Seasons, spring, seeds and swings

So, the rest of Tuesday, after we had our walk, largely involved lots of time in the garden. I had a sudden arrival of my GUAG (Get-Up-And-Go) and was in and out sorting the conservatory (lean-to) a bit, doing a couple of washing loads and hanging them out, changing sheets, putting old clothes into a charity bag for collection and getting the garden table, chairs and umbrella out. F 'helped' me with washing them down, hugely enjoying splashing a sponge full of soapy water around. It was just nice enough to spend time out there, not quite warm but not cold, fairly sunny some of the time. F ate a sandwich out there at the table and I had my cuppa and we chatted about spring.
I patrolled the back garden for bird corpses (one found, ugh) in readiness for it being in play use again. It's carpeted with some yellow flowered plant now, celandine I think, which is rather nice. The main problem with the garden at the moment is the state of the steps up to the top terrace - old sleeper-type steps used to be there but have almost completely disintegrated or fallen down now, so that it's just a bit of a scree slope with odd bits of rotting wood lying about at dodgy angles. I really want to do something about it and am tempted to bypass the landlord actually to get something nice and safe done, rather than a money-saving bodge. Will see. Anyway it's OK going up that bit, but if children run down, especially littlies, they are quite liable to take a tumble. Apart from that there's only a few minor prickly plants, so it's not bad. F has already spent loads of time out there today and yesterday and it's so nice to have the conservatory doors open again - house already feels quite different. F has started actually being able to get the swing going by herself.

Today my mum came over and F spent the afternoon thoroughly enjoying playing with her grandma. First activity was sand and water - nothing she likes better. The afternoon also included more chocolate, a very splashy bath, princess pie (playdough in Disney Princess mould) and a Paddington DVD. She's generally in a bit of a stroppy phase but I suspect a few more days of good weather and time outside and chatty lunches will help.
This morning she asked how the daddy's seeds and mummy's eggs get into the mummy's tummy, so I faffed a bit, focusing on the mummy already having her eggs inside her from when she was born and F having tiny eggs in her already, etc. But there was no escaping this 'how' question. She speculated that perhaps the mummies eat the eggs and 'then the daddies get the mummies to eat the seeds'! I think I need a book now.
She also talked about how the seasons go round and which one might be seen as the beginning of the year - she opted for spring. Another topic of conversation was grandmas and grandpas and what qualifies them to be such, following her conversational opener that she thought it was a shame that I couldn't go on holidays to all these good places with my mum any more because I was grown-up. So I told her that I was grown-up when I went with my mum to Canada, Iceland, Italy, etc, which she seemed a bit surprised about!

My mum being here this afternoon meant that I got all my current work finished slightly ahead of deadline, earning an extra night off, so we've just been watching recorded episodes of Green Wing. Tomorrow I have to make sure I have some writing done for writing group session on Monday but no other major tasks await! How nice.