A Beautiful Mother's Day- oh so Spoilt!

I cannot describe Mother's Day as anything other than beautiful. I was lucky enough to have both of my mums- mine and John's mum- at our place for mother's day. The weather was glorious...you know, the sort that makes you feel like crying with sheer joy and delight. It always makes me feel nostalgic. Reminding me of the times as a child when I would just stand and marvel at how wonderful everything was, and still is, that God has created. Skies of deepest blue...my words could never do it justice but I am sure you know what I mean.

A very beautiful bunch of red roses appeared on my bed at the crack of dawn. John is always too excited to wait until there is enough light to actually see them. So sweet!

My very thoughtful and clever Erica made me a lovely mother's day breakfast of pancakes, jam and cream. Delicious! And, I was given some more very nice gifts from all of the kids.

There is such a soft light in the garden at the moment. The light that arrives with Autumn and disappears about the first month of spring. It seems to bring out the colour in everything and makes all the textures stand out more. There's something so very nice about rusty metal, especially if it is on white.

I have a love/hate relationship with terracota. Sometimes I find the strong orangey, earthy tones a little too much but I think once it has aged and become mottled with green and white it is much nicer. I sometimes paint some white on the pots to speed up the process.
A splendid week to everyone and don't forget to stop and soak up all the beauty around you, Angela.

A New Lease of Life

There's no better time than Autumn to do some of those much needed changes in the garden.

I must confess that I have let a lot of areas of my garden slip a little as the years have gone by. What started as grand plans that did eventually come to fruition with a lot of backbreaking hard work has ended in perhaps a little neglect and at times a lot of mess. As the trees have matured and I have matured the garden is in need of some TLC. Plants that were once in full sun are now in shade, leaves continually drop, grass wears out in the shade and voila, MESS!

Please don't get me wrong...I do love gardening and I think that this is all part of the natural evolution of the garden. It is also a good excuse for change. Something that I have always been very fond of.

So, with snippers and shovel in hand this past couple of weeks I have been addressing the gardens in the main entrance area.

Under the ever present watchful eye of my dear little Poppy, I took out a very large vine (with John's help of course{he's on long service leave}) that was obscuring the main thorough fare.

We redid the paving that was somewhat higgledy piggledy from the vine's roots.

I decided that I would only plant well behaved plants in the two gardens closest to the verandah.

Ones that can be clipped and ones that aren't straggly.

I have filled the garden with white pansies until I can get all the clippable plants.

On the other side of the path I had to take out a lot of soil to get the height right.

I think I would rather a more gentle colour for the waterfeature...say, white or tin.... but it's ever so hard to find here and I already had this pot.
Hopefully I will find some more plants tomorrow and the make over will be complete.
Happiness to you all, Angela.