Art for Heart's Sake

Last Day of Summer!

Hi on this flaming hot last day of summer, aaagggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!  The sky is blue, the sun is burning hot and I'm looking forward to the fact that it is officially Autumn tomorrow.  Whether the weather will cool instantly is an other matter, giggle!

At the moment our chimney is being swept. We have a combination coal/wood burner and we get the flue cleaned every year.  What makes this rather special is the chimney sweep is a man from Bluff near Invercargill and he remembers my Dad!  How lovely is that.  He's been cleaning our chimney for years and I truly hope he will continue to do so for many more, even though he's getting on a bit in age.  His son helps him - he gets up on the roof to remove the cap on the flue and use the brushes.

I've managed to get a tiny bit of weeding done this morning but it's too hot now so I'll spend the afternoon in my nursery cutting back plants that have flowered and generally tidying the area up.  I'm longing for more rain so I can eventually plant a lot of the stock plants that are waiting to go into the ground. 

I am excited - this morning I checked my facebook page Heirloom Perennial Nursery and there was a message there from someone who is about to start up a café/country store up in the North Island.  They love my tags and wanted to know if I'd be interested in them stocking them.  YES is my answer - I'm waiting for their email address so I can give them more details. 

At this stage Benjamin bunny is on the mend rather nicely.  He is peeing (excuse the word) for Africa at the moment so I guess whatever was blocking his system has gone or dissolved.    We didn't clean the area yesterday because it honestly looked pretty good (healing well) and sometimes I think leaving it to heal on its own can be the best option.

I must go back out to my nursery now.  Smiles..

Making Progress!

Hi, it's Friday morning and I'm about to head out to get our weekly vegetables at the local farm shop.  I also need to go and source some more thin(ish) organza ribbon for my gift tags.  Would you believe the hardest one to find is GOLD... good grief!  I managed to get a few metres of ''old gold'' which was sort of okay but I really want to find a very pretty gold.  I've seen it in 1'' ribbon but that is miles too wide for my tags.  I also need to get some more unusual colours too.

This pm someone is coming to see Gertie Goat with the potential of taking her to a new home.  We really love her but I'd like her to have a slightly better life than she can have here.  Dovedale is a beautiful area further inland from here and I just know she would be happier there.  I also can't handle her any more (literally).  She has decided that she prefers John so if she gets tangled at all and I try to help her she tends to threaten to butt me.  Gertie doesn't have any horns thank goodness but it is still pretty scary.  If she reared up on her hind legs she is taller than me!  Eeeek!  I think she needs to be mated - she's probably feeling very frustrated and we all know how irksome a frustrated female can be, giggle!

Squeeeee I've just ordered my 8 metre tunnelhouse.. oh my goodness I'm so excited!  We had some ''fill'' delivered yesterday and John and I tossed it around then he used a ''thumper thingo'' to compact the ground.  This weekend we will be putting down the weedmat to stop weeds and then possibly a load of gravel.  I think my tunnelhouse should be here either by the end of next week or the beginning of the week after.

I'd better fly.. I need to hang the washing out and then get out the door.  Smiles..

Much Cooler Today!

Morning, on this deliciously cool late summer morning.  It's officially the first day of Autumn on Sunday and just now and then we get a hint of autumn cool.  It's so lovely.  I shot next door this morning and did an hour's gardening and now I'm in the farm shed sowing loads of punnets of seeds.  I do four of each variety about every week or two and this will continue over the next few months.  I'm doing flowers and vegetables so there is quite a variety for me to sow.  I love sowing seed, I find it extremely therapeutic.  Lawrie saw me doing it the other day and said ''no way would I have the patience to do that''.  Some of the seeds are very squitty (i.e. flaming miniscule) so it can be tricky picking them up.  I do have a little syringe-like thing I got in the UK but it tends to let too many seeds out at once and I can't afford to over-seed the punnets.

Monty is here with me, nudging me occasionally for some attention.  The poor lad has been inside for 5 days now and he is getting a little stir-crazy as you can imagine.  He is booked in to get his teeth cleaned and his staples out next Tuesday morning.  We took his e-collar off briefly last evening so he could have a bit of a wash but it wasn't long before his tongue started aiming for his wound so back on the collar had to go!

My gift tags arrived safely at their destination - I know this because I've already been paid for them which is just so wonderful.  I SO appreciate that Pete pays me directly, rather than on commission when the tags sell.  I really hope he likes them.

Benjamin bunny seems a bit more perky today so here's hoping when we give him a clean this pm his ''bits'' are looking even better, dear bunny!

That's all for today, I must grab my cup of tea and leap back out into the farm shed.  Smiles..

I'm Pooped!

Hi, it's Wednesday pm and yikes where has the day gone??  This morning I did two loads of washing, had a lovely telephone conversation with a dear friend down in Christchurch while I was doing a bit of weeding in the main perennial garden.  We talk nearly every Wednesday morning and it's really lovely.  Lynne is like a sister to me, such a sweetheart.

I've spent the rest of the day pricking out primula, polyanthes and foxglove seedlings and sowing more seeds.  I'm about to prick out a gorgeous evergreen perennial orange poppy called Papaver rupifragrum.  This plant is invaluable in the garden, it has gorgeous sagey-green foliage and mandarin orange semi-double flowers off and on almost year-round.

Before lunch we tended to dear little Benjamin bunny.  His private area looks a lot more comfortable and not nearly as raw and horrible as it was yesterday pm.  I gently bathed the entire area with a residual wash called ''Chemi-scrub''.  Vets use it a lot and it is just brilliant.  I left it on for a couple of minutes and then gently patted the area dry.  Afterwards I applied a small amount of the lotion I wrote about yesterday.  I am trying hard to keep his crate scrupulously clean so flies don't become attracted to him again.  A bit of a hassle but he is so worth it. 

I'm a bit tired today - I didn't sleep terribly well because Monty kept jumping on and off the bed and making noise with his e-collar thingo, rattling his ears around etc.  I also was worried about Benjamin too.  I'm sure I will sleep more soundly tonight!

My gift tags have arrived at their destination (I looked up the tracking number) but I haven't heard anything yet so I will post some pics tomorrow for you.  I'd better get back out to the potting table.  Smiles..

My Gift Tags are On Their Way!

Hi and oh yay I met my self-imposed deadline and got my gift tags into the mail today.  My client should get them tomorrow morning and I can't wait for him to see them. 

Now that this order is done I can concentrate on sowing seeds like a crazy woman.  It is time to sow seeds every four days for vegetables and flowering plants to be planted in autumn.  Today I'm sowing pansies and violas and I have to do more primula and polyanthes too as well as potting my last lot of seedlings of those up.  I sow the pansies and violas directly into the punnets I will sell them in but the other need transplanting.  The seed is so, so tiny I can't risk it not germinating in the punnets themselves.

Benjamin bunny is still alive thank heavens but I have to say his ''bits'' are looking REALLY raw and nasty.  Lawrie came and gave him another shot of antibiotics which is so lovely of him and he also applied some antibiotic/anti-inflammatory/local anaesthetic cream we had for Benji when he had nasty nappy rash last year.  He also knocked some scabbing off his definite private bit (if you know what I mean.. giggle, not sure if I can say the ''p'' word on here) and it is SO raw.  Oh my, I feel so sorry for Benjamin.  We are going to get some Chemi-scrub which is what we used on him for his nappy rash.  You mix it with water, gently clean the area and then leave it on for about 3 minutes before patting dry.  It leaves a residue.  Then we can apply more cream.  It's interesting, I'm not really a fan of creams at all - I tend to think they keep the area too moist and this can sometimes make the chance of infection worse.  Hmmm I will see what it looks like tomorrow.  I think we possibly ought to do it this evening but the antibiotic jab Lawrie gave him will keep infection at bay and I think less stress for Benjamin is better today.  We will do it thoroughly and very gently when John gets home from work tomorrow.  We are being realistic and realise there is still a chance Benjamin might not make it but we have to do our best for him.

This morning as well as posting my tags I had a good hunt round for the self-seal cellophane bags I like to put each tag in to protect them from dust and dirt.  Believe it or not they are REALLY hard to find in just the right size.  I use three different sizes and with a bit of perseverance I managed to find all three sizes.  Yay!!  I bought a few packets of each.  They aren't expensive either with is a big blessing. 

Back out to my seeds I must go.  Smiles..

Squeeeeee It Poured!!

Hi and oh I am so, so happy this morning.  Yesterday we had about 2 hours of rain in the morning, as I mentioned and last night it rained again.  It started around 7.30pm and was quite gentle but steady - well around 9 pm we heard it get heavy then it eased off again.  I went to bed at just after 10.30pm (late for me) and to my joy heard it start to POUR!  The rain was torrential for at least 30 minutes if not longer.  We had 23mm of rain last night and everything is so fresh and lovely.  Unfortunately the hot sun is back out now but I'm so excited it rained. 

They say things happen in threes - well we've had the duck debacle, Monty's injury and last night we realised our poor little Benjamin Bunny has fly strike and very swollen private ''bits''.  I have a feeling he might have a tumour in his bladder or somewhere near there which is causing the swelling which in turn got the blowflies interested.  I felt so guilty and sorry when I saw how flyblown he was.  I won't go into details but we had to call a friend who has lots of animals and is great at animal husbandry to come and look at him to see if he could be saved.  We are giving it a go - Lawrie cleaned him up and put a strong solution on him to keep the flies at bay.  He's also had a shot of antibiotics.  Deep down inside I really feel we ought to put him down because he looks so uncomfortable.  Either way a decision will be made tomorrow when we see how he is responding to the antibiotics.  Lawrie will come and help us then. 

I NEED TO LEARN TO LISTEN TO MY GUT ALWAYS when it comes to our gorgeous living creatures.  We had Benji on the verandah for a few months from last Winter when he had nasty nappy rash due to the area being constantly wet from the long grass in his run and as Summer approached we made the decision to put him back in his run.  I honestly didn't want to but realised it's not ideal to have a rabbit in a big crate on your verandah all the time.  My gut is ALWAYS right darn it and I feel SO terrible for not checking his rear end more regularly.  There is no point in beating myself up about it now I just have to get on and do the best for Benjamin.  I just hope he's not in too much pain - it's really hard to tell with a rabbit I can tell you!

I think the universe is telling us to downsize the number of animals we have around the place - this all has to be happening for a reason.

On a lovely bright note I'm on track to finish my gift tags today.  I just need to embellish the edges with a little gold or other co-ordinating colour paint and attach ribbon to all 64 of them.  Do I have enough ribbon?  I'm not sure, gulp!  Time for a much needed cup of tea and I'll go and talk to said rabbit!  Smiles..

IT'S RAINING!!!!!!!!!

Hi and oh my goodness, it's raining!  It started at about 9.30am and it's now 11.25am!  Yippeee.. it's been a good steady rain, not too soft, not too hard.  Oh my can you tell I'm am exquisitely happy??!!  This is the first real rain we've had in weeks and I can just see my plants drinking up every drop.  Yay I won't have to water my nursery today.. phew!

I spent quite a lot of time working on my gift tags yesterday pm and made good headway.   I made some embellishments from Mod Podge Melts..  it's a glue-type stick you put into a high heat heatgun and squeeze the hot ''glue'' into silicon molds.  I have some molds for butterflies, roses, flowers, fleur de lis and a few other things.  I wasn't too sure of them at first because I was worried they might look slightly non-elegant on my tags but by the time I've primed them and hand-painted them I absolutely adore the way they look.  I'll take some photos for you as soon as I can.  I can also use polymer clay in these molds too so will be making some with that too.

When I've finished this order I will spend some time every week making these embellishments and priming them with gesso so they are ready to use.

Monty is a bit miserable!  I'm not sure if I mentioned I took him to the vet yesterday to have his wound looked at?  If I'm repeating myself I'm so sorry.  It was stapled and he is now in an E-collar so he can't lick it and is inside for 10 days.  If the staples come out he will need stitches and will get his teeth cleaned at the same time (they need doing).   Hmm I have a feeling I might already have told you all this.  Ah well!

I'd better get back out to the studio.  I'm determined to spend most of the day out there so I can get as many gift tags finished as possible.  My self-imposed deadline for posting them is Tuesday (it's Sunday today) so I'll have my work cut out for me!  Crikey.  Smiles.. p.s. we still have our remaining ducks penned in the hope that it will break the ''going next door to eat lettuces'' cycle.  If there's one thing I know about ducks they are creatures of habit and if you interrupt their habit for a few days sometimes it works!  Fingers and toes crossed.  Smiles.. again...

Poor Monty!!

Hi and here he is...

Yes poor Monty is stuck wearing an Elizabethan collar for at least the next 10 days and staying inside too (oh brother!).  We thought he'd been in a slight cat fight on Wednesday because he had a scratch inside his ear and his eye was a bit puffy on Wed night.  We also felt a wound under his ''arm'' and when we checked we just assumed it was a scratch.  Ermmm NO!  

Last evening I was so pooped after sorting the ducks, then giving away the chosen ducks late in the pm that I lay on the floor.  Monty jumped down out of his bed and lay next to me with his paws stretched out.  Imagine my  gasp when I saw a 1cm (at least) hole in his flesh right down to the muscle.  Eeeek - bless his heart he'd kept it very clean, there was no blood and no sign of infection.  Needless to say a visit to the vet was in order this morning.  She really wanted to stitch it but was loathe to put him under general anaesthetic just to do a tiny wound so she used two staples instead.  He was such a good cat - I was holding on to him and holding his paw out straight so she could see the wound clearly.  He didn't even flinch - I think I did!!  Urgh.. Giggle.  If the staples don't stay in (and they might not if he jumps too much) he will have to be put under and they will clean his teeth at the same time.  So bless him, he is most put out as you can imagine!

I must dive back out to the studio.  I made NO headway at all on my gift tags yesterday I was just too preoccupied with the ducks. 

Gift tags here I come!  Smiles..

Yikes I Forgot to Post Yesterday!

Hi there, oh my this week has been full-on emotionally in one way or another.  Yesterday I had a very ''sighing'' day and was just so emotionally drained because of this duck debacle.  As I am writing this the ducks are penned - yay our method worked a treat and I'm just waiting for John to get home from work so we can sort/fluorescent mark them.  We are putting the ones to give away in a separate pen and marking all of the others so that if next door see them they know they are our precious ones.  Some of them aren't but from now on they all are!    We were going to keep the ducks we are keeping penned all weekend but I think we'll let them go tomorrow morning when we usually feed them.  I'm concerned that if we let them go this pm they will go next door because they've had such a bad fright.  Time will tell if tomorrow morning will be any different.  At least I will just be able to open the pen and throw their food down for them so they can come out of their own accord.

Apart from the duck dramas I spent yesterday working on plant labels because I took quite a lot of plants down to Bay Landscapes.  I brought a few perennials home today that are looking a bit sick and I will pot them up into larger pots for on-sale later.  Boy I have my work cut out for me over the next few weeks - oodles of seed sowing for winter harvest crops, potting up seedling perennials and potting on other perennials for on-sale too.  Crikey!  Never a dull moment.

I worked on my gift tags a bit yesterday but I just wasn't in the zone to do too many.  The ones I've done look lovely and I'm really happy with them.  I got annoyed with myself because I ruined two medium sized ones and had to throw them out.  Ugh ugh ugh!  That is because I wasn't in the zone to be overly creative - my brain was mush!

This pm after we've sorted the ducks I will spend some time in the potting area.  Time to sort some ducks.. Smiles..

Making Progress Slowly but Surely!

Hi on another (oh brother!!) glorious late summer morning.  Crikey the temps are gradually moving up and again, 23 degrees C here today and 25 predicted tomorrow which means we will be about 4 degrees C above that here.  The mornings lately have been gloriously autumnal (cool) but that's about to change for a few days too. 

Yesterday I got some more weeding done in the kitchen garden and some more compost spread too.  It's starting to look pretty good out there and I will be ready to plant crops for winter harvest when the weather cools a bit more.  If I plant brassicas, chard etc now it will just struggle to get going.  There is still no rain on the horizon and I can't believe the cracks that are appearing in some of our ground.  I keep telling our plants to hang in there.

I am making slow but sure progress on my gift tags.  Hand painting the small embellishments certainly is time-consuming but I really love doing it.  I have a few done so I will be able to finish a few tags today.  Yay! 

John is at work then popping home to change before going to the cricket ground for more volunteering.  There isn't a game today but there are lots of people moving around who need to be picked up etc. 

Yesterday we got the pen completely ready for the ducks and they are going in there to eat - I take them in and then gradually throw the food out and move back out of the entrance.  I stood there for a bit today and I think I will be able to close the pen mostly without them noticing.  The natives will have to take off out of there but our domestic ducks can't fly far and aren't good at standing take-offs!

Out to the kitchen garden I must go!  Ho ho!  Smiles..