A Morning Out

On Friday I had a serious case of cabin fever so I decided to head out.  Keeping in mind our recent heavy rain and localised flooding I decided to stick to areas where I was pretty sure that the roads would be open.  I headed up to Buderim and went for a walk in the park near the Arts Cottage.

 

The grevillias were in full bloom.  I've not seen this beautiful yellow before.

 The buckinghamias are in full bloom wherever you see them. I have one in my front yard and it has been heavy with flowers for weeks. So pretty. 

Buckinhamias are often called Curl Curls. You can see from this close up of the flower why this is so.

I then picked up my friend Jodi and we went to see the Endeavour Prize Home.  It was accessed by a steep winding road which if left unsealed would have resembled a goat track.  It was nice enough.  I am happy to see that prize homes have become just a nice, normal house rather than the mansions of old.  Far more livable and easier to rent or onsell.  The house itself was built over 3 levels and made the most of the views out over the trees.  

I arrived home to find my crucifix orchid has finally flowered. Yay!  I brought it with me, one of the few plants that I was able to save from my old garden.  I had begun to think it would never flower.  So happy.

A Day out With Mum

Today I took my Mum out for a belated Mother's Day jaunt.  We started our day in search of plants for her garden so headed up to Buderim to Manawhee Plant Nursery.

There were a great many plants that we were interested in but none that suited Mum's specific purpose unfotunately so we left empty handed.  I was sorely tempted by the herbs but held myself together.  We've had tradies working on replacing all of our gutters (130m in all) this week so my money has been spent elsewhere....

From the nursery we headed off to have morning tea at my friend Jodi's.  We've been friends since we were children and Jodi considers Mum to be her second mum.  We had a lovely visit and enjoyed tea and snacks on Jodi's lovely verandah - sorry was so busy chatting I forgot to take photos!

Our next stop was the latest Endeavour Prize home at Maleny.  It was very busy both in Maleny and out at the prize home.  I really liked this house.  It is in traditional Queenslander style as was their last one up here.  The views were lovely and the home was sensibly set out and I could imagine myself living here as it was lovely without being too grand as some prize homes can be.  The garden was gorgeous too - sorry forgot to take photos of that too.  Lots of purple in the plantings with tibuchinas, pentas, salvias etc.

Our final stop was the Peachester Hall where oh so many moments of our lives are entwined.  Peachester dances, fetes, birthdays, anniversaries and the like.  The same ladies, the cornerstones of my life, involved there in every celebration and event.   All these ladies are in their 70's and 80's now and are still making cakes and sandwiches and pouring tea from vast pots....They've known me my whole life. What will I do when they are gone? I shall miss them.

Our purpose in being there today was to see the annual quilt show.

 After looking at the quilts we wandered outside for tea and sandwiches and chose a table in the shade. 

 Flowers handpicked from the ladies gardens and arranged in jam jars on all the tables.  This makes me endlessly happy and nostalgic.  I've enjoyed variations of these flowers from the same gardens for nearly 50 years. 

So simple and sweet and comforting.  As were the tea and sandwiches - egg and lettuce; ham, cheese and tomato; ham and sweet mustart pickles....  Oh I love you country ladies.

A Lovely Day Out

Today, my friends Katya and Roslyn took me out for a belated birthday celebration.  I do not remember a time in my life when I didn't know these girls.  We grew up on farms in a small rural location, attended kindy together from age 3, so we've been part of each other's lives in some way for 44 years.  Incredible. Here they are....

Roslyn suggested that we go to 'The Garden' at Maleny.  We go here each Tuesday night for meditation (in an outbuilding at the back), so we'd not seen it in the daylight.  We were amazed at how big it was.  The premises are very deceptive when seen at night!  It's a combination nursery, gift shop and cafe/coffee shop.

There is a cottagy type feel to the front garden by the entrance.

 I loved these rusty floral decorations. 

 Seeing rosellas in fruit reminded me that I'd forgotten to plant any this year so I'll not be making jam.  I suppose I could go back and buy a bush becasue a cupboard without rosella jam is a sad cupboard indeed.

 After walking around the yard we entered the cafe section of the building and all gasped with delight when we saw this ENORMOUS (it looks smaller in the photo) fire place.  We decided we'd have to head up the hill in winter to enjoy coffee by the fire.  We enjoyed good coffee and Ros had a yummy looking piece of cake.  Then Katya suggested we head off to check out a nursery recently opened by a friend of ours from high school.  Oh, it was wonderful.  Spencer and I had been such good friends at high school and through my years at university.  Then I went bush teaching and with numerous moves between us we lost contact.  We'd run into each other a few times over the years and today I sat with him and chatted in the shade while the girls shopped for plants.  It was beyond lovely to see him. Lovely to see him successful and happy.  I am just so happy to have seen him and promise myself to go and visiit him more often. 

We finished our morning by lunching at a local Thai restaurant.  We only ordered entrees which was a good move as they were very generous in size.  A main meal would have been too much for us, particularly on a hot day.  Although when my sister and I were in Thailand it was hot and we NEVER let that interfere with our eating!  We ate our way around Thailand. The food and menu's were incredible.

I'm home now, crashed on the couch.  Ready to rest once I finish sharing my day with you.  What a special day.  How luck I am.....

Progress

Only a little time spent in the garden today but good progress was made.  Before we started.

Progress being made.  It was great that Jeff was able to help me as he was able to pull out things that I had struggled to and did it so quickly!  Below, Sophie always finds herself a spot at a distance to lie like a sphinx and simply watch.

 Jess is always in the thick of it, usually leaning over your shoulder, between your legs or.....

Desperately trying to get you to "Please throw the ball....."

What the garden looked like when we knocked off....

Open Studio weekend cancelled and garden plantings.

Just a quick note to let you know that our Open Studio event scheduled for this weekend has been cancelled.  After a busy week where I have found myself feeling like running to catch up all the time, I now suddenly find myself with an empty weekend stretching before me.  I might start it now!

Business attended to we shall now see what has been going on here at home.

I've been playing in the garden adding flowers to make me happy and lift my spirits. Lots of daisies.  To quote Meg Ryan, "Daisies are such a friendly flower."  Some pansies, roses and some startlingly red geraniums.  These are just some of the beauties that have come to live in our garden.

So much more has been happening in our yard and garden but I'll save that for another post!  Happy, happy, happy.  Flowers make me so delightedly happy.  Sigh.

A meadow in the studio

Nothing but flowers will do for me this week.  They are preoccupying far too much thinking space and are greedily claiming my attention.  Overtaken by this current obsession I ventured out into the garden, my two sweet girls at my heels sniffling and snuffling as they read the messages left in the world that only dogs can read.  Now I have an extensive, very full, somewhat wild garden which covers most of our 1.3 acres.  It is a very green garden however full of trees and shrubs and many things wild and green, so I wasn't hopeful of finding many blooms to appease my need for flowers.  Well, what a surprise I had.  A snip here, a snip there, up high, down low and suddenly I had so many blooms and interesting things I needed to run and gather a wee basket.  I continued to snip and when the basket was full I returned inside with a happy, smiley heart to lay out my bounty ready to photograph and sketch.

There are blooms from tibouchina, candlestick plant, jasmine, crucifix orchid, dahlia, geranium/pelargonium, geisha, dandelion, pentas, ixora, hydrangea, the dried seedpods of a native iris and the flower from a croton. So much colour and yet because it is so spread out amongst the riot of green that I don't notice them so much.  Shame, shame, shame. 

I'm off to bed so I will share some of the sketches next time.  Goodnight and sleep sweet wherever you are.

Not my tree house but I wish it was

I must confess that I became quite giddy with excitement upon seeing this glorious construction. This is another back-in-time post from our trip to the UK. I came across the photos whilst trawling my pictures and it was just too exciting and wonderful not to share. Don't you think? I enjoyed a very happy scamper here during our visit. The tree house can be found at the Alnwick Garden, in England which I'll tell you more about in another post. No time tonight unfortunately.

This was far higher than it looked and it wobbled a bit when J jumped up and down in an effort to scare me as I crossed. Not being overly fond of wobbly heights, he was mildly successful.
Don't these look like ridiculously good fun!! You have to love a child friendly venue. They make me feel quite at home! :)


Click here if you'd like to take a further peep at this lovely garden.