A little cheat this week as I’ve included Sunday too as my week was seriously lacking in Sparkles this week.  I’m not sure that arriving safely at my destination after a horrendous drive in atrocious conditions can count as a sparkle, although I was very relieved and thankful.  Most of my Sparkles are from the weekend which was relaxing and quiet.

1.  A lovely comment on my blog. I received a lovely compliment on my blog this week, from a gentleman with whom I exchanged emails following a post on some old war photographs of my Gramps.  It meant a lot and was a beautiful surprise.
2. Conkers.  It was cookers night at cubs so after a conker walk the previous day, Little Man learnt the art of conkers and has been keen to challenge us all at home.
3. Break up!  Unlike the children I have a two week half term and finished on Friday.  I really need this break and am looking forward to ‘my’ week.  I wasn’t at school on Friday as it was a uni day so didn’t get the full excitement but it was still a great feeling to close my laptop on Thursday afternoon.
4. Cows on the road.  Little Miss and I were in the car on Saturday and paused for the cows to cross the road after milking.  It made me smile and is just a little reminder that we live in a farming community.
5. Dawn.  Little Miss was feeling really tired on Friday evening, so we decided to let her sleep in and skip parkrun. I got up early to fit in a run before the boys went swimming.  It was tough to start in the dark but I got rewarded with a delightful dawn.  It’s been a really wet week so to run in the dry and in the sun was great.
6. Harry Connick Junior.  There was an article about HCJ in the Times magazine on Saturday.  I loved him in the 90s and found We are in Love on Spotify.  I’ve been playing it again and it’s still as fabulous as I remember.  I can’t believe the album is nearly 30 years old!
7. Nature Reserve.  As Sunday was another bright and dry day we went to a local nature reserve.  We collected some chestnuts to roast at home and the children used their nature book to search for different trees, plants and birds.  There was lots of fungi and we found a toadstool which thanks to their book the children discovered was very dangerous.  It’s a great book, there are pictures of different things for you to find and the space to draw or add a photo from your walk.