Spring...

It's Spring, isn't it? Honest it's as calm as you like today and 12°. In the green house my sweet pea have gone bonkers and I've had to snip them back in an effort to curtail their leggyness.

The sprogs have finally gone back to school, I weigh the same as a sumo wrestler and 5 roosters' are heading to the processing plant in the sky.... Plus on Saturday I shall "celebrate" (humph!) my birthday. I shall be 40-something-or-other... mumble, mumble....

After a month of school holidays the babies are back to desk work. Can't moan really, (or can I?) The weather has been fab and we've managed walks and bike rides. The only snow we glimpsed was brief... hours, not days and even the fields aren't too muddy. The real torture has just been the guitar practise, not the moaning about doing it, that's been fine. The torture is that neither I nor the hubby know how to tune a guitar and the last week I hardly recognise Jingle Bells. Fortunately this morning a kind teacher took the offending instrument from me and I look forward to tuneful practise ce soir.

The holidays gave us time to tweak the gardens. We've seriously cut back the apple trees and have started on the pears. We'd already attacked the plums after picking the fruit in the summer. Next year may be a lean year, with the amount of pruning we've done,... but the year after that I expect a bumper crop.

The other project we've finally begun is indoors... After months of deliberation we decided to start on the decor in the kitchen. In July 2010.... So long ago, I wrote a post asking for suggestions as to what part of the house to tackle first. It's so funny now looking back at the pictures of the house devoid of our clutter. Click here to see naked pics of the house!!  We'll, 18 months later and we have finally begun.

Hubby has sanded the woodwork; 3 oak internal doors, 1 external stable door, two windows comprising 33 framed panels of glass. Acres of tall skirting board and the delightfully coloured, (red and vomit green,) cupboards and dresser. The cupboards in particular have created a fine dust that has settled not just in the kitchen, but everywhere and I mean, everywhere in the house.

My job is next; I must wash down with sugar-soap before He-who-must-be-obeyed (no, not Voldemort silly,) begins to undercoat the wood.

After that I'm on duty again to paint the ceiling, walls and chimney feature. Thanks to previous misdemeanours I'm banned from painting any wood. EVER.

We've chosen a subtle terracotta for the walls, a warm glow in a tough wipe-over paint and a more punchy terracotta for the cupboards. The ceiling is the dreaded magnolia because this blends better with the warmth of the walls than stark white. The chimney feature will change from purple, (shame, I know..... ) to soft grey and charcoal. I painted a match pot of the grey in the picture above and I think it sets off the tiles nicely. I just need to find a piece of art for the space above the wooden beam.

Hopefully we'll be finished by close of January.

Sitting room next I think...... all opinion gratefully accepted.