Poor Sad Garden

While I was over at Serenity recently it nearly broke my heart to see my lovely garden as it is now so neglected.  Some of the plants have died from lack of care and water.  

Because the remaining  rose bushes were so bad I decided to cut them out as well.  One was a beautiful Red, and the other a Yellow.  The Peace rose was just a gnarled stump in the ground with a small twig so that went too.  I just didnt want to see them die lingering deaths.

The top two photos of the collage are of the rock wall garden on the left when my son first made it, and the other photo was taken from the top as it is now.  You can still see a bit of sad rosemary bush among the grass and weeds.

The bottom two photos are of the rose garden, on the left in its glory, and on the right as it is now.   Among the grass are the remains of my shasta daisies, and a cactus.

Unfortunately himself is just a stubborn old git and has decided because he failed at growing a few beans when he was a boy he does not want anything to do with looking after gardens.  r.i.p. my garden...all those years I tended to you were for nothing, but gave me pleasure.

Top left the original garden with lavenders and rosemary . Top right looking down onto this garden from the top.    Bottom Left the rose garden how it looked when I was there.  Bottom right now full of weeds and grass.

I will just finish off with some old photos of the garden flowers.

till next time  enjoy

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jig

Well it is so good to be home again for a little while, and have my little abode to myself again.  Himself is well, and able to take care of himself so my job is done. 

I managed to have a finish of a page, and have two works in progress which I will post about later.  Now this can wait until it is stitched to its backing page.

 I have just realised I have a line on the bottom right that I need to get rid of....oops.

My plants have survived my absence after all, except for the sage plant which turned up its toes in the extreme heat we have been having. The first time I came home everything looked very bad. I took my son's advice and gave everything a feed with "seasol" and it is a miracle.  The mint is flourishing again, and my precious miniature fuschia has all new leaves.  I did lose some of the new coriander, but with the ones that have survived I will get new seedlings.

You can see the difference in the plants from before and after the seasol treatment, and how good they were to come back to.

I dont think I am going to revive the sage or the strawberries.

While I was at the farm, my lovely cactus was in flower.  There are two different colours and they are stunning. Unfortunately they only last   a short while.

The jacaranda trees on the property are all in flower and make a stunning display.

Next to the steps I discovered the tiny snapdragon plant, with one normal sized flower. It was only about 3 inches high.  There was a time a few years ago when I did have snapdragons in that spot so it must have been a lonely little seed that germinated after all that time. When we were children we called them "puppy dog flowers".

we have been experiencing very high temperatures for the last couple of weeks, but today seems a bit milder.  I do feel so sorry though for all those people experiencing the extreme cold weather in the northern hemisphere.

Until next time, happy stitching

Busy Busy Days

I think all my blog friends must be despairing of me ever coming back, but like a bad penny I always turn up eventually.

These past few weeks have gone in a whirl and there are more busy times to come....will get to that.

Through it all I have managed to have a finish of one of the later pages....and may have to extend my expected finish date the rate I am going.

This page is about playing with textures.  I attended a workshop at the quilt group last year where we learned a couple of techniques.  This one was free motion stitching layers and then burning the top layer.  Well I used that as a background for a collage, something I am coming to love, but still learning.

The leaf on the right is  a piece of crazy patch from many moons ago, and carried the leaf shapes across to the second piece of burned fabric.I stitched the seams in gold thread. The check leaf on the left is the same pattern as the  taffeta fabric I had my first long dress made from when I was 17.

At present I am home, but for the past two weeks have been helping Himself prepare for a hip replacement operation.  He came over to see the surgeon, and was fortunate enough to get a date this month so there have been a flurry of visits to various people, and lots of paperwork. 

We spent a week at serenity getting things organised there.  The op is next week, and he is here with me now.  I have had to wrap him in cotton wool because the surgeon said if there is even a suggestion of broken skin he wont operate because of the chance of infection.

He will stay with me again after the op, and then I will go back to Serenity with him until he is able to look after himself again. 

This afternoon I have escaped to the back room where the computer is determined to have some time to myself.

While I was at serenity I had a couple of days sewing with my friend and old neighbour, Julie.  She has been working on a schwalm cushion cover I started her on about 5 years ago, so it was good to see how much she is achieving with a bit more encouragement.

Julie is a great friend, with a lovely nature and is very supportive of me.

Here is a photo of her piece.  She had never even heard of pulled thread work or schwalm before she started this so even though it has been a long time project she has done well. She was always an enthusiastic learner and took to everything I taught her with enthusiasm.

The weather was lovely while at the farm, and the flowers are all coming out in bud.

 From top left my yellow orchid, pic of the bush, azaleas, marmalade bush, rainforest tree with seeds, monsteria , iris in bud, old faithful purple crucifix, and a white iris.  The garden there is so neglected it is lovely to see some of my plants surviving

It is almost wine o'clock now, a time I look forward to at the moment
happy stitching my friends till next time.......

Birthday Party, Flowers and Wildlife

What a busy 2 weeks I have had.  We were fortunate enough to experience fine weather for the whole two weeks.

For the first week I cleaned and scrubbed everything within an inch of its life in preparation for the big weekend.   I did make time to take  photos of some of my flowers in the garden including the last of the orchid.

The last of six sprays of flowers on the orchid

Bauhinia

The azaleas made a lovely display

We  had some wildlife visitors as well 

The ducks from the dam going for a walk and met up with a bunny

There were two mothers and babies coming in to feed among the male wallabies

This scrub turkey became quite a nuisance

I always feel very peaceful out there, and the view never disappoint.

View down the valley from the front patio

Himself turned 80 while I was there and I had organised to have a BBQ lunch for his birthday with friends and neighbours.  I collared one of the husbands to cook the barbie.  Another neighbour presented himself with a medal on a ribbon on which was engraved  O.B.E......which stood for over bloody eighty.

The day was wonderful with fun loving happy guests, and much laughter.

Himself with his badges

His very favourite dessert is pavlova so Julie made this for him for a birthday cake

Friend Dianne bought this delicious roast pumpkin and baby spinach salad.

The happy crowd blue was the colour for us girls.

BBQ ready to eat

Yours truly with some of the salads yes I have the same top as Denise We I went shopping and both loved the same one so said what the heck she lives in Brisbane and I live in Toowoomba and never the twain shall meet.

The day after the party I began the job of setting up the E Reader we had bought him.....well what a job......three whole days of frustration and still could not get the damn thing to work.....I was sitting up watching movies the third night but my mind kept returning to technology so back I went to the laptop.

I have decided that my brain works best in the middle of the night because.....wallah!!!! the lights turned on and one of the things came into focus and when I clicked on it there it all was.... I had only been reading half of what was there!!!!

So then came the job of teaching himself to download books......halfway through I just wanted to run away and go home.   I don't want to know when he gets round to doing it for himself....the mind boggles at what could happen.

This is the E Reader and friend Dianne made the lovely bag for it to live in. It even has an extra pocket for the cords and attachments.

It is always good to come home to my little domain and this was no exception.  Sorry there is no stitching but I have one piece to show in my next post along with some more fabric pages.

Byeee

My friend is Back

Yey....Di is home.  Her DH finally brought her back.   I have missed her so much, and this morning she came for coffee.   I celebrated by making her some pikelets with strawberry jam....no cream because neither of us needs it.  I was so excited I forgot to take pics. We talked nonstop for about 2 hours...

Before I went away, I managed to finish off the "butterfly" cushion front.  It is now very different because I did quite a bit of reverse stitching of the flowers.  I had worked them in long and short stitch which I did not like....does anyone else have stitches that have stumped them.   I have two and the other is satin stitch.

The work has been sitting unfinished for almost 3 years now, and I finally bit the bullet and unpicked those damn flowers that were aggravating me.

By this time I was not really in the mood for anything fancy so the flowers are now simple and in soft colours.  I am always pleased to get articles out of the ufo pile.

I spent a week at the farm, just relaxing and doing a bit of gardening.  Himself had let a pumpkin grow wild where the roses are and they were surrounded by weeds and grass.....he insists on throwing the mown grass onto the gardens, and the seeds germinate don't they.

Anyway I cleared round the roses and cut them back, and himself took to the rest of the grass after he had pulled out the pumpkin vine.  Next day he sprayed the weeds so by the time I go back in September they will be waiting for me to dig them out.

The next day, we  were trimming off some shrubs, and himself noticed his arm itchy and it turned out he had collected a tick from when he was pulling out the previous day.  Fortunately we got it out, and after a couple of days his arm went down and the inflammation disappeared.  The property is in a tick area, but this is the first we have ever had.

I was amazed at how the coriander plant has grown....I could never get it to flourish, but it probably did so from lack of care.   The flat parsley is also flourishing, and I was able to use those and other herbs in the cooking.

I dug some of this up and bought it home to pot.

While I was there I replenished his supplies of sausage rolls which he loves for lunch.  I am the sausage roll queen...use the best quality pork sausage mince, and lots of herbs for flavour and they are delicious.

Also replenished a small supply of cooked meals for him as well.  He is 80 next month, and cooking is not his forte.....so I try to do what I can so he can have at least some good meals.

The lavenders are blooming at the moment, and the rosemary bushes are thriving.   My orchard has a lot of bud trails, so hope the flowers are still there when I go back.

The wallabies have been breeding well this year, and there were several does with babies in their pouches.  

This is a photo of "shorty" who has become quite tame.  He lies around the house area of a day, and isn't scared of us at all.

One morning I went for a walk while the dew was still on the grass, and discovered these interesting cobwebs in the garden.

The cobwebs seem to disappear during the day, and they the poor little things have to build them all over again at night.

I have been keeping busy since coming home, working on the fabric pages for my next fabric book.   I will try to have some sneak peak pics ready for my next post. Sorry this has become so long.

Byee I will be back soon!

 

Serenity visitors

Sorry my friends for going away for so long, but some of lifes hard knocks caught me unexpectedly and as a result I have just felt like hiding in my little cubby hole. I have forced myself out into the world again, and would like to share some photos I took while out at the farm for some peace and quiet and R & R.

First of all we discovered by chance there is a little family of these darling little rabbits, although they won't be darlings when they are grown and eating everything in sight.

The ducks from the dam came to visit, although they did not bring their little family this time   My favourite birds of all below did not disappoint and turned up one morning while I was sitting out on the patio

This year we have an addition to the family of visitors.  A pair of scrub turkeys have taken up residence and are great to watch.   Of course photos of "Serenity" would not be complete without pictures of the wallabies and their babies. There were two does with babies of different sizes.  I don't know if you can see the white spot on the eye of our almost tame wallaby at the bottom, called "shorty".   It was a tick which was there for a few days and then thankfully it disappeared.

These are the only galahs which are coming in at the moment, the arrival of the lorikeets seems to have frightened a lot of the birds away.  The lorikeets are very aggressive towards the other birds, and even though we have tried chasing them they always come back.

I will just finish off with some photos of my flowers.  The iris have been magnificant, and my orchid had been in flower for about a week when I arrived.  It was so nice to be out in the country again, and I appreciated the quiet, which gave me the opportunity to relax and put the thoughts of my troubles to the back of my mind.

 This week I am off to Melbourne for the wedding of my eldest grandaughter, which I am really looking forward to.  I have not flown for 16 years and am a bit nervous.  Son is coming with me and has booked us in business class which I am hoping will be more roomy so I dont feel so claustrophobic....and also have better food..:)   Keep your fingers crossed my friends that the weather is kind..although when I lived in Victoria the saying was "if you dont like the weather...wait a minute"

Magnificent creature and more

After I posted yesterday I realised I had not included a photo of this magnificent creature.  One day the birds were all squawking and carrying on and when we went to see why discovered these two magnificent eagles sitting in the high branches of the Bunya Pine tree in the next paddock.   I could not resist a photo.

If you can click on the picture to bring it up, and then scroll for a close up on the single bird,  you will be able to see that he has very large eyes and a reddish brown spot on the back of its head.   Later on I did see them soaring over the hill and was able to watch them until they went from view. It was wonderful to see their beauty in flight

One evening at dusk I looked out the kitchen window, and saw a wonderful golden moon coming up into the sky.   That is the beauty of living in the country...their may not be shops full of expensive merchandise to tempt, but seeing nature evolving around us is really something to experience.   ......and I suppose there are some daft people who see beauty in spiders and poisonous snakes....:)

This was such a rich golden colour the photo does not do it justic

We cant forget the little birds... they are still around, although some have moved away for the winter so here are some old photos of the birds who frequent serenity

Double Bars waiting for lunch

Red honey eater in the Callistoman

Red Beak finches on the seed Bucket

King Parrots

 

The darling of them all the blue wren if you whistle a tune  to them they whistle back