A coolish Autumn day

While we had good intentions, very little gardening was done yesterday. Hanno was feeling a bit dizzy so I pottered around outside for a while, we had morning tea on the back verandah instead of the front, and we ended up spending a very lazy day not doing much but enjoying the slowness of a coolish Autumn day.

I didn't do much baking or cooking yesterday; we had leftover soup for lunch and leftover salmon loaf for dinner, but I did find another two litre container of pure lemon juice in the freezer - the remains of last year's harvest - so I made up some lemon cordial. It will do us both some good to get a little extra vitamin C.

Before lunch I did one load of washing and hung it outside in the sun, then, when it started to rain, pegged it up under the shelter of the back verandah. We added that back verandah when we first came to live here and it's been such a blessing ever since. My family and friends celebrated my 50th birthday there - with the darkness lit up but many candles and the fragrance of floating gardenias in glass bowls filling the air. Kerry celebrated his 21st there too with a pig on a spit BBQ. The aquaponics system used to sit at one end but that space is empty now after we sold the system to one of the ladies who visits here. The dogs rest under the shade of the back verandah each day and stay dry there when it rains. But my favourite use for that space to is hang laundry when it's raining.

After lunch I settled in on the front verandah to work on a stitchery I'm doing for Helen. Helen is sending more Wyandotte eggs and our barter is eggs for a live simply stitchery - the same as the one pictured on my blog. So I found my trusty soft pencil, drew the pattern on some fine handkerchief linen and started work. It's a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The rain gently falling, a cup of hot tea, the dogs watching to see if there was any cake, and me, stitching away on the linen.

I am always impressed by the patience of Airedale Terriers who wait in hope of some sweet food. They don't jump all over you, they just stare, and to illustrate this point, here is Alice staring at me yesterday. There was no cake or biscuits yesterday, just a cup of tea, but as she knows we often have something with our tea, she sat there, staring.

And staring.

Sharon is currently working on the mammoth task of pairing up swap partners. Almost 120 swappers signed up so it's taking a little longer than normal. The list will be up soon, either later today or tomorrow.

I hope you had a lovely weekend doing what you love. Thank you for stopping by today and for all the wonderful comments this past week.