It's that time of year again.  The moment when the cold, hard semi-permanent winter just falls away.  You blink, and suddenly you are in the middle of a perfumed paradise.  We were in the country on the weekend and completely awestruck by the sea of yellow dandelions that greeted us, the perfume of apple and cherry blossoms in the air, the bright sunlight and long evenings and relative warmth.  I know I rave about it every year, and this year hasn't left us disappointed. We didn't even have to physically push the kids into the garden this weekend - they just kept running out there on their own.  Amazingly, Tiss actually got a reasonable case of sunburn, and for the first time in his life walked around whingeing about how his shoulders hurt because they'd been burned.  Who would have thought it could happen in Latvia??  I collected way more herbs for tea than I would ever use, but the sweet smelling flowers and the joy of finding them in the field got the better of me.

In other news, I have actually honored my new year's resolution.  In my opinion, "new year's resolutions"should be renamed "a list of things that I am least likely to achieve this year" - because, let's face it - we rarely actually remember our resolutions after we make them on the big night. Or is that just me?  Well this year I promised myself to start attending the "Healthy Back" gym and physio centre which is located right next to our house.  Seriously.  It is about 40 metres from our front door.  I've had posture problems ever since I've been in high school, which were made much worse by pregnancy and looking after babies, and decided that finally, FINALLY I was going to fix my back and abs and everything else.  But try as I might, I hadn't found the time to go into the centre in the last five months.  I've been walking past the centre daily with a feeling of guilt (and hunched shoulders), but last week - TA DAAAAA!! - I did it.  I went and talked to a physio, who seemed very excited to tell me how desperately asymmetrical I am, and how I have NO BUM MUSCLES at all.  And today I started exercising with the physio.  Just us two.  And can I say, with all of nature transforming into pre-summer loveliness, I'm feeling purely saintly to know that I have started on my own little transformation as well.  So here's hoping I stay with it!