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These very pretty boxes which I picked up on my shopping travels at the weekend with Lydia and Lewis. I love butterflies, and love pretty boxes and jars to keep things in, which may otherwise look cluttered. I'm not sure where I'll put them yet, but I'm thinking that on the dresser in the cwtch is looking promising.

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After seeing Lydia and Lewis off, I decided to have a bit of me time, so I headed off upstairs to start this book......then promptly fell asleep! Haha.

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Leaving Bob to his work, we then drove up to Brecon, where we had a browse around the shops, and where I bought this lovely Heuchera for my garden.

Back home in the evening, for a home cooked meal of baked salmon, with roast potatoes and lots of veggies! We were too full for our "Wicked" sticky toffee pudding, so it was a unanimous decision to save it for a very naughty breakfast tomorrow!

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Two of my favourite people, at one of my favourite places! Lydia (my daughter, aka my Gowjus Girl) and Lewis (her partner), taken at Roath Park Lake in Cardiff.

Lydia and Lewis arrived late last night. It's so good to see them. We were up fairly early, considering they'd had a long drive and a late night, and we decided on a day out in Cardiff. Lewis had been to Cardiff briefly before, but not to see anything of any significance....so we decided that a trip to Roath Park Lake was a must. We had a lovely walk around the lake, and got some take out coffees at the cafe, arriving back at the car just as the rain was starting.

Roath Park Lake is one of my favourite places in the world. It's the one place in Cardiff which I have continued to love, even after leaving Cardiff at a difficult time in my life, when I no longer loved my home town as a whole. That has since passed, and I do love Cardiff again.

The lake has always been my place to go to for presence of mind and a sense of peace and tranquility.

Having grown up in Cardiff, I have seen the lake grow and flourish and since now it is at least many months, and sometimes years between visits, I always see a difference in the volume of greenery and beauty.

After leaving the lake, we went on into the city centre, to look around the shops, and in search of some lunch.

It's incredibly hard at the moment, to just walk into a cafe/bar/restaurant and simply order food and drink. Most places are only taking customers who have pre-booked a table. This is reassuring, because at least you know that places are not going to be over crowded, and social distancing is being observed. However, it's also rather frustrating when you're hungry & thirsty, and just want to enjoy a meal with loved ones!

After much trekking around, we were eventually able to get into Pie Minister, and it was absolutely worth the wait! I had the "Kevin" pie - a delicious vegan pie, accompanied by minted mushy peas and yummy mashed potato. I would definitely recommend Pie Minister as a lovely place to eat.

In the evening, Bob came over after working at Craig-y-Nos, and we enjoyed a relaxing evening of food, drink and conversation.

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This beautiful shelf unit came up on Freecycle. I didn't think I had a hope in hell's chance of getting it, but I did! I've popped it into the back bedroom temporarily. This was where I first thought of putting it when I saw the picture of it, but after getting it home, I think it would be much better in the kitchen. I love its warm, honey colour, and I think it will go nicely with the yellow and blue colours I'm planning for the kitchen. For the last eight months or so, I've been collecting Kilner style jars, for putting baking ingredients, pulses, rice, pasta, etc., into. I think they'll look fab on this unit.

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This is the lino I've put down in the cwtch. It looks brighter in the picture - it's actually more pastel coloured. A lady on the Freegle site gifted it to me, and I really like it. It's already lifted the room, which isn't actually painted yet. Tomorrow I'll give the dresser a good clean before putting it back into the cwtch. I will be upcycling that at some point, but just for now it's fine.

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This book, which I finished today. It only took me eight years to read! Haha. That isn't as bad as it sounds. I started it eight years ago and got half way through. Then I stopped being a bookworm for a while and didn't read any more. Then it got mislaid. During my recent (and actually still current!) clearout, when I was putting my library room together, I came across it again, so was determined to go back to it after I finished the book I was on. Of course, eight years on I couldn't remember much of it, so I started it from the beginning again. I thoroughly enjoyed it - a cracking good read.

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Julie, my friend in work, gave me these rooted cuttings today for my herb garden. Lemon balm on the left, and oregano on the right. I shall pop them into pots so they can get used to their new surroundings before putting them in the herb garden properly in a couple of weeks.

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Picking up one of these beauties for around half price in Tesco yesterday. I've popped it in the freezer ready for when Lydia and Lewis visit. I don't even know if they like this, but hey ho. I do! I love the "Wicked" range of vegan foods, but they're expensive, so I only buy them when they are reduced.

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This is a dolls house which my father built - using bits and pieces of scrap wood - over sixty years ago! Originally, it belonged (and still does actually) to my sister. When she grew out of it, it was put away, and when I came along it was taken out of storage, smartened up, and given to me. Then it went into storage again, and was brought out to be revamped for my sister's daughter. My brother-in-law, at that time, added the black Tudor-style strips, which weren't on it originally. After that, it came back to me, to re-paint, etc., for Lydia. Now it sits in my craft room, looking beautiful and bringing back memories!

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When I planted up these strawberry plants, there were two in total, with a couple of runners. They started out as a cutting from a lovely friend Angela, and now they are covering the small area I planted them in, in front of the herb garden. I also noticed that on the large one on the left, there seems to be a flower bud. Wow, I may even get a strawberry or two!

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Because the weather this evening was very blustery - apparently we're on the end of Storm Ellen - we decided that food needed to be warm and comforting, and so we had a yummy vegan pie!

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I've been sorting more stuff in the house. I have lots of Lydia's childhood dressing up clothes, and outfits I made her for her various birthday parties. She always had lovely parties. For her seventh birthday, we did a rainbow themed party, and this is the dress I made her. As part of her gift that year, I wrote her another fairy story - a sequel to "Lydia and the Tooth Fairy", and again I'll be putting it on my writing page - Paperback Writer

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I don't work on the garden every day, and some days I don't even go out there at all. So it's always nice when I see a change. This is the mint I planted in my herb garden around about a month ago, when it consisted of one stem - the result of a rooted cutting from a friend. Now look at it! It's going a bit mad. I really want to thin it out around the right hand side, so that I can train it to grow on the left, so that it trails around the mirror. I shall put that on my list of things to do!

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The lovely table I was gifted from someone on a Facebook free site. I've cleaned it all up and now it's in the kitchen. I will at some point "shabby chic" it, but just for now I'm happy to have the extra storage provided by its cupboard and drawers, and to use it as a nice solid island.

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I found the original cassette tape from 21 years ago, which is the recording of "Lydia and the Tooth Fairy"- a fairy story which I wrote for Lydia when she was six. On the cassette I am narrating the story, and it has a theme tune and sound effects written by Paul Davies, somebody who we knew at the time.

Today I continued with the decluttering, organising, and spring cleaning of my house. I put the lovely gate-legged table in place in my kitchen and gave it a jolly good clean. Tomorrow I will fill up its cupboard and drawers with cleaning cloths, cleaning products, etc. - all the stuff which falls out of the cupboard under the sink every time I open the door! It will be nice to have extra storage space in the kitchen, and the table itself is a fab kitchen island for preparing food.

Bob was working at Craig-y-Nos today, and he came back to my house in the evening and we had his delayed birthday meal of Vegan spinach & ricotta cannelloni, with garlic bread. I did take pics but they were rubbish, so I'm not putting them on here! It tasted lovely though.

Tomorrow is the first day of my first full working week since March! I think I may be more than a little tired by the end of the week.