A Special Day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VYTAS.

&

Happy Birth Day, Alice Rose....... 3rd daughter of blog friend Sarah.

It is Vytas' birthday today (middle row with glasses), Lithuania's Independence Day hence the patriotic name. His graduation 2 years ago was a very proud day me for because it symbolised his first steps into a career he had chosen age 4. Well, that was when he first stated that he was interested in rockets not people. His Masters in Physics has led to the PhD which he is currently working on and I can see him being happy to follow an academic career. It is not primarily the letters after his name that make me proud but the fact that he has been able to identify a goal and successfully work towards it. At the same time he has grown into a confident and self reliant young man. Maybe a little too self reliant in that we only saw him 4 times last year, that does make me feel sad but you do have to let them lead their own lives. His life is now his work and his fiancee who he met in his first term at university and who is also doing a PhD. I think that is the most we can hope for our children; health, good relationships and the chance to follow a chosen career.

(For cute/embarrassing toddler pictures check out the post for last year.)
Back here in (sunny!) Devon the clouds have been rolling in making work in the garden a bit hit and miss.

I had to drive up to the road with the recycling box which gave me the opportunity to capture the low lying clouds trapped in the valleys.

I failed to get a picture of the wisps that had gathered in our valley because in the space of a few minutes the clouds had gathered and unleashed a torrent of hail and sleet. The weather continued like this for the rest of the day so I alternated working outside with repairing some of the cracks in some of the inside walls. They're only where the new part of house has settled a bit but it's time to repaint some more bedrooms and I might as well do the job properly.

And of course it is Pancake day today. I made a batch of batter and Linas and I had pancakes with sugar & lemon at lunchtime. Peter has just arrived home so I made him a couple of pancakes which he is eating with some cheese as he is not a sweet eater. A little while ago Linas was asking me to make pancakes so I went one step further and taught him how to make them for himself. He sometimes makes himself a batch of pancakes in the middle of the night when he's been up chatting on the net. A good skill to have.