Art for Heart's Sake

Gift Tag Photos!

Hi, I'm out early this morning so I thought I'd share some photos of my latest gift tags.  I can't tell you how much I enjoy making these.  I need to start making a range of christmas ones from this weekend onwards too. 

I must fly out the door.  Smiles...

It's Been One of Those....

...days again!  Crikey it seems to be the story of my life at the moment.  I have lists of things to do each day and today for instance, almost nothing on it has been done and it's 4pm!!  Ack..  Ermm hence this post is late too, AGAIN!

This morning I was busy sorting pictorial labels, invoice and packing slip for my plants to go to Bay Landscapes tomorrow.  John very kindly is writing the labels for me as we speak so the customers will actually be able to READ them now!  I try my best but my printing really is pretty shocking.  Something to do with being a doctor's daughter maybe??

My dear friend Janet called in on me late morning and we had a lovely time chatting as we walked around the garden and had a cup of tea.  This pm another friend called in to see the garden and buy some perennials.    Oooh Ginny also gave me a VERY good idea to enhance an area of the woodland garden and create something totally unexpected.  More about that later!

I must get out to the kitchen garden and sow the pea seeds I've been trying to get into the ground for the past week or so!!  Smiles..

Group Coming This PM!

Hi, I can't believe it's Wednesday already - oh yikes I haven't done the shopping list yet and John's going shopping this pm.. eeeek - where is this week going?!  I think public holidays always make the week seem a lot shorter and it's harder to pack everything in even though I was ''working'' on the holiday Monday.

The weather is a bit iffy today and I have a small group from a local retirement village coming here at 1.30pm.  I'm hoping for their sake the weather holds off.  The breeze is getting stronger as I'm typing this so finger's crossed!

This morning I've cleaned out our chook house thoroughly and used my hedge shears to cut the grass in their run back.  It grows like topsy for obvious reasons - it's all that divine manure!  I told the chooks I've ''changed their sheets'', giggle.

This pm I need to sort out the plants I'm taking to Bay Landscapes on Friday too.  Oooh and I've got LOADS of potting up to do.  Crikey!  I also need to sow my pea seeds.  I've been trying to put them in since Sunday.

Here's a photo of my latest decorative magnets.  They are very simple but effective and are about 5cm square(ish) (2'').    Back outside I must go!  Smiles..

It's Tuesday!

Hi everyone, oh boy what a busy weekend we had.  What with one thing and another the time just seemed to fly.  I can't even remember when I posted last, was it Saturday or Sunday?  Eeeeeek!

I now have rainbow chard, beetroot, lettuce, red pak choi, one yellow and one green courgette, cucumber and a few other things planted in the big rotational bed.  Yay, yay, yay.  I also sowed a long row of carrots on Saturday and 60 parsnip seeds yesterday.  What is even more wonderful is it rained not long after I'd put all of this in!  Yippeeee.. it wasn't a lot but better than nothing. 

I did a talk at a garden group yesterday pm and it went well, I sold quite a few plants which was great including some of my heritage tomato plants.  Oooh that reminds me I MUST get mine planted this pm.  Some are going into 40L black plastic bags and some are going into the ground.

I'm sending off 2 packages of plants this morning and am about to leave to go into town to do that.  I also need to buy some more chick crumble and some grower pellets for the ducklings too.  It's really important to switch them to grower pellets rather than straight onto adult food when they are about 6 weeks old.  Luckily we don't raise ducklings very often because the food isn't exactly cheap.

I must get going because I have lots of potting up to do this pm too.  Crikey, never a dull moment!  Smiles.. Photos of SOMETHING to follow soon I promise!

It's Cloudy At Last!

Hi, on Sunday evening.  We've had another pretty busy day so I've only just got time to post this now.  We have roast chicken, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, peas and home made gravy on the menu tonight and I can't wait.  There are some days when ultimate comfort food is just called for!

This morning we went out about 9.30am to our local mega hardware store so I could get some vegetable plants (aside from the ones I've grown from seed) to put in our kitchen garden.  I finally got time to plant them at about 4.45pm so beetroot, rainbow chard (can you get this in the UK and USA - it's chard with stems in rainbow colours, pink, yellow, orange etc. and was bred by a man in Lower Hutt, Wellington, NZ!), lettuce, red pak choi, and a yellow plus a green courgette (zucchini).  I've watered them in well and rain is predicted overnight so I have my fingers crossed.  Once they have been rained on the lettuce and pak choi (planted next to each other) will be protected from birds and white butterflies with some permeable cloth.

We've let the 5 khaki campbell large ducklings out of their pen today and I'm just hoping a pukeko doesn't think they are still small enough to attack.  They are a good size and are getting their first feathers but are still a bit vulnerable.  We needed to because the other 9 ducklings were fast outgrowing their pen and small water bath.

Mr swallow tossed the feathers out of the nest yesterday and now there are NO swallows to be seen.  I haven't seen any flying in the air which is so upsetting for me.  I'm trying so hard to be brave and I realise no-one except me knows how important these birds are to me.  I long for another pair to nest but I would settle just to be able to watch them soaring overhead.  It tugs at my heart that they're not.  I just have to ''deal'' with it.

More tomorrow.  Smiles..

Battle Royal!

Morning on this beautiful Friday morning!  There's a chilly stiff breeze blowing though, brrrrr.  A cold front has swept up the east of the country, hence the cold wind.  The temperatures are predicted to be slightly cooler for the next week which is fabulous in terms of gardening!

Yesterday there was a battle royal going on in the farmshed between Mr Swallow and a pair of interlopers who had obviously realised the nest was unoccupied!  I spoke to a friend of mine who is a pretty good bird expert and she advised me to take the eggs out of the nest because the poor hubby would keep coming back waiting for his wife to reappear!  I couldn't bear the thought of that so just after lunch I took a chance, put a ladder up and gently removed the eggs.  He arrived just as I was putting the ladder away so I avoided being dive-bombed by a split second, crikey!  Watching him keeping the other pair at bay was exhausting!  The poor wee love was really battling.  I saw them again last evening but this morning I've only seen him.  Part of me would love the pair to win so they can use the nest.

The eggs are incredibly beautiful and SO tiny!  I'll take a photograph of them for you when I get a chance.

Today I'm going to get our vegetables then I'm going on to Bay Landscapes to drop off oddles of plants.  It's Labour Weekend here this weekend which is the traditional time for everyone to work in their gardens and plant tomatoes.  This pm I'll be in the farmshed potting up a storm!  Smiles..

A Gorgeous Morning!

Hi on this simply stunning mid-Spring morning.  The sun is shining, the air is cool at the moment and everything in the garden looks gorgeous.  I love this time of year so much!

Today I have another very busy day.  I'm going to sow a long row of Scarlet Nantes carrots in the kitchen garden this morning and then most of the day will be spent getting plants ready for Bay Landscapes tomorrow.  It's Labour Weekend here in NZ this weekend and that is the main time for people to plant their vegetable gardens and work in the garden generally.  I have loads of tomatoes to take down, plus punnets of flowering annuals too.  I need to sow a lot more now and am increasing the number of punnets I sow of one type to 8 each time instead of 3.  Pant, pant!

Yesterday I had a few more ''swallow tears''.  I work a lot in the farmshed and yesterday afternoon Mr Swallow was flying up to the nest, chittering in a very high-pitched angry fashion and then whipping past me as if to say ''it's your fault she's gone''.  Oh I am so tender-hearted that this hurts me to the core.  I can't bear thinking of him grieving for her.  I just hope and pray he gets himself another mate.  I don't know if he'll every nest here again because he will think it's unsafe now but I need to be positive that another pair will.  I am trying SO hard to put it out of my mind and just hope he gives up checking the nest very soon, poor wee guy.

I have to do lots of potting up this pm too.  I'm potting on some delphinium & lupin plants so they will be lovely and lush for my stall at the Shabby Chic market at the end of November.  I also have lots of seedlings like white mignonette to pot on as well.  Phew!  More tomorrow, I must get myself into the garden.  Smiles..

Another Busy Day!

Hi honeys, phew it's been a whirlwind morning so far and it's only 10.30am!!  (Oops got sidetracked and it's now 12.10pm!). I've already accomplished quite a lot which is great.  I'm having a cup of tea now so it's the perfect time to do this.  Afterwards I'm going to go out to the farmshed and pack up 10 of my heritage raspberry plants to send to a friend/client in Wellington. 

I've just made a sign for my heritage tomato plants and have attached it to my nursery sign which I decided to put out today because I'm home all day.  We have an A4 sized laminator that we bought in Singapore when we lived there and it truly is the best thing ever!  I can make pictorial labels etc very quickly and easily and it's proven invaluable.   It was a really cheap price too!

This pm I need to sort out a lot of punnets of flowering plants and a few other things to take down to Bay Landscapes.  I will be spending quite a bit of time tomorrow handwriting labels again.. look out right wrist! 

I am so happy that things are ticking along nicely re that, I just need to keep my seed sowing momentum going and do it in larger quantities now.  Pant, pant.

I feel a little bit better about the swallow today, partly because I'm trying hard not to think about it.  I know deep down we will get another pair nesting there one day. 

I must go and sort our my raspberries.  Smiles..

A Sad Evening!

Hi, so sorry I haven't posted before now, it's been a bit of a torrid day after a very! sad evening last night.  I haven't cried as much for a long time.

We now have no swallow sitting on the nest that has 3 eggs in it.  Last evening while the group of women were picnicing in the garden, Monty escaped outside and about 30 minutes later I saw him with a swallow in his mouth disappearing under the house.  I couldn't do anything at all but I truly just wanted to shout ''please get out of here so I can deal with my cat''.  It was SO hard to maintain normal conversation when I knew my cat was munching on a very special swallow under our house.  I wouldn't have been able to get him out from under there anyway because it is too tight a space and by the time I got there the bird would be dead.  I was/am beside myself with sorrow - as you know swallows mean the world to be because I saw one on the day my Dad died when I was in the middle of nowhere (literally) looking at gardens.  One lone swallow is sitting on the ladder in the farmshed and flies out as soon as I approach at the moment.  I think he's hoping she'll come back, oh dear... tearful again!  Crikey.  I'm trying to just have the mental image that the swallow is with my Dad now. He'd love that!  I just hope we get more swallows nesting at some stage.

We always shut Monty in late pm so he obviously too great advantage of the chance to escape and have some ''fun''.  I know it's only his instinct but I was really angry with him and he knew it.  Needless to say we have made the decision to keep him indoors in the meantime to give all the other birds that are nesting a fair chance!  I definitely will not be getting another cat after Monty and I just home Monty gets old and lazy fast!

Apart from that the women's visit was good and they really enjoyed themselves, which is lovely.  The weather was cloudy, dull, a bit windy and chilly but they had a picnic anyway.

I've had quite a busy day today, potting up delphiniums into bigger pots for my stall end-November and I spent the morning in the farmshed (oh so quiet and made me sad) packing up four bags of plants to be sent around the country.  I went and posted them this morning too.  More tomorrow.  Smiles..

A Group Coming Later Today!

Hi, yikes it's Monday and I have a group of women coming to the garden at about 4.45pm for a picnic tea, rain or shine!  I really hope it's not raining because if it is I don't know where they will be sitting - on our verandah I guess.  There are going to be about 15 of them I think, so at least it's not 40!!  I also really hope they will spend time in my nursery too and that is less likely if it's raining.

I am pretty happy with the way the garden is looking - yes there are still weeds but the worst ones are gone.  John is going to mow the main garden lawns again this pm to have them looking fabulous for me.  At the moment there is a stiff SW chilly breeze blowing too but I think that will ease back as cloud rolls in this pm.

Yesterday John put the three new wooden pallets in my nursery and I moved my plants around a bit.  I still have more to do today to spread my plants out a bit more.  The sun-loving ones are now up on the ground behind the studio so I will need to send people up there too.  I'd love to have all of my plants in the one place but the main nursery is in semi-shade which is just too shady for some creatures like evening primrose and my silver-foliaged hardy geraniums.

I have so much to do today I'd better get started.  Keep your fingers crossed the weather holds!  Smiles..