Waiting

So far February hasn't been living up to much... the tail end of winter. The toenails, as we used to call the last little bit of beer left in the bottle that had gone all warm and nasty when I was a wild (?) University student...

So we are at the toenails of winter... waiting for it to shed the mud and muck and emerge from its gungy old chrysalis into the glory of spring.

And like the last weeks of pregnancy it is the longest, most boring time. There are hints of what is yet to come (the Braxton Hicks contractions?). We have snowdrops. We have a few, brave crocus buds (which haven't opened because we haven't had any actual sunshine). We have daffodil leaf buds. We have some tiny, fuzzy pussy-willow buds. We have a few catkins braving the weather.

But most of all what we have is mud. And rain. With the odd interjection of sleet. Which does nobody any good at all. Honestly.

Anyone feel like joining me in a round of 'why are we waiting'?

In the meantime we have been enjoying our half-term break by lounging in our pyjamas, having friends to play, participating in the Armchair Winter Olympics (where we are headed for a gold medal!) and generally lounging about. Interspersed with bouts of racing around outside... the boys were playing Family Olympics outside the other day... obstacle courses and silly rules. Burned off a lot of energy which helped everyone's sanity levels!

Still... looking forward to life a month from now. At least the days are getting significantly longer! Every mud puddle has a silver lining!