Visiting Burford garden centre

Easter break is now a memory. Back to school. And our house is again "invaded" by the decorators. You might remember me telling about how the ceiling in the entrance hall has collapsed with a mighty crash after the pipes leaked (thank you, British Gas people, for putting nails through the pipes!). The saga still continues.
The old plaster has been removed, and the ceiling has been re-plastered and painted, but the walls got so splashed and stained that we had to strip the wallpaper (and good riddance too, I didn't like it).
Now we need to smooth the walls with more plasterwork and then paint over.
Pleasures of living in a very old house is that there's always another job to do.
We didn't go to Italy for Easter, and stayed at home. We were quite lucky with the weather and had several sunny days. Not like today, when I'm feeling cold at home. I sit by my laptop, wrapped in the blanket, and sip the tenth cup of tea to keep me warm.

Our friend Jen took our boys and me to Burford Garden Centre twice in the last two weeks. My sons love visiting it, as there is a lot to do and see. We always go to the cafe first. I do begrudge their prices. You can buy a decent supermarket cake for the same amount of money you have to pay for a slice of cake at the cafe, but then you can say - stay at home then.

There is a toy shop where you can imagine yourself time-travelling with Dr Who.

I love browsing in the food and drink section...

 ...as well as looking at the seeds and beautiful potted plants - shrubs, flowers, herbs.

This photo was taken back in February

And my boys just love the playground with a wooden tractor, train, two sets of swings and climbing frames.

Swings make everyone happy. They are such a joy, aren't they?!

When I see my kids  going up and down, I often think of an old song which I loved as a child. It originally appeared in one of the Soviet films for children. And the song was called Winged Swings:

Childhood will end one day,
It won't last forever.
Children will grow up,
And fly away...
But right now we are still children,
There's still time to grow up -
It's just the sky,
just the wind,
just the joy ahead.
... And the winged swings are flying..