Winter or is it really spring

The winter so far has been mild and very spring like, (complete with spring winds!) though the bugs continually circling at my office are winter-like, and for the first time in years I have been the recipient of one of the variations.  A three plus week cough that resulted in me finally giving in and having a couple of days home and just when I thought I was way better and had returned to work I experienced some severe pain that an ambulance ride and seven hours at the emergency department concluded was not heart attack.

So I planned a stress-free weekend of calm and apart from a neighbour backing into my car, I think I have succeeded.

I am managing to keep the lettuce and kale growing. This raised and very sheltered bed, that was built for chillis, makes a great winter garden.

Leeks, rocket, silverbeet, celery with parsley behind and more leeks in front, spinach, kale and masses of self seeded borage.

Neglected hyacinths from last year, the pot having been relegated to a forgotten corner of the garden.  Their scent alerted me to their presence.

 Fuchsias still performing despite being in a very dry patch.

 A passion fruit that forgot to grow and ripen in season.

Cheeky violets creeping through from the neighbours.  I do not mind.

A perfect laundry day.  Fantastic to have washed, dried, and folded straight from the line.

And so to the new week....

Finally a blog and some cushions.

Finally some cushions to brighten up the window seat corner of the dining room using the Cuzco line from Kate Spain.  I had bought a jelly roll on a whim with no idea how I would this fabric.

The longer cushion is made in the quilt as you go method.  Of course making such non standard sizes meant I had to make and stuff the inners. And as I am on a "use up stash" drive and the calico stash is gone I made use of the fabric below that is not me at all. (it is a mystery now it came to be in my stash even)

The cushions are backed with pale blue denim, left from the days of dressmaking, so I felt most satisfied at no further expenditure being required.

Today the weather is so gorgeous I think it is time to spread the free contents of the bags below:-)

Our visitor (aka my daughter)

We have a visitor staying.  She is very entertaining!

Never a dull moment.  Even Boris seems to enjoy her antics.

My blogging has gone to the pack...

Still here and still working more hours than I should and wasting time with a collage making program.

The week that was

Some work, actually quite a lot of work, at the paying job,  a visitor, a holiday, some sewing and some gardening

 Jamie and Olaf, my son.  Dinner at Long Beach on Wednesday night. Try and ignore the finger, positioned specifically to annoy the mother.

 Wind break cloth installed to help protect the veges.  The northerly rips down this section of garden.

 Weird growth in the geranium pot.  Like shells but soft.  I guess some sort of fungi.

 Chinese cabbage, holes galore.  I practice digital pest control but no snails or slugs when I do the torchlight patrol.  Earwigs perhaps?  Though I do not see them.

Holey lettuce.

 Man at work and it is Sunday!

 Chillis have decided to grow having sat dormant all summer.  Perhaps the coriander seeds I threw in that are now growing shocked the chillis into production!

 Work in progress.

 $3 find in a second hand shop.

 Beautiful fat quarters in the parcel from Japan sent by my daughter.  She included lots of lovely goodies for us all.

 Barista school. (you have no idea how much effort these two put into making a coffee)

 King Boris rules! This time the fridge.  He takes a running jump and is in before you know it.

 "Not me" look.

Lying in wait for the bed to be made with clean linen.  He loves getting inside the duvet cover with the duvet and then being shaken about when the duvet is fluffed up.

A finish and randomness

I have decided I cannot do random.  I appreciate random in quilting in other's work but when I attempt it myself once the item is finished I am annoyed by the final combination.  Perhaps I work too hard on the final combination thus ruining the randomnesss.

Here is the finish, a cushion for the upstairs sitting room where my partner has his main music listening area.

And March ends...

I have actually sat at my sewing machine in it's new home for an extended period today, but it is now too late to iron and photograph my progress.

We bought a large house but still a designated sewing room did not eventuate.  I now have a desk at the end of the dining room and the machine can stay out, the dining table can be used for cutting.  And it is only a short trip to the cupboard with the sewing supplies.

We are having a relaxing weekend.  Our visitors left today.  We had a nice wander with them  yesterday to collect more pony poo, (tis good to educate the young!) and I have finally started to plant winter veges and rhubarb.  One of the compost bins has been emptied and a new home found for it, which will be more convenient on dark, cold winter evenings.  And I even made a delicious orange cake for dessert on Friday night.  So am feeling my productive mojo has returned.

And there is still tomorrow for laundry and housework.  Long weekends are great!

The rhubarb plant, some lettuce and silver beet in this photo.  The lettuce will be harvested while the rhubarb grows as it seems best to leave picking the stalks for a year to encourage development according to the tag.

The new piece of garden where Chris has been slaving removing roots and any grass that has survived our dry summer.  Pure sand, now liberally covered in pony poo.

The last of the summer pickings, scallopini and tiny courgettes, their greenery covered in all sorts of pests and powdery mildew so it was time to rip them out.  The tiny capasicum, the plant was over run with little blue bugs.  The last of the passionfruit and some rosemary prunings to dry.

Chris and kids on the swing bridge.  Swing bridges are not my idea of fun!