Spring!

    Spring means warm sun, no more jerseys, slops on my feet and air conditioners! Not that we have one but hey, the thought is there. We want to put one in but never seem to get there. If people would actually pay me I would be able to, but that seems a rather fragile hope at the moment. 

    Today is also the day that I go for IQS auricular therapy and try stop smoking ... again ... I'm not sure if it will work but I'm hoping that it will. I have tried to many times - well in all honesty I talk about it an awful lot but this is the third time that I will actually be putting them down and seeing how long I can last. The first time was a few months but then I started social smoking again and it all just went downhill from there. The second time was in January this year and I stopped solid for four months without so much as a drag and then got sucked in socially again. I also stopped drinking, and when I started drinking again I then started smoking too. Now probably isn't the best time as it's going into summer and there's lots going on, but let's see if I can do it. 

     Pio is going to see if it works on me and then try himself in a months time - so for a month he has promised to not smoke here around me and will just carry on through the day as normal. I don't know how well that will work but we will have to give it a shot anyway. 

    It seems so ridiculous that something so small and innocent-looking can affect your life so badly and be so hard to put down. I still enjoy it but it's the health concerns that are really eating at me. I have even tried hypnosis and nothing has worked so it remains to be seen - if this doesn't work then I don't know what I will do. 

    But, back to Spring :) I can't wait to not be able to wear a jersey and to be able to wake up early feeling like I can actually get out of bed. I'm a miserable git in winter and hate being cold, so this just couldn't come soon enough. My only issue is Bear and his coat - shaving him makes his coat rough and wiry and you can't get a brush through it. Being a Husky, he also doesn't have pigment in his skin so shaving exposes his baby-pink underneath and he could burn very easily. We did it a few times two summers ago but last summer decided to try go without and it seemed to work. He spent a lot of time inside hiding and we walked late evenings when it was starting to cool down so that he didn't have to go out in the extreme heat. It seemed to work. 

    We want to get the air cooler put in by October hopefully and then it will make life much easier for him as inside will be a nice even 20 degrees and he will have everything he needs, but it's still going to take monitoring to see how he handles it and if he can't, it's off to have it all shaved. 

    I'm hoping that by the end of October the braai area will be completed as James didn't get to finish the retaining wall, so will come back then, and to put a new deck in. In the meantime I am going to level and dig out the other hill and use that to fill in the hole we have made, make pavers like it's coming out of our ears and fix the main road coming in as I can't handle the bumping anymore. My bakkie has got horrendous suspension so I bounce around like ping-pong balls in a popcorn machine. 

    Then, when that's done I will put shade cloth up, the pool will go back up, grass will go in, and I will prep all my pots so that my plants can go all over the place and make it look pretty. I can't wait to actually do some gardening again - so good for the soul! 

    It's definitely something to look forward to and can't wait til it's all done.