{ Beauty in the garden }

The early morning moments I spend in the garden, are some of the best moment of my day.

The sun freshly risen, bathing the earth with early light, the birds chirping happily as if to welcome the day, and the scent of the grass.  It's pure joy, honestly.

 I get up very early with my husband, to prepare coffee and his lunch to take to work.  Truthfully, I could go back to bed and sleep in for another couple of hours, but once I'm up, that's it, I'm up for the day.

I enjoy my cup of coffee, I eat my breakfast, I read my Bible and spend time in prayer, and then I get ready for the day, and usually by the time the kids get up around 9am, I am well into my homemaking chores.

This morning, I tackled the back yard patio.

Hosed down the table and chairs, opened the umbrella and then hosed down and gave the grill a good cleaning.

As I was working, I was praying and talking to God and myself.  Just thinking out loud, really.

I find that in these moments I am relaxed and any problems that I may be having, seem to start sorting themselves out, I get ideas, I see things a different way, and it puts it all into perspective.

At one point, the wind was blowing a gentle breeze, and everytime it did, I smelled the most delicious scent.  I knew I had smelled it before but couldn't quite place it.

I looked around a while, kept working and then finally I found where it was coming from.

My lemon tree.

Oh what joy to see these beautiful blossoms all over.  They smell amazing, if you've never smelled the lemon blossoms you don't know what you're missing.  Just lovely.

I gave the tree a good watering,  and snapped a few shots to show you.

I noticed as I looked into the living room, that my Spanish Lavender is starting to wilt a bit, so I decided it was time to prune it and start drying a few.

There's another lovely scent right there.

Once the kids were up and I got them their breakfast, I sat and chatted with them for a little. Of course my hands can never be quite still, so I worked on my new ripply blanket.

It's going to be something along the lines of my most recent granny stripe blanket, where I alternated color stripes between white stripes.

It works up so fast and it's great for when you're watching TV or reading a book, you don't have to worry about counting stitches or intricate patterns.

Amber asked me what yarn I used for my previous ripply blanket, it's actually the same yarn I'm using for this one which is worsted weight.

I know a lot of people don't like it because they say it's too scratchy and stiff, but I like it because it's inexpensive and as for the stiff and scratchy part, I always wash my blankets when I am finished with them, and they get nice and soft.

Puttered around a little more, gave the bathrooms a top to bottom scrubbing.  I admit, the bathrooms are my least favorite chore in the house, and the only one I wish I didn't have to do.  LOL

Had a simple lunch with the kids, and then Jasmine and I sat down to watch The Great British Bake Off Easter Masterclass.  We are huge fans of all The Great British Bake Off's, and this one was so much fun.

Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood are fantastic, truly two of my favorite TV people out there.

While watching their show, I was pleased to see Paul bake up a batch of his Hot Cross Buns.  They were on my menu for Sunday but I have decided to give his recipe a try, he actually uses apple in his buns and I thought that sounded quite different.

Then I realized, I am out of Mixed Peel and I find it quite expensive at the store, so about two years ago I started making my own.

Now it's ready for my Hot Cross Buns :)

I will share the recipe on the food blog later, if anyone is interested in trying. I do have to tell you, if you do, you'll never buy store bought again, there is NOTHING and I mean NOTHING like homemade mixed peel, or candied peel as I think it's known here in the USA.

Finished off the day with a delicious dinner, with no meat in sight, which believe me, is a huge thing because my family loves beef. But it wasn't missed at all in these burritos.

And now???   Time for face off, and some crochet.

Goodnight and sweet dreams everyone :)