On my reading table

Dreamhunter and Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox

This gorgeously written "duet" by NZ author Elizabeth Knox deserves to be more widely known. It tells the story of the Place, a sort of no-man's-land where dreams can literally be caught as if catching a cold. Only dreamhunters can cross the border into the Place. There they camp, sleep, and if they are lucky and sleeping on the right spot, they will catch a wonderful (or frightening) dream. Once loaded with a dream, the dreamhunter will "perform" the dream nightly at one of the opulent dream palaces - these are where the rich and fabulous members of society go, clad in silk pyjamas and fashionable nightgowns, to retire to their private suites and be swept away in a dream not of their own making. Dreamhunters can become wealthy and famous, but they are also held in a superstitious awe, since not everyone can or wants to be able to enter the Place.

Cousins Laura and Rose come from the most famous dreamhunting family, and are awaiting their Try to discover if they have the ability to enter the Place. Set in a sort of alternate Edwardian era, the girls also attend school at Founderston Girls Academy, prepare for balls and have tea and cream cakes at Farry's Confectioners. The writing is lush and descriptive, and the story is intelligent and complex. It has some interesting twists and turns, but everything fits in somehow, somewhere. I've read this duet several times now for the beautiful visuals and the wonderful characters who now feel like old friends.

Good books.

The Supervisor

 He has his own chair - all the better for watching from.

 And my chair too as soon as my back is half turned, for that all-important supervisory nap. We work hard around here!

In the glasshouse, and raindrops in the garden

My number one chore for this weekend was cleaning out the glasshouse. Saturday was perfect weather-wise, so I dragged everything outside, got out the hose and let it rip. I washed down the walls, blasted the spiders and scrubbed away the cobwebs. (Fortunately there was no repeat of this incident.) Everything dried nicely in the sun, and I spent the rest of the afternoon putting it back in and arranging it. By the time I was done the light was no good for taking photos, so I took these on Sunday morning. Of course, by then it was raining, so just ignore the puddles on the floor and the foot and paw prints everywhere...

At the back left corner are two tomato plants, bravely struggling on. One is Juliet and one is Yellow Pear. Neither is particularly happy, they have both been stripped by caterpillars and I'm sure they will keel over when regular frosts set in. But in the meantime, they are producing fruit. It's a bit weak and watery but still beats a supermarket tomato!

At the back right is my mandarine, Clementine. I rather badly neglected her over summer and only recently realised (when her leaves turned black with mould) that she had a bad case of scale. So I cleaned her up and repotted her, and resolved to take better care in the future. I've also harvested two mandarins off her so far and there are about another three on there, so she is worth looking after!

Also in that corner is a chocolate cosmos, which is looking rather dead but I will trim it back, and it should emerge in spring again. And there is a pot with some tiny parsley seedlings, a pansy and a small bunch of spring onions (they are all found seedlings that were growing together in the same patch of the garden).

I built this bench out of some pallet wood and bricks. It's pretty sturdy so should withstand minor aftershocks, I think if we get another big one a toppled potting bench will be the last thing on my mind... Anyway, it is home to spare pots and saucers, a plastic bottle cloche, and some seedlings. 

On the left are onions - I had two opened packets, one red and one white. I sowed the seed thickly because I read that onion seed needs to be fresh to germinate so I figured it may or may not work. Well, every single red seed germinated and none of the white. So I'll need to find homes for about a hundred red onions come spring. Next to them is a Sunset's Red Horizon tomato, my workmate sowed some seeds as an experiment to see if they really are frost resistant. So we'll see if it survives over winter. Next to that is some broccoli, again it was old seed and every single one sprouted. Must be 30-40 of them. And next to that is a Winter Savoury seedling, that's supposed to be a perennial herb that doesn't die off over winter, but this one doesn't really want to get going at all. It's been there for a couple of months. I had to prop it with a small stick because it kept falling over. Chin up little plant!

Here is the heliotrope, also frost tender so I bring her in as well. The vanilla scent is gorgeous. Soon I'll have to bring my geraniums in as well, I lost two last year to the frost so I'll look after them a bit more this year.

After all the hosing and scrubbing I hung my gloves out to dry. Then I forgot about them, and they got a second rinse overnight.

The rain made all the autumn colours pop! This purple broccoli will be ready soon. The sad little pumpkin next to it, not so much - it needs to be harvested now, but is nowhere near ripe.

I planted mizuna at the front of the middle quarter. I was trying to go for that classic potager look of the low hedge. The mizuna is working well - I also sowed corn salad in two of the beds, to compare which looks better, but it's growing much slower. It's possible that the mizuna could go to seed in the next couple of months, so the slower growing corn salad could still win the race. Each quarter bed has a small rosemary bush in the middle which should look lovely when in flower - I'll show you pics when that happens.

And a rainbow to finish on. Next weekend I have to tidy the potting area, and the one after that I will be tidying the garden shed.  The fun never stops around here!

White rabbits

 2011 is the year of the rabbit. Apparently, it should be a quiet, restful year, after the ferociousness of the preceeding year of the tiger. It favours home, comfort, peace and quiet. Life is supposed to come easily this year, and progress at a calm and leisurely pace with no cares or worries. I think we can all say a resounding YEAH RIGHT to that! 5.3 aftershock at 3am the other night? That's not what I call relaxing! Not to mention that our homes are being slowly but surely shaken to pieces.

 But anyway, let's not talk about that! Look at the lovely colours these chrysanthemums are turning. They start off peachy-apricot, fade to yellow, and then turn pink and mauve. Not to mention that they last a couple of weeks in the vase. Talk about good value.

 Dianthus also last several weeks in the vase - I'll make better use of them next summer! And yes, you can see I started another crochet project and didn't finish it. And no I still haven't finished the skirt.

I'm also planning a new project in the garden - a blueberry bed. I want to do something to break up the huge expanse of lawn, and I thought a bed here might screen off the "ugly neccesities" like the clothesline a bit. The bed hasn't been dug yet - this is a simulation using prunings to work out the right location and size. I think it will work. Now the ground just needs to be dug up, what a good thing Jon is on holiday next week!

On my reading table

 Annnnd... it's another Country Living magazine! This is the March issue. I had to buy this one as well, giving myself a stern talking to all the time. You see, I have a bit of a magazine addiction. That is why the library is so great - I bring home as many as I can carry, they are free, and they don't sit around cluttering up my house for long. For I can never bring myself to throw away something that I spent so much money on, nor can I bear to rip out the pages. However it is nice to know they are there to go back to.

 On the cover, it's spring! I love the terracotta pots, and the wicker basket with the spring flowers... pasque flowers if I'm not mistaken.

 This vignette could be adapted to any season just by changing the flowers. The warm colours are quite autumnal.

 I love open shelving in a kitchen, especially when your utensils are pretty as well as practical. I really want a woven mat like that one!

This lady makes limited edition prints from potatoes! Come on guys, we could all do that one. Look how cute her mice are though... I guess that takes a special kind of skill.

A cozy can

 There's something about being in the midst of a big crochet project, that makes me want to just put it aside and work on smaller projects for a while. Also I had this bulb, pre-sprouted, from the garden centre (because I'm nowhere near organised enough to do my own bulbs this year) and I needed something to put it in. And I realised a Whiskas jellimeat tin was the exact right size, only I would need to cover it with something.

 I crocheted this as a rectangle shape that wraps around the tin. As it worked up it made me think of baby clothes - the soft, delicate shell texture. It's hard to keep from picking up the tin and giving it a cuddle, but I think it will be very warm this winter...

 The pattern is Close Scallops, from The Crochet Stitch Bible by Betty Barnden. I finished with a row of single crochet along the top.

 

I did a row of sc along one edge, and made a loop of chains for each buttonhole. Then I just sewed some buttons on. It only took an afternoon to make this... I love projects that are this quick!

Congrats to Will & Kate

To Will & Kate: Thanks for inviting me to your shindig! It was awesome to sit on the couch in my PJs and watch your splendidly well-coordinated event unfold. I certainly enjoyed the show, and hope you are as happy in the future together as you were on this day.

MY VERDICT

The bride - radiant. The dress - beautiful. The veil - gorgeous. The bouquet - could have been bigger.

The abbey - whimsical. The guests - fascinating. The hats - awe inspiring. The in-laws - frightening.

The prince - scrubbed up well. The groomsman - dashing. The train-carrier - stunning. The little bridesmaids - frilly.

The crowds - exciting. The horses - sleekly beautiful. The happiness - palpable. The kiss - a fairytale.

The hilight - the cartwheeling priest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFG5sDcv7bo

Oh and a big thumbs up to Beatrice's Philip Treacy hat! Why not have a little fun with it. I liked Posh's too and I wish I had a reason to wear a fascinator. I think Eugenie looked sloppy though.

Did you watch? What did you think?

April flowers

 

 

Flowers and arrangements from the month of April.

On my reading table

 I've just finished the first three books in the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse series, by Charlaine Harris. I've been a fan of the True Blood TV show since it started, so reading the books is of course the next step. (If I watch a movie or TV show and find out it was based on a book, I always get a bit obsessed with finding and reading that book.) Luckily my very dear friend has the series and lent me the books, otherwise I would have been tearing my hair out trying to get them in order from the library - if there's one thing I hate it's reading a series out of order!

It's interesting how much the same and yet how different the two mediums are. TVBill is very much the gentleman, polite and chivalrous, while BookBill is quite feral and definitely unhuman. TVEric I found to be a rather cliched Lestat-like character, but BookEric is a lot more interesting. Pam I love in both TV and book.

Any other True Blood fans out there?

 The latest NZ Gardener magazine popped up in my mailbox last week (I was lucky enough to get a subscription for Christmas). It's feeling very hello winter with stored spuds on the cover, and featuring tips on pruning and some recipes for home brewed booze.

 There are some recipes for kumara and Maori potatoes.

And a feature on chrysanthemums, quintessential autumn flowers.

A gardening weekend

We had beautiful weather this Easter weekend. I made the most of it with a big tidy up in the potager - pulling out the manky tomatoes and beans, weeding, and digging over the ground. I also planted out some more broccoli and silver beet, which maddeningly I had to buy as punnets. What with one thing and another I got out of the rhythm of sowing seed regularly, which means the broccoli I had previously planted was forming heads, and any seed I sow now won't be harvestable till spring. I did sow some anyway, but also had to go broccoli-hunting at the garden centres... and that stuff was scarce!

Here is the First Quarter looking luminous with the cosmos and calendula still flowering like mad. There is a valiant pumpkin struggling on, it has one fruit so we'll see how ripe that manages to get. Broad beans are at the back under the canes.

The Second Quarter is also full, mostly with broccoli which is forming heads (not very big ones unfortunately, they probably need more water than they got from me in late summer).

The Third Quarter still has capsicums and chillis along the right hand path. They are steadily ripening, I'll leave them there as long as possible until frosts take them out. The far edge of the garden is planted with a row of soldier-like spring onions. The curve of the path has been planted with calendula seedlings. They were sown in late Feb, about a month after the ones which are flowering so well now, but that month made all the difference as these tiny seedlings are refusing to do very much at all. I've made cloches out of plastic soft drink bottles to try and nurse them along a bit.

The Fourth Quarter is the one I cleared out and dug over. Since this photo was taken I've planted it with spring onions, broccoli and beet and there is room for some red lettuce too.

I had this post left over from the bean fence, and I thought it would be cute with some pots hanging off it. I made the hangers by wrapping some thin wire around terracotta pots, and twisting it to form handles. I'm thinking about putting a bird feeder on top of the post, probably just an old wicker basket.

I love pansies and violas. I love the way they self seed so freely - whenever I find a little seedling I transplant it to wherever needs brightening up. You never know what colour you're going to get - I've had some beautiful and unique (to my garden) colourings pop up!

Twilight and the lights come on. I can go inside and know I've done a good day's work.