Signs of Spring

For the first time this year I have been able to put the washing outside on the line.    The line is in our garden, but being in a first floor flat means a bit of a trek to get there.  Also, during the winter months, the sun is very low in the sky, and never touches our little patch,  but for the last couple of days I've seen the sun finally creep into the garden.  

It was really quite windy today.  Blue sky in the photo but just  a few minutes later it was snowing!

There is something really satisfying about hanging washing outside.  It smells so much fresher, and seems somehow cleaner as well.  And it means we don't have damp washing festooning the flat - always a positive.  We don't have a tumble-drier (although I did have one many years ago when my children were small).  I did two machine loads this morning, managed to get it all dried outside (a surprise flurry of snow had me dashing up and down the stairs at one point!), and now I just need to iron a few items.

Crocus coming through in the rockery

  
While I was in the garden, I remembered to take some photos of the emerging bulbs.  Last autumn we planted quite a few narcissi, daffodils and crocus and we're hoping for a splash of colour in a few weeks time.  I've been wondering if all the rain we had earlier might have rotted the bulbs, but it's good to see at least some of them have made it through the winter.

I tried a new recipe from one of baking books I received for Christmas - Stem Gingernut Biscuits - and they've been very well received by OH and DD.  

I've finished off one of those projects I put together while DD is here.  It's a little Christmas hanging I made very quickly last year, and was never really happy about it.  I decided to unpick the machine quilting I originally did as a quick filler (it was very untidy), and instead I have done some straightforward hand quilting in gold metallic thread.  It looks so much better, less fussy and  more in keeping with the patchwork blocks.

The green fabric  is the same poly-cotton that I used to make the  little bag for the Christmas placemats

It's been so good to have my daughter with us for a few days.  We haven't really done anything particularly special, and very often the three of us are sitting in the lounge, reading (or in DD's case, doing jigsaw puzzles - she's a demon at them!) in companionable silence.  It's good, I think, to be content with quietness; all too often life is so noisy.  I've noticed that some people aren't at all comfortable with silence but I find it very relaxing.  It allows you the opportunity to listen to all the sounds that get blocked out by other noise.  It helps me slow down and appreciate the simple things around me.  I need to remember to be thankful for that.