The end of Winter

September ushers in the start of Spring in this part of the world. And what that means is... we have survived our first winter ever! Well, it's not over yet til either the fat lady sings or the first day of September rolls in, but we're in pretty good shape, considering we were imagining lots of scenarios that turned out to be grossly exaggerated.

For example, we thought we would be freezing, even inside our home. And it wasn't. Sure, our electricity bill increased (but no more than 20% I think) because we used heaters but we managed by simply moving our small comforts such as the TV and computer into our bedroom so we didn't have to turn on heaters at the living room.

We also thought we'd be getting sick all the time, but we didn't, even with the swine flu outbreak here in Wellington. Thank goodness for that. Well, Jo-Lo managed to get the chills this last week of winter and we had him checked at the doctor and we were told it was a viral infection which we have to let it run its course, helped with some medicines to soothe discomforts. But overall, we turned out just fine.

And what, besides September, made me realize that Spring is finally here? Plants that were sleeping the winter away have finally woken up and started displaying an array of colours. Take a look at these beauties, for example, taken from our own backyard! I never knew we had these around until they started showing up.

We have daffodils! Beautiful flowers.



From afar, these look like little bells swaying with the wind. Delicate whites.
Smaller versions of the daffodils. I wonder what these are called.
Oh, this one is from our neighbor's. The plant itself looks like Agapanthus but instead of the purple flowers, these come up. Rather bizarre in a pretty sort of way.


I have started plowing our little plot of land for veggies. I have not been in the area these past few months and when I took a visit last Sunday, it was overgrown with weed! My were they so busy! But I have started pulling out the weeds and will commence planting next weekend some veggies and flowering plants! The weekend gardener is back!