Joy Pockets for April

So the weather for April was not nice at all.  A bit poxy in fact.  It kept us indoors for the best part of it.  Awful.  So, imagine my surprise when, in the middle of the month, I saw something dart across the sky.  That familiar, unmistakable forked tail and the effortless swooping of our summer friend, the swallow. 

Nah, I said.  Can’t be.  Shur, the weather is shite. 

I drove on and collected Oldest Boy from school.  Imagine my surprise when, on the way home, I saw that same shape darting through the sky again.

Nah, I said.  It’s only 17^th April, the wind would blow him straight back to Africa and he’d be exhausted trying to catch flies in this weather.

Guess what!

I wasn’t wrong!  Swallows.  They’re here!  Joy pocket with forked tails.

C’mon Summer 2013.  Let’s be having a piece of you.  Please!

And now I will get on with the rest of my joy pockets for April.

Everyone needs good neighbours and Mister Husbands grandmother was fond of the saying “tall fences make good neighbours.”  Thankfully our fence is not tall and quite jumpable although I didn’t need to clear it the day I had to rush into the doctors with Smallest Boy to see if his finger needed to be reattached.  The two girls from next door didn’t need to be asked twice to sit with the older three boys as I did the needful.  Thankfully, Smallest Boy did not need surgery or stitches after his accident with the door. 

I have recently joined the twitter machine.  Because I have absolutely nothing else to do with my time.  I am still trying to get the hang of the intricicies of blogger.com and don’t need another headache.  But I did it.   And Marian Keyes, one of my favourite authors, retweeted one of my tweets.  Teeny tiny, but I got a small buzz out of it.

It’s a family affair.  I am delighted to report that Oldest Boy and Shy Boy are now coming running with me!  They don’t do the whole circuit but they put their hearts and souls into the best part of the kilometre it takes them to reach the hole in the fence where they climb through and go back to the house.  Little steps.  

Blowing bubbles on a perfect late Spring evening.

 

Music of choice this month is the excellent Kodaline.  A young Irish band from Dublin, who, if the meeja is to be believed, appeared on You’re a Star a few years back.  I am sure they won’t thank me for mentioning that.

Smallest Boy turned two at the beginning of the month. We are now officially a baby free household. 

Swallows may be the first visible sign of summer but so too are blossoms appearing on a tree and the  finding of a ladybird in the garden.

Today is officially the first of May.  The first day of Summer. I have waited all year, and all of last Winter for this day.