Reasons to be Cheerful

ONE

I have spent all day yesterday and most of today painting. Not the 'create a masterpiece with your kids' sort of painting. Not even the 'splash a coat of imaginatively named coloured emulsion over the walls for an instant room makeover' sort of painting. I have been doing the painstaking  'glossing to protect your exterior wood from the elements' sort of painting.

Neither my husband nor I are big fans of uPVC double glazing (a simple fact that I really wish the dozens of salesman who are regular callers at my front door would grasp). We have some beautiful stained glass and I would hate to sacrifice it for the sake of slightly better sound and draught proofing. It does of course mean that we have the job of maintaining the frames and it is long overdue - hence the reason that I could be found outside with a paintbrush in my hand for the best part of two days.

It is hard work, especially the preparation and the cleaning up your brushes afterwards, but I am starting to see the results now. I have a long way still to go but it is looking good and that is very satisfying.

TWO

I took my 14 year old to get her ears pierced and do a bit of shopping on Monday. While we were in town we got her hair cut too. What a transformation! I took a young girl shopping with me and brought home a young woman. Here she is modelling her new look.

THREE

I had recovered enough from my 5K run by Tuesday to enjoy a lovely family bike ride along the Severn Valley cycle trail. We ran into a little bit of difficulty at the start of our ride in the sense that we were not actually on the bike trail to begin with. Before we found ourselves on the wide, well surfaced, signposted trail we had a bit of 'extreme' terrain to deal with - a narrow, bumpy track running along the river with tall stinging nettles on one side and a steep drop down to the water on the other. All a bit scary with a tag along trailer bike but we managed and it was very beautiful.

At Hampton Loade, we caught the steam train back to our starting point at Highley. 

Our three year old loved the experience of going on the train, especially when the whistle blew. It was a lovely day out, rounded off with a pub lunch and an ice lolly on the drive home. Simple things, but it is usually the simple things that give me reasons to be cheerful.