Winter has returned just in time for spring

Another month has passed, and after some lovely warm spring weather, the cold wind and snow showers have returned. I hope my newly planted flowers and shrubs won't freeze. There has been a lot of digging going on in our garden during the last few weeks. As you can see from the photos, we have made quite an improvement to the garden. The first photo was taken in March last year, the second photo this week. You can see the pond, which needs filling and planting, but I will wait with that until we have come back from our trip to Sweden.

We also got a new hutch for the bunnies, with a ramp down into the run, so they can go up and down whenever they want to. I may use the old hutch to foster bunnies for a local animal rescue. ( I can't really work out how to put photos into the text at a certain place)

Matthias still gets into trouble at school, but not quite as often as before the holidays. One day an older child pushed him and he fell into a mud puddle. He was covered in mud from his hair down to his shoes, and he locked himself into the toilet for a whole hour. No one seemed to miss him, only me when I wanted to pick him up. After a while I found him crying in the toilet.

He is currently fascinated with volcanoes, so I suggested to go on a trip to Iceland some day. Lots of volcanoes there, and a good excuse to meet my friend Auslaug and her family. We haven't met in 20 years, I think, and she now has 3 adorable boys herself. There seems to be an abundance of boys among my friends. Kristy, my penpal in Utah, has two sweet boys, as well. And my best friend in Sweden, Kristina, had a baby boy last year.

Martin is ill at the moment, he has fever and a cough. He probably got it from Alistair and me , who have been ill, too. There are lots of germs going around at the moment. Hopefully we'll all be fine again by the time we go to Sweden (April 5). The boys are quite excited.

Last week we got a new car, a Toyota Prius with a hybrid engine. It is so quiet and it is exempt from the London congestion charge, which saves a lot of money.