87/365: The first tulip

Yes here it is, the first tulip to flower in the garden. Not one of my favourites, I prefer the old-fashioned ordinary sort, but a vibrant flame red and very striking among the daffodils. There's a whole posse of tulips waiting to unfurl.

84/365: To bee or not to bee

The sun was out and the bees were buzzing among my hyacinths. How wonderful they smell! It's so great to see all the daffodils out at the same time - usually the early Tete a Tetes have died off before the hyacinths make their dramatic entry. Can't wait for the tulips.

66/365: A year in flowers - the crocus

Plenty of mileage to be had with flower milestones, I think.
Here are some of the crocuses (crocii?) in my garden. The problem with crocuses is that you need hundreds to make an impact. Mine are a bit patchy. Over zealous weeding got rid of most of them in the autumn. But they do look stunning in clumps all the same colour.

52/365: A year in flowers - the tulip

The arrival of particular flowers each season is a great pleasure of mine. It starts with the snowdrop, that brave little harbinger of spring. Next come the daffodils followed by tulips in the shops, with the promise of a vivid show in the garden in a few weeks' time. Every year I plant more and more tulips.

I always have some deeply scented hyacinths indoors, as well as outside. The next big arrival for me in the shops is stocks. Their heady smell makes me feel intoxicated. And then it's the big bang of the rose, and for me the pink explosion of Gertrude Jekhyll in the garden. Finally autumn brings the gaudy, flamboyant dahlias and Christmas the wistful hellebores.

I only buy flowers when they are seasonal, as it gives you more to look forward to, and I only buy British flowers.

38/365: The Sunday roast

Over the land millions of chickens and beef joints are roasting away. It's not surprising the French call us the "roast beefs". It's been three weeks since we've been home for the traditional Sunday lunch, which we always have at the table. Today it's beef with the usual accompaniments: roast potatoes, peas, runner beans, parsnips, Yorkshire pudding, mustard and horseradish. What could be better?

36/365: Cat silhouettes

A sunny spring-like day and Molly the cat decided to sit in the window, silhouetted against the blinds. She is invariably referred to as "the cat" by J, or occasionally "that cat," as in "who let that cat in?" Anonymous meanwhile refers to all cats as "rancid".

Although it's Friday, no trip to the snug or E Four tonight. J is going to a running club soiree so I will have my finger on the Sky Plus box.

Did you notice the comments are back? It gets stranger and stranger.

35/365: The curse of the buffet lunch

Was in a different building today, much smaller with no cafeteria. Fortunately, because it was a meeting that extended over lunchtime, a buffet lunch was brought in. I should have brought my own sandwiches. This is just a small part of the lunch - there were also cream cakes provided by someone else, a bowl of fruit and some more sandwiches. And once it's sitting there, you can't help reaching out. Well, tomorrow is another *(dieting) day....

33/365: The motley crew

Today I moderated a webcast that went out across EMEA. It was an hour long and my role was to introduce it and then moderate the questions. These were either live in the meeting room or on the web from participants in many countries. I filtered the questions real-time and put them to the panel, who are shown here. It was fun - I enjoy doing this type of thing. It's a throwback to when I was a radio journalist and all sorts of things used to go wrong. Fortunately nothing went wrong today.
Now regular readers may have noticed that comments have disappeared from posts. I was baffled because I hadn't changed any settings. Some research revealed that Haloscan, whose widget I was using, have now decided to monetise their service. No-one had emailed me about it, and presumably they made my code redundant. I have now attempted to install their new offering, Echo, but the Blogger plug-in doesn't work and I'm no expert on HTML, so until I fix it, the comment box on the right will have to suffice. Please don't let it put you off.

32/365: It's all virtual

No surprises for identifying the object on the left. Yes, a mouse. Normally at this time of year I would be in the sunnier climes of Las Vegas or Anaheim (LA) for the annual sales & marketing conference. This year it's being done virtually. So we watched the executive keynotes, chatted and networked with colleagues, and took our assigned classes - all online. While it's good to be at the cutting edge, we do miss the valuable interaction and genuine networking so hopefully next year we will be back in the US.

29/365: We go for a Ruby Murray

Which, in cockney rhyming slang, is "curry". Dieting operations were suspended as we tucked into the feast above at E Four, near where we live. We always have the same menu I'm afraid, although J insists on studying the menu each time but then having the same thing anyway. I have an E Four invention called, if I spell it correctly, chicken shystila, which has a ginger spiciness, and J has chicken tikka masala balti. Made a change from Friday in the snug.

24/365: Lights, camera, action!

We're very lucky that J's sister Kate recently turned professional as a photographer. We spent some time today having our picture taken. I'll save the shots of the happy couple (you can find some at Kate's blog) and instead share this one of J posing for Kate.

23/365: The disgraceful craft table

After sharing with you the tidy home office, I thought it was only right you should see my disgraceful craft area. This is in the lean-to, a ramshackle leaky old thing that's more than 30 years old. On Saturdays I'm typically out here listening to Dermot O'Leary and making a postcard for Sunday Postcard Art  (see the result at: http:/scrapncardqueen.blogspot.com.) My hands get very cold because although there's a small electric heater, I prefer to use the extension socket for the radio and my embossing tool.

On the table there are rubber stamps for my current project, wet wipes to clean them, a Cuttlebug embossing machine, glue and some tins for ATC and chipboard pieces. On the floor are boxes of ribbons, embellishments and ink pads.

22/365: I go to South Mimms Services

No-one can say my life isn't glamorous. One day Paris, the next South Mimms services on the M25. I'm afraid it's not my photo, although I fully intended to take a glorious shot of South Mimms in the rain. I wouldn't normally stop here because it's only another 20 minutes to home, but I was starving and fancied a Waitrose sandwich. I've written before about the scourge of the Walkers "grab bag" and guess what, that's all they had. Shame on you Waitrose! I expected more from you than adding to the girth of Britain. Needless to say, I didn't have any Quavers.

19/365: Meeting detritus

In Paris for a two-day meeting. No time at all today to go outside or take any interesting photos. What you see here is the detritus from the tea break today. An empty tray where once almond pastries sat. I didn't sample one of those unfortunately because of the diet, but I'm told they were lovely. Off now to a Japanese restaurant and maybe a more interesting photo for tomorrow.

18/365: A bumper crop

It always amazes me how the spring bulbs continue to defiantly push their way through the cold hard soil to give a spectacular display. Just a week ago, these bulbs were completely covered in snow. Every year I plant as many as I can because I tend to lose a few during over zealous weeding. I have a bed of hyacinths and love the heady fragrance. I first got the idea for mass planting hyacinths when I saw a municipal bed in Dartmouth. You could smell the bulbs some distance away. I also have a lot of narcissi, daffodils and dwarf tulips. I get so excited when they all start to flower and then we know winter is behind us.
I'm going to Paris later today for a business trip so this will be my first real challenge in terms of uploading pictures. I don't have any photo editing software on my work PC so I will need to take pictures in low res. I refuse to use a smartphone (I like to have a life) and my very basic phone doesn't have a camera.  Let's see how it goes. Paris is certainly very photogenic!

15/365: I book the register office

We're getting married in June. Very small register office ceremony and then lunch. I booked the register office today, carefully chosen for its visual appeal - Marylebone town hall. It's where Sean Bean last got married. The honeymoon is booked so all that's left to do is book the restaurant, send out the invites (max 15) and get my passport sorted, as I am still Mrs XXX and that won't do at all. Plus we have to present ourselves at our local council to give notice of intention to marry.

14/365: View from the concourse

Went into London today for a meeting followed by a haircut. Very little snow around now thank goodness - able to wear ordinary shoes for the first time in weeks!

Here's the view from the balcony at Liverpool Street Station. Unfortunately no outbreaks of choreographed dancing today. Just tired commuters rushing to get home at 7.30pm.

13/365: Home Office

Seeing as I'm spending so much time in it - today from 7.30 to 5 and just 30 mins for lunch - here is a pic of the home office.
My modus operandi is to have 2 PCs running, one for work (the laptop) and the other for diversions (Facebook, Spotify etc.)
The broadband was kindly upgraded to 14mb by BT recently (free of charge!- although they aren't the cheapest.)
There's a headset for the phone because I tend to spend most of my time in conference calls.

It makes me smile how people always think you have an easy life if you're working from home. You get fewer interruptions so you get more done, usually, but it can also be quite lonely. Thank goodness for Office Communicator and the good old phone.

12/365: Stash Alert

The postman regularly delivers pizza shaped boxes, at which J rolls his eyes and mutters "more stash". My hobbies are paper crafting: making scrapbook albums, cards and collages. You get through lots of stash- patterned papers, coloured card, embellishments, ink pads, stamps and so on. Today's delivery from The Fruit Pixie was mostly ephemera: bingo tickets, dice, playing cards. Hours of fun.

10/365: Getting Ready

It's early evening, a time when thoughts turn to Monday: a new week at work, a 5.10am wake-up call and a two and a half hour drive to the office.

I always pack my essentials the night before: my coffee mug, blueberries, some magazines to give to colleagues, my ipod and of course my PC and charger (once I forgot it and had to turn round.)

I haven't been into the office since before Christmas because of holidays and then the snow. So, fingers crossed that the weather doesn't deteriorate.