Strawberries, Roses and Birthday Celebrations...

Yet another birthday celebration on the weekend. My oldest son Isaac turned 16. Time to start looking at getting his learner's permit! Could he really be that old already? It doesn't seem that long ago he was just a very cute two year old. He was the funniest little fellow, always stopping people in the street for a chat...he seemed to have an affinity for elderly people. On many occasions he was described as having an old soul. The doctor thought that Isaac might be a politician or the like as he certainly had the gift of conversing.You wouldn't know now that he had been such a chatterbox as he's quite reserved and quiet.
I baked a Victorian mocha sponge for his birthday cake....filled it with raspberry jam and cream...topped it with strawberries and cream.

Despite the cold weather we have been having some of my old tea roses are still in full bloom

and are looking quite the picture. I picked a lovely bunch of Archiduke Joseph to fill a new enamel jug I had bought on Friday. There is always a lot of debate as to whether Archiduke is a different rose to Monsieur Tillier but I believe they are different roses because I grow both and the flowers take on different colours under the same weather conditions. They are both very beautiful and very easy to grow.

Not Much Happening

Hello everyone, I'm back at last. No projects to show yet as the household has been a little sick but we're on the mend. Today was the day that I was going to be all motivated and get on with some of my projects as it was supposedly going to be sunny with a top of seventeen degrees celsius...horror of horrors, it's cold and foggy so perhaps another day.

Here are the first bulbs that I planted starting to flower. I still can't believe such beautiful flowers can come from such nondescript "packages".

We always have many hungry mouths to feed at our place. During winter I try to keep enough seed up to the birds to keep them happy. I think they have enough to put up with with the cold so they shouldn't have to go hungry as well. I'm sure they would feel much warmer with full little tummies. I have also been known, on occasion, to put warm water in their bird baths....I can't stand the thought of the bird's tiny little legs getting so cold. I have a direct view of their morning bathing rituals from my kitchen window and so it makes me feel warmer as well to know their water is warm.

The little glasshouse that we made is coming along fine. The plants inside seem happy enough. It now has it's little bracket from which I will hang it's name...something else fun to make.

John cut out the tin for along the top and I'm in the process of painting it. The little candelabra works well and throws some lovely light in the evening outside my daughters bedroom window.

A Lovely Scene

I had been wanting to take a photo of this quaint little building for so long now and at last I had my camera with me. I was in the right place at the right time as the day was drawing to a close; the colours were so soft and there was a full moon already rising. To top it all off the grass was green and in the west there was a beautiful sunset. I wasn't able to get a good shot of the sunset as the light contrast was too much for my camera. The cows were really mooing at us in expectation of a feed I think. It sounded so nice as it was very quiet except for the moos. I managed to plant up some more hyacinths- blue ones this time...the others are pink. I had only bought three so I decided to use the other three tins for camellia flowers. The single Camellia sasanqua are so delicate....a nice contrast to the tin I think.

I have a few projects on the go at the moment so I will get back to them and hopefully have some photos to show everyone soon.There's definitely more time to work on projects now the kids are back at school.

Which Room?

Is it just me or does everybody have the same problem? Whenever I manage to finally get some plants growing well in pots I'm always left with the dilemma as to where to place them. I want them every where...in the lounge room, the bedroom, the laundry shelf, outside on the little ladder, on the kitchen table....
So, at the moment they have been travelling around the home. I'm always torn between the best position for them and the position where they'll look the best and where I see them the most. I thought I had found a remedy- just have more, but I still have favourites...these are the ones I want everywhere.
I did a very quick spot of sewing the other evening....one of those sewing sessions that I just needed to do some and I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to sew. I think I needed to get it out of my system. Looking at all the beautiful blogs makes it almost impossible not to create something. I already had the piece of linen blend with the apple stamp from when I had made Mum a table cloth. I had stamped the whole cloth with apples and pears and their leaves. I must sew one for myself. The stamping is so easy- you cut the pear or apple in half, load it with paint, stamp and then paint in the stem and seeds if they didn't show up.