Reconnecting in April

Seeing it is just about the end of May I'd better finish off with what we were up to in April.  How did I go at Reconnecting?

READING

I found this book "For the Love of Old" at the local library and enjoyed reading of the author's love of old, not pristine furniture.  It was published in 2006, but only bought by our library this year.  I think styles have moved on quite a bit since then......from cluttered to minimalist.

I did finish "Wind in the Willows" and really enjoyed it.

My third book was one lurking in a box here -  "Nighthawk Mops Up".  How can you pass up a paperback with such a graphic cover.  It was written in 1944 and set in England.  The good guys were trying to mop up some Nazi supporters.  The writing style was quite different to how I would imagine the story would be written in modern times.

EXPLORE

Our visit to Burraga Dam and the Canowindra Balloon Glow would come under this category.

CREATE

Not a single finish!

I did progress with my Nundle Sewing Basket project over the Easter weekend, but still a little more to go.

ORGANISE

Our office makeover certainly would come under this category.  It is a pleasure to be in there now, rather than a big hot mess.

NURTURE

April is probably about the best month of the year weather wise.  The sting has gone out of the sun, with cool, crisp morning.  Therefore, the garden perks up and it is nice to think of warming food.  

No photos, but I made a couple of batches of soup for the freezer and tried a couple of new recipes for dinner.

In the garden, the summer season is coming to an end, so the veges are removed for the season. 

 

Summer annuals are removed and some winter colour planted.  These mauve pansies should look lovely through the winter.

Our garden planted in November was doing well.

We bought a wind flower when we established the garden.  Finally it flowered.

Our dahlia finally flowered.

Then, we had our first little frost.

The dahlia leaves suffered.

The autumn leaves this year have been stunning.  These are our street trees.

It didn't take long for the leaves to fall.

And soon the trees were bare.  However, there is still some autumn colour in the district, which is a bit later than  usual.

Dewy mornings are lovely to show up spider's webs.

NEW EXPERIENCES

We continued to ride our bikes when we could, but there didn't seem to be too much time.

On the work front, a lady was employed to job share with me, although she hadn't started at that date.

ENJOY FRIENDS

April was certainly a social month.  Outings, going out to dinner, friends staying over.  It was lovely.

We had our Mums over for lunch on Easter Sunday and Mick's mum brought over these lovely roses from her garden.

CARAVANNING

We didn't go anywhere with the van, but we did go to the Caravan and Camping Show in Sydney.  This year we were a little more restrained.  We just bought a water filter, rather than a caravan.

TAKING TIME

Although it was a busy month, being out and about, there was also nice times at home.  

Mick had his knee surgery at the beginning of the month, so was off work for the whole month.  He took things very gently when we were out and about.

As you can gather, he isn't one to sit around idly, although he did do lots of reading, like about a book a day.

When he got bored, he went up to the shed and found a project.  Let me tell you a story.

We bought 2 little folding chairs at a garage sale in I'm guessing 1986.  

 I found a photo with them in the background in 1987. They were cute, but one was canary yellow and the other lime green and they had disgusting seats. I wish I had a proper before photo. I did get a photo of the seats before they were thrown in the bin, to give you an idea.

These chairs have been carted around and sat in the back of various sheds for 30 years. Each time we got rid of stuff these seemed to stay to be done up "one day".  Well that day came. 

One day while I was at work Mick cleaned up the metal and painted them.  I asked what colour?  The answer was "Red".  "Why red?" "I didn't want black, white, green, yellow or blue, so red it is."  It turned out he had spray painted them, so colours were limited.  I can certainly live with our cheerful little red chairs with nice new seats.  Quite an improvement on their "before" condition.  We have had the table for about the same length of time.  It was a "tip find" that Mick did up several years ago, after it had been a work table in the shed for years.  We used it nearly every day on our verandah when we lived out of town.  They all go nicely together.

On another day he was wondering what to do.  We had bought some passionfruit, so I suggested he make a slice.  He has never made a cake.  I got out the ingredients and the recipe book and left him to it.  Progress photos kept arriving on my phone at work.  He did a great job.

It was rather nice having him at home. We had lunch together most days, which was a nice change.

For a busy month, we still seem to have been mindful of "Reconnecting", which is the aim of the year.

And, just to finish off, Mick put a woollen rug on the floor and Joey is loving it.  This spot is a nice sun trap in the morning, so he now has a sunny spot with a warm butt.  We have three of these rugs.  Mum made them many years ago and when we were cleaning out her house we found them stashed under a spare bed, so brought them home,  They are from woollen dressmaking scraps.  This one is a little worse for wear, so I'll have to kick Joey off at some stage and give it a few stitches.