April mosiac

April =

Spring flowers.

lambs.

and for the little people -

chocolate bunnies.

that is all.

a multitude of tulips

oh so many tulips

in oh so many colours

is this my favourite?

or this?

there are too many to choose from.

dusty pastels

blowsy petals

slender beauties

frilly petticoats

buds hiding their true colours

I only know I wish these were all in My garden, and not in someone elses...........

are you a tulip lover?

what colour do you like best?

ten random things

Annie of knitsofacto wrote a list of random things, and invited others to join in.

random posts are absolutely my favourite so I present to you -

ten random things from the Easter holidays.

1. When you suggest to a blog friend that you meet for a cuppa sometimes in fact you go for a walk up a big hill, where it is Very Windy, but but you have a very lovely time and eating a delicious picnic in a howling gale trying to shelter behind a small rock is absolutely more fun than going to a tea shop. really it is. just don't mention the singing.....
2. When you decide to get more vegetables into your teenagers who just about manage 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day but there are some things they just don't like and the World Health Authority has increased it's recommendation to 7 portions a day,  it doesn't help when your husband tells them there are parsnips hiding in the pear juice.
3. There are seedlings growing in the greenhouse. there are also cats. well the cats are snoozing not growing.
4. I may just have an obsession with photographing tulips. expect a blog post filled with tulips. soon.
5. We went away twice over the holidays to visit family. During this time we experienced a lot of traffic. Sometimes I wonder why we move to the north of nowhere, and then I try and drive through York city centre and it all becomes clear.
6. I wandered through my parent's and my brother's house picking up books to borrow that I wanted to read. Now I need a new bookshelf.
7. Last week I got in lots of walking training for my walking marathon. This weekend I was supposed to do a 10 mile walk. It didn't quite happen..... oops. I did eat a whole packet of gluten free hot cross buns though. 
8. Youngest teenager went on a 3 day circus skills training workshop. He had enormous amounts of fun, is covered in bruises from falling off stilts and unicycles, and learnt to juggle in one day. one day I tell you. I am beyond envious.
9. There is a rhubarb crumble in the oven. I love rhubarb but for the rest of the family it is their least favourite crumble. However the World Health Authority doesn't say that covering your 7 a day in ice cream is illegal so this is my cunning plan to get them all to eat it!
10. Tomorrow they are back at school. There are many things I need to get done, but first that 10 mile walk........

white

the sun comes out and for a few hours we have blue skies

we go in search of blossom

but it is almost impossible to photograph

the wind catches the petals and blows them about

in the end I have to to hold the blooms still.

and it reminds me that we need to remember to be still, 

to stop and pay attention to the world around us, 

because so often it is rushing past,

 like the wind.

blue

First day of the Easter holidays.

Miss K has gone on a trip with Guides. 

There will be trains, and canal trips, the European parliament and most importantly chocolate.

Guides wear blue even out of uniform when on trips. 

We had to buy blue trousers, and then a belt to hold them up!

She rebelliously packed pink pyjamas.

Meanwhile feeling blue is one of the kitties. He got stung (we think) on his leg and licked all his fur off, and made the skin oh so sore. Antibiotics and steroid cream seem to be helping but until it's all healed he has to wear a cone of shame. Oh you have never seen such a miserable thing, he keeps reversing trying to get out of it, or climbing upwards as it that will help. we are constantly having to rescue him when he gets stuck........ I haven't taken a photo, it seemed cruel.........

the year in books - April. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Joining in with Laura's #Theyearinbooks

The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. 

Henrietta died from cervical cancer at the age of 31 in 1951. A biopsy of her cancer cells led to one of  the major scientific breakthroughs of medicine, the beginning of human tissue culture, as HeLa cells as they were named became the first human cell line to grow long term outside of the body.  This cell line has been to outer space, aided in the development of the polio vaccine, in cancer research, in drug manufacturing and in vitro fertilization, and has been part of over 60,000 scientific studies. The author tells the story in 3 phases, the life of Henrietta, the story of her cells, and finally of her family and the ethical issues that are tangled within.  Amongst all this the author tells of her struggle to tell the story, to research the history and to meet the family. It was an interesting read, but in the probably not very popular genre of  medical history I much preferred The Emperor of all Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

next month, more scientific history. Darwin. The Origin of the Species. It's very long. I'd better start now.....

meanwhile gratuitous fountain photos - just because.

that was March.

I feel March passed me by a little.

I wrote 3 posts.  which is woeful. 

One without any photographs at all. In which I was quite grumpy. 

One with a cover of a book. That I downloaded.

I rummaged in the camera's memory for lovely photographs and realised they were few and far between. The camera has gone back to it's old tricks of not being charged. 

The weather was has been very grey and foggy.

and when it hasn't been foggy outside it has been in my head..........

so for March I present to you a rerun of the lovely anemones, some irises from someone else's garden, some wild white beauties, a gecko, a messy desk, some fountains and crochet edging. Utterly random.

April will be better. Remember all those coastal walks from last year? 

Power walk Marathon training. 

It begins again. 

I need to stock up on jelly babies.