The Christmas mantelpiece

 Hi again! Christmas has been and gone, and I thought I'd better share these pics of the Christmas mantelpiece before they become too redundant. I meant to do this a couple of weeks ago but the silly season got away on me, as it generally does! There is quite a lot going on here with the advent calendar in the background but I kept the colours soft and calming. I would have liked to finish it off with a big sign or star at the top of everything but I didn't come across anything exactly right, and as I said the time got away from me... I'll improve on it next year!

One thing I like a lot about this display is that I kept my plants in it! I also added fresh garden roses.

 There is a little light-up Christmas tree along with some glass baubles (and is that Santa I see peeking out of the door?)

 I finally got around to glittering some little houses to use in my village scene. 

 I really like this calendar! It's called the Silent Night Calendar and has such sweet illustrations. One of my favourite childhood Christmas memories is opening the doors on the advent calendar, excitedly waiting to discover what the little picture would be. We didn't have chocolate advent calendars and I didn't care. These days it's so hard to find a calendar that isn't licensed to Disney and full of chocolate crap, and I was super happy to find this one. It's been as thrilling as I remembered to open the little doors, and I intend to put it carefully away so I can bring it out every year.

 I made this retro ornament garland in soft colours to tone in with the calendar. The pattern came from the Persia Lou blog.

It's nearly time to take down the display in favour of something more summery, but I think I'll enjoy it for a few more days first. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday time! xx

PS I'm also going to count this as my last Styling the Seasons post for the year! Styling the Seasons is a monthly styling challenge hosted by Katy at Apartment Apothecary and Charlotte at Lotts and Lots. Find out more by searching the hashtag #stylingtheseasons on social media.

A summer hailstorm

 My lavender bushes are at their peak right now, loaded with fragrant purple sprigs. The best way to spend a summer evening is out in the garden with snips and basket, harvesting bunches and hanging them upside down to dry. They only take a week to dry and then it's just a matter of crumbling the dried buds into a container and hanging some more up to dry. When I've harvested all I can, I'll fill lots of little organza bags for under-the-pillow sweetness.

 Of course I'm not the only one who likes the lavender... bumble bees are very busy getting in there and gathering pollen. I must say I enjoy the company of these hard little workers and I find them very obliging in getting out of the way as I pick my bunches, although they do often continue to harvest the flowers in my basket!

 The plants on the deck are filling out as well. 

 In fact everything was looking pretty good, until last Sunday when a rather bolshy thunderstorm blew in. Rain and wind lashed the garden, and then hail pelted down. It was rather heavy and rather loud.

 Not to mention cold... brrr! This looks like a nice coating of cherry blossom, but it's actually hail. Fortunately more rain came along after this and washed most of the ice away.

 This is not as bad as the big storm that lashed Sydney, but it was enough for me and my garden! 

Most of the damage was sustained by big-leaved plants which are all looking battered and tattered. I was sad to see the damage on the Cercis Forest Pansy (top left) because I love it's heart shaped leaves. The hosta my neighbour gave me (top right) really took a pummelling. I might be able to trim and feed it to convince it to grow some new leaves. 

In the vege garden, the beans mainly bore the brunt of it (bottom left), but luckily they have only just started producing flowers so there weren't many to be knocked off. My apples have been the main casualty (bottom right), with lots of little apples knocked off (I'll consider this nature's way of thinning them out), but the rest were badly pock marked. I'll still use them for cooking and cider making, but I feel bad for commercial growers who have probably lost entire crops.

So that's the latest from the early summer garden! How are your summer/winter gardens going?

December flowers

Here we are in the December flower garden. Rose season is in full swing, and I have to say the roses have never looked better! All that watering at the start of the season has led to strong foliage and lots of flower heads. Take note for the future, self! 

Above, clockwise from top left: purple poppy, pink gypsophila, The Fairy rose, Claire rose, sweet peas, Queen Elizabeth rose, pink peony poppy, Peace rose, a little pastel pansy, lavatera, Sexy Rexy rose, Queen Anne's lace. In the middle is a grouping of sweet peas and roses in little glass bottles... a lovely scented centrepiece.

This area in the garden always gets a bit wild over summer as everything grows tall and bushy. I like the pastel tones of the lambs' ears and lavatera but I realised recently that something had always struck me as jarring about the scene, and that something is the pink penstemon. It's a really hot coral pink (more so than this picture shows I think), and just clashes too much with the surroundings. So I'll leave it be since the weather is too hot to shift it now, but next winter I'll whip it out and replace it with something more pastel.

Everything looks much prettier when viewed from the other side! I'm enjoying the poppies while they last too. They are self seeded from last year and about every third plant has reverted back to red, so I pull those ones out, and hope I'll still have some pink seedlings next year!

It started to rain while I took these pictures, so I popped into the glasshouse and spied on the sparrows in the feeder. I love hearing birdsong in the garden.

That's it for today! I have some more garden pics to show soon along with some Christmas decorating. This month is flying along so fast!

Snapshots from November

 Hi again - it's time to recap November in phone and Instagram photos. Greg the CAL blanket has been my constant companion, although the Tim squares above gave me a bit of trouble! I ended up switching them with another block pattern so I didn't have to make so many.

I got a lot planted in the potager at the start of the month - October was cold so I waited a couple of weeks past the usual time. Then I planted beans, tomatoes, leeks, sweet corn, chillis, zucchinis, spring onions and capsicums. The picture above shows some of my heirloom bean seeds, I just love the variety they provide. Anyway, Mother Nature had some more winter up her sleeve which she threw at us in the start of the month - there was even a frost or two! Luckily most of the beans weren't up yet and everything else was sheltered by taller plants, so there wasn't any vege garden carnage.

 At the beginning of the month I was still picking anemones. Catmint and lambs' ears also filled vases.

 Rhododendrons and roses... Mrs GW Leak (left) and Peace rose (right). Peace goes a dark pink on the outside when the weather is cold.

 In the middle of the month the long-awaited moment happened... I finally had a bloom on the Sarah Bernhardt peony! Just one bloom, mind you, and I'd been waiting four years, but at least she finally knows what to do. Moving her to full sun obviously did the trick.

And I made some more squares for Greg - these are the flowery Ian blocks.

 Cecile Brunner roses were next in the flowering schedule, and look sweet combined with aquilegia and catmint. I'm happy to report that the weather warmed right up and we've had some lovely hot days already! Hopefully this is a taste of the summer to come, as long as there is enough water to go around the garden.

 And not long after, the rose season began in earnest. In the basket above I have Peace roses (yellow), Queen Elizabeth roses (pink) and one pink Claire rose - you can see her better in the vase pic to the left. My roses are performing better than they ever have. I replanted their bed in early spring, mulched, weedmatted, and watered regularly which I haven't really bothered with before... and this is the result. It's clearly worth it!

Towards the end of the month I put Greg aside to begin some Christmas crafting. There will be more to show as the decorations go up!

 Let's end this post with some dreamy petal perfection! I just love my early summer garden.

Urban Jungle Bloggers: Plant Shelfie

Hi and welcome to my latest post for Urban Jungle Bloggers! The theme this month is Plant Shelfie. I'd just shifted this vintage wooden ladder into a new sunny position, mainly so the plants which live on it could catch a few rays and stop growing leggy, and it was a good chance to get out my camera and take a few shots for this post.

The maidenhair fern at the top is one of my favourite houseplants, even though it reminds me a lot of Sideshow Bob. It needs repotting and after that I'll probably shift it to a less sunny position, this is just a temporary holiday for it!

Here are two of my favourite lady face planters. They are called Rapunzel and Mrs Blossom. Rapunzel is growing a single long strand of string of hearts... I wonder if it will ever sprout a second string? Mrs Blossom is hatless right now, but she quite often likes to wear a camellia or other large bloom on her head. 

There is also a succulent, some goldfish plant, and a couple of cyclamens on their off season. This little corner is very calm and relaxing to sit in, basking in the evening sun surrounded by greenery.

I've also got some plants on the kitchen wall opposite. (This kitchen shelf was the subject of my very first plant shelfie, a year ago!)

Here's some more string of hearts, trailing past a little cup of succulents. 

This dried hydrangea has been here a while! Soon I'll have fresh new hydrangea flowers to bring inside.

That's it for today. Soon it will be time to decorate for Christmas - the vintage ladder is in the spot I normally put the Christmas tree, so it will need to be shifted again! Unless I just throw tinsel over it that is... could be a fun option!

November flowers

 Welcome to my November flowers post! Today the weather was pretty cold and gloomy - it was overcast all day, a cold wind blew and as soon as I left my house to go for a walk spits of rain began to fall. The month overall has been cold - we had our coldest morning on record earlier this month, and there was even frost! My garden didn't sustain much damage, just in a couple of random patches - one bean seedling, and a blackened patch on top of a dahlia. Most of my bean seedlings weren't through at that stage and the most tender things like tomatoes and capsicums are in the glasshouse. Some early rosebuds were a bit crispy around the petal edges but the fruit trees seem to be fine. But it was a bit of a shock to the system - frost in November, what??

Luckily there has been plenty of sunshine in the mix and the flower garden seems to be getting on with things according to its usual schedule. It's usually the end of November before all the roses are blooming, but there are some early birds in there to make me happy. Peony season is also in its beginning stages, although most of the transplants I put in a couple of months ago haven't budded... guess I'll have to patiently wait another year for those.

Anyway, there is plenty to pick and admire, like in the grid above! Clockwise from top left: Gilia birdseye; blue and white aquilegia; Cecile Brunner rose; snowball viburnum; Queen Elizabeth rose; sweet williams; white aquilegia; a frilly peony poppy; lupins; a pretty pansy taking on the hue from the surrounding Snow in Summer; pink aquilegia; Sexy Rexy rose.

 This pink rose is outside my front door and it makes me happy every time I walk past it. I don't know the variety as it was grown from a cutting, but it does very well in this sunny spot. It was the first to flower in spring and the last to flower in winter. So far it seems very healthy too with it's nice glossy leaves!

This lovely bush is common sage, planted in my herb garden. It's formed a large round ball which is covered with these fragrant mauve flowers, just lovely to brush against. In fact it's so big that it's probably time to divide it up, I'm sure I can find some other spots in the garden that could use a show stopper like this.

That's it for my November garden. The weather may be less than average but the flowers are floriferous so all is good! I'm joining in again with Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens.

Golden hour garden

Hi again! This post has been a while coming, but I really wanted to show you some photos of my garden before all the spring glory fades. I'm starting with a picture from the back garden in the evening - you've seen this before, but perhaps not during the golden hour, when the light from the sinking sun glows behind the claret leaves of the maple?

Actually, I really wanted to show you these pictures from my front garden. This has been my pet project since late winter. I've been working on it a while, but the time has never been right to take photos - it hasn't grown in enough, it's not in flower, the beds need weeding, the grass needs mowing, it will look better next week. Oh well, enough of that, it looks as good as it's going to right now, and plenty of things are in flower, so let's have a look shall we?

About a year ago I started work on this little corner garden. I removed a lot of shrubbery, cut back some trees, and planted lavender around the edges. I also added this birdhouse. Ever since then, I've been imagining a clematis growing up the birdhouse. I have grown clematis before - a vigorous montana which took over a fence before I chopped it out. I'm hoping this hybrid one will be more well behaved. I'd like it to stay right where it is, but it will probably disappear up into the tree top... that's if it doesn't decide it hates its position, and die! Anyway, we will see... and perhaps we will take a cutting too, just to be safe.

Another big job for me early this spring was these round planters. I'd bought the two flowering cherries last autumn in a sale, but when they woke up for spring I knew I had to get them in! I wanted round planters as a feature and had originally planned to make brick ones, but after a while I realised that was going to be right out of my skill level, and if I wanted something to put the trees in before they flowered I had to come up with a plan B. So I used some wooden garden edging, and painted it this reddish pink... which to my mind is not that dissimilar to a brick colour, but a lot more 'me' :)

The trees looked stunning when they flowered. I can't wait for them to grow and bush out more, to form my own little miniature cherry blossom avenue. I'm sorry they aren't flowering in the photo above, but isn't the rhododendron in the background amazing? I identified her recently as Mrs GW Leak. I'm not sure who she's named after, but she is very beautiful with her freckled pink cheeks. 

Here's my little birdhouse corner again. At the foot of the birdhouse is a new (very small) azalea plant. I had one there which never flowered, so out it went! The new one is called Southern Aurora and is supposed to flower all summer.

Here's a close up of the new clematis. His name is William Keay. Again, I wonder who he's named after...? But he is very striking with a dark bar down the middle of each (huge) petal and a fluffy centre.

On the right, we have the pom pom flowers of the snowball viburnum. I bought this from the clearance bin last year, and was quite pleased to find self sown aquilegias also in the pot. I was hoping for a mix of colours and at first was quite disappointed that they were all white. However, when the snowballs opened up I found I had some white balls and some white stars all intermingling, and now I think it couldn't have worked better if I had planned it!

I have more to show you as the front garden has been my ongoing project for the past few months, but that's a post for another day. I'll leave you today with this last picture of Mrs G, glowing like a young maiden in the golden hour sunshine. 

Styling the Seasons - November 2015

 Hello again, and welcome to my November Styling the Seasons post. There was a special challenge this month - to style a seasonal flat lay! A flat lay is a style of photograph where you lay out an assortment of items on a flat surface, and photograph it from above. It's popular on Instagram and I've used it many times for my photos, but this is the first time I've photographed one for the blog! So here we go. 

As it is late spring, practically summer here, I knew it had to be light and flowery. I went outside with my basket and picked some flowers and foliage to use. As soon as I laid out these ferny leaves from the polemonium (Jacob's Ladder) plant, I knew their graphic shape would be quite dominant and it would be too busy if I had lots of bright flower heads in there too, so I didn't use most of my roses - just one pink one!

 This is the polemonium flower, it's as pretty and delicate as the leaves. It's adorning this tiny pearl locket bracelet which I've had since I was a child.

A fluffy aquilegia bloom nestles inside this silver candlestick.

 I chose some pretty flowered upholstery fabric as the background. I've had this piece hanging around for ages as I keep meaning to make a curtain from it... but maybe I'll just keep it for a photo backdrop. I think that's much more useful!

 No matter what the season I always love scented candles.

I also love roses and silver dishes! In fact this whole arrangement is full of my favourite things. What a great way to celebrate November.

Styling the Seasons is a monthly styling challenge hosted by Katy at Apartment Apothecary and Charlotte at Lotts and Lots. Find out more by searching the hashtag #stylingtheseasons on social media.

Snapshots - October 2015

Welcome to my little round up from October. Let's start this month's edition with a cute cat in a basket surrounded by lush green grass! This about sums up the mood at the start of the month - we are all excited to get outside and see what's growing. Grab a basket, sit in the sun for a bit and enjoy! When I was allowed to have the basket back I took my scissors and picked some spring beauties for my vases. Not the freesias though, as they were not quite ready - nearly though, and looking amazingly sculptural!

 I did have anemones and pansies to pick. Anemones are such great value, as they keep producing flowers as long as you keep picking them! They also look extremely pretty in flat lays.

 It wasn't too long before my new cherry blossom trees flowered for me. It was an agony of suspense as I waited for the carmine red buds to burst open. Would they be the pink frilly tissue paper blossoms of my dreams? Happily, yes they were. I spent as much time as possible hanging around their general vicinity, sitting in the grass crocheting while petals rained down.

 Here are some more beautiful spring pickings! Anemones, catmint and lamb's ears for the vase. And the first rose of the season to bloom in my garden! It's a lovely sunset pink climber outside my front door.

 Those freesias I mentioned popped open soon enough. I've already described them in previous posts so I won't go on too much, but they are wonderful cut flowers. Oh and here we have a picture of my crochet puff stitch circles, which have languished a bit this month while I have worked on other projects. I still love them and I had to get them out and take a picture. Looking forward to getting back to work on them, some time soon I hope!

 Outside in the garden, it's rhododendron time! Sometimes rhodies seem like a bit of a hassle for something that only flowers for a few weeks, but what a stunning few weeks they are! This gorgeous pale pink variety surprises me every year with how pretty it is. I always forget how the buds start off deep pink and fade as the flowers open to a soft blush.

 One of the projects I worked on this month was a hat! I made this for a gift but like it so much I'll have to make one for myself. It's by Mango Tree Crafts and you can find the pattern here. And here are some anemones on my deck... they just keep on going.

I am just love love loving all the blossom in the garden this month. Here is my Baujade apple tree looking gorgeous underplanted with lambs' ears. 

My main crochet project this month is still the Greg Mystery CAL. I've gotten a bit behind (mainly due to one of the squares and I not getting along!) so I've substituted it with another and am getting caught up. I'm a little bored with the oatmeal colour I chose, and I'm hoping I'll be able to add another colour when it comes to the edging. But that's still a little way off.