Kitchen update and sunshine!!

Well, the kitchen is coming along lovely now, I really, really love it.. its still not finished, We have another wall to render and paint, but that means moving the sewage pipe, which means moving the upstairs loo, which means rearranging the bathroom, which was temporary but is now staying put, so its a little more involved than first though, but Rik promises it will be done soon.
Apart from that, the sink is in , Ive a lovely old butler style Belfast sink , we tried all ways to get it to look good , Rik built walls to stand it on, then demolished them ... finally we've stood it on an old Singer sewing machine metal stand which I will paint blue to match the old cupboard, the wooden work top and my shelves have moved across to the long wall and the range is in place and working, we have put granite tops either side of the range so when I forget a pan and rush to pull it off and dump it hot somewhere... I wont ruin the worktop...
We've painted the floor as we cannot afford tiles yet, and this way keeps the dust down and easy to sweep, plus our lovely Cola is getting VERY dodgy on his legs at times and tiles are just too difficult for him to balance on...
Ive tried to accustom Rik to the inevitable pain thats to come, probably sometime this year, Cola is very stiff and we've upped his Devil's Claw pills now in the hopes it will help for a while. But he's 10 this year, which is good for a Dobermann... Rik just will not even discuss the idea that it will happen... Ive had dogs all my life and know that its something you have to live with to get the pleasure they bring too... this is Riks first and only dog, and he'll find it devastating.

But enough of that....
The weather has turned beautifully, we've had a week now of sunshine, the nights have been cold and for us quite frosty, but the days are mild and sunny, we are preparing to rototill and get the spuds in quick... Im enjoying rummaging through my box of seeds and planning my planting ... the daffodills are blooming, as are the grape Hyacinth, everything is popping up all over the place... including the weeds.
The new orchard looks good, sadly we've still no helpers, we were so looking forward to getting loads done , and more land down there cleared etc before the end of the burning season in a few weeks... but hey... we've managed up till now...
We do have two lovely girls coming for a week during April, but all the planting will be done by then...
We are still collecting wood, trying to bring our woodshed back up a little now its starting to dry out a bit... the BBQ in the cottage seating area needs rebuilding, the intense rain just washed out the fire cement... the pool is a tad on the green side, so thats another job... wow its gonna be action stations for the next few weeks to catch up....