{ my march }

Once again at the end of a month.  One of the interesting things about documenting your life through Instagram, is that you realise how much you do.  If you'd have asked, I would have described March as another quiet month, mostly spent at home.  Then I look back, almost in surprise, at what the month held.  

{ planning }

After a few months feeling in limbo with my work, this month was a month of decision making and planning.  lily&Bloom was finally given the makeover I'd been promising it for far too long, and I'm looking forward to seeing what new clients may come forward this year.  The plan, for a very long time, has been to develop something of my own alongside this.  Lists have been made, so many ideas talked about,  ideas I've talked myself out of as quickly as I've talked myself in to.  To the point, where I was, in all honesty, driving myself to distraction.  Until earlier this month, when something, The thing, seemed to fall into place.  It's still very early days, but the month has been full of business planning, research, and most exciting of all, buying things ready to start designing and sampling.  It still feels too early to divulge too much, but safe to say, the knitting needles and yarn just might be a bit of a clue.

{ baking }

Bread, bread, and a bit more bread.  This may have been the month where Spring sprung, but I can't quite break my habit of soup for lunch, not just quite yet.  And neither can I break my habit of a slice of freshly baked bread to go with that soup.  Or with the freshly made rhubarb and ginger jam.  I also tried my hand at Cardamom Knots, which weren't quite the success I was hoping for.  A little more practice needed there I think.

I usually bake something for my mum for Mother's Day, and this year I delved into my childhood baking memories, to bake a batch of Rock Cakes.  A cross between a scone and a cake, not quite one, not quite the other, we'd spotted them in the window of a bakery in Bath the day before Mothering Sunday.  They may not be the prettiest, or most difficult bake, but they are super quick to make, and to bake, and in the words of my Dad, very very moreish.  

{ reading }

One more month of kitchen delights in Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries.  Somewhat serendipitously he shared a recipe for banana bread, in a week where I happened to have banana's blackening nicely in the fruit bowl.  Sometimes the universe gives you a sign, and that week the sign was to bake Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.  Thankfully, for my waistline at least, this weeks sign seems to be to make his Lentil & Spinach Cottage Pie, a recipe I'd found a few years ago on-line, and have loved ever since.  I think that should help redress the balance of all that banana bread eating.  Well that, and a fair few miles of running!

As one of the things on my Fifty before 50 list is to read all Agatha Christie's novels, I felt I'd better start to make headway on those many many books.  So this month's reading began with The Secret Adversary, the novel is Agatha's second, and the first to feature Tommy & Tuppence.  After reading so many novels written in more recent years, what struck me most reading this, was how the writing, language and general tone, was so of it's time, and so very different from today.  And completely different to my next book, Jenny Diski's In Gratitude.  Written by Diski following her diagnosis with incurable cancer, the book is part diary, part memoir, part musings and thoughts of hers, though is mostly about the time she spent living with the author Doris Lessing.  Whilst not a particularly upbeat read, it's intriguingly honest and has made me curious to read more of both hers, and Doris Lessing's books.

{ visting }

Catching up with friends I'd not seen in a while meant an opportunity to try a couple of new places.  Middleton Hall, on the outskirts of Tamworth, and Gorilla Coffee Cafe, in King's Heath, saw my friends and I trying to put the world to rights over several cups of coffee.  Gorilla Coffee in particular, is now on my list of favourite coffee shops to escape to / read books in / take my laptop to / just sit and watch the world go by in.

And then, the start of all the lovely Spring fairs & markets.  First there was the Spring Market, hosted by Fabulous Places, at the Roundhouse, and last weekend, the Spring Fair, hosted by selvedge, in Bath. An opportunity to discover new makers, and revisit old favourites, buying a few lovely bits and pieces for me and the house.

Looking forward to a couple more Spring Fairs in April, not to mention copious amounts of Easter bunnies, chocolate, chicks and eggs.  And a little more of that lovely Spring sunshine.  Oh, and possibly a bit of knitting.

{ have a happy day }