Tulips

Our spring flowers in the garden are not as good as previous years - mainly due to the pesky squirrels eating all my bulbs and then the late frost, as recent as this week, has also spoilt the magnolia blossoms and the flowering cherry blossoms. These tulips were about the best of a bad bunch, many with burned edges on their petals and spots on them.

Xena and I walked to the woods today, I took another route to avoid that narrow path over the bridge and we ended up having a long walk of about 1.5 hours. The woods were very quiet today since the car parks have been closed and now she does not meet many dogs to play with but amuses herself by chasing after squirrels - as fast as she is, the squirrels are too quick for her and are up a tree in a flash.

I was pleased to hear that the head of DT at the boys' old school has designed a protective visor for NHS staff by using laser cutter technology. Together with the help of some boys they are now making 200 masks a day which they are donating to NHS staff. 

Adam and Thomas went grocery shopping today to get some things I did not get yesterday - of course one in at a time and they could not shop together. Shopping for five adults is not easy and particularly as the boys eat so much, particularly Adam who eats 4000 controlled calories a day as he trains for rugby - so it is like feeding eight adults instead of five! (However I think rugby will be one of the sports not allowed for a long time, at least until the vaccine is available). Planning meals and allocating out the ingredients seems to be the main focus of my day! The boys do cook their own breakfast and lunches so I only need to worry about dinner ...and check they are not eating all the ingredients I have planned for dinner as they are not the cheese-sandwich-lunch kind of boys, it is a full on meal for their lunches.

And guess what it is Friday again and tonight, thank goodness, I am not cooking, we are getting take aways from our local Italian restaurant and I will get to enjoy a glass of prosecco too. Do you know that under the lockdown rules in South Africa they are not allowed to buy alcohol and cigarettes - imagine the uproar if that was the case here!