Post Comment Love 13-15 July

Hello there and welcome to this week's #PoCoLo - if you were here last week it was great to see you, if you're new here this week then hello, it's great to have you along. I'm sure you're going to find some great posts to read.

It's been a work-dominated week for me. I'm not sure if that's because I'm operating on a more relaxed schedule, as we did while in Yorkshire or because there's more than usual going on. Or a bit of both, who knows - but I'm glad it's Friday, although we've a busy weekend ahead of us, and it's looking like it's going to turn warm again.  I'm hoping to clock up my third RHS garden of the year, with a quick visit to Essex on Sunday.  

You might expect my photo this week to be from RHS Harlow Carr, but it's not - it's from the gardens at Castle Howard, which were pretty special. It was one of those gardens that you just wanted to sit in and enjoy, and so for a while we did. It wasn't long though before I was reminded that nature is already preparing for the next season:

A pine cone at Castle Howard

Blogger Showcase: Elise from ElssThinks

Elise says she's passionate about sharing her views and beliefs and things she finds interesting to the world, regardless of the topic on her blog, which often leads to a passionate and opinionated content, and the ability to cause happiness.  Like many other bloggers it seems the tea and biscuits or coffee and cake question has been a difficult one, but pop over to Morgan's blog to find out which Elise opted for.

Before you go though don't forget to connect with Elise on her social channels:  Twitter - Instagram.

Post Comment Love and Blogger Showcase 6 - 8 July

Hello there and welcome to this week's PoCoLo, and another hot one here in the UK. If you were here last week it was great to see you, if you're new here then hello, you're very welcome.  Morgan and I are sure you'll find some more great posts again this week, so do take a moment and stop by a couple of the posts.

I've spent the week in Yorkshire and it's been good to get away, I wasn't sure if we'd make it but we have, and you'll not be surprised to learn we've seen lots, plenty of new-to-me gardens, some beer tasting and plenty of cheese tasting too and I even got MOH into a wool shop, which may have been a mistake, but we'll see.

My photo this week is from the Mat Collishaw exhibition at Castle Howard, if I'm honest it was a bit odd but worth seeing.  I much preferred the bird pictures to the main event and I'm sharing one of those bold images with this post.

Mat Collishaw exhibition at Castle Howard in Yorkshire

Blogger showcase: Sarah from Mummykind

1. Who are you?

Hi, my name is Sarah! I'm 22 (nearly 23) years old and I have a daughter who was two at the end of May, I'm currently studying to be a barrister, and am an army wife with a husband who is currently deployed in Afghanistan - life is pretty hectic, to say the least!

2. How did you discover blogging?

When my daughter was 8 weeks old, I had this urge to write her a letter that she could read one day when she was older... She was asleep next to me holding my hand so I couldn't very well get a pen and paper so instead, I began writing my own blog from my phone at about 2am one fine night.

3. Why did you start blogging?

I have always loved writing. I never intended for my original blog to be something I made quite open and public - it is available to the public but my primary focus with that one is just to write letters to Olivia. The reason behind Mummykind is purely because one of us - Amy - had a total brainwave as a result of a morphine-managed endometriosis flare up to start a collaborative blog where we would tell the truth about parenting, things we'd wished someone had told us etc.

4. What do you find most challenging?

Hmmmm... I don't get how it takes sooooo much time!

Seriously, I completely understand how a successful blog is a full time job, and you'd think that with six of us, managing the blog would be a lot easier. But it really isn't. There's always so much to do and so much to say and it's actually most challenging trying to take a break from working on it, because once you start it is so so hard to stop.

5. What's your favourite topic to write about? 

It's not exactly my favourite, but writing my #MentalHealthMonday posts feels important and I get the most reward from them. I like to think that someone reading those has stumbled across something important that just might help them. But they can be quite hard (emotionally) to write. My favourite topics to write are actually recipes - I love sharing recipes with our readers.

6. Are you blogging for fun or do you have goals?

A bit of both. It's crazy fun, and weirdly it doesn't feel like something I do that's dominated by babies and parenting. It feels like it's something I do just for me. We all have goals for Mummykind, but to be honest we're all just happy to see it grow and to feel the achievements that we've had so far.

7. What is your favourite thing about blogging?

Meeting so many lovely people - it's a whole little community of people, especially in the parenting blogger sphere, that just get it.

8. Have you attended a blogging conference?

Nope, but I would love to so please recommend some to me.

9. What are your three best posts?

My best posts on the blog are:

BUT our all time best blog post on the blog is this one from Maria:

7 Things They Don't Tell Pregnant Women

10. Describe yourself in 3 words

Determined. Busy.  Crazy (I mean, who isn't?)

11. Are you a tea and biscuits or coffee and cake person?

Tea and biscuits! Who eats coffee and drinks cake?

12. What's your idea of a perfect night out?

A night out? You mean, they're still possible after kids?!

It would definitely be a date night with my husband. We had the perfect one before he deployed - a movie, drinks and dinner!

13. And a perfect night in?

Bubble bath, candles, cuddles on the sofa with my husband and someone looking after the baby so that we wouldn't get interrupted every 43 seconds.

14. What would your best friend/OH/Mum or kids say is your best quality?

Ummmm, Olivia calls me a poo regularly, is that a quality? I really don't know, I hate these questions! Maybe that I never give up, on anything, so much so that it actually gets annoying? Hang on I'm going to ask my husband and I'll be right back...

He said honest, dependable and determined (well, I did tell him to keep it clean!)

Thanks for sharing more about you and your blog Sarah, before we link up pop over and if you're not already, give @mummykindoff a follow on Twitter.

If you'd like to feature in a future Blogger Showcase then send your answers to our questions to postcommentlove@gmail.com

Post Comment Love 29 June - 1 July

Hello there and welcome to #PoCoLo, and July!  If you were here last week it was great to see you, if you're new here this week you're very welcome - have a look around and hopefully you'll find some new-to-you blogs to read.

Apologies for the brevity of last week's post, I didn't actually get to start writing it until about 1am last Friday morning after getting home following a day that was, what can only be described as emotional. We'd had the sort of evening where everyone was just about managing to hold back the tears for some of the time and I've explained a little bit more in my regular Monday post.  This week has brought a new learning curve, sadly majoring in palliative care for my FIL.

But there's been sunnier moments too, and quite literally the weather has continued to amaze us doesn't it?  And while last night's football game reverted more to type, that's been pretty balmy too.  What's more in a renewed bid for self-care I've managed to take lunch away from my desk at least twice already this week, and for one of those was joined by my crochet - it seems like ages since I picked it up. 

A while back I had the cunning plan to leave a ball of wall and a crochet hook in my desk so I could squeeze in a bit more crochet if I needed it.  And although this was the first time I'd let myself take advantage of this, I'm certain it won't be the last.

My picture this week is of the ripening cherries in our garden.  I've a feeling they don't look quite as "whole" as they do here as the bird community are making the most of the summer fruits too, but who can blame them.

cherries in our garden

Blogger Showcase: Daniella from Halo Halo

Daniella is still a student whose perfect night in includes binge watcher her favourite You Tube and says that blogging is a hobby that turned into her passion, I suspect there's a few more of us in that camp, hey?  And we have our first soda and pizza type of person, or so far at least according to Daniella.

To find out more about Daniella and her blog, pop over to Morgan's this week to read the full answers.

Don't forget to connect with Daniella before you go though: Twitter  -  Instagram