One  We’ve had some gloriously sunny days but the late afternoons and evenings have been icy-cold this week. Winter is reminding us that it may yet come back to bite us on the bum. I read a tip on Gillian’s blog for cleaning the glass windows in wood burners: screw-up some newspaper, wet it, dip it in ash from the fire, scrub the window and the soot comes away easily, give it the once-over with some dry scrunched-up newspaper and Bob’s your uncle. It worked a treat. The sight of the first fire after cleaning was so clear, it looked as though there was no glass there at all. It feels all the more toasty when you can clearly see the flames flickering around the wood.

Two  I’m off the starting block with the crochet. Woohoo. I’ve managed a little square and a little circle of double crochet, which was the source of much amusement (Look! It’s a hat for a guinea-pig!), and now I’m doing a little piece of half treble. I’ve discovered that it’s much easier if you can see what you’re doing, so wearing my reading glasses and sitting by the window help enormously. Now I’m getting the hang of it I can see how it could become addictive. It’ll be a long while before I’m up to blanket-speed, though.

Three  David’s 50th birthday present from me was a day on an advanced bread-baking course at the E5 Bakehouse last Sunday. He had an absolutely brilliant time and came home even more fired-up about bread. I’d say he’s on the verge of being a bread evangelist. He will talk bread with anyone who’ll listen. I’m on the verge of being bored by bread (bludgeoned by baguette) but that would be churlish when he’s turning out such scrumptious loaves for us to eat.

Four  My brother and his family came to stay for a few days. I do so love spending time with them and seeing our children together. There’s quite an age gap but my little niece and nephew adore their big cousins and my three are lovely with them. My sister-in-law, who is an all-round super creative person (web designer and photographer) has been helping me get my head around a website for my editorial work and she’s very kindly taken some photos of me. I’m definitely not a natural in front of the camera and it’s a testament to her skill that there were a few decent ones out of all the photos she took. She’s going to do some tweaking before I use them.

Five  Did I mention the bread?!  🙂  Back to the Howard Jacobson quote at the end of my previous post. Uncertainty is my default state of mind these days. My 16-year-old sees pretty much everything in black-and-white but the older I get, the more I see that the world is a big mush of grey. The only thing I am certain about is my love for my family, that the sea will be outside the window tomorrow morning and the dog will be pestering me for her walk if she hasn’t been out by 10am.

Wishing you an excellent weekend. I shall be catching up with a mountain of laundry, ‘encouraging’ the children to do their half-term homework before Monday and hopefully getting out into the garden – the greenhouse needs clearing out and there are sweet peas to sow. Spring is in the air.

I’m joining in with Amy’s popular Five on Friday link-up which has been running for one year today, linking many bloggers from around the world.