beloved bel

In recent years I've started to admire and appreciate spring blooms more than ever before.  Perhaps it's due to the influence of social media, or perhaps it's because we have a garden and my eyes have been opened.  I've been making mental notes of what to look out for in each month. The first signs of spring here are always the yellow daffodils.  That is one of the surest signs of Spring.  Followed by hyacinths, tulips and of course the ever popular cherry blossoms.  They are easily identifiable from afar and with their delicate white or pale pink flowers, you can't help but fall in love with them.  We have a cherry tree in our garden which springs forth white delicate cherry blossoms, and come June we have orange cherries in season.  The row of cherry blossoms in Greenwich Park are very popular, thanks to social media.  Every spring, people flock to the famous avenue to look at the tree lined blossoms, us included. In the last two years, we have also learnt not to

You can call this a throwback post.  It's been sitting in my drafts, waiting to be completed, waiting to be published. Esthwaite Water, the Lake District Last autumn, before the third lockdown, we decided to brave it and do a long road trip with the kids - Gabriel's first in fact.  After two lockdowns, we thought we could do with a long weekend to one of K's favourite places in the UK - the Lake District.  The Lake District to me, is a memorable place in that my first time here with 5 other friends was a "misadventure" in that we didn't book any accommodation and it was raining heavily every day.  We had planned to go camping and the heavens opened the moment we arrived.  We laugh at it today of course, something we can talk about till we grow old.  Then when I met K, we booked an impromptu trip on one Spring and it was a total opposite experience - this time with accommodation booked (hello!)  and it was pure glorious sunshine the whole time we were there.  W