5. This amazing slide show of a photographer's last days with his father.  Grab some tissues...

4. This competition to find an illustrator for Julia Donaldson's new book.  We love her work around here and have I mentioned she is the patron for Kev's new organisation???

3.  Two exciting courses.  The first is a course called "Inspired by Nature" hosted by Scottish Natural Heritage.  From the brochure:

The best thing about it?  I get to go FOR WORK, get paid,and get to learn amazing things. 

The second course I have signed up for is an e-course called: Unravelling: Ways of Seeing Myself. 

My mum was doing an e-course on journalling and said she really loved it, so I went looking for my own.  I have to say it looks fab and i am very excited.  best thing is, it was paid for from selling a bunch of E-man's old toys...reducing clutter AND learning new things is win-win.

2. This post on living a complex life, by mommycoddle (she is also where I found Days with My Father).  Its just really stuck in my head over the last week.  I am a naturally lazy person and strive for the easiest way, so a lot of what she says rings true about some of the very basic things I struggle with.

She also inspired me to dig back through some of my favourite writers and I borrowed A Sand County Almanac from Kerstin.  I love this quote on spring's arrival:

A cardinal, whistling spring to a thaw but later finding himself mistaken, can retrieve his error by resuming his winter silence. A chipmunk, emerging for a sunbath but finding a blizzard, has only to go back to bed. But a migrating goose, staking two hundred miles of black night on the chance of finding a hole in the lake, has no easy chance for retreat. His arrival carries the conviction of a prophet who has burned his bridges.

1.  Ellis.  Ok, I know its cheating. as I didn't find him this week, but man oh man, is he something else.  How did I get so lucky to get the busiest, craziest, funniest, most lovely person to spend my life with?  Just when I think we've got him sussed, I discover something new about him and he finds a new way to push a limit, climb something or be just a bit more vibrant.  This week's escapades, included:

- Running around with the sewing machine cover on his head, bumping into things and saying "Stuck. Stuck." but refusing to let me help him.

- Opening the front door and running out of the house, down the street and around the corner, where I found him perched on a wall waiting for me.

- Trying to tickle every car, truck, door and tree on our way home from nursery.

-Falling asleep on his own, in his own room, with no crying, no fussing, not even an objection for the first time ever!