In the Pink

Blogger Kelly occasionally posts two slightly different photos of the same subject, and asks us to choose which one we like best. Here's my version of the same exercise.

I walked Olga yesterday afternoon and we passed a cherry tree outside the church near West End Green. This tree is a prolific bloomer every spring, and this year is no different. I couldn't resist trying to get a photo of Olga with the tree in the background.

So which one do you like better? We have the regal pose (above)...

... the confused "I-don't-know-what-we're-doing-here" tongue-licking pose...

...and the goofy grin.

Our weather was spectacular yesterday -- utterly cloudless and blue, and once the morning chill wore off it was quite comfortable. It reminded me of the pandemic spring, in 2020, which was also very dry and sunny. I spent the whole weekend in the garden, barely going anywhere, and thought, "This is just like lockdown!"

I did a few more small tasks, such as potting a piece of ginger root that had sprouted in the blue glass bowl on our kitchen counter. The last time I tried this it didn't go so well, but I thought I'd give it another whirl. Better than just throwing it in the bin straight away. I soaked the ginger first, to saturate it and help it plump up, thinking that might lead to a healthier plant. We shall see.

I spent most of the day on our UK citizenship application, which I finished. It wasn't too difficult, but it was time-consuming. They wanted to know every international trip we'd taken for the last FIVE YEARS. In our case, that's a lot of trips, and they're not the same -- I went back to the states several times without Dave, and his school and Drum Corps trips were without me. So a lot of research was involved in making those lists. Thank God I keep a blog where I write about our travels!

All I need to do now is schedule a "biometric appointment" to drop off all our supporting documents and pictures and whatnot. They need a bunch of stuff. The appointment-scheduling button wasn't working on the web site yesterday and there's no alternative way of getting there that I could find, so hopefully they'll get that bug worked out. Otherwise I'll have to get on the phone to the Home Office.

Having lived here for 14 years already, I didn't expect this step to feel very significant -- everyone says the big achievement is Indefinite Leave to Remain, which we've had for years. That's when you have to pass the test about British culture and values and all that stuff. But I'm actually very excited to become full-fledged citizens, to be able to vote and put down even deeper roots. God save the King!