Two thirds of the way through winter has got to be the sweet spot of the season.  There’s been plenty of time to cocoon, comfort eat and layer your clothing excessively.  Around now, the days begin to get that little bit longer, the sun (when it does shine) has a tantalizing bit of warmth to its rays and it’s a little easier to get proactive about that summer body.  Story for another day, finding the motivation to coax that summer body out of hibernation…

Another surprising thing I looked forward to this winter was that first proper attack on the back yard since the last leaves of autumn got swept and raked all those weeks ago.  We had some pretty magnificent weather here over the weekend.  A bit of that warm sun and extra daylight in the afternoon I was talking about earlier.

Guess what I did with that weather?  Turned up ABC Jazz really loud in the backyard and tidied up.  I raked, swept, mowed and then kicked back with a cuppa as I listened to the music and wondered whether turning the radio up loud in the backyard on a Saturday afternoon broke some kind of local council noise limit law.  But I didn’t wonder for that long.  It was the ABC after all.  And the weather so glorious that you’d have to be a bit desperate to ring the council after hours to complain about something.  You can never have an ABC station up too loud in this (or any) neighbourhood.

Do you surprise yourself about just how much you enjoy doing a bit of gardening this time of the year?