Art for Heart's Sake

Chicken Grumps!! Smiles..

Hi! Okay now I know we're not meant to sweat the small stuff in life, but today I got really grumpy at the supermarket because I ended up having to buy a fresh chicken that I didn't really want!  This wee chook was sage and onion stuffed size 18 fresh, and I wanted a plain one.  Hmmm the plain one wasn't on special - yes I got GRUMPY!!!  Makes me smile now when I think how silly it is to let something like that get under one's skin (no, not the chicken skin, giggle)...  Phoop I don't like being grumpy and luckily it never lasts very long when I am!

I had a fabulous day in the kitchen garden yesterday and got oodles of weeding done.  I released the raspberries from their weedcloth confinement - I had weedcloth (not plastic weedmat) around the canes when I put them in last year and duh I realised that of course any new canes that tried to emerge banged their heads on the weedcloth!  I'm sure my raspberries were feeling very disgruntled.  Now they are free to grow as wildly as they like.  They are in their very own bed and can basically just go mad!  I'm sure I heard them breathing a sigh of relief when the weedcloth was gone.  The down side is I will have to weed them often!  Aaaggghhh...

This afternoon I want to go back out into the kitchen garden but I think it's meant to rain. The forecast is for some rough weather for the next couple of days.  Right I'd better go adn eat lunch, am starving!  Big smiles (and no more grumpiness)...

Botanical Garden Bliss!!

Hi there, well I had a wonderful day yesterday.  The Workshop went really well and we accomplished a lot. The next steps were planned out and at the moment I just continue entering the plant collection data I've received so far.  I so love being involved in this very worthwhile/important project.

The highlight of the day for me was visiting the stunning! Wellington Botanic Gardens again.  I lived in Wellington for 17 (rather long!) years and I always used to enjoy going to the gardens, but in hindsight I don't think I went there nearly enough.  The gardens are very close to the central city and are a delightful oasis. 

When I arrived I was in a rush to get to the meeting room and was very focussed on just getting there.  All of a sudden I found myself stopping in my tracks, taking a deep breath and looking all around me.  The peace and tranquility of the gardens literally seemed to slow me, relax my shoulders - it was an incredible feeling and one that I won't forget in a hurry.  I realised I had a few minutes to spare so I took the chance to veer away from the meeting room building and wandered down to one of my favourite spots in the gardens, a woodland area.  I can't really describe how beautiful it was or how good it made me feel.

I got the chance to wander around again after the Workshop because I had around 20 minutes to spare before heading back to the airport.  It was just lovely and the rockeries including woodland ones, were amazing.  Yes I guess I adore plants!

Today I'm not sure what I'm going to do but I think it will involve, yes you guessed it - plants!  Giggle..  Smiles for your day/night..

Another Brooch

Hi, Just a very short post today as I'm off to the Plant Collections Register Workshop.  How lucky am I, to be able to talk plants all day with like-minded people.  Yippee!!!!  Here is a photo of another brooch, made from raw silk.  I love the colour of this one.  Looks fabulous on black!  More soon..  Smiles

Wow It's Wednesday

Hi there, gosh I can't believe we're almost at the end of July!  It won't be long before I'll need to madly start making christmas cards!  Crikey!

It's another absolutely stunning day here today.  We had an odd weather day yesterday.  Shortly after we were up it started to rain and it remained slightly showery all day - in fact at one stage there were spits coming out of blue sky again.  We had a slight frost overnight and the sky is sapphire-blue! 

Yesterday I managed to get almost everything sorted out for the Workshop so today is a day for me.  This really just means that I can do craft, or garden, or sow some of my precious hardy geranium seeds.  I have some trillium seeds to sow too so I think I will try to get that done today.  The seeds need to remain moist so are packed in small plastic bags - I got them in the mail last week (I belong to the Trillium Society here in NZ).  Trilliums are beautiful woodland plants and I adore them!  I'll have to take some photos of them when they are in flower this spring so I can post them for you.

Well I must decide what I want to do today.  We'll need to be up early tomorrow so I can dget to the workshop.  Have a great day/night wherever you are.  Smiles...

Sleeping, Eating, Drinking Plants!!

Hi everyone, I hope the start of your week is going really well.  This week I am sleeping, eating and drinking plants!  I am attending a Plant Collection Register workshop on Thursday and I have to talk on the progress I've made so far for 30 minutes.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned details of this Register before so I will briefly now.

The plant collection register was last updated in 1993 and then it fell by the wayside for various reasons.  I wanted to get my hardy geranium collection registered about 2 years ago, and that was when I found out that the register was no more.  This really struck a chord with me so I decided to do anything I could to reawaken it.  The long and the short of it is, I am now the Project Manager (which sounds good, but doesn't mean much, giggle) and I will be working on this register for many! years to come.  The task is voluntary but it is a really important one.  MAF (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) regulations are very strict in this country, particularly concerning plant material or seeds that enter the country.  I do understand why, but to the average gardener or plant breeder this is a source of massive frustration.  MAF has a 'safe' list which needs to be checked when you want to order seeds from overseas, for instance.  What is maddening is quite often a plant I bought in a garden centre around 2 years ago is NOT on the safe list so I can't order seeds, even though it's in my garden!!  Yes, I need to order seeds to keep stocks up in my nursery.  Ahem, right I'll leave that there! 

Yesterday I spent time getting information together that I need to take with me on Thursday and I also entered my Geraniums onto the spreadsheet I am inputting the little collection data I have into.  This spreadsheet will eventually be sucked into the database (when it's developed).  It's a long, rather involved task, as I have to check all the botanical names to make sure they are correct and correctly spelt.  Hmmmmmmm

Today I'm going to go into the farmshed and pot up some herbs for Mapua Country Trading and sow some more seeds.  It won't be long before I'll be madly, sowing, pricking out and potting on for a few months.  Big smiles...

Happy Monday!

Hi there, just a quick post this morning as it is Zumba monday.  I'll write more a bit later.  Here are the two photos I promised you.  John looks fabulous and quite the ''golfing'' part!  I went as a 'glamour golfer' as I couldn't find anything suitable to wear.  These are my favourite red winter shoes!  Smiles..

A Cold Chook!

Crikey who'd be a chicken, or for that matter a small English game hen!  Dear wee Matilda's moult seems to have stopped and hopefully her feathers will grow back at 100mph.  I peeked into the chook house this morning and there she was, shivering slightly on her roost.  Yikes... not much fun!  She seems to be a hardy little soul though and is as happy as ever, fossicking for worms etc when we free range them every second day (they take turns with Bertie and the girls) and she's eating normally etc.  I couldn't resist taking a photograph of her, much to her embarrassment!  Here she is:

I hope she doesn't mind my putting here ''out there'', not looking her best!  Giggle..

We managed to deturf a small area of the new garden yesterday and today I'm marking out the path that will meander through it.  I just love creating new gardens! 

Tomorrow I will share a couple of photos of us just before we went to a mid-winter golfing dinner on Friday night.   We could dress up as old-time golfers if we wanted to.  Watch this space!!  Smiles..

Happy Saturday (or Friday!)

Hi, happy Saturday (or Friday if you are in the northern hemisphere).  I hope you are having a really good one, whatever you are doing.

It's a gorgeous day here today - a chilly start that promises blue sky and warm sunshine later on.  We are going to deturf some more lawn today to make my main perennial border larger.  Oh mass excitement.  One of my favourite things is to dream about planting treasures in a new area of garden.  In this particular area we are also going to make a wide fine gravel path, edged with rocks (if I can go and get some) which will link our woodland garden with the main perennial garden.  I can't wait!!  We are putting the turfs down by our pond to help maintain the bank.  The ducks create a sort of ledge under the edge of our pond, fossicking for food so it can be a bit tricky standing on the edge.

I have to giggle, re the peace and quiet of the countryside.  We do get a bit of road noise from the main coastal highway that is pretty close to us but lately we've had that wonderful ''chainsaw'' noise going on EVERYWHERE!!  It's the best time to cut down trees so I think everyone is doing it.  We need to get three more large eucalypts cut down for firewood and my dear friend Lyn's hubby is going to do it for us when time permits, so I guess we'll have our chance to bug our rural neighbours too, tee hee.

I have some more photos to upload for you but haven't quite managed to do it yet.  I will try to do it later today.  Right better get outside into the sunshine, I have some brown onions to plant in the kitchen garden.  Big smiles...

Up Early Today, YAWWN and two links

Yikes it's only 9.25am and I feel as though it's early afternoon!  We woke up early today because John had a conference call at 6.30am.. ewwwww early.  We normally are early birds but it is so much harder to wake up in winter and the last two mornings we haven't really come to until after 7.30am.  On the bright side I guess I've already accomplished things and it's still early morning.

I'm about to go out and clean out my chook houses, giving them brand new straw and plenty of it.  We have A-frame chook houses and I love putting lots of straw on one side of their downstairs space so I can watch them having fun kicking it around and finding bugs in the dirt below it.  Upstairs I make sure their nesting boxes are warm and cosy too.  Matilda (one of my English game hens - tiny wee thing) is moulting at the moment. How cruel to lose feathers in winter.. bbbrrrr.. dear wee soul looks SO pathetic and well, ermmm ugly (sorry Matilda honey but it's true!).  They have been stuck in their houses for the last two days because it has been raining.  Today it looks as though the weather is clearing so I decided to let Matilda and her two daughters, Gertrude and Sophie, out for a run around.  I think Matilda will be warmer that way and also they can fossick for loads of worms etc.  I'm sure Mattie needs the protein!

Oh here are two links for you.  This is the new scrapbooking (well I use them for my gift tags, magnets etc) range from House of 3 and Pink Paislee.  It's called Parisian Anthology and is just gorgeous!  All I can say is YUM..  The first link is Pink Paislee's blog: (scroll down the page to see photos of all the products.

Pink Paislee House of 3 New Release

The next is the House of 3 Webshow that was on yesterday and this shows the products in more detail.  Enjoy.. smiles.. right to my chook houses!

House of 3 Webshow, Parisian Anthology

 

Yikes, Where Has today Gone?

Hi everyone - today has been one of those days that just goes and you don't know where!  We went grocery shopping this morning via a favourite cafe for coffee and before I knew it we were home at around 1.30pm!!  Good grief.

Since then I have had some lunch and have been watching the House of 3 webshow which is on every Thursday pm my time.  This week they were showcasing a new collection of gorgeously scrumptious products that are being released in September and I have to say WOW! 

As you may have guessed by now I love beautiful everything and this new line, Parisian Anthology is no exception.  I will post the link to the webshow as soon as it becomes available.

Will write more tomorrow, right now I need to check my emails.  Big smiles..