Next big steps

As of a couple of hours ago, I have all the paperwork in place to satisfy my accountant husband... a letter of admission to the University of Toronto and a letter confirming a two year scholarship to help pay for it. Canada here we come...

I had the chance to tell Gran about our plans and, as you might expect, she was incredibly supportive (as the rest of you have been too), despite the fact it would entail us moving several thousand miles away from the UK - and even further away from the Tajik family.

I am so sad that Gran didn't get to hear the conclusion to my latest project (I take after Mum!) but know she would have liked it and been proud of me. Her inheritance to us really will be life changing as it will help support the latter years of my degree, which I see as the next step in my career and in my family's life.

Love you Gran xoxoxo

Anniversary trees

For our one year wedding anniversary, I paid for two new trees to be planted (by the Woodland Trust) in a new forest just outside St. Albans so Chad and I will always have trees to visit in the place where we spent the first year of our marriage.
The connection to Gran makes me smile; I'll post a photo when we have gone to visit "our" trees.

Willow tree

Mar paid for our weeping willow tree in Mochignano. Jane and I emailed her a picture each visit to show her the growth. It's a fine specimen growing beautifully. A great reminder of Mar and the BT garden

First born lefty

Grsn was always entertained by how left hand dominate Jake was from a young age. He's recently got into "drawing" and it's now official: Jake is a lefty. Who wants to teach him to write?

Dawn chorus

I didn't sleep well last night and woke up whilst it was still dark. I imagine that it was about 5am (I don't like to check clocks as it makes me more likely to worry that I'm not sleeping!) and for quite some time I was treated to the most wonderful series of bird songs as the dawn chorus got underway. 

It made me think of Gran because she told me once that she'd forgotten to take her hearing aids out overnight and had similarly woken at around the same time and had marvelled at the dawn chorus that morning.

I wonder how the birds over Skylark 25 are today?

Jake doing what Jake does best

Jake In the Lakes

A visit to Bushmead

Chad and I went up to Bushmead today to check on the house. It was a glorious Spring day and the flowers in the tubs outside her front door were blooming and looking so cheerful. The embankment and park opposite her house were full of happy families enjoying the bank holiday and I saw an ice cream van which reminded me of all the lovely walks (or pushes with Gran in her wheels!) we took by the river which may have involved an indulgent 99p flake...!
It was really really sad to be at the house without her, especially as it would have been a perfect afternoon to go out for a stroll and some gossip and a chance to get some vitimin D inside her, but now that I've been once I know it will get easier.

A new home for the bunnies

A nice cup of tea and a hot cross bun

3 reds and a yellow...

Just had brunch with friends, where we brought a cake from the co-op with 3 red circles and 1 yellow for how healthy it was for you. I feel a little disappointed that I won't be able to feed Gran with it as even a small slice would have almost a quarter of her daily calories.

Definitely in the category of Gran would have liked this. 

Walking in Cornwall

This afternoon, Chad and I started planning our summer holiday... A week in Cornwall walking bits of the South West Coastal Path. I think Gran would've approved.

Our garden

I think of things everyday that I would like to have shared with Gran.

Yesterday I saw a wren darting across our garden, stopping only long enough for me to identify that it wasn't yet another sparrow! It's the first time we've seen a wren and I ticked it off with pride in the bird book Gran gave Aliya some years ago.

On the same day our garden was visited not just by the usual urban assortment of sparrows, blackbirds and pigeons but by blue tits and robins as well as the elusive wren.

On this occasion, our crazy pair of resident squirrels were nowhere to be seen...    

I saw this and thought of Gran...

Mum, Dad and I were talking tonight about our upcoming trip to the Lakes and the plan to get Jake up Alfred Wainwright's first Lakeland walk and we had the communal thought that "Gran would have like this". Thus the idea was born.

Long or short, pictures or words, any time you think of/see/do something that makes you think "Gran would have liked this", post it for the rest of us to look at!

To start you off...I did a crossword with my old buddy Mark the other week and he was one of the first people I managed to share my love of crosswords with back at university. In the same that Gran taught me and then used it as a way to keep in touch, Mark and I do the odd Telegraph crossword (much easier than the Grauniad!) over Skype and it helps to keep in touch. I don't think I told Gran that we did this as the "meetings" are infrequent, but I think she would have liked the idea of the next generation of solvers getting started.