February, March and some of April

 I was planning on doing one of these a month while the men weren't here but of course that didn't happen and so now I'm sat here, the night before the men are hopefully returning, with 700 pictures and 2.5 months to write about. Necessarily this means that I'll miss loads out that has happened but at least we'll be back up to date and if the men ARE in regular service will resume.

So as per usual when it gets like this I'll group things up rather than trying to be in any chronological order.

Rosie with the empty fish tank

Fish making themselves at home

Visiting the neighbours with her pram

Fascinated by the fish

Enjoying the fish with her teddies

The most important part of life is of course Rosie, and the most important thing that happened in the past couple of months was her birthday. We had been discussing a pet, to get her to understand caring for things, and after some thought we settled on a fish tank because Angela has experience with caring for fish and there is a shop locally that stocks them. First off was the tank that was put into Rosie's playroom and warmed and filtered ready for the fish and actually on her birthday we had a lovely day out selecting those fish and also she was allowed to pick a couple of things from the big toy shop. Even today she talks about her birthday, reciting the things she bought "fish, and pram, and peppa!" which gives me a huge smile.

A lovely day all round, and Rosie still loves her fish (though we've had some turn over already).

A ghostly sunrise one morning

Deep snow the day after her birthday

Rosie checking out the snow

Lunch in the sun while the snow melts

Beautiful flowers

More snow falls....

... but is gone within days

.... only to return a few days later...

... and Rosie got to build a Sammy

Climbing the bank

Grass cut again

The weather has been very changeable but we did get a good final blast of winter - the deep snow here (which all fell on the night of Rosie's birthday) was too wet and soft to get a good Sammy out of unfortunately and after a few days it was all melted; it was warm enough to eat outside. The flowers started coming and then blam more snow but that also didn't last long and I was thinking that the winter was over and Rosie wouldn't get a second Sammy however we did get a fall late in March that was sticky enough that after school one day Rosie joined me outside and HELPED MAKE A SAMMY!! She was over the moon and I was even more happy. That was the last of the snow to settle, though we've had a few flurries since, and now the weather seems to be warming and spring has sprung with blossom everywhere, flowers everywhere, and the grass growing so fast it's really tough to keep up with. This has meant that we can get outside with Rosie a lot and we've been doing some awesome walks around the village with her.

Other than that there is not much more to add; we have been slowly doing stuff around the house but mostly enjoying a bit of rest but Angela has done a great deal with flower and plants in the glass room which is a lovely space while I've finally oiled the dining room table so tomorrow it can be lifted back through into place. I do hope the men do arrive tomorrow as I'm keen to get progress started to get our toilets back working (more on that in a future blog) so we can get rid of the buckets once more.

Thanks for reading.