Getting ready for Spring

We have had a week at Mount Maunganui ...a wonderful, relaxing time away. Lots of knitting was done in the back of a car by me whilst looking at the rainy, sodden landscapes as we whizzed past on our way to Whakatane, or TeAwamutu.

I needed some colour and hand stitching to do in the evenings and found some lovely KF fabrics on our travels through the little towns.

It rained most of the time we were there, except for one perfectly glorious day (that made up for all the others) when we climbed to the top of the Mount.

When I came home I was desperate to spend time in the garden. It has been sadly neglected over the last two months and the amount that needs to be done is just a little bit overwhelming.

I made a start yesterday...replanting the strawberry bed, mulching them in with some leafy compost and fertiliser.

Today I am going to plant some stocks, poppies, polyanthus and put in the broad beans and a few sweet peas, and prepare a patch for some early potatoes.

Today I feel as if Spring is just a "sniff" away.

Time for Tomatoes and a Tidy up

This morning I am making Passata......a sieved tomatoe puree. The tomatoes are a gift from our garden. It is giving me zucchinis, celery, rocket, parsley, celery and onions...all that I need for a good pasta sauce, and I can barely keep up with the harvest. The walnuts are ready for picking too, and the colours around me are delicious reds and ambers. We are in the middle of Autumn and I am loving it.!

Yesterday I had a tidy up in my studio.

During the big clean up I found some gorgeous little Liberty 7" squares that I had forgotten I had and I immediately wanted to cut 1" hexagons, but I resisted (just).

Lately I have felt overwhelmed by all my intentions, plans and projects started and "things I have to do" , constantly feeling that I can never quite catch up, and there is never enough time. Then I happened upon a quote from Leonard Bernstein.." To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time."

There , how true is that !