the fruits of my labour

New growth:

Preparing to sow:

Spring cleaning (with newspaper and vinegar and water in a recycled Windex spray bottle):

It is amazing how much better windows and what’s on either side of them look when you clean them. I find it’s one of the easiest chores to forget about it, but I’m always really pleased when I’ve done it. And it certainly helps to have an enthusiastic assistant.

I’m really inspired to give the house a good clean this spring and my ongoing decluttering efforts have doubled. I even gave away a big pile of uni text books I’d been hanging onto for no good reason. I’m not sure why I get the urge to do a deep clean in spring. I don’t think it’s just because it’s the traditional thing to do. I suspect it may have something to do with the extra and stronger sunshine showing up all the dust and dirt.

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Along with a change in seasons, we’ve had a change in sleeping arrangements. At almost eight months, Isobel had finally grown out of her bassinette. So we moved her into a cot and out of our room and into Elliott’s room. Now Elliott and Isobel’s room. She didn’t seem overly impressed with the move, and it was fairly bittersweet for me. Sad to no longer have her by my side, but it feels great to be able to read and talk before drifting off to sleep again. Isobel seems to be slowly getting used to the much bigger bed and the different room and roommate, and as usual, Elliott’s been a real trouper, despite the interruptions to his sleep.

I received this Meyer lemon tree from Chris’s dad for Christmas last year. You can’t see them all that well in this photo, but there were close to 20 small green lemons on it in December. Until recently there were 17, I think, big yellow lemons like this:

We’ve started picking them now, so I think there’s only about a dozen left. I would have taken a wider shot showing the whole tree and all the remaining lemons, but that would have revealed too much of our neglected backyard and I would be embarrassed to let anyone see it. We really need to spend some quality time out there. Anyway, I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to be able to duck outside and pick lemons off my own tree for our dinner. Especially when they’re for lemon delicious pudding:

So good. And a great way to finish the weekend.