I’ve had a busy and eventful week or so, so here’s my attempt to catch-up on it all.
Garden
As I mentioned on here a couple of weeks ago, I’ve got it into my head that I’m going to finally sort the back garden out this Spring and get some fruit and vegetable beds dug and planted. I’ve actually started it this time, and I’m making steady progress so far. I’ve got one bed fully dug, planted peas, and built a cane/net support structure to keep the birds (and dogs) off, and for the peas to grow up. I’m under no illusions of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ proportions of veg, but something to eat in a few months would be good. I’ve also got a large pot planted up with chilies, and another pot with some spare strawberry plants in. If I can’t grow strawberries there’s no hope for me!
I’m going to get back out in the garden this weekend and dig another bed or two, with a view to getting carrots, garlic, onions and some corn in (the corn is a trial). Just call me Richard Briers.
Dogs
Ella is well and truly settled in now, and turning out to be a proper little character. For such a scaredy-dog (she jumps at the slightest sound) she’s incredibly pushy when there are treats being given out, or some love to be had. Murph gave us a scare last week and was really poorly for a few days, but he’s back to normal now and loving agility again. The problem for me is the better he gets at it, the further and faster I have to run to keep up with him as the courses get longer and more complex. It’s as taxing mentally as it is physically sometimes, trying to figure out whether you should be doing reverse turns, cut-behinds, pull-throughs or whatever, all the while keeping an eye on the overly excited ginger monkey running and jumping with me.
Music
This is the best thing I’ve had to post here for a long time, I’m so excited. I was chatting to some friends about bands we’ve never been to see, and how it’d be sad for them to finish before we had a chance to watch them live, and to cut a long story short, we ended up buying tickets to Iron Maiden this summer! Iron Maiden…. how frickin’ awesome is that?? We’re going to watch them on 31st July in Birmingham as part of their Final Frontier tour, and I already know how amazing it’s going to be, I cannot wait.
Holiday
It’s looked for a long time that I wasn’t going to get a summer holiday somewhere warm this year, mainly due to the fact that we tend to go on holiday with a group of friends, and one of the couples in that group recently had a baby. However, it turns out that they’re keen to take their offspring off to warmer climes too, so there’s a good chance that we’ll all be heading off to Spain again in September for a week chilling out by the pool together. I’m really glad we do it that way to be honest, there’s no way I could really afford a ‘proper’ holiday this year, but when we get a villa between us it usually works out at about £300 for everything; flights and villa. That’s the sort of holiday I can afford 🙂
Grading
Last Sunday was the Spring grading at the academy, and it was quite a nervy one for me, because it was the first time ‘my’ students had been with just me by and large since their last grading, which meant I was responsible for their forms and one-step/self-defence. They did me proud though, and the day was a great success.
So that’s me for now, I’m sure there’s probably some other stuff I’ve forgotten, suffice to say March has absolutely flown by so far. Hopefully the next time I update I can be a bit more focused on one topic, and maybe even show you all some pictures of my gardening success!