Art for Heart's Sake

The Last Day of April!

Yikes it's the last day of April here in NZ - where has the first third of this year gone, I wonder!  Each year I am stunned how quickly time goes.  I guess it means my life is full so time just whisks by.

This morning we are going grocery shopping as our fridge is looking rather bare.  Both John and I love grocery shopping so it's never a chore.  We both share a love of food, which is really neat (NZ for great).

Yesterday I finished a gift tag for my sister-in-law and - oh yikes I haven't taken a photo and we're posting it this morning - I will post a photo of it later.  I kept it fairly simple and I really love the paper I used - it's Webster's Pages.  Their papers are HEAVENLY!! to say the least, especially for gardeners.

Well must fly, will update this later today.  Smiles..

An Interesting Fact!

Welcome to Thursday (NZ time) everyone and I hope you're having a fabulous week wherever you are.  I've had one of those weeks where I wake up in the morning and it takes me a while to work out what day it is!  It's happened three times this week already - maybe it's the moon!

This morning I was doing my teeth and happened to look in the mirror - not something I do often while I'm brushing my teeth as it causes toothpaste problems, giggle.  Anyway, my eye caught my hair in the mirror - so I had to take a photograph. 

I have dark hair that has quite a lot of silver (silver! not grey) hairs in it, which I love!  Interestingly enough when I have my hair up the ends of my hair at the back are auburn and boy does it ever look sort of funny! (sorry the photo is slightly out of focus, just had to capture the moment):

  Apparently when I was born I had auburn hair and mum thought for a fleeting second I might be a redhead - Oh how I wish!!  I'd love to have curly red hair.  My mother went silver at a fairly young age and I started to, too.  Friends often ask me 'why don't you colour your hair' and my only answer is - No way - I love my silver hairs too much to do that.  As for my curls, I love them too and long may they last. 

Today I'm working on a gift tag for one of my sister-in-laws in the UK and I'm having lots of fun doing it, will post a photograph when it's finished.  Smiles..

Gift Tag

Hi, here is the gift tag I made yesterday.  I wasn't really sure where to start, except I knew I wanted it to be navy blue and silver (the silver is bazzill basics metallic cardstock - yum).  I always find making cards/tags for males a bit of a challenge... I struggle not to make them pretty!

 
Yesterday we finally go some rain which is so great.  It was only 10mm (less than 1/2 an inch) but definitely better than nothing.  It won't do much for our young trees but it will certainly help the flower/vegie gardens. 

We are off into Nelson this morning to do some errands and this pm I hope to finish the letters I've been working on over the past few days.  Big smiles... 

Cloudy and Windy - Where's the Rain???

Hi, I'm feeling a bit out of sorts today and I can only put it down to the weather!  We have been promised rain today and so far all we have is cloud and a NW wind - which is drying out what tiny moisture we got overnight.  Deep sigh!  I know EVENTUALLY it will rain but right now I'm finding it hard to watch our small larches stressing out totally in the paddock.  It looks as though we could lose a few of them which is really sad!

On a brighter note, I took a photo of a gorgeous hardy geraniums the other day, G. cinereum 'Lawrence Flatman', isn't he just divine!  Reminds me of Boysenberry ripple icecream - yum!

Today I'm working on a letter that is being sent out to lots of people, via the Royal New Zealand Insitute of Horticulture.  I'm involved in something that is really important for plant lovers in New Zealand in the future - the reawakening of a Plant Collection Register.  I'll post more about it soon - it's quite involved and I will be part of it for many years to come.

I also need to make a gift tag for hubby's son who is turning 25 early next month and I need to get his present in the post pronto!  Am thinking silver and navy blue as a colour theme.  Will post a pic when I'm done.  Have a wonderful day/night everyone and please DO A RAIN DANCE FOR ME!!  Smiles..

Rushing Out the Door

Hi, well it's Monday morning again and I am about to rush out the door to my Zumba exercise class.  I have to say, as autumn advances, it is harder for me to force my eyes open in the morning.  I am definitely not an alarm clock girl, and need at least a good 10 minutes to come to - as for leaving bed without having a cup of tea - I simply can't!

I'd love to be one of those people who hear the alarm and instantly leap out of bed, dive for the shower, grab a bite to eat and lurch out the door - all within 30 minutes.  How they do it, I'll never know.  If I have to leap out of bed and get going quickly, I'm a zombie for the rest of the day - not a good look!

The autumn colours are really starting to show now and I love looking out our bedroom doors in the morning at the garden, from bed.  This morning one particular shrub was 'glowing' with autumn colour.  Will post a photo for you later.  Right Zumba, here I come!  Smiles..

A Teensy Tiny Bit of Rain!

Hi, well I can't get too excited, but we did have a tiny few spits of rain last night and then some soft drizzly stuff!  The ground was still damp this morning and I could just feel all of our plants sighing with relief!  Unfortunately (only a passionate gardener would say this), the sky is becoming blue again today!  The forecast is showing rain for tomorrow so please keep your fingers crossed for me.

As I am typing this, the fragrance of rose geranium is wafting through my studio door, aromatherapy while I type!  I've noticed that in damp weather the fragrance is much stronger.  How wonderful I don't even have to touch the plant to get the fragrance.  It really is quite delicious!  This is just one plant that I put into a tall terracotta pot around a year or so ago.  I water it erratically and still it grows - bless it's heart.  Here's a photo (excuse the weeds under the step to the left!). Smiles

 

It's Saturday!

Wow, where did the week go?  It is so hard to believe May is only a week away - good grief! Just over one month of Autumn to go, then it's officially winter!  ugh!  I love this photo - this is a seedling Rugosa rose that germinated in my old garden in Wellington around 1996!  In 1999 I moved and the seedling came with me, then I moved again and my sister babysat this treasure for two years while I was in Singapore.  Since being here it has taken a while to flower well but this year it was fabulous.  Just look at those rosehips!  It does have one unfortunate habit - it spreads by underground runners - how weird!  Must be because it is a seedling.

Yesterday I was thinking about all things that are flowering in my garden right now - in mid-Autumn!  Dianthus, cosmos, delphinium, roses, queen anne's lace, scabiosa, penstemon, verbascum, hardy geraniums, ageratum, dahlia and sweet peas, to name just a few!  I cut back a lot of things in my main perennial border, spread compost and sheep manure in mid-late summer and they have put on another wonderful flush of growth.  I planted cosmos in February, hence the show I have now.  Oh how I love flowers!  Smiles

 

Figs Galore

Hi well it's Friday and it's my watering day (we are on water restrictions here, meaning handheld hosing every second day depending on your house number, i.e. odds on odd days and evens on even days) so I'm madly watering.  I can't believe how dry everything is.. sigh!  So happy I'm NOT a plant right now.

Yesterday we harvested a lot of figs and I now definitely have to DO something with them.  The variety is 'Brown Turkey' and it is said that it has a rather nondescript flavour.  I don't find this to be the case at all.  I have to pick them when they are about 1/2-3/4 ripe because we have gorgeous silvereyes here in NZ (tiny birds, will find you a photo soon) and they pillage any soft fruit at this time of year, almost overnight.  I do find they ripen in the house quite nicely! (if you pick them totally green, they never ripen, just shrivel)

Now what to do with my figs?  I made fig chutney (delicious) in 2008 but still have heaps left so don't want to do more.  Fig jam - um we don't really eat jam.  Stew and freeze them for winter breakfasts - I don't really like fruit with breakfast.  Hmmmm running out of options here.  I've already dried some for mid-winter snacking.

But wait - the most delicious way to do figs, I think, is to oven bake them and then freeze them.  The secret is to halve them and place them cut side up in a baking dish, then drizzle them with a little gewurtztraminer wine or riesling (or even a dessert wine) and slow bake them at around 120-150 degrees C until they are tender and syrupy.  Leave to cool, then pack them into freezer bags or whatever you like to use.  Brilliant warmed as a winter dessert tree, served with whipped mascarpone!  Also wonderful with apple as a pie or a crumble.  Yum!  Here's to luscious figs!  Smiles...

Happy Thursday

Yikes, it's Thursday already, where has the week gone I ask myself.   Yesterday certainly seemed to fly by.  I did my morning tasks around the property which included filling Benjamin bunny's food bowl and gathering greens (grass, clover, silverbeet leaves, broccoli leaves etc) for bunny and the chooks.  It is amazing how many greens one small netherlands dwarf rabbit can eat, I tell you!  He also loves apples.

Mid-morning I drove into our local township (around 1/2 way to Nelson) to meet my friend Lois for lunch.  It was great to have a catch up as I don't get to see her very often.  On the way home I stopped off at a lovely store, Eyebright, to have a 'beautiful things' fix.  This shop is a local icon and is better known as a Christmas store.  Each year their christmas display has to be seen to be believed - such gorgeous decorations.  All year round they have a magnificent selection of silk flowers and I love just looking at them all.  Check out their website at www.eyebright.co.nz

When I got home, John and I went to a local tennis courts and played a couple of sets of tennis.  He plays a lot more consistently than I do.  I have some great sneaky shots but I can never manage to do them all of the time and he nearly always wins.  At 5pm we took off into Nelson for drink and nibbles at an Air New Zealand function.  All in all a pretty good day.

In the midst of all this I also came up with another idea apart from my brooches.  Will share more soon when I've tried it.  I have so many ideas rolling around inside my head right now!

We still haven't had any rain and it is becoming rather desperate.  I can't stand to see my plants/trees suffering.  The long range weather forecast is for a little rain during the weekend and into next week.  Oh yes pleeeeaaassseee..... keep your fingers crossed for me.  Here is a hphoto of our Cercis 'Forest Pansy' showing it's autumn colours.  It is only a small shrub at the moment but the colours are gorgeous.  In spring/summer it has the most stunning burgundy red foliage.  Have a great day/night everyone.  Smiles

 

My Latest Brooch

I just adore making brooches - I've only made 4 so far, but I have loads more rolling around in my head (is that what the rattle is?? giggle).  Here is my latest one.  I've used a totally different technique with this one and the central oval is actually a small mirror (hard to tell from the photograph).  Great fun to do!  Smiles