Art for Heart's Sake

A Day Off Yesterday!

Hi on a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon.  The cloud has cleared and we now have a light breeze blowing which is wonderful - I hope it will stay around long enough to dry out the ground a little bit before the next onslaught of rain on Tuesday!  The water table must be very high because everywhere around our property is incredibly squelchy!

Yesterday morning we headed into Nelson after doing the usual animal tasks etc and John had taken Chester to the vet (to check a sore spot on his cheek  - he  had an unfortunate meeting with our neighbour's electric fence on Thursday which left a welt that we didn't notice until Friday night!).  I went to ballet practise and John met David (son) and Kirstin at the weekly Nelson Market.   I met them all for lunch at 1pm and then we came home via Kmart (they wanted their fix). They'd come over from Blenheim for a few hours and it was so lovely to see them.    We didn't get home until about 3.30pm and  had to go out again at 5pm to celebrate Caroline's (neighbour) birthday so nothing really got done around the property.   I did manage to squeeeeze in some weeding in the glasshouse!

This morning I've been cutting back hellebore (winter rose) foliage in the main perennial bed and have also started to attack the most lush buttercup infestation I've ever had!  On a bright note they come out fairly easily because a lot of them are runners from a main gnarly buttercup plant that needs a garden fork to lever it out!  Humppphhhh.. why did I feed my soil so well and then not have time to keep on top of the weeds??????  Pookies!

I'm off out to the kitchen garden this pm to continue fighting buttercup in the globe artichoke bed.  If the soil is too puggy and wet I may have to backtrack back to the perennial garden again.  

I got my first plant order within hours of launching my website which was/is SO exciting!  I couldn't believe it!  I've had good feedback about how easy it is to navigate around too which is truly lovely.  

Back outside I must fly!  Smiles..

Website is LIVE and Launched!

Hi honeys, it's a very exciting, if somewhat nerve-wracking day for me today.. my website is now live and launched.  Here's a link to it:

https://www.heirloomplantnursery.co.nz/

I'm eternally grateful to my dear friend who constructed this website for me.  It is beyond fabulous and very easy to navigate around.  Please DO have a look at it and let me know what you think, I'd love that.

I have some other VERY exciting news too.  Yesterday afternoon I went en pointe in class for about 20 minutes, shriek, squeeeee and big grin!  I just rose up onto pointe and then eased back down while the others did lots of other exercises at the barre.  Slowly but surely will be my process but I am so excited to be doing this.. a dream come true!  There is an extra adult class on Wednesday nights from 7 June but I won't be able to do that this year, I just can't afford it.  Such a shame because it would be intermediate work (which I do some Thursdays), Grade 5 work (exam in Dec) and pointe work too!  Boooooo hoooooooo!  Patience Philippa, patience.. next year will be here before I know it.  

Well it's time to go inside and rev the fire up - it's getting dark outside and rain is predicted.  Smiles..

Sitting a Lot!

Hi on a gorgeous crisp, fine Thursday morning.  I'm in the farm shed potting on some cuttings and some gorgeous woodland anemone bulbs that I will be adding to my website in the near future.  

Speaking of which, I've been spending a lot of time sitting on my rear end with my eyes glued to my computer!  This brings back horrendous memories of being a personal assistant many years ago.  Being inside staring at a screen is just not me!  I emerge from my studio, bleary eyed with a very fogged brain!  I spent some time tweaking a few things this morning and then I just HAD to get out into the fresh air again.  

We're having some issues with not receiving emails from the website so once that is solved I will be launching it!  Squeeee I can't wait, it is SO beautiful and very easy to navigate around.  I'm sure you'll love it.

Well back to the farm shed I must go, I'm getting cabin fever again already!  Smiles..

Beautiful Birds!

Hi, it's a very chilly, grey Tuesday morning and my feet are like iceblocks!  I'm about to go and label some plants for delivery this week so I'm wearing my gumboots and they are NOT warm!  Eeeeeek..

I love this time of year for one main reason - the bird life we have around the property is just incredible.  It is at other times of the year too but for some reason I'm noticing all the different types of birds more at the moment.  We have quite a few song thrushes around and they are singing their lungs out!  Here's a photo of one that regularly serenades me when I'm in the chook house or the kitchen garden.  She/he loves sitting at the top of the oak tree near the chook house.

Yesterday I spent most of the day pricking out seedlings and sowing seeds in the refrigerator that is the farm shed at this time of year.  It gets no sun at all inside it so it is very, very cold.  I had five layers on and yes the hood of my sweatshirt which is something I NEVER do!  Very stylish, especially with my dust mask on - I must look like the creature from the black lagoon.  I pricked out one punnet of seedlings and then leapt into the sun each time to warm up a bit!

I have ballet this pm (the 45 minute lessons for Grade 5 and 4) but I'm thinking I might not stay for Grade 4.  I don't need to know the actual routines just the steps in case the examiner asks us for them at our exam in December.  Grade 5 is at 4pm so it means I'll be home before 5.30pm which would be great.

The website is progressing well, so not long now!!!  I'd better start writing my labels.  Smiles..

Making Progress in Kitchen Garden!

Hi honeys, well I've been slogging it in the kitchen garden for most of the day and I have to say buttercup is NOT my friend at the moment.  My poor globe artichoke bed is choked with the most gorgeously healthy buttercup I have EVER seen!  They are at least 30cm (1ft) high!  I guess on the bright side it means the soil is spectacularly good!  I had to give up 1/3 of the way down the bed because I could feel the cartilage in my ribs moaning at me from all the pulling I was having to do.  

Here are a couple of photos of the kitchen garden which will give you some idea of the amount of work I've done over the past couple of weekends.  There is still lots more to do but I love that these beds are looking good.  As you will see in the first photo there is still room for me to plant more crops and I'll do that over the next week or two, putting them under cover to keep them warmer.

 

We have had a lovely cold snap and it got down to 1.5 degrees C overnight which is cold for this time of year.  I'm hoping and praying for a lovely cold winter for the garden and for me! Yesterday we didn't get higher than 9.9 degrees C which is really cold for here during the day.

Well I'd better get back outside and do a few more things before it gets too cold.  Smiles..

Almost There!

Hi, it's Friday afternoon and I'm late back from ballet class because a lovely friend that comes to class took me for coffee and then we ended up at Spotlight looking at patterns for dresses because I've got two weddings to attend next year - one niece in January and the other niece in April - how exciting!  We are also thinking of altering my wedding dress because it is a gorgeous shade of liquorice green taffeta and it's been sitting in the wardrobe for almost 11 years so it would be lovely to be able to revamp it!

I've been working hard, adding perennials to my website.  We are going live this weekend but I won't be launching it as such for a few days so we can make sure there aren't any glitches!  Watch this space!

I'm about to prick out lots of seedlings and then hopefully have time to go next door to do some gardening.  I'd better fly!  Smiles..

Putting Perennials on my Website!

Hi honeys, well my exciting news is that my new website will be going live either on Friday or next Monday!  I am so excited but also a little nervous because quite a few of my hardy cranesbill geraniums are showing ''out of stock''.  This is because I've sold out and over the next few months I will be replenishing my stocks!  I just hope it doesn't put people off.  I do have quite a lot that are in stock it just feels weird re the ones that I don't have.

I am in the process of inputting a lot more of my other perennials which is really exciting.  Over the next year or two I am going to be adding more and more of the old-fashioned sought after varieties that I am going to grow from seed.  As soon as the website is live I'll post a link here so you can look at it and I'd love it if you could put some testimonials on my website for me.  

I managed to get a lot of weeding done in the kitchen garden over the weekend but I didn't quite get the second large plot finished before it started raining last night - oh bother!  I did manage to get the heaviest section of soil done though, yay!  I am going to finish weeding it then compost and mulch this weekend and then move onto the next bed.

Yesterday I headed off to ballet classes and today I'm off to get my hair trimmed which will be a real treat.  I can't wait to sit there for an hour and have someone look after ''me'' for a change.  I really need it at the moment.

I'd better carry on with my perennial input.  Smiles..

Yikes Where Did the Week Go?

Hi, yikes and crikey, where did this week go???!!!  I had no idea it's been 4 days since I posted on here!  I've been busy with ballet as usual, plus pricking out seedlings including some perennials and sowing more seeds.  

It was very wet here on Wednesday (from pm) and into Thursday morning, then it stayed cloudy and proceeded to rain again last night.  We had 60mm all up which was quite enough.  We did need some rain so I'm not sorry it was a bit dull for two days.

This morning after ballet I visited the darling friend who has designed my new website.  At this stage it will be going live from next Friday and I will be shouting it from the rooftops!  She's done an AMAZING job and it is very easy to move around it and it is also an online store (super excited!).

This week I posted Mum's Mother's Day gift after I finished her gift tag.  Here's a photo of it:

This weekend is meant to be chilly but fine so I'll be leaping back into the garden except for ballet practise tomorrow late morning.  I'm hoping the soil will have drained a little bit.

Some very sad news today too - Filligree, one of our young silver pencil bantams (around 1.5 years old I think) died while I was out this morning!  I noticed she was looking very lethargic and pale in the face a few days ago so I took the time to check her over for mites etc but really couldn't see anything.  None of her feathers were falling out either which is a sure sign of mites which make them anaemic too (hence paler face).  I could hear her breathing clicking the other day when I was cuddling her so maybe she had a dicky heart.  Show knows.. I'm so sad because she was such a pretty girl and very friendly.  The others (including her sister, poor thing) look fine at this stage but I will be monitoring them very closely.  I took a torch out last night to see if I could see any mites crawling in their house where they roost but I couldn't see any.  I keep the house very clean and dust it with diatemaceous earth which is completely natural and kills mites.  I also had wondered if the dust might have got into her lungs but this white ''earth'' is very heavy and not dusty once its settled.  Hmmm..  I hope the others stay well!  I love my animals so much!

I'd better go and check on the others.  Smiles..

Progress!

Hi on a gorgeous crisp late autumn Monday morning!  We woke to a slight frost in the kitchen garden this morning.. ermm I mean there was a slight frost in the kitchen garden, we didn't sleep there!  Giggle!

I had a very productive weekend in the kitchen garden.  I had ballet practise on Saturday morning with the Thursday girls.  The rest of the day was spent attacking one of the two big vegie beds that I rotate all our crops in.  All of the permanent crop beds are very weed-ridden too but I want to deal with the main beds first.  I keep looking sideways at all the other beds quietly apologising to the poor plants trying to grow well in amongst buttercup etc!  John used his spade to cut the edges of the garden I was working in and it looks so much better now.   I'm going to strive to keep the edges looking that way.  It is much harder to be enthusiastic about weeding a bed when you can't see where the edges end and the garden begins!

Yesterday I composted the part of that bed I weeded, I sowed some broad bean seed and planted a few lettuces.  I also mulched the rest of the bed with red clover straw to hold it over the winter.  I started weeding the other ''rotational'' bed and it is going to be much harder to do because the soil is more heavy.  I will be throwing gypsum into it with abandon once it's weeded.  Gypsum is perfect for breaking up clay and it is neutral so doesn't affect the soil pH.

I worked on a Mother's Day gift tag for Mum over the weekend too and it is now finished.  I'll take a photo to share with you.  I must get it in the mail by Wednesday if possible.

Time to go and clean out the chook house and then sow some seeds.  Smiles..

Squuuueeeaaaallll!

Hi, it's Friday afternoon and I've just come back from gardening next door.  I'm about to launch myself into our garden after I've watered the tunnel house.  At this time of year I have a bit more spare time for gardening thank heavens because my seedlings grow and sell more slowly at this time of year!  It's nice to get a bit of a breather from the frantic pace of spring/summer.

I'm ''squealing'' because this morning at the first adult ballet class of the new term, Peta (studio owner and our teacher on Fridays) told me there's been an improvement in the straightness of my legs.  This might not sound like a big deal but to me it is HUGE!  This is the one thing I've been struggling with - it is REALLY hard to know if my legs are straight when they are out at the back in an arabesque.  You'd think you would just know but truly that's not the case!

I had coffee with a fellow student and friend afterwards and then went home via the supermarket, bank and library.  

It's time for me to launch into the garden!  Smiles..