, C, S and B with Teddy for coffee in Stony. Of course, we'd agreed to meet at 11am along with the rest of the world. Silly us. Luckily we managed to commandeer a table and had a really nice catch up. I got loads of baby cuddles with Teddy who was smiling and gurgling away. He was fascinated each time I brought my glass to my mouth and I could make his head move at will just by moving my glass up and down. A bit Pavlovian and a bit naughty but it was really funny. Then he wouldn't stop staring at my breasts (I was wearing a brightly coloured but low cut dress!). Typical male! It was hilarious. I tried to teach him the word 'boobies' and kept having to explain they wouldn't be any good to him....

The news is that they have got the house they offered on, after increasing their offer. I'm so pleased for them, having taken a sneaky look at it from the outside on Tuesday. It's only 35 minutes away and I prefer that area to where they are now. Fingers crossed it goes better than the last, abortive, one.

I made a walnut, fig and banana loaf as they said they'd come to watch the England v Ireland match. In the end they popped in for tea at the end of the Scotland match. Poor (?) S had a hangover as he went to a stag do last night and wanted to get home for a snooze. Lightweight... I'm now ironing 3 duvets covers and goodness knows how many tea towels and pillow cases in front of the England match. Cracking so far. 10 mins to go. England are ahead by 3. COY England!

It'll be a quiet evening catching up on recorded telly and a early night with clean sheets....Perfect.