Art for Heart's Sake

A MELTING POOL OF PHILIPPA!

Hi honeys, oh my goodness I am beyond hot at the moment!  I've just spent the morning packing up 6 boxes of plants to be sent away tomorrow.  I'd rather not be doing it when the weather is so hot but needs must.  One thing is for sure, I've made certain the plants are totally and utterly waterlogged for their journeys.  At the moment the open boxes are sitting in the hallway where it is cooler and I won't tape the boxes shut until after sundown tonight.

The weather has been hot all weekend but I did manage to garden on Saturday, chasing the shade in the perennial garden.  Yesterday there was no way I could garden even in the shade.  We went up to Motueka (about 20 minute drive) and went to the market they have every Sunday instead.  I managed to get a very old cultivating tool to use in the kitchen garden.  I must take a photo of it - for only $10!!!!!  It's a beauty so I'm very happy!

Yesterday afternoon I tidied my Grandmother's oak desk which is in our living area.  I wanted to be able to put all of my labels, business cards and other things I use every week when I'm packing up plants into the desk to help keep the dining table more tidy.  I still need to find a good place for the catalogues I use a lot - seeds etc.  My poor art studio looks more and more like an office every day at the moment.

I haven't touched art or my gift tags for a few months now and oh how I miss it!  I really hope I'll be able to get back to it soon.  Well I'd better get outside (dang and blast, pant, pant) to put some plants aside for orders.  Smiles..

 

Where Has The Time Gone!

Hi Honeys, right I'm going to make a promise here... From now on I'm going to post every couple of days, even if I just write a few lines!  I've been thinking about it and I LOVE this blog.  I've been doing it for so many years that the thought of stopping it just doesn't agree with me.  My history is here - I've asked how I can get my blog published into a book-type thing but it's not possible apparently.  I'd have to print out the ENTIRE blog.. oh my word that would take, I don't know how many, reams of paper!

My days at the moment are filled with sowing seed, pricking out seedlings (some of them perennials, yay), keeping up-to-date with my orders and my website.  I've just received my 97th order which is just amazing.  I'm so thrilled with the response I'm getting from lovely customers who are really happy to have found my website and my plants.  I am going to do my UTMOST to extend my range of perennials 20-fold if not more this year!  I'm madly sowing seeds and will be all year, as well as splitting up my existing stock plants when the time is right.

At the moment the weather is STINKING hot.. there is no other word that can describe it.  I don't cope very well with heat and working out in it, even in the shady farm shed is really hard for me.  At the moment I'm sitting in my hot studio but I have a really good fan blowing air around me.  Apparently there is a nationwide shortage of fans at the moment because it's been so hot everywhere.

Well I'd better get back out to the farm shed to carry on pricking out vegetable seedlings.  More in a couple of days, I PROMISE!!  Smiles..

 

Yikes, Busy & a Wedding

Hi honeys, firstly I must apologise for my lack of posts last week.  We had a frantic week getting ready to go up north for one of my niece's weddings.  We left on Friday morning, flew to Wellington (25 minutes) then drove for 4.5 hours to Havelock North.  The wedding was on Saturday late pm and it was wonderful!  I can't share any photos as yet because we've been asked not to until the bride and groom have!  We got back late on Monday and yesterday I spent time chasing my tail, so to speak!  I find travel completely exhausting even if we aren't going far!

We've had some beautiful rain here, some before we left and then more while we were away.  We are forecast to get heavy rain until tomorrow morning but at the moment it's just raining fairly lightly.

I've been madly sowing seeds this morning and yesterday I labeled plants for Mapua Country Store.  She's decided to charge more for my seedlings which I'm not that happy about but I realise they need to make money where they can.  They've gone up by 50cents which I think is too much but there's nothing I can do about it.  I'm concerned that my faithful customers who have been paying $4.10 might balk at the extra 50 cents.  Fingers crossed not!

More soon I promise and I will share photos as soon as I can.  In the meantime here's one of me standing on the beach in Napier (north island east coast).  It was as hot as it looks!  Smiles..

Here's to 2018!

Hi, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season and Happy New Year!  Finally I am human again after that dang bug John and I got!  As I mentioned John was able to enjoy a gorgeous Christmas dinner but I wasn't.  Needless to say I made up for it last night with our New Year's Day dinner!  I always cook something special on New Year's Day because Mum always cooked a special roast on that day too, as well as Christmas Day!  Here's mine:

Today I have a pavlova in the oven and I think I may have created a monster.  It is the most FABULOUS recipe ever - everything goes into the mixing bowl of the electric mixer at the same time then you beat the living daylights out of it for 10 minutes.  A stand-alone mixer really is necessary or your arm would drop off!  Our neighbours are coming over for dinner tonight so it was a fabulous excuse to make this gorgeous creature!  This is a pre-oven photo!

At the moment beautiful light rain is falling and I couldn't be happier!  We need the rain so badly - I wouldn't mind if it rained off and on for the next two months!  I'm about to prick out more seedlings today - no holiday for me - and then I have some perennials to pot up too.

I spent some time weeding a couple of areas over the past couple of days and now I've planted some cosmos so I will have colour from late summer, right through into late autumn.  I love cosmos so much!

Well I'd better go and check on the pavlova.  More soon!  Smiles..