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It has been a while since you have heard from us here at Newton's. Like everybody in Auckland (and other parts of the country) we have been focused on getting through what seems like a never-ending winter. While the temperature has climbed slightly, the wind and the rain are showing no sign of bidding farewell yet.

Having recently experienced the scorching European heat, I find myself a little relieved to return to a more temperate, albeit wet climate. And to see the first tips of daffodils that were planted before we left poke their noses through the ground, was a lovely reminder that spring is not too far off.

I thought that given the inordinate amount of rain we have had in the first half of this year we needed to talk about gardening when it rains 5 days out of 7! Water is generally essential for growing anything and yet a surfeit of water makes it difficult to grow anything.

I am very, very excited, spring bulbs have arrived at Newtons! I have been waiting for the arrival of these little nuggets of joy for the longest of times and now they are finally here. We have four varieties available - Tulips, Hyacinths, Narcissi (Daffodils) and Muscari.

The recent cyclone and flooding has made a couple of things a bit clearer to me, the first is how lucky we have been to live in a country for so long that is able to produce so much of its own food. And secondly, just how much we have undervalued many of our food producers.