A day in the mountains

Yesterday, the girls and I drove to Mt Tamborine to meet up with an old uni friend of mine who now lives in Malaysia. She was visiting her family with her little girl so it was a great chance to catch up. It took us an hour and a half to drive up to the far side of the mountain (we had to stop once or twice for extra directions) but it was worth it. Apart from the gorgeous views and fresh air, the little townships are very picturesque with lovely gardens and the road up the mountain is lined with lush rainforest and towering trees. We arrived at the B & B where our friends were and the girls had a lovely time running about with their new pals and feeding bread and carrots to the miniature ponies. Just blissful for my city children and lovely for me to catch up with my friend.

After admiring the view and ponies and eating lunch, we set off to do a rainforest walk. I went bushwalking a lot with my family as a child and have felt very neglectful not doing it with my children. The spot we visited had a high steel pathway above the trees so it was a great way to admire the rainforest. Then we arrived on terra firma and enjoyed walking past the ferns, giant trees and vines and various fauna and flora. The girls saw a snake and also a little bush turkey rummaging on the forest floor. It was lovely to be out of the city and enjoying the bush.

I think we'll have to take Scott back for a relaxing weekend.

more sewing!

It's been a big week sewing wise. I finally made the Lazy Days skirt that I first saw on Tammie's blog. This one was for my big girl, seen giving her new skirt a twirl in the above photo. I fell in love with this green ladybird material months ago when I was buying patchwork material for baby quilts. I thought it would make a pretty skirt so I bought some elastic and some red ribbon for when I was feeling confident enough to make it. After rereading the instructions several times and emailing Tammie for extra advice, I took the plunge on Sunday afternoon when Scott took the girls to his mum's place. It was easy peasy! And the first skirt (or any item of clothing for that matter) that I have made since Grade 8 Home Economics in 1978. Which I hated by the way.

Here's a close up of the material as from a distance it looks like large red spots. I have some matching blue material with ladybirds and daisies to make a skirt for my little girl. I want to get some yellow ribbon for the edge and don't know how I will face traipsing back to the shops before Christmas to buy it. I have to drive through about 5 suburbs for goodness sake just to buy ribbon. The local shopping centre is HUGE with a zillion upmarket shops but no ribbon!

Next exhibit is me (looking a wee bit grim but just wondering whether my girl could fit both the quilt and me into the camera viewfinder) with the quilt I made in the beginners' quilting class I took for six Saturday mornings. The pattern is called "Rail Fence" or something similar and it is apparently a perfect beginner's quilt as it is very "forgiving" (ie doesn't matter if your seams don't match up perfectly". Thanks to the patient women at Quilt Essentials for all your help.

I had to put this photo in of the back of the quilt as my big girl chose the material for the back. I didn't think it would go with the colours I wanted on the front so I said we could put it on the back and now I really love it.

So...now I'm ready to make a quilt for both girls (E wants blues and golds and horses and stars and G wants a "rainbow" quilt) and one for the special baby arriving in our family in April. I guess I'll have to keep neglecting the housework!

Trying to live in the moment

(G tries out the new headphones but doesn't worry
about plugging them in anywhere!)

I've been rereading a great book this week called "Buddhism for Mothers" by Sarah Napthali. (Sorry.....I'm too tired to organise a link but I'm sure you can google it if necessary). It helped me a lot when I was struggling with motherhood the first time around and it's been packed in a box for a couple of years and stored in my sister's garage. Funnily enough, I managed a quick child free browse in a book store this week and saw she has written another one along the same lines called "Buddhism for Mothers with Young Children". Anyway....it has such great stuff in it about the Buddhist approach to life and how you can apply their philosophies and way of thinking to coping with parenthood - a whole chapter on anger management (I very very rarely lost my temper before motherhood but now sometimes have a short fuse) and lots of stuff about living in the moment. It has helped me slow down lately and this morning when I walked to the train for work I thought to myself (like a buddhist monk according to this book) "I am walking. I am walking". Then I thought about feeling the cool morning air (it was 6.30am) and the warm morning sun (it's summer here) on my skin at the same time and about all the noises I could hear. It was so much nicer than rushing madly and worrying about missing my train. As if anyone really cares (or actually knows) whether I am at my desk by 7.30am or not. Still...I do have 7 and a quarter hours to do twice a week and I do have to rush out at 3.15 pm to collect the girls).


Usually, bedtime here is a bit of a farce and Scott and I struggle to stay patient. We usually don't eat dinner until the girls are asleep and so sometimes we aren't eating until almost 9pm. My little girl is particularly crazy and somehow does not have the idea of bedtime routines through her pretty little head despite the same routine for the last 2 years or so. Tonight, I relaxed the rules a little bit, we let them stay up late while we ate our Friday night nachos cooked by Scott, and then G fell asleep lying on me in her big bed as usual. Sometimes I lie there and grit my teeth and take deep breaths trying to be patient until she falls asleep and then I gently roll her off me and go and do my own thing or tidy up or whatever. But tonight...I just lay there for ages after she fell asleep and enjoyed the sweet weight of her on me and the sweaty but yummy baby smell of her head. I listened to another song or two on the lullaby cd and then came out to do my own thing (ie check some blogs).

Scott took this photo of me doing my big girl's hair for school this week (her last week of Grade 1). It's not the world's most attractive picture of me but I like that it captured an ordinary moment in our lives. It shows our living room in all its lived in glory - the books overflowing on the shelves, the toys on the rug, the discarded nightie on the couch with its daggy blue cover. I feel like it's time to edit my life a bit less, go with the flow, and maybe stop dyeing my hair and let it go whatever colour it is (ie half dark, half grey). I don't feel like having fake hair anymore. But...am I brave enough to be real? I'm not sure I'm ready to look middle-aged yet so I have to work up a bit more courage. (Scott is all in favour of me going a la naturel).


I've also been thinking a lot about Jen, from the Comfy Place, who passed away from cancer a week or so ago. Her ex-partner has taken over her blog and, like Jen, he is pretty amazing. Jen had an incredible knack for finding the positive in the midst of facing a premature death and leaving her two much loved children. She was really an inspiration to me so this post is dedicated to you Jen. You have really helped me get some much needed perspective on this life. Thank you.

babies and quilts

There's been a bit of drought of babies in my life the last few years, but suddenly there are beautiful babies appearing all over the place. Part of my motivation for learning to quilt was so that I could start making baby quilts.

My big girl has had a fantastic year in Grade 1, mostly due to her lovely teacher. So when Mrs C announced she was leaving at the end of the year to have a baby, I thought it was the perfect time for another baby quilt to be made. I secretly told the children in the class that I was making a rainbow quilt (with help from my girl) and took the squares of material in to show them while we made Mrs C wait outside the classroom. All the children managed to keep it a secret right up until we gave the teacher the quilt on Wednesday, although one little scallywag of a boy kept threatening to give the game away. Mrs C loved her quilt and here she is holding it up. I edited her out of the photo though for privacy reasons. (Not sure that she wants to appear in my blog!)

I was originally going to try and get the children to write their names on baking paper and trace them on to the quilt and embroider over them so that they would be part of the quilt making process. But time was running out so instead, I gave them all a square of white cardboard and asked them to draw a picture for Mrs C - maybe of themselves, Mrs C, her baby or a quilt. I was stunned at the beautiful artworks they produced. They really love this teacher and it showed in the effort they put in and all the loving messages and love hearts etc. Here are a few samples. We punched holes in the pictures and joined them into a little book with a piece of ribbon.

At the same time as this was all happening, the friends of the beautiful Jo were making a quilt to celebrate the impending home birth of her third baby. The amazing Melissa sewed all the hand made squares together into an absolute work of heart. (That was a typo but I think "work of heart" works just as well as "work of art"). Here's the link to the photos of the quilt on Melissa's website. A beautiful "blessing way" was also held to honour Jo and give her and her baby lots of love leading up to the birth. I had never heard of a blessing way before and I described it to Scott as sort of a hippie baby shower. As part of it, we all sat quietly and sewed little felt angels with crystal, embroidery etc to make a mobile for Jo's baby. Here's a photo of Jo with the mobile. Her little baby boy arrived safely at home last week and was safely caught by his Daddy, Simon while Hugo and Isobel watched in excitement. Jo is so clever that she gave birth to Otto in less time than it takes to bake a cake and before her midwives arrived.

The next baby to arrive is my brother's and his new wife's baby boy in April. My family are over the moon and my sister and I are going to make a really special baby quilt together. His wife is East Timorese so we think we might buy some beautiful colourful Bali pop material to remind him of his part of the world. My sister and I haven't met our new sister-in-law yet so we are impatiently waiting for her to arrive in Australia on Christmas Eve.

the new no dig garden

Just a few photos to show what's been happening in the garden......

The hydrangea bushes that came with the house when we bought it in 2007 have burst into bloom. I find the sheer abundance and colour of the flowers so beautiful.

Early Sunday morning, my little girl and I went out to inspect the new no dig garden that I made when home alone Saturday afternoon. She was wearing her prettiest nightie, which is a rare occurence. She normally refuses to wear any sort of pajamas to bed and at 7.30pm I really couldn't care what she wears as long as she goes to sleep. So...I shall treasure these photos of her wearing nighttime attire. She had a lovely time doing poses on the edge of the new garden for the camera.

As you can see, the puppy fence didn't reach all around so I had to improvise with some crates. There is also some serious clearing of bladey grass clumps that needs to happen but I am delegating that to someone in the family with bigger muscles than me.

I still need a few more layers of compost, manure, sugar cane mulch etc before I can start planting. The nice thing was that I managed to make the garden with things that were lying around (ie old bricks and bits of wood, the old puppy fence) so for once, I felt I was doing my little bit for the planet.

a couple of precious hours home alone

I have just had a couple of really lovely hours home alone. Scott has taken the girls to an ice skating show (featuring one of E's grade 1 friends). I stayed home to have a rest and recharge my batteries. I had already been to my quilting class this morning so felt quite spoilt, although a bit tired from frantically quilting to make the most of the class time to get as much done as possible. Anyway....eventually off they went happily with Daddy (E with her hair still wet and neither girl looking thrilled at being photographed).

Oh ....what to do first??? After some quick chores, I checked my favourite blogs while listening to my very small but extremely important to me itunes playlist (Steve Forbett's wistful Romeo's Tune", Gillian Welsh's "Orphan Girl", Split Enz's "Message to my Girl" - my favourite Enz song and one of the world's poppiest pop songs, the hypnotic "Fall on Me" by R.E.M. , Talk Talk's "It's My Life" and Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" and a couple more. Probably something from each of the past few decades of my life. Precious memories of high school, an old boyfriend or two, my student nursing days, my childhood pal, Annie, who lent me an REM album when she went off travelling overseas, my autumn being a nanny in Oxford in 1987.....)

Then a beautiful cool bath and a lie down in a cool dark bedroom to try and relax or meditate or sleep or something. A bit hard at 5pm in the afternoon but I always crave a lie down on weekends so couldn't resist. But....I kept thinking about how great the yard looked freshly mowed by the husband and how much I would love to go and remake the half finished, weedy, falling apart no dig garden I started about 6 months ago. I blame the author and journalist, Margaret Simons, for planting ideas in my head because I have almost finished rereading her book of wonderful Earthmother columns from the Australian newspaper from years ago - Wheelbarrows, Chooks and Children. The garden kept calling until finally I jumped up, put on shorts and sandshoes and grabbed my gardening gloves, secateurs and bag of stinky chook poo pellets. I pulled out the weeds around the edges, cut off the overhanging branches, rearranged all the bricks and old logs around the border, poured some water over the old newspaper, scattered handfuls of chicken pellets, laid down a layer of sugar cane mulch, added more water, put the puppy fence around it to Kippy proof it, and then spent ages just wandering about the back yard admiring the new garden from all angles and feeling so satisfied. I even started dreaming about what else I can do to beautify the ugly overgrown back corner. I could make another no dig garden in no time!

It's now dark and the girls and Scott aren't home yet. They'll arrive any moment - chattering and tired and over excited and full of Twisties and wanting milk and toast. I'll have to wait until the morning to show them my handiwork. What a gift to have a few hours of solitude, and .....here they come...

I'll post photos tomorrow when I take some.

A parcel from Florida

Here is a photo of the lovely box of goodies that winged its way from Florida to Queensland in Australia courtesy of the generous Tammie. After sitting for a week or so in the local Post Office after I mistakenly threw away the notice from Australia Post with the junk mail, it was waiting patiently for me when I had the bright idea of checking to see if it was there. Getting a letter or card in the mail is always a joy. I am maybe from the last generation who grew up without email and so wrote thank you letters, letters to friends, and love letters that went in the mail with a stamp. I've got a bit of a mail fetish actually and once, in Sydney on my own, spent an hour or so looking through the postal museum (I'm not sure what its official name is). Anyway, the only thing better than a letter is a parcel and one from another country is so exciting. Have a look at what was inside.....(there were also an assortment of little packets of exotic (to us) lollies but of course, they have all vanished).

When I saw this beautiful bundle of fabric from Tammie, some of which I recognise from her various sewing endeavours, and some of my all time favourite rosebud material, I literally got tears in my eyes. There's something so lovely about friends passing on loved pieces of fabric to take on a new life with someone else.

There was also this gorgeous little bag that Tammie made. I'm so impressed. And I don't know if she somehow made the button, because it seems to magically match the fabric. I'm not sharing this one with the girls, but keeping it for myself to keep something nice in. (I'm not sure what yet).

So thanks again, Tammie for my box of treasures from Florida.

Reasons to be cheerful

I have recovered from my attack of the doldrums and am feeling more cheerful about life. Thank you so much to the people who sent me words of encouragement. A special thank you to Tammie for sending me a box of exciting goodies in the mail. Nothing like a parcel from the other side of the world to brighten one's spirits. Now that I am thinking more clearly, I, of course, can see that I have very little to complain about and lots to be cheerful about. Hopefully I can remember that next time I am having a bad day or two. So....here are some of the things that have cheered me up lately.....

1. Food colouring in the bath. I'm amazed that the novelty of this hasn't worn off after about 349 coloured baths. It never fails to amuse my children. E's new favourite thing is to float peacefully in the bath looking like a mermaid. G now copies her and says in a loud monotone "I can't hear you.....my ears are under the water".

2. The general patience of my long suffering husband, pictured here trying to make the plastic string in the whippersnipper behave but being constantly interrupted by a dog and a child who is Daddy's limpet.

3. Puppy love. (sort of makes it worthwhile picking up all that dog poo in the yard)

Home made patty cakes (with extra chocolate happening)

4. People who love me - seen here reading Scott's birthday cards made by the girls. That's a little G you can see on the back of the card.

quilts and gardens

I have finally planted some vege seedlings in the new garden. Some eggplants (which were great for Scott's homemade gluten-free pizzas last year), some weird round looking carrots and a strawberry plant which looked very healthy at the garden shop but already looks a little worse for wear. It wilts very quickly and so I have to remember to give it some water in the mornings before the sun starts to burn. Emma is actually out of shot watering the seedlings (her idea for a happening photo!)

The whole point of the pavers and chicken wire was to keep Kipper out. Dad built a little stile for the girls to climb over, but of course, Kipper, now climbs over as well. Out with the stile!

My only other Kipper proof garden (apart from my three hanging baskets) is filling up nicely with nasturtiums, lobelia and snapdragons. It brings me so much pleasure to see some colour when I look out of our front door (and, literally, past the dog's breakfast that is sitting on the patio).

I took this of the quilt fabric I bought a few weeks ago in readiness for my first quilting class. (E loved the yellow floral material and was so disappointed that I didn't choose it for the front of the quilt that I bought it for the back) The fabric cost much more than I bargained for so making the first cuts and stitching the first stitches was a little bit nerve wracking. After lesson two I am feeling more confident. I'm amazed how well my corners match up now that someone has shown me how to pin the seams together so that the corners match up! Sounds obvious, I know, but I was just making it up as I went along before and wondering why everything looked a little wonky. Never mind - at least my first two quilts don't look factory made!

I haven't been blogging much as life is a bit hectic and I am a little down and overwhelmed by life which is how I am sometimes. Sometimes, it's hard to know what to say or blog about and after admiring Beck's exquisite photographs and words and laughing at Tammie's dry wit, I'm a bit lost for inspiration. But of course, blogging is not a competition and the joy of it is that we are all ourselves and that's what makes it such a great patchwork of people and ideas and images to stumble around in. I am also conscious of editing what I say sometimes as some people I work with know about my blog and I don't want to completely spill my guts about every little thing. Perhaps I need a new "secret blog".

I'm enjoying seeing what you are all up to so keep blogging girls.

Another quick post

I was going to upload lots of photos but that seems to have ground to a halt. There are definitely gremlins in our computer at present - time to call the boys at Supergeek to come out in their Supergeek van and fix our IT woes for $80. (Sigh!)

Anyway...it's all been happening here at Hester's Garden. E and my husband had birthdays this week so it's been a crazy happy mess of new toys, clothes, and much too much cake and chocolate. Here is G helping out with E's new princess puzzle.


E also got some groovy new felt pens which smell like the appropriate fruit (ie strawberry for pink, you get the idea) and a sketch pad so she soon busied herself doing a portrait of Kipper. Kip, as you can see, still spends the night in the laundry behind baby bars. Em still gets up at 6am if not before. Then it is a cascade effect...she wakes Kipper....who wants to go outside....so a parent gets up....and the other members of the family soon follow. Why can't our dog sleep outside like a proper dog????? (ie - the one we had when I was a kid)

Finally, I took a break from making patchwork quilts to try my hand at applique to make a square for a baby quilt for the beautiful Jo, about to have her third baby. Her clever friend, Melissa, is organising a group effort for the quilt and I think it is going to look beautiful. I did a crash course on the internet by googling "How to applique" and bought some of that sticky iron on glue netting stuff which has made a slight mess of my ironing board. (Sorry, Scott, about the glue on your work shirts!). I also had to remind myself how to do a proper stem stitch and blanket stitch but worked it out eventually, again with help from the internet. How did we ever live without it? I did a lot of the embroidery on the train going to work and back which made me feel like an old woman in her dotage. Never mind....it got done and that's the main thing. We could decorate our square however we liked with something significant for Jo. Her firstborn came to our house when his little sister was being born at home just a few houses away from us and got busy in our sandpit with E. Hence the significance of the bucket and spade.

I have started my patchwork quilting class which was exciting but a little daunting. I thought my new quarter inch sewing foot on my machine would magically make all my patchwork seams perfect...but no.....there is still lots of room for error. I will post photos of my lovely fabric I'm using in the class when the camera returns from a work jaunt with Scott and his youngest daughter to Redcliffe.

Couldn't resist a quick post!

Hello Lovely Bloggy Friends

While I am still officially "on a break" from my blog, I just HAD to post a picture of my first baby quilt as I am such a proud newbie quilting girl. So ....here it is. Now it's on to the next one for E's grade 1 teacher who is having a baby in February. But school finishes for the year in just 7 or 8 weeks so I'd better get cracking.

The quilt has lots of corners that don't match up and wonky quilting stitches, but I'm quite happy with it as it was made with lots of love and is bright and colourful for a baby to lie on. I did pinch the idea of a baby quilt with a rainbow colour theme from one I saw on Etsy or ebay or somewhere but I changed the layout (honestly!).

A quick update from my garden. My gorgeous Dad has been slaving for a couple of hours each week creating a new wall around my old no dig vege garden. Even better than getting a new improved garden has been having Dad hang out our place with us, and sitting in the garden doing nothing but watching him work, patting the dog, and chatting about life. Thanks Dad! As you can see, G is the site inspector. The slightly ugly chicken wire and star pickets are to keep the pesky puppy off my yet to planted veges.

At the age of one year and a bit, Kippy has had his first hair cut at the puppy haircut shop. As you can see, it was a very close shave. Not what I wanted for our beautiful shaggy boy. He now looks more like a beagle than a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel. And that would be because, against my express wishes, they "accidentally" cut off the lovely feathering on his legs. Won't be going back to that doggy parlour! We still love him even if he looks a bit like a big rat.

I knew I wouldn't last too long without blogging but will try and abstain until I at least get our tax done. Is there a Bloggers Anonymous??

Blogging break

Well....I've said it a few times before , but I'm going to take a break from blogging. It's a year and a day since I started my blog on my 43rd birthday for a bit of a fun and an outlet for my chatterbox mind. It's been such a great year being part of a tiny corner of the blogging world. Somehow, some lovely people stumbled onto my blog and stayed around long enough to become friends. It's been just lovely to peek into your lives and welcome you into mine. It's kind of amazing how supportive people can be who have never actually met you. So thanks to everyone for taking the time to drop by Hester's Garden. I'll still drop in on you guys as I'll miss you otherwise and I love reading what you are up to. No doubt, I'll be unable to stop blogging for too long.

However, there are children to play with, doggy hairs to sweep off the floor, a neglected husband to give some wifely attention to, baby quilts to make, a pile of paperwork to attend to, and a few more episodes of Californication to watch. How the rest of you fit it all in, I've no idea. (I"m thinking particularly of you, Beck!)

See you soon, I hope. Take good care of yourselves.

Things making me happy

Just some random stuff that is making me happy. I seem to have lost my momentum with my blog but I guess it's just there for when I'm in the mood....it doesn't have to be something on my "to do" list. Sometimes, I just wait for inspiration to strike. As it did just now when E cried out "Look, Mummy...our first baby nasturtium!!". So....here it is. A simple, small thing I know, but it really makes me happy. All my lovely colourful petunias have gone scraggy and dead looking so after consultation with my green thumbed mother, I have hoiked most of them out. I will start again with some new baby plants. Also, my pansies are not coping with the warmer weather and I don't have time to water them EVERY morning so I might go with something more hardy like geraniums that I can neglect but still get pretty flowers from.

Recently, I have slackened off from my efforts to let the children have less time watching kids' TV/dvds and playing the computer (mostly my big girl, not the little one). But I resumed my guerilla warfare this week. My family doesn't respond well to "rules" and the Daddy is too soft to help me enforce them so I gently said one school morning that we were going to do "other fun stuff" rather than watch TV before school. (E usually gets up at 6am or earlier so is usually allowed to watch TV quietly before having breakfast and getting dressed). I put out scissors, glue, paper and magazines the night before and in the morning, told the girls we were going to cut out pictures of stuff that we would like in our life and stick them on paper to make a sort of life wish collage. That only occupied them for a little while. (Making the rainbow out of magazine pictures was much more successful. Don't know how to link to that post, though). Anyway....I also bought a packet of little coloured matchsticks and let the girls loose with them. E made pictures and G did a multi media installation!

So it made me happy to see them absorbed in creating rather than interacting with a screen.

Lastly, I don't watch that much "grown up" TV or get many DVDs out because by the time the girls are asleep, I'm just about ready for bed and can't manage to watch an hour or more of something. Scott is a night owl and had tried to get me to watch "Californication" but I thought it looked too sleazy. I gave it another try one night and, again, thought the first episode was a bit gross. All that sex with strange women put me off no end. But...I persisted and soon realised there is a lot more to the show than just the graphic sex scenes. It's funny and has it's deep moments and David Duchovny's character grew insidiously on me until I developed a bit of a crush. Yes...he's an irresponsible sex addict but he "loves the shit out of his daughter" and has a good heart and he makes me laugh. So now we have wizzed through the first season. I can manage a half hour of TV before bed without too many eyedrops and often say "Let's watch another episode!". Yep....I'm a real party girl.

After work this week, I had a rare chance to browse in the city shops as Scott was at home on duty with the girls. I decided to treat us to the next season of Hank and get a new dvd each for the girls. "Milly Molly" for E and a Hi Five dvd G has been wanting forever. It was nice to come home with a present for everyone. The budget doesn't run to presents much but it's good to lash out occasionally. So...if you want to snuggle up with someone and have a good laugh....give Hank a try. (By that I mean snuggle up with someone and watch Hank together. But I could definitely snuggle with Hank!)

First dolly quilt finished!

The first "practice" dolly quilt has finally been finished. I was amazed at how easy it was when I didn't panic or look too far ahead but just went step by step following the instructions I had from Claudia the quilt lady and a quilt magazine. I even managed to mitre the corners of the binding first time. The nicest part was sitting quietly on the couch and hand sewing the final edge of the binding to the back of the quilt in a sort of hem stitch. That was like a meditation. I remember doing it to a baby quilt my sister and I were making when Emma was born. I used to be so wired at 4.30 am on those summer mornings after giving her a feed that I couldn't get back to sleep so I would sit in the morning sunshine and sew for a couple of minutes until I felt sleepy again. (My sister used to do all the tricky bits like mitring the corners). It was great to have old scraps to practice on before I do another one.

Anyway...here's G and dolly giving the quilt a test drive.

garden photos

For the flower lovers among you, here is an update of what's happening in our garden.

Excitingly, we have our first freesias. This is the official arbinger of spring, according to my green thumbed mother who knows these things.

Snapdragons and pansies are doing well. Can't wait for some nasturtium flowers to fill in the gaps though.

I'm not a huge fan of our native bottlebrush tree as it is huge and the car gets bird poo on it when I park on the driveway, but it has just burst into flower and does look quite spectacular at the moment, so here it is.

And....my personal favourites....the hanging baskets are coming along. They looked so fresh after the rain that poured down on the weekend. Then the sun came out and everything looked clean and sparkly.