Spring has arrived

I always like spring, even if it can be wet some times. All the new growth and the waking of plants after their winter's sleep, when they start to burst into life, always seems to have that affect on me, I'm not a lover of winter, the gloomy weather seems to rub off. But once you get out into the garden on a sunny day it brushes the cobwebs away.
Which is exactly what happened to the covered deck area, cobwebs were brushed away and the spring cleaning began in earnest, in excited anticipation of warm and sunnier days we decided that, like us, the place needed a bloody good clean up and de-clutter.
I haven't taken any before photos, because quite honestly no-one needs to see that kinds of mess. Joe had the Friday off making it a long weekend for him, a bloody long weekend he would no doubt say after we'd finished!
Michael and Natasha are back from their six week long honeymoon, where they spent time with family and friends in the UK and traveling around Europe, they got home on Wednesday. We let them have a rest day before Michael's help was required for some lifting. We had surplus furniture which has made it's way to their house, once that  was all gone we were able to get our home back into some kind of order.
First the family room, which is essentially a lounge, dining and kitchen space all rolled into one.

 

The new rug went down too, we'd held off because of muddy paws

 

Then is was time to tackle outside under the deck, the furniture was pulled off and the concrete washed, the dogs ad made muddy trails around the furniture, already we have more paw prints, courtesy of Dot who likes to dig.

We've had this furniture for years, it's lasted well, until now, Dot is a chewer, I have to make some sort of covers for the arms where she's chewed, little ratbag

 

If we do nothing else this year we want to at least paint the deck railings and balustrades.

 
And now I shall leave you with images from the spring garden, there are a few, enjoy

The last week of winter ends with a catch up......

So here we are on the last day of winter and it's looking a tad dull out there today, especially after the nice weather we have been having. That nice weather has meant we've been able to get into the garden and do heaps of stuff out there. After this post I'll be working on the September Garden Share Collective post, that will be posted tomorrow so you'll get to see what we've been up to.

Today's post is a catch up post, I've just had to look at the last blog posts to remind myself what I shared last time. Now I've done that I can carry on.....

In the last couple of posts I was busy in the kitchen making lemon curd, lemon meringue pie and marmalade. The latter two I was having issues with, I remade the pie and it was third time lucky...

I used the pastry from the first pie

then the filling and meringue recipe from this book

Here is the recipe.

Now for the marmalade, it didn't set, it wasn't far off. Initially I was about 2 cups of sugar short,
I didn't think it would matter too much, but obviously it did.
So I reboiled it adding two more cups of sugar, and success!

It tastes divine, I'll be making more now I know what to do.

I realise that I need to follow up on a couple of things from past posts.

The bag....is finished...

 It's lined too. It's also had a couple of outings too.

Whilst we're on the subject of crafts, my little room had a makeover.
Before it was far too cluttered and I just couldn't work in there.
I was given a desk and a filing cabinet and pulled everything out of the room..

I lost some pieces of furniture and reorganised some shelves
It's looking so much better.....
A much clearer work space

 Making the most of storage boxes

 

  Quilting fabrics sorted into boxes

 

And I found space for some fabrics, one less set of drawers in the room

 All of the craft magazines fill two drawers in the filing cabinet

And in the top drawer I having put the pattern sheets

 

All of my craft books are back in the craft room sitting on top of the filing cabinet

Which frees up a shelf in the lounge for my ever growing collection of books.
That collection grew some more on Saturday after visiting the Red Cross book fair held at Te Rapa racecourse with Sue. She was feeling a bit under the weather and as she was beginning to flag we had a quick look in Habitat op shop and grabbed some lunch. I think I may have caught her bug, I have a raging sore throat today.
The better books were $3 and in another area books were $1
I got a few of each!!
Some Classics, I'm so glad I found a copy of To Kill a Mocking Bird, I've just read that for our Book Sharing Scheme, I loved it and can't believe I've managed to go 51 years never having read it!

Some I seen as a movie

And some favourites

My original version of The Thorn Birds fell apart, I've just watched the mini series...again! on TV, I think I might need to watch my Gone with the Wind again too!

 

 

 My book shelves are looking pretty full.....

I may to to rearrange them.....but I'll do that tomorrow...
After all tomorrow is another day!

I hope you're all having a great weekend.