Snowdrops, swans, rain and randomness

Don't the weeks fly by? Before you know it I'll be holding Squirrel in my arms, knowing if it's a girl or a boy, not knowing if it's morning or night! 

This morning I'm awake really early.  Jam had the final interview for his new job yesterday and they called him to tell him he got the job soon after, so he had a celebratory drink with his friend and I stayed over at my friend's house for a while catching up, having looked after three children under 5 all afternoon ~ only one minor biting incident and a little bit of head bumping and shouting to report!

As I left yesterday afternoon, there was a local man sitting on the bench opposite the steps of the mooring.  He was on his third 1.5L bottle of strong cider and was calling out friendly greetings to me.  Lovely day I reply and he says 'whether it's a lovely day or not a lovely day you have to be sunny in your heart... always happy, now what have they done here, (pointing at the steps on that side), they should have done the same as your side, not saying they should be copycats but it looks much better doesn't it' ~ this chap is often seen pacing up and down the canal with his arms waving around in the air calling out about how great god is, or rambling on about something inane very loudly, nobody listening but the trees and ducks, and me. 

I was in a hurry though so had to press on, bumping into Jam on the way, to wish him luck for the interview and quickly catch up on the days news so far ~ ran out of electricity this morning, ran outside in pyjamas to see if the bollard was ok and saw Paddy leaving and asked him is he was messing around with the electrics, what a silly thing to ask, we'd just run out, but he gave us electric cards, he owed us some for the washing anyway, so that was lucky or I would have been stuck for we didn't have any spare, he then told me he had found somebody's credit cards that had been thrown over the fence from the back lane, obviously stolen and discarded and urged me to look for anything else, nothing found, ironed your shirt and the outfit's hanging up, good luck, ooh yes please I'd love a cookie, ok I won't cycle, I know the brakes aren't working, I love you! Bye!

I love the sound of the rain early in the morning on the top of the boat, nobody else but the rain is awake, apart from the ducks who seem to become more vocal as well.  Another friend and her young child came to visit the other day and it was so exciting for her, she said she much preferred this boat to the other one, it was so much bigger, and even though it rained the whole time she was insisting that it had stopped raining and that we should go and feed the ducks.  The rain eventually did stop and Ma'am made an appearance much to the child's delight.  Ma'am has taken to knocking on the side of the boat these days to make her presence known...this is Ma'am

And these are the snowdrops that popped up a few weeks ago, they are enormous!  My friend's child noticed a tiny orange narcissus that had popped up amongst the ivy on the edge of the mooring, I love the fact that we walk by every day and don't notice the small things.  We need to give ourselves the time to appreciate everything growing around us, all those little treasures!

The Squirrel is definitely growing and Jam felt it this morning, it feels strange, it's not proper limbs kicking out yet, but seems to be quite constant and my belly is definitely protruding lots now.

I'm afraid I've just rambled today, but that's not a bad thing, it's been quite a rambling week, dealing with the boat, looking after children, helping Jam prepare for this interview.  Whilst on the subject of random ramblings, here's a random picture, it's not just of the rubbish that floats down the canal, if you look closely you can see a very large yellow rubber duck, don't know where he came from and we didn't have time to rescue him before he was rescued by someone else, let's hope he's merrily bobbing in someone's bath tub!