Efficiency

Don't you love it when you have a fun day and achieve lots? I certainly do. This weekend has been fabulous. I've managed to do some tidying up, gardening, quilting, baking, 'cello practise, socialising, horse riding, reading and blogging. What could be better?

We love little birdies visiting our garden (except when they poo on the washing). I felt awful about Jasper's indiscretion recently with the bird he caught/found. We decided that we would do our bit to help the local birds after the snowy weather, so we got a big, fat, seedy bird feeder from the supermarket. We're onto the second one in a week. Waxeyes are the main visitors to the nectarine tree feeding station. We see sparrows, various finches and starlings (or possibly blackbirds-they're speedy and shy). Mrs CT assures me that she makes her own bird feeders that cost less than the very economical $2.95 we pay, so that may be a project coming up. I've designed a bird feeding platform for Johnny to make too.

I was reading on the couch, spying on the birds and having a cup of tea when I took this photo of the gorgeous gerbera on the coffee table. So pretty. I decided that we needed a touch more colour (you can never have too much), and until the garden is filled with flowers again, potted plants would be perfect. I'm wondering how long I can keep this alive for, as my record has been less than exemplary with indoor plants, but so far, so good. I've got some polyanthus on the dining table too.

I'm very pleased that our entrance hall is so spacious because it is perfect for laying out and pinning my quilts. I tape the backing fabric flat onto the floor with masking tape, then lay the batting and top on. Then I pin with quilters safety pins every few inches. It takes a while, but I do like to see the lovely smooth pinned quilt all ready for machine quilting. I'm going to challenge myself with a loopy stitch all over the surface of this quilt, which I decided is called "Forty Wishes" because I'm giving it to myself for my birthday.

Yay- I used my greenhouse for the first time today! Well actually I just popped my gardening tool bucket in there when I finished a huge weeding effort along the back fence. The big yellow buckets are mineral horse feed buckets. They are going to house the best tomatoes in the land.

This was the view from inside my new greenhouse before my gardening onslaught. We are going to redesign the vegetable beds around the greenhouse. It is a shambles around there at the moment.

I'm off to ice the banana cake I made for lunches, then I need to practise my 'cello some more for my lesson tomorrow. I hope I'll get a chance to write again during the week. XXX