Art for Heart's Sake

Off to See Melva Again this Morning!

Hi, just a quick post today because I am off out to see Melva (my friend who is a wonderful botanist and is losing her memory) for a couple of hours.  To be honest I'm battling with myself a bit because I would so dearly love to stay at home and garden because the weather is so gorgeous and it's going to rain again on Sunday (big sigh!!).  I know how much it means to her that I go though.

I promised to show her some photographs of the garden, bless her heart.  I'm so happy she wants to see it because it means I can share the photos with you too.  Here are four more.

The first one is looking left from the bottom of the verandah outside our bedroom towards my studio.  The second is just a bit further around to the right.  Third is a shot of the garden beside our garage (you can see Clematis armandii in flower on the right hand side) and fourth is a close-up of the hellebores on the corner of the raised garden by the garage.  More tomorrow..  Big smiles and off I go!

Weee New Lenses in my Glasses

Hi, weeeeeeeee she said as she tried to get used to the new lenses in her glasses.  I am now the proud owner (urgh I'm getting older) of progressive lenses.  I was right on the borderline of needing them so as one of my old lenses was broken tr5and hyuuuuuuuuuuuuu (oops Monty) and the other cracked (thanks Monty) we decided to make the most of the insurance cover and upgrade me at the same time because I was told I would need progressives by next year definitely anyway.  This meant we ended up paying 1/2 the amount we would have to pay next year so it was worth it.  Unfortunatly it's an expense we didn't need bigtime at the moment, ugh!!  There isn't a lot of difference between the two areas on the glasses but I need to make sure I move my head in the direction I want to look in and it also gets tricky when it comes to using this laptop because the screen is a reasonable distance away from me so I'm not looking through the ''reading'' part of my glasses.  Hmmmmm!

Here are a couple of photographs that continue your tour a4round the garden.  The first one is  looking towards the main perennial garden from the bottom of the verandah outside our bedroom (you can also see one of our chook houses in the distance and my little glasshouse).  The other one shows the two gardens against our verandah.  I planted a few delphiniums and also verbascum in the perennial garden yesterday.  Oooh verbascums are one of my absolute favourite perennials - they are such good performers and very easy care, plus their flowers are stunning.  There is a wild one called ''woolly mullein'' which is not quite so favourable, it is a biennial and has large woolly grey foliage and rather insignificant yellow flowers.  It grows wild a lot in Central Otago, further south.  Off I leap into the garden.  Smiles..

A Pretty Productive Day!

Hi, it's another STUNNING day today and I can't wait to get outside.  Yesterday was pretty productive - I managed to tidy up an area at the end of the nursery that was really bugging me.  I put a lot of plants on wooden pallets that I had planned to plant in the garden.  Most of them were nursery plants that weren't looking great and I have to admit most of them were dead when I looked at them yesterday.  Chances are they wouldn't have survived in the garden anyway so I didn't let myself feel bad!  The area now looks a lot better and John cut a fairly big branch off our macrocarpa hedge to let a bit more sunlight through onto the nursery plants.  In the height of summer the area gets a lot more sun but at the moment it's pretty limited.

I also managed to pot up a few more bits of a couple of hardy geraniums that I know sell well.  All in all a pretty satisfying day.  This pm we are going grocery shopping which really limits the amount of time I can spend in the garden.

Ooooh mass excitement.. I finally gave in and borrowed a haltie from our vet clinic to try it out on Chester.  Let me say for the first time in many months, I came home from our walk with a big smile on my face.  The haltie made SUCH a difference.  Its a a sort of noose with a wide strap that sits on top of the nose and it clips shut behind his head.  There's a loop under his chin for the lead to clip onto and a circle of metal that moves when he pulls at all.  This causes the noose to tighten up a little on his nose which dogs don't enjoy, hence he learns not to pull.  Chester doesn't pull much, it's just my shoulder can't cope when he decides to sniff left suddenly. I have always been totally against them because I think they look like a muzzle but I have to say it is just what I need to help my shoulder to heal.  There is absolutely no point in walking a dog if it makes you miserable in body and mind!! 

Here are three photos of part of our section.  I am standing on the verandah outside our house, looking towards our driveway in the first shot, then almost straight ahead at the woodland garden and the last shot is of the long edge of the woodland garden.  Smiles..

Spring is Springing!

Hi, oh wow Spring is on it's way.. yes I know we will still get changeable weather for a month or two or more but theh signs are definitely there.  Just look at these clematis foliage buds!!

Quite simply, amazingly breathtaking in my book!  I was trimming some of the old dead twining stems away and while I was doing it my heart was just swelling with happiness looking at the new growth.  Hmmm I think I'm definitely a nature girl!

I managed to split up a couple of my hardy geraniums to increase my nursery stocks.  I am only increasing stocks of the geraniums that I know will sell really well.  Most people go for the lower growing types so that is what I'm going to concentrate on more.  One exception is Geranium psilostemon which has to be seen to be believed!  She has huge leaves and large flowers of the most intense magenta with a black eye.  I have customers who have wanted her for years (hmm where did I put their contact details?? ack) and yesterday I managed to split one clump into around 16 plants, 3 of which went back into the garden in separate spots.  Yippeeee is all I can say.

Today I am going to split up a few more and hopefully do a bit of weeding in the kitchen garden too.  That really depends on the state of the soil out there!  Oooh our asparagus is just starting to sprout too, so exciting! 

I took about 40 photographs of the garden for Melva yesterday afternoon so I'll post them gradually for you, starting tomorrow.  Out I go to the garden!  Smiles... big ones!!

 

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, my extra special ''Roma'' globe artichoke seeds are germinating.. I am so excited.. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Studio Time Didn't Happen.. Ack!

Hi, on what was a rather blustery, wettish Monday morning.  It's still spitting off and on but the wind has died away (well breeze really) which is a shame!  We don't get a lot of windy weather here and I always enjoy it, it makes me feel more alive somehow.  Having said that I don't like what it does to the garden, giggle!

The rest of the week is going to be fine so I am going to gift myself a couple of hours in the studio today.  I really need to work on another couple of things for my first market stall in October, especially about 5 tealight holders.

This pm I'm going to sow quite a lot of vegetable seed in punnet for transplanting into the kitchen garden.  I do love sowing directly into the soil but it is just far too wet so I decided to get a head start by sowing them in punnets first so I can get an early crop going.  I'm going to sow celeriac, kohl rabi (crisp and delicious in salads), pak choi, lettuce (a buttercrunch/cos lettuce cross) and, ermmm, I've forgotten the rest!  We normally buy seedlings but this year I am determined to save us some money by growing them from seed.  I'm good at doing it (not meaning to sound egotistical I promise) so I must make the most of that.

During the past couple of evenings I've been working on my crochet skills, or rather, trying to, eeeek!  One good thing, Monty loves all of my reject small flowers, so he's got quite a few things to play with.  Unfortunately Chester has a habit of stealing them from him and they appear a couple of days later from his ''other end''.  Needless to say we don't re-use them, major giggle!!  I crocheted one reject on purpose yesterday just so Monty would have something to play with!

I must go and get my day started.  I'm still putting my nursery sign at the bottom of the drive today, but not the main blackboard one because it might get wet or get blown over if the wind comes back.  Big smiles.. 

Phew, I Did It!

Hi, it's Sunday afternoon and I'm a bit late doing this today.  It was drizzling earlier in the morning but then it  stopped so I launched myself back out into the garden while I could.  Yesterday I managed to finish weeding that icky area I told you about which made me SO happy!  I was absolutely pooped by the end of the day but it was worth it.  I've been working on an equally repulsive piece of ground this morning but I've made good headway.  The positive thing about horrid areas of garden is other areas that I thought were horrid are much easier in comparison, yay!!

I got a lovely surprise on Friday night - I won a place in an online class being run by the very inspirational Marah Johnson.  It has already started and I was a bit worried I'm missed out because I haven't got my ''pass'' yet but apparently it goes online on the 24th USA time but is availalbe for ever.  I don't have a lot of Luminarte products but I'm sure I will learn a lot of techniques!  Crikey I was so excited. (Hope the link works!)

http://www.dreamingcolor.com/forums/content.php?194-Illusions-by-Marah-Johnson

This pm I am going to spend some time in my studio if it rains.  I have a 4" brush I am going to alter as part of an Altered Brush Project in the USA and I can't wait to get started.  I also want to plan a few more large decorative magnets because I adore doing them and I am sure there is a market for them as gifts.

I am looking at listing my plants on Trade Me (NZ selling website) and also my art etc on Etsy.  I am really unsure about using these but I NEED to because I need to really push my products if I want to get anywhere! 

Oooh I finished putting the felt on the back of my fabric flowers so the camera is about to come out!  Smiles..

A-Weeding I Went!

Hi, well crikey I spent most of yesterday head down, bottom up in the garden by the glasshouse.  It is the one area of the main perennial garden that is the newest so the soil still needs quite a bit of work in places which means too much rainfall = puggy soil.. ewwwwwwww!  I stood on a short plank (no I wasn't walking it, giggle) to help spread my weight and stop me compacting the soil too much.  I managed to get quite a lot done which is great but today there is quite a lot more I need to do and I am determined to get this area finished.  I didn't get any customers yesterday but that's okay.  I'm going to put my sign out again today (being Saturday) just in case. 

Today I also want to take a heap of photographs of the garden.  I am going to see Melva again this coming Friday and I promised to show her my garden (she's the botanist in her 80's with memory loss).  This means I will have photos to post on here too and about time.   We have been meaning to do a map of our section but somehow we never get round to it! 

I must leap outside and get started before I've finished.. hmmm giggle..  Smiles..

Photos at Last!

Hi, it's Friday morning and here are a couple of photos for you.  I love this one of Monty.. could he get any closer to our sugar water bird feeder??

I took this yesterday, aren't they just lovely friends?!  They really get on well together although there are times when we are a bit scared Chester might stomp on Monty.. Chester tends to pounce down with both feet - crikey!

I had three customers yesterday which was so neat.  It was a little weird because they more or less turned up on top of each other and then I had no more.  Two knew about me from my column in Mudcakes and Roses but the other one was just a drive-by who saw my blackboard sign at the bottom of the drive.  I have put it back out today because I am home all day, so I didn't see any reason not to really.  I would like to put it out at least on a Saturday but I don't want to invade John's down time because he works most mornings during the week.  Hmmm, what to do??!!  They didn't buy a lot but at least it's a start and they said they'd be back.  I must organise some flyers to hand out with details of my catalogue etc on it too.  Maybe I could do it this Sunday because it is supposed to RAIN, yes RAIN AGAIN.. aaaggghhhhh!

I am going to try and weed some more of the main perennial garden and I need to pot up some seedlings and sow some more seeds.  Must fly, more tomorrow..  Smiles.. p.s. last night I started sewing some felt onto the back of my fabric flowers (yikes must photograph them too) and I so wish I was good with a needle and thread.... hummppphhhh!

Monty Chasing Chooks

Hi, it's Thursday morning and I am about to open my nursery for the day.  Monty spent all morning outside yesterday and promptly started chasing Bertie and the girls so I ended up having to put the chooks away in case Bertie got too stressed.  I've let the other three girls out today even though I know Monty will probably chase them.  Let's face it they have to get used to each other - either that or we may have to look at designing a big permanent run for the chooks which would work pretty well.  Both houses could be on the edge of it because I free range them on different days.  Building the run out in the paddock might be a good option too although it won't be quite as sheltered out there.  If anyone has any good ideas for building a cheap but effective run, please feel free to let me know.

It's a gorgeous day here today and I am going to spend the day working on my seedlings.  I still haven't taken any photos of them yet - I'm so sorry - I keep getting sidetracked by various things.  I ended up doing vacuuming and dusting yesterday which was not on my list and in the pm we went grocery shopping so nothing got done in the garden or nursery.  Ah well at least the house looked good and felt fresh.  It's so lovely being able to open the doors again without worrying about Monty escaping - yay for FIV vaccinations being over!

I must go and put my sign out.. more tomorrow.  Big smiles.. p.s. oooh the other thing is I want to put a sign above my ''perennial plant nursery open'' sign saying something similar to ''Art Studio'' but I feel a bit of a fraud putting that because yes I'm a mixed media artist but I think art studio makes people think of paintings only.  Any ideas??  Craft studio doesn't sound right either.. because I do more than craft.  Hmmmm a conundrum!  p.p.s. I'm trying a different colour!