Spring cleaning weather & a guitar concert

The recent unpredictable weather in Wellington is perfectly normal for this time of year. One day hail, the next blue sky and sunshine. A morning of torrential rain and battering winds, followed by an afternoon of serenity. It’s the kind of weather that demands a flexible wardrobe (and preferably a back-pack, buggy or car filled with changes of clothing to suit all conditions). And it’s the kind of weather that motivates spring cleaning. Fine weather = gardening and beach time. Plop weather = sort out time.

With three growing children the sorting, organising and tidying is never-ending. There are always cupboards to sort, things to recycle, re-home, re-organise.

And with the New Zealand spring leading into summer and (shh, it’s only 13 weeks away!) Christmas… there is an added sense of urgency to get the house ship shape so that come December we can enjoy the festivities, sunshine, holidays and time with family.

This weekend we cleared out the garage (again). Our garage attracts ‘things’. Three young, creative, sporty children, busy parents and not enough training instilled in said children to ‘put away after’ makes for a necessary garage sort out every few weeks… but rarely happens that often (much like the car – otherwise known as ‘dustbin’ on wheels). Amongst the assortment of toys, bats, balls, ride-ons, helmets, gardening gloves, pots, pebbles, shells, wood are coffee cups (looking more like a biology experiment), nappies (that should have been disposed of long ago), socks and towels (carrying a good portion of the local beach), half eaten biscuits… it goes on.

So whilst the children played with the assortment of bats, balls and frisbees strewn out on the patio (for later sorting) and called on us to join in on their ‘Olympics’ event (Dan kindly participated whilst I managed to hide in the garage sorting) the garage was slowly put to order. By the time the children had finished their event (including tying their poor Daddy up and squirting him with water pistols) the garage was transformed. The funny thing is the girls didn’t actually notice till the next day when one of them commented, ‘Wow! I have NEVER seen the garage SO tidy! Did someone clean up?’. Dan and I looked at each other, eyes rolled to ceiling, exasperated looks and deep sighs. It will be interesting to see how long the new order remains before chaos takes over once again!

The weekend wasn’t all cleaning though. Sunday afternoon was spent at Charlotte’s new school, where she was performing in a ‘guitar concert’. Students from the junior and senior school played solos, duets and in groups. There was a great range of music played and Charlotte performed a solo with amazing confidence. Bravo!

She invited her best friend from her old school to watch and afterwards we all went for afternoon tea and the girls had a great time playing at a local park (thanks to the plop weather giving way to some sunshine!). There were plenty of signs of spring, with blossom, daffodils and bright green shoots unfurling on the oak trees. Sophie was like a little flying fairy, taking a ride on the side of the swing seat that Charlotte and her friend were playing on. Alice was transfixed with throwing stones in the water.

The ‘four seasons in one day’ theme is simply ‘Spring’ in Wellington and the expression ‘make hay whilst the sun shines’ couldn’t be truer. We shall plant and tend to our garden in the sun (and exercise the children!), whilst facing the music in the house of eternal chaos when the spring downpours force us indoors.

With a bit of hard graft, and a decent mix of weather, we might be lucky to reach Christmas with a tidy, organised home, a garden fit for entertaining and even a guitarist to serenade us!