Spring Cleaning And Some Sewing

I've spent the last two days "Spring Cleaning" my house and clearing out "stuff".  Today I emptied all my kitchen cabinets, cleaned and re-organized them and donated things I was never going to use again, like my waffle iron that makes such deep waffles you need tons of batter each time you want to make waffles and a rice cooker that I used to use all the time but was now languishing at the back of the cupboard.  I ended up with a car full of things to donate and it felt good!

I also took some time to walk slowly round the garden.  Is it really February?  It was warm and sunny again today!  Below is the first iris opening up.

And a self seeded marigold, such a cheerful flower!

I have three blueberry bushes and each is heavy with these bell shaped blossoms.  

All my citrus trees which I grow in pots are still laden with fruit (except the grapefruit which didn't have a good year).  They are all beginning to flower.  I love the scent of these flowers but it is terrible for my allergies.

I planted this apricot tree last Spring and it did very little last year, just struggled through the dry summer as a somewhat leafy stick!  So I am very happy to see it has some flowers on it!

The forsythia is just breaking into song.

These geraniums are such a beautiful shade of blue.  I used to grow these in England too and couldn't resist them when I saw them at the garden center last year.  With all this going on in the garden, it is hard to believe it is still Winter.

And finally, this is what I'm sewing today.  I made two of these needle books for the Quilt Show and they both sold so I am making some more.  I am finding this color combination very appealing.  The green felt is a much lighter, softer shade in real life and looks really pretty with the blush pink.  They coordinate with the bicycle pincushions I made that you can see here.  These also sold out so I will be making more of those too!