Hurrah for Spring

 May your days be sunny, 

may your days be warm,

may your garden be bursting with colour.

Bring on Spring!

Thanks so much for stopping by my place today.

Today's post has been brought to you by the letter 'S'.  

S is for Spring (in the Southern Hemisphere).

a little bit of outside, inside.

 The weekend has been wet, 

the weekend has been blustery,

my little blooms were getting bashed outside,

so between drenchings, I raced about and cut some for inside.

I have little vases of freesia, lavender, and daisies sweetly

scenting our indoors.

I love flowers inside my house.  

 What are you loving at your place today?

Thanks so much for stopping by my place,

and have a wonderful book week at your place.

 Yes, it's book week this week and we are going to share some of our favourites with you during the week.  I would love for you to join in.  I would love to know what you are reading at your place.

R.I.P. Bin Lizzy

Each Friday, I like to end the week with something sweet to take into the weekend, something gentle, a little bit of quiet, a little bit of a breath, a little still moment with a little reflection or saying.

Your lovely comments have encouraged me to keep this little Friday breath going.  A little reminder to me that I am not alone in a busy week, and that we tend to be doing so many things for so many other people, that it's nice to take a moment for ourselves.  

Unfortunately today I cannot do that.  Today is a bit of a sad day for me.  I do apologise, and I was torn between whether or not I should even do a post at all.  I don't feel uplifted, I don't feel like pretty sayings, however, this is part of my life and this is my online journal.  The other reason I am going ahead with this post, is that I want to share a little friend of mine with you that totally made me smile every single Friday morning without fail.  My little friend, Bin Lizzy.

Bin Lizzy has been living under one of our 3 bins and every single Friday morning when I would take the bins out, I would see Bin Lizzy and say hi.  We would have a chat and I was always telling Bin Lizzy to please go and find a home in our garden.  I have lots and lots of lovely leafy mulch under our palm trees out the front and out the back, and we have lots of lovely shade under our low growing gardenias next to one of our palm trees.  But no, Bin Lizzy seemed to love down the side of our house under our bins.  

Last Friday, I did not see Bin Lizzy, and I even moved the bin that wasn't going out that week just to make sure.  At first I was a little sad, but then I thought, hey! maybe Bin Lizzy has finally found a lovely spot in our garden.

This morning, doing my usual ritual of taking out our two bins to be emptied today, I saw Bin Lizzy.  Well actually, I saw the outside of Bin Lizzy. . . . there was a huge bite chunk taken out of the side of Bin Lizzy.  *sigh* yup, I am crying again right now.  

I am so sad that Bin Lizzy was attacked, I am so sad that Bin Lizzy would have been attacked and then made it back under the bins, in lots of pain and slowly passed away.  I am so sad that the animal that attacked Bin Lizzy probably wasn't even hungry but wanted to play, or perhaps mistook Bin Lizzy for a snake even.  I am not cranky at the animal that attacked Bin Lizzy if this was the case, it's survival instinct, but I would be VERY cranky at the animal if it was only doing it for sport.  

I have taken a photo, but please, don't scroll down if you don't want to see it.  I almost took the photo away, but have decided to leave it, as if you are brave to take a look and know anything about animals, can you see the bite mark down the side?  What do you think may have happened to Bin Lizzy?  I am going to comfort myself with the fact that the animal thought to protect itself and mistook Bin Lizzy for a snake.  I like to find the good in everything and everyone.  

Again, I do apologise for my sad post today, but I do feel a bit better in posting about Bin Lizzy.  I have decided we will bury Bin Lizzy between the lavender and daisies out the back.  It's a lovely part sunny/part shady spot for my little friend.  

I should be prepping craft for my little playgroup this afternoon, we were going to do shapes again, however, we are now going to do something garden-y, something like butterflies and lizards.

Thank you so much for stopping by my place today.

Look after your little garden friends and say hi from me.

If you don't want to see the photo, DO NOT SCROLL DOWN ANY FURTHER.

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Bin Lizzy

When Nature Calls. . . .

We spent some time in our garden this weekend.  Weeding, trimming, tidying up.  I just love watching the change of season through our plants.  

This beautiful camellia was planted when we built our home.  It used to flower in April/May, however the last 2 years it's decided to bloom early.  This is our first flower for the season.

Another camellia about to burst into glorious colour.  Both our trees are just full of fat flower buds right now.  They look fabulous.

Gosh he's a lovely little spider.  He let me take a photo of him and admire his beautiful colours.  I have no idea what kind she/he is, but so pretty against our fence.  

Thank you little dude for tidying up our garden of pests.  

This little fella was in our bathroom *ahem* I guess we all gotta go sometime hey!

Perhaps because of our gardening stint on the weekend, he decided to hop inside while we were outside.  

Gosh what a cutie.  But I did have to phone a friend, cause seriously he is real, and I doubted anyone would believe us if we told them.


Just look at that beautiful colour.  Thankfully he was safely captured and placed outside in the garden.  I would guess he measured about 7cms in the above position.  


Thanks so much for stopping by my place today.


I hope you had a wonderful weekend at your place.  


Take care of you.  xx

It Really IS Summer

Our first frangapani flower for the season. Welcome to our garden beautiful little feast to the eyes. I love to wander my garden, I love the changes, so much going on all at once above the ground and below the ground.

I have been to work today, it's been hot. I collected my boys from school this afternoon, it was hot there too. I am glad they didn't get the bus today, it's far too hot. Even breathing was hot. Under the shade of a tree was still hot, it was just hot.

We come home and opened up the house, the beautiful sea breeze that catches through our open doors and windows has just totally transformed my drippy, droopy, tired, and hotness to refreshed and cool, and ready to get into it again. Thank you sea breeze, we love you. I do not wish to move from this house, I do not wish to move even one block away to miss on this fabulous breeze, straight off the ocean, straight into our little home, straight onto our skin, and up our noses and into our lungs to cool us down.

The sky is changing this last half hour, the breeze has picked up and I think I am going to have to get myself off the computer very soon, I can smell it, and I can feel it, oh doesn't the skin prickle when a storm is near. We haven't had a decent cleansing storm for quite a while, it will be good to have one after today. I just hope those clouds don't keep going out to sea, which so often happens.

I hope you are able to catch a cooling breeze or perhaps you are in a different season to us, and you are reaching for that crochet rug to snuggle the evening away in. Wherever you are, I hope you have a lovely weekend at your place.

What Have You Been Up To Lately?

Other than the usual Mum stuff, student stuff, volunteer stuff, and work stuff, it's been busy at our place lately. There has been crafting, swimming, enjoying meals with friends, board games, sewing, birthday parties, birthday drinkies, dancing, a jewellery party, meetings,

gardening in the rain,

a little reading, (p.s. this is on tv tonight too, and I am so excited)

a lovely room on our road trip south for a weekend to celebrate my Pop's 90th birthday - what a totally awesome weekend we had.

checking out of stunning stalactites and stalagmites in Wombeyan Caves

a rather strange emotional 'tug' on the heart as we drove out of Goulburn,

getting a thrill as I watch my boys decorate the Christmas tree, and the fun they have helping each other, (the chosen theme they settled on is purple, blue and orange for this year),

some gifting being made,

and taking a few moments to enjoy the rain that seems to be very much here to stay for the long haul. Not that I mind, I mean there really isn't much that can be done about the rain, so it's nice to enjoy it while we have it me thinks. Besides who has ever had fun stomping in empty puddles?

Have a lovely week at your place.

Tell me, what have you been up to lately?

Hook Happy!

Do you read back over what you have just written or typed, out loud? I do, and thank goodness for that - seeing as my title was going to be 'Happy Hooker'. Oops! When I heard it out loud, I decided Hook Happy was much more appropriate! *phew!*

So here above are my progressing very nicely thank you, granny squares for our rainbow blanket journey. I am loving this soft blue colour too, I carry the one ball with me and there is no thinking going on, I just hook my 4 rounds and finish off and move to the next one.

Here is one of my little gardenia flowers with a rain drop clinging so delicately to the petal. I have four of these in a row at our front door garden, and they are all in bloom. Oh the sweet perfume drifting through our house is rather intoxicating with the rain we have had these last few days as well as the bit of sun that tries to steam its way through the grey clouds. I love this scent and this year would be my biggest crop of flowers *sigh* oh such little pleasures.

I hope you find some little pleasures in your day today that bring a sweet smile to your face and uplift you from the inside.

Junior Landcare Challenge

Calling all green thumbs - get your gardening gloves out, sign up here and lets see who can grow the biggest sunflower. Sign ups close Friday, 22nd October, so get in quick to make sure you get your free packet of sunflower seeds to plant. We love sunflowers.

Have a wonderful, wonderful day at your place, I am off to complete a thousand and two things all before 3pm. Woo Hoo - don't you just love a challenge!

Grow, grow, grow, little seeds of goodness.

This is what I found when I visited my garden late this afternoon. We have two little flowers on our sugar snap pea vine. 'Oh joy', exclaimed Joyce. I have been watching them ever since we planted the seeds and to be honest, thought we may have had a dud batch, because they are just taking forever to get going.

Oh and the vine isn't up high or really mega tall, I just pointed the camera from the ground up to take this shot, instead of looking down like I normally do. Our skies here this last week have been such a pretty shade of blue and it would be sinful to waste such a pretty colour.

I hope your Saturday has been lots of fun.

Pinecone Prettiness

23 May 2010 - Sunday

24 May 2010 - Monday

25 May 2010 - Tuesday

Monday Moments

I so love my winter garden. My camelia tree is still flowering and there are another lot of buds about to burst through. I am pulling off the spent flowers and thanking her for such a beautiful view from my window. I have 2 colours on this tree, the bottom half of the tree is the original pale pink camellia and this year, the top of the tree has the most beautiful darker pink flower.

I have 2 of these geraniums in pots. I was ever so tempted to snip this flower to put in a vase on my table with my new placemats, except I decided to leave it another day. Far too pretty to cut just yet and it will live longer on here. I am learning to care for these so much better, I think I was giving them too much water. After experimenting, I have found they do much better if left to dry out a bit. Gosh they are so pretty.

I needed a walk in my garden today, it's not windy, and even though it's quite cold today, I am enjoying the crisp air on my face, and the colours of the garden seem to have come alive against the grey sky. My garden smoothes out my frown, relaxes my shoulders and I just know trivial things will soon be a matter of the past.

Yes, you guessed it. Rocky Road again. My choccie fix is currently in the fridge setting.

This time made with mini mallows and gummie bears.

I know, this week was due to be a study week, however, I have been on the phone quite a bit this morning, sorting out soccer 'stuff', so have decided to leave the study books til, well, tomorrow/next week!! I know, I am a bad girl.

This lovely soft wool that I purchased yesterday the 40% off sale wool that is, is now being knitted up. I am attempting to make a neck warmer thing, but not a scarf, you shall see soon. I am really quite cold in the back of the neck at the moment and so I have started this. The band recommends I used 3.25mm needles, which I started using when I cast on last night, however, I have undone that and now using 5mm needles because that is the 'look' I want from this needle. So far, happy with result, but will keep knitting, besides, it keeps my fingers warm too.

I hope you find some lovely moments for your Monday too.

Gardening Therapy Goodness

We have never had a single pumpkin, despite heaps of flowers, but we don't mind so much, especially when these little critters come to live in our garden. I am going to plant more pumpkin seeds for them, so they can live with us, and bring their friends.

Before the trim.

After the trim.

I spent some time today trimming the above tibouchina hedge. We put this in 9 years ago, they were 4 very small tibouchina plants. They have been culled right back to almost nothing twice now and just look at them, lush, green and those purple flowers. oh just love them. They actually got to be just over our guttering which you can just see a teeny peak on the top left of the first photo, yes, believe it or not, they were over that guttering and when I cut them back, to waste high, we had to hire a trailer to remove the greenwaste. The neighbours were so shocked at what I had done. It was pretty scary at first, it looked so naked there and each day I was inspecting each plant just waiting for those tiny little green nobs of life. Sure enough out they come thick and fast. Oh joy!! My beautiful tibouchina hedge.

We don't have a big garden, but we get so much joy from it. It's our own little slice of heaven. Ahhhhh, love that smell. It's just the perfect size for me to manage and love every moment of it.

What are your favourite flowers/plants in your garden, I would love to see them.