Monday 23 August 2010

Adieu...yesterday...


Sunset;

The time has come to put this blog to rest. 258 posts since I started "aeons" ago.

Thank you to all who have visited over the years and left me delightful comments.

The garden continues at my new blog Lavender and Vanilla please click to visit.


Photo from my garden TS

Friday 20 August 2010

SkyWatch Friday; The "outback" sky;


When we left for Leigh Creek the sky was blue, a few clouds in the back. This is one of the flying Doctor's planes at the Bourke airport.

Slowly the view dissapeared....

And the soup got thicker and thicker and the sky was hiding. Wind and rain buffeted the plane. It was lifted up and plunged fiercely. One feels very vulnerable to be up there separated only by the thin wall of the plane and all around a wild, opaque sky. After more then an hour we received the message that we could not land in Leigh Creek the wind was to strong. We turned back and arrived safely ....

back at the airport. The sky had taken on this strangely coloured opaque hue and the wind was also very strong.

The next morning everything was covered in a fine red dust. The sky was blue again with a few clouds hovering around. We still could not fly out as the winds were very strong and the weather unpredictable. We played it safe and stayed one more day in Bourke!

Please click here to fly around the world!

Saturday 14 August 2010

The Awakening;

A rose with many names; Peace; Gioa; Gloria Dei; I prefer to call this rose in Italian Gioia which means Joy.





In 1942, despite the war, this rose was introduced in France by the name Mme A. Meilland (in memory of Meilland's mother, Claudia), in Germany as Gloria Dei, and in Italy as Gioia. It was an immediate success.


As the famous hybridizer, Sam McGredy, once said, "For the record, Peace is the greatest rose of my time. It's as nearly perfect as a rose can be." So, if you are one of the few people who don't already (or still) grow Peace, you should run right out and get a plant now.

Hybrid Tea / Large-Flowered.

Yellow blend, pink edges. Fragrance. Very large, full (26-40 petals), cupped, high-centered bloom form. Repeats.

Requires spring freeze protection in colder climates.

Can be grown in the ground or in a container.


Enjoy every day!

Photos from my garden TS.

Monday 9 August 2010

When the sky is blue...the sun is shining....

The air is mild, then it is time to dry herbs.

Saturday was such a day. Yet it took two days to dry all the herbs. It is still winter and the days are short.
The herb garden.

A mixture of herbs and flowers. After drying the vivid coloured flowers remain tiny specks of colour.



Herbs and flowers dried 6.August 2010

Nasturtium flowers
Heartsease, Viola tricolor flowers

Peppermint
Basil
Italian Parsley
Marjoram
Sage
Coriander and Dill
Rocket

Thyme and Rosemary I pick and use always fresh.
Peppermint I use also fresh to add to salads and make Peppermint tea. Basil I use fresh for Pesto and other dishes.
Dill is also used fresh.

Generally I use all the herbs also fresh.

The dried herbs I use to make herb salt.

Naturally all the herbs I grow are organically grown without pesticides.


The drying facility is home made and easy to stash away when it is not in use.

the finished product


Believe it or not:

"Why should a man die while sage grows in the garden?"
Old Chinese Proverb

Photos from my garden TS.

Thursday 5 August 2010

SkyWatch Friday; Sunrise; Sun washed sky;



With a sky like this a lovely day follows;

Follow SkyWatch Friday, click here and enjoy! Please click the pictures

Photos TS

Monday 2 August 2010

Mimosa;




In spring I have planted a tiny Acacia seedling. At the end of July it has started to open its golden flowers. The flowering season for this sort of Wattle is short and sweet. It wonderfully perfumes the lower wild garden. Australia has for every month of the year a flowering wattle.

Please click the pictures.

The golden wattle, Acacia pycnantha, is Australia's national flower.

It occurs naturally in the southern Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, western Victoria and southern inland areas of New South Wales. It has escaped in other parts of southern Australia.

Photos from my garden TS.



Thursday 29 July 2010

Monday 26 July 2010

My modest greenhouse;

All the cuttings are kept in this small greenhouse until they show healthy signs of growth.


There are mainly cuttings of Roses and Salvias, a pot full of special palm seeds and one pot I can't remember what sort of seeds I planted, so I have to wait and see! The clever thing to do would be writing a tag, sometimes I do. I said I will remember but now I don't! Ca c'est comme ca!
Cuttings of a tropical Salvia with big pink flowers and tall, weeping growth. They are ready to be planted out. My neighbour Virginia loves plants as much as I do and we always share some special ones. This one is one of hers, in return I gave her some cuttings of my tall, yellow Salvia.


Salvias ready to harden off.


A lovely pink sunrise makes the day; I wish you a nice one.


Believe it or not:
Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.


All Photos from my garden; TS


Thursday 22 July 2010

SkyWatch Friday; New Zealand;







Driving around Waiheke Island this....


black cloud was following us all the way.



Looking over the water towards Auckland. The sky a beautiful silky blue with some fluffy clouds.

Flying home.... Looking over the pretty town of Davenport.

Please visit SkyWatch Friday.....click here

Monday 19 July 2010

Growing in the shade;




A pretty curly leafed fern. It grows with underground rhizomes.



Basket fern with new emerging leaves.


Staghorn fern growing on a palm.  The seed attaches  onto suitable, moist places


I like the friendly faces of busy Lizzy peeping from between other shade loving plants.


Fijian Harefoot fern;


Dark green and shiny Holly fern.


Staghorn fern.


Foot of the giant King fern with emerging leaf. The leaves can grow over 2 m long.



Rex Begonias thrive in half shade all year round.

Believe it or no:
In order to get power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness but with qualities that are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning and cruelty.": Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi - (1828-1910) Russian writer

Photos from my garden TS




Friday 16 July 2010

SkyWatch Friday; Reaching for the sky;



Congratulation to SkyWatch  Third Birthday.















Pyrostega, a spectacular climber has taken a tall gum as stairway to the sky; the colourful swags softly swinging from the branches. The deep orange flowers a perfect foil for the blue winter sky.

Click here to participate and enjoy SkyWatch Friday.

A big thank you to the ever helping SkyWatch team.