Art for Heart's Sake

HI Honeys...

Hi there, crikey 7 days since I last posted.. I'm getting WORSE not better!  I had a frantically busy rest of week last week because we were going away for the weekend to celebrate my dearest friend's 50th birthday in Wellington.  

It's daft but it takes as much preparation to go away for one night as it does for three weeks in my book!  We had the added complication of the cat suddenly needing to go to the vet on Saturday morning.  The gorgeous boy leaked some urine in bed during the night on Friday night and I know that is not normal for him.  The end result was me rushing him to the after hours vet before we left and he stayed with our vet clinic overnight on Saturday night while we were away while they ran some tests.  He's on anti-inflammatories for a bladder inflammation but the main worry is he is losing weight steadily.  He was 6kg at the beginning of this year and is now down to 4.92 as of Saturday which is clinically overweight for his size.  The vet bill was huge but necessary!  

It is looking as though he might have thyroid problems but we won't know more until he has another blood test in two weeks.  He is also begging for food and has been for the past few weeks which is very out of character for him!  Keep your fingers crossed... he's only 5.5 years old for heaven's sake!

I've been madly pricking out seedlings this week because Spring is upon us.. oh my goodness I will be chasing my tail for the next couple of months.  I've sold a few bits and pieces from the plant stand at the end of our drive which is great.  I'm changing what's on the stand every couple of days to keep it looking fresh and interesting.

I need to get back out to the farm shed because i'm off to ballet and to deliver plants in 1.5 hours and need to eat too!  Smiles..

Beautiful Weather!!!

Hi, we've had a few days of beautiful sunshine and blue skies.  The mornings have been chilly and so has the light breeze that's come up every afternoon but at least things are starting to dry out a little!  We no longer have a slushy quagmire on the lawn, just slightly hardened muddy areas!

I've had a really busy week, as you can probably tell because it's been a few days since I posted.  I really wanted to try to post at least every second day this week and I'm determined to get back into the habit of doing it at a certain time each day!  I feel bad that I haven't been keeping you up to date as much lately, but perhaps that's a relief for you??  Giggle.

The plant stand we set up on Saturday is working well.  I've sold things three days running which makes me SO happy!  I'll be rotating the stock often and adding different things every couple of days, to keep it interesting.  Here's a photo of how it looked on Tuesday:

I tweaked my back somehow out of the blue on Monday and I was really worried how I would go at ballet last night.  It's not too bad, just a bit achy and to my AMAZEMENT I danced the centre work better than usual.  How weird is that!!  I am a firm believer that ballet cures all evils when it comes to my body.  It seems to fix anything that's wrong re my alignment etc.  Walking around this property on wet ground in gumboots for days on end is definitely not good for my ballet legs!  At least in summer I will be able to wear more comfortable footwear.

Eeek I pricked out my first tomato plants for the season yesterday which is EARLY!  They seem to be germinating more quickly this year and I think that could be due to the slightly warmer temps we've been having during the day, especially when it's rain from the north.

Well I'd better get out to the farm shed.  Smiles..

 

IT'S RAINING AGAIN!!

Hi honeys, well yes it's raining again.  Last night's weather forecast said fine with sun, ermmmm what's wrong with this picture??!!  I know we can't do anything about the weather so I'll just grin and bear it.  The area in front of our verandah is a QUAGMIRE.....  we had been thinking of doing something to that area because the grass has never been good but oh boy now we definitely are going to attack it when it dries out a bit.  We have been given lots of square concrete pavers - they're not pretty but they will be functional and that really is all that matters.  I will brighten them up with pots and planters.

I've had a pretty good rest of week even though the weather has been a bit damp.  I've pricked out seedlings, sown seed and even split up a pot of snowdrops that I've been meaning to do for a couple of years!  

I went to ballet on Wednesday night (adult class Grade 5), ballet practise for 1.5 hours on Thursday afternoon then said hi to the Thursday girls and told them I won't be at that class until after my exam in December.  I also had adult class Grade 5 yesterday morning for an hour followed by coffee with my lovely fellow student, Elizabeth.  I do feel a bit guilty spending time over a coffee when I always have so much to do here but friendships are precious and Elizabeth is delightful.  She's 70, an ex-GP (doctor) and so intelligent and witty. We always have a lot of fun.

Well I'd better go and DO something - not gardening because of the wet but maybe it's time to attack the spare room wardrobe??!!  Smiles..

 

Gorgeous Hellebores (Winter Roses)!

Hi, well what a rest of week I had last week.  We spent Sunday celebrating the life of one of our friends and neighbours.  He died after a tragic accident in the USA and his celebration was just so lovely but extremely emotionally draining.  Don was such a special man with a huge heart and he brought joy to so many people.  It was lovely hearing some of their stories and his wife spoke for about 25 minutes.  It was so touching and I don't know how she managed to do it.  There were lots of tears.

The weather has been really changeable with quite a bit of rain.  Needless to say the ground is squidgy to say the least.  One joy are the hellebores at the moment.  Just look at these beauties:

I've had to make the really hard decision to swap from the Thursday afternoon ballet class that I do with all the lovely young girls to the Wednesday night class.  My Grade 5 exam is in the first week of December and they are doing Grade 5 in the Wednesday class now so I REALLY need to concentrate on that.  We learned the variation for the first time on Friday and that is the dance piece Susie and I will be doing in the exam so I need to practise as much as I can.  I am so sad about not seeing the girls in class but I will stay after practise on Thursday afternoons so I can see some of them before they start class.  That is better than nothing and it's only for the next few months.  I was going to be doing a Tuesday pm free class Grade 5 but it's only for 45mins and requires 1 hour's travel so it really isn't sensible.  My time is precious now Spring is approaching fast.

I'm off out to the tunnel house to label some plants for delivery.  Smiles..

Gasp, LOOK AT THIS!!!

Swoon.... Thud!!

https://www.georgeandedi.com/product/wrapping-paper/#

Oh my goodness isn't this the most GLORIOUS wrappng paper you've EVER seen??!!!!  I could just look at it for hours.  I discovered this botanical image when we went to Mapua Country Store yesterday and then continued down to Mapua wharf to have a cup of coffee.  We stopped at a shop ''Darby and Joan'' that we haven't been in for months and there was the most exquisite range of fragrance items from a company down in Wanaka (further down the South Island in the centre - Central Otago).  Be still my heart, I was swooning on the spot.  Not only was the packaging incredibly beautiful but the range of products and fragrances were magical.  Here's a link to their website:

https://www.georgeandedi.com/

It's been a fairly wet week this week but not as wet as it was meant to be!  We were predicted to get 80-100mm overnight on Tuesday night and we got 4mm!!!  It poured for a while yesterday morning but even then it was only 20mm.  We had a few more heavy showers overnight last night - 9mm.  I was driving home from ballet last night at about 7.45pm and it was bucketing down!  Not much fun in the dark!

I spent most of yesterday working on another lot of gift tags for Pete and I'll be photographing them in the next couple of days before I send them off on Monday.

Well I'd better go and sow a myriad of seeds!  Smiles..

Happy Monday!

Hi, on a rather lovely Monday morning.  We had some rain yesterday morning so everything is feeling very fresh which is so nice!  There are a few clouds around but the sun is shining too.  Rather weirdly the temperatures are forecast to be very warm this week - eeeeeeeek it is meant to be winter!  We are supposed to get 17 degrees C today which is about 4 degrees too warm!  Everything is going to start growing - lawns, weeds and everything.  There will be lots of confused plants!

I had a good weekend with the odd hiccup here and there.  John dropped a tray of grilling bacon yesterday morning, sending bacon grease 1/2 way across the kitchen floor.  Oh dear!!!  After unsuccessfully attacking it with incredibly hot water and floor cleaner plus a mop I finally checked the internet yesterday afternoon and discovered the best solution - 3 litres of hot water, 1tbsp dishwashing liquid and 1/2 cup white vinegar!  There I was down on my hands and knees with a cloth which I rinsed out in the solution really often and hey presto when I peeked around the corner of the kitchen with trepidation about 45 minutes later, the floor was CLEAN!  No more greasy layer.. yipppeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  From now on that is all I'm going to use to clean the floors, no need to buy fancy floor cleaning solutions!

I spent some time in the kitchen garden on Saturday and yesterday, apart from the kitchen floor debacle, I gifted myself a bit of time in the studio.  I've now worked out my ''signature'' for my paintings and also started to work on some gift tags.  

Today I'm very busy - packing up some plants for an order to be sent tomorrow, pricking out seedlings and sowing more seeds.  Spring is looming down on me!  I'd better get back to it (she said, slugging back her mid-morning cup of tea). Smiles...

Potting up a Storm!

Hi honeys, well I've been busy potting up perennials this week.  I've had a bit of an unsettled time because of a friend and nearby neighbour of ours dying after a nasty fall that severed his spinal chord leaving him a quadraplegic while he was on holiday in the USA.  His wife is back home but is in seclusion so I can't talk to her about him.  I can't seem to settle to anything so I'm flitting from this to that.

I also had a rather unsettling visit from the Mapua Country Store's mentor regarding my supplying them in the future as a small garden centre (them, not me).  It seems he is looking at things on a grander scale than one of the owners is and he managed to make me feel about 1'' tall after 10 minutes.  Enough said that REALLY rattled me especially as he contradicted almost everything I believe in and am doing.  Sigh!  I will just wait and see which way the wind blows re my seedlings.

Hmmm writing this down it's no wonder I'm feeling a bit out of sorts.

I also have a muscle at the top front of my left thigh that is tweaking a bit when I walk up stairs.  This muscle has been weak since I had my hip operation (it's the big muscle that comes around from the back diagonally across the front - Ruth, name??) and it's gradually been building up strength really well but it has always caused me a bit of discomfort and stiffness.  It feels as though I might have a tiny tear in it so I'm trying not to upset it.  Ballet helps it but my leg won't go quite as high as it was at the moment which is very frustrating.  I am NOT going to push it (don't worry Ruth) and will just go with the flow and see how it responds.  I need to practise a lot for my exam in December though.  One thing I think might not be helping, because I have dicky knees I can't kneel to garden or I upset them so I've been bending over a lot to garden.  I have a feeling that might not be helping that muscle!  

Oh and it's the opening night of the yearly show that the dance studio I go to puts on and I'm not in the Mazurka item that I was learning with all the other girls because Peta simply won't have adults in with the younger students in show items.  That's unsettling me too because I am a bit sad and disappointed.   Crikey, what a year this has been so far in one way or another.  I am going to see the show tomorrow night to support the gorgeous girls but it will be hard watching that dance!

Phew I feel better now, getting all that off my chest! Smiles!

Well I'd better go and get my lunch, I have to leave here at 1.15pm to deliver plants on my way to ballet practise.  No-one else will be there which in a way is good because I can just take it easy and practise my facial expressions (grimacing in an exam is not a good idea, giggle!) and making my arms more ''delicate''.. ahem!  Guffaw!