Spring is Here

Spring is Here. It is by far my favourite time of the year. Full of hope and promise, and positive thoughts. The garden is starting to come alive again. The world is literally turning greener as each day goes by. However, if today is anything to go by, the weather is still a bit variable. There are strong winds across most of Scotland. On our walk today, these poor daffodils were struggling to hold their heads up.

Unfortunately, while Spring brings with it such new life, the weeds also grow well, the sun highlights where new paint is needed, and all of a sudden there are lots of jobs to do. We are forced to shrug off our  winter lethargy, and get going. Over the last 2 weeks, I have cut and raked the grass in both the front and back gardens, we have repaired and started painting the back fence. Once that is done, the weeding needs to be tackled. We get our garden rubbish removed every two weeks. It is a point of principle to make the most of that collection. I try and fill that large garden bin every single time. At this time of year, I would like it collected every 2 or 3 days!

My strapline is Living Life in Retirement to the Full. At this time of year, retirement affords me lots of time to do what I want. I can spend as long as I want in the garden, I don’t need to fit it around a work schedule. However, it also encourages me to put some things off. Take today for instance, a blustery but sunny Sunday. We had a cold and windy walk. Am I out in the garden? No, I was sitting in the sun in my window, reading a book. (Now sidetracked by writing this post!) The excuse – it’s a bit too windy. I have invested in a spray gun for the fence paint – husband said, it’ll blow back. I chose to believe him!!  Now were I working, I would have been forced outside, and would probably have enjoyed it.

Spring has also inspired me to be more creative. I tend to do enamelling in the Utility room, it has a lovely big window, and I can leave my stuff sitting out for days on end without needing to tidy up. I had fun making these.

I made these three small silver pendants, because I wanted to play with cloisonne. I made them using recycled silver. I take all my scraps, melt them down into bars, and then roll and texture them, using my little rolling mill which I treated myself to last year!

For all it is spring, I still love the colours of autumn on copper, as both the pictures above and below show. I am particularly pleased with the one below… So much so that I have added it to my Folksy shop, though I was tempted to keep it to myself.

This morning, I did some baking, and made this lovely Irish Soda bread. I wanted to try out different recipes, because I am trying not to eat so much wheat, mainly for health reasons. The basis of the three on the left is almond flour, and nuts and seeds. They were remarkably tasty, and at the same time keto and gluten free! The one on the right is the traditional flour variety. What a difference a bit of gluten makes!

The joy of retirement is that you can make each day as different as you want. I’ll decide what I am doing tomorrow depending on what the day is like, and what I feel like doing!

Do you also find spring a creative, fun time?

If you would like to pin this and please do, just click on the image below. The picture is of a large Pieris Japonica in my garden which is covered in these wee white flowers in springtime. It stands about 4 feet high, and is a joy to look at.