Around the garden in January

High temperatures, long hours of sunshine & plentiful watering has resulted in what flowers I have planted putting on a continuing show for me. The first thing I do every morning is take a wander around the garden & check on what is happening....it was with a huge whoop of joy that I saw the first runner beans were ready to harvest.

Guess what I had for dinner ;)

Summer Daze....

Time to just relax & enjoy the post Christmas winding down & think about the potential the year ahead brings.
Some days are ripe for going out & exploring around the city

Others for observing things closer to home

At yet others for just staying indoors & trying to keep cool, when it's been that hot during the day that at 7.30pm you find this a perfect temperature for it to have cooled down to....

Trans Pacific Christmas Contrasts - Reveal!

Finally the time has come for the reveal in this the second of Mallory Hoffman's & my Artistic Challenges.

After our initial Artistic Challenge, Crush on Copper, we decided because of the time constraints that December brings (especially when you have a very important wedding taking place just 7 days before Christmas!!) we'd keep this months challenge simple.

The plan was that we'd highlight the extreme seasonal differences that our localities half a world apart afford us at Christmas time. You'd be surprised at the things you don't think of when you take the climate where you live for granted - the seemingly small differences that aren't due to any customs as such at all, but rather dictated by the weather as to what is available.

This summer, so far we have been blessed with incredible weather - so knowing that Christmas day was likely to be sunny & hot I focussed planning for our family Christmas to be primarily outdoors....& for the food to be kept simple in order that everyone could relax & enjoy themselves.

The weather came to the party providing us with a bright blue sky & fluffy white cotton balls...until about 9.30am when they had all but disappeared & leaving us with bright hot sun.

Just as well I had planned to borrow my brothers portable gazebo so the kids, big, small & 4 legged, had somewhere to play safely away from the harmful rays!

Those that had prepared the salads & desserts were quite happy to sit back & relax for a bit while others attended to the BBQ.

I truly do expect that this was the first time my wonderful sister in law Jackie had really sat down for longer than 5 minutes in the last month!

The array of salads - with a noodle salad on the far end (with a dressing that is to die for!!). Next to that was the most delicious Potato Salad prepared by the former 'terrible teen'& budding chef, Michaela! Mum's stuffing which is an absolute must, & the pièce de résistance of any event that I can manage to get her to make it for resides firmly at the centre of attention, even with BBQ'd meats! A fresh lettuce salad & a lovely Pasta salad finished off the array.

It was kind of cool that the lettuces & cabbage were picked fresh out of our garden that morning.

The meat maestro's at work - my beautiful new daughter in law Kerry, & my eldest son Jeremy.

Offering refreshment to the vege garden!!

Jackie's wonderful Pavlova with fresh berries on top...

Fresh fruit salad

For us the Christmas celebration runs over two days. December 26th, Boxing Day, is also my Mum's Birthday. This year she turned a sprightly 73 years young. While the family were together again on Boxing Day a few of us took the chance to go to the beach together. It was an overcast day & a little cooler than the day before - but the beach was calm & wonderful. Even if we did take a 10 kilometre round walk through Bottle Lake Plantation.....

The grandpuppies enjoyed it too....

I cheated & finally decorated the tree on Christmas eve, mainly because I wanted it to feel like Christmas for my nieces & nephew. May I add right here that around 11pm on Christmas eve is a darn bad time to discover that the light set you chose out of the three available & which you didn't check before you put them on the tree, aren't working.....

More in keeping with this Christmas theme would have been this, a Feijoa in flower.

Maybe that is an idea for next year :)

As I mentioned in my previous post, this was a blessed Christmas. Surrounded by all those that I love meant more to me than anything - it also offered up a wonderful surprise. But more about that later!!

Last Month in the Garden

Pink was my favourite colour - who knew ;)

It's Not Even Summer Yet....

and yesterday morning I picked the first of the strawberries & savoured their sun warmed, sweet, juicy goodness. There is nothing quite like the taste of strawberries grown in the home garden, for some reason they are always sweeter than when you buy them at the supermarket.

I doubt that my wee pot will ever produce the amount required to give the family a decent bowl full each all at the same time, but I guess we can take turns picking & eating them as they ripen.

A side note;

There may be a very valid reason for home grown strawberries always tasting sweeter. Commercially grown strawberries are often picked for their keeping qualities. Strawberries don't last well so pickers will pick under conditions that help them keep through the sorting, packing & shipping process ensuring that they arrive at the market in peak conditions. This often involves picking early in the morning or on a cool cloudy day.

When sun is on fruit it causes the natural fruit sugars to rise & aid with the ripening process. When the weather is cooler or cloudy fruit takes longer to ripen. So it makes sense that when you are picking home grown strawberries on a sunny day they are always going to taste sweeter.

Pretty as a Peacock

I woke this morning to a wonderful conversation from an Etsy seller alerting me to the fact that she had included some of my beads in a Treasury.

What a fabulous Treasury it is & it certainly lives up to it's name. If you have time to look please click on the link below the Picture.

Treasuries are certainly a great way of discovering new artists on Etsy.  The work displayed is always tasteful, often tempting & without doubt totally inspirational.

Pretty as a Peacock

The Road To Heaven

Just when my winter weary mind needs it the most, a wonderful Etsy member creates a nice summery Treasury & includes some of my beads.

Check it out if you have time - who knows what you might discover.
While you are there be sure to have a look at the Treasury Curators store The Pottery Syndicate has some beautiful items including jewelry components. So tempting....

The Road to Heaven

Memories

Last year, or was it the year before, I spoke of childhood memories. I recalled being very young & my grandmother having a plant in her garden that we called the 'poppy' plant.
No relation at all to poppies, but rather small bushy plant with bright green leaves & seed pods that exploded seed & recurved the segments of pod back onto itself in a single movement at the slightest pressure from small exploring hands.

After the strawberry patch that plant was our first port of call, when Granny would tell us the pods were ripe, on every visit.

Of course time passes & the details dull. I hadn't really thought of that plant in years, or even recalled the memory until I no longer had my own garden & found myself yearning to garden again & then wondering where my love of plants had come from in the first place.
The memories of hot summers & that plant resurfaced. I found myself trying to figure out what it could have been, to no avail. I had no really clear picture in my head - just the height, the colour & those darn seed pods. I couldn't have even told anyone if it flowered, although it obviously must have. As a five year old my only interest was obviously in those darn pods.

When we moved here, to this rental, the garden was a mess. Full of weeds & 'something annual' that kept popping up. The something annual quickly got ripped out...it was a prolific little bugger.
Last year I inadvertently let the 'something annual' grow in one corner of the garden. One evening I realised that the 'something annual' was flowering. The second I looked closer I recognised those seed pods! Sure enough one light touch on a fat juicy one & there was the explosion & recurving that I so well remembered.

This year I let the 'something annual' grow right through the garden. Given it's height of around 6', I know this is not the same species that my Granny had growing, but it is without doubt the same genus. I just wish I knew which genus that was.
While I'm trying to figure that one out I intend on enjoying some pod popping fun, in between watching the bee's happily buzzing from flower to flower to collect their pollen.



In the meantime, if anyone reading this blog recognizes it, please please leave a comment. I can't promise any great reward, but you'll certainly have my gratitude!!

Deserted Park

My favorite area of green is right across the street. Often that area of green is my sanity! Just seeing it as I walk down the drive reminds me that I'm not really trapped, feeling surrounded by high fences, other houses & decidedly dodgy neighbours!

The freedom is just 'over there', should I need to escape the feeling of being enclosed for a few minutes.

Today the park is deserted. Completely.

No Kiddies in the playground.....

No bigger kids playing ball games in the middle area...

No one sitting in the shade....or in my favorite seat that causes me to daydream of a laptop!

Why? Because it is yet another scorcher - I suspect the highest temperature we have had so far this summer.
Yesterday it reached 32.6°(about 90°) & at 9.00pm last night it had finally dropped to around 29°. One of those nights when just a sheet will suffice - & you pray for no emergencies in the middle of the night ;o)

According to "wunderground" the temperature here in St Albans is currently 34.6° (a little over 94°)....it's 32° in the lounge. Thank goodness for very little humidity & a fan!

I think the beach might warrant a trip a bit later!!