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When I took these photos it was a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago just before it started to rain. We had been to the garden centre and bought some new plants and then it started to rain and we went inside and put the plants in the kitchen.

The plants are still there, hoping they will be planted soon. The garden is happy and lush. I am happy. Because as you know, rain is my favourite weather. Right up there with crisp, clear Autumn mornings.

But the garden, she is happy. The bluebells are still in flower. The muscari still in bloom. My office looks out over the garden – I moved it down there so I could write, or sew, or take photos – while the girls play in the garden. The landlord was going to put a fancy bespoke fitted kitchen in a very long time ago. And while I do sort of wish he had, I’m also a little bit glad that I can get some work done in my old fashioned sun room and not be cooking in all modernity – while I look out into the lovely garden – now in its second year. It’s coming along very nicely.

And once it stops raining I’ll plant the rest of the plants and have a little bit of an update. Because it has grown a lot with all this wonderful watery weather in Drought stricken London.

Winter gardening

Oh good lord it was too cold to go in the garden yesterday.
But garden we did.

I wanted an activity the girls to do at home to shake off some energy so I could sneak in some more photo editing. But in the end I erred on the side of being out there to make sure they didn’t dig up the garden be an involved mum.

And this all just so happened to be on the day I was wearing my purple cords that are a bit low slung so my builder’s bum was freezing itself to death in the cold north wind and I had to use my muddy gloves to keep on hoisting my tweeds up to avoid exposing myself too much to the neighbours.

Oh they are the WRONG pants for gardening, the purple cords.
Have you got an inappropriate gardening outfit?

ps. I have noticed Yvonne‘s fantastic huge portrait images of late and I so rarely shoot portrait that I’ve given it a go. Thanks Aunty Von!!

pruning

pansies from the garden

Oh I wish it would have rained a bit more in April. It barely rained at all. We go on our long walks on the Heath with the girls now, carefully avoiding the playground but not necessarily the ice cream van. We walk up to Kite Hill and there are rivulets of dry cracked earth as we go – telling the girls to be careful of the holes in the ground when running at speed!

Yet again I went to water the garden this morning. Realising I’d left it too long between waters. Realising I’d even managed to kill the pansies this time. Our rose however is rewarding us for the September pruning beautifully. She is heavy with blooms and heady with fragrance.

The knitting needles have also been rewarding. Astrid’s cardigan is almost done. And Edith’s is halfway there. I’ve even found myself a pattern by Quince and Co – discovered on Loop’s blog. It’s a grown up version of the garter stitch cardigan I knit for the kids. Brilliant!

Knitting sharing will be next. And there’s even some sewing to show too!

The girls love the little path down the side of the house where they take their brooms and hide on the little porch where there are taps to play with.

It’s a lovely gentle English summer, if not a touch chilly. Life is brilliant fun – mostly. Daddy even bought mummy a new red KitchenAid food processor that Astrid chose. Last night we baked sour cherry and vanilla spelt and almond meal muffins in our new silicone muffin cases.

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This is our winter order from www.ediblegarden.co.nz

Yesterday I actually sat on the front porch and enjoyed the sun and the new roses and thought about where I’d plant the new grapes.

All the hard work is paying off – it’s a pretty good feeling being able to sit down and enjoy the garden.

1 almond – self fertile $24
1 apple – KOANGA hayward wright $26
1 apricot – KOANGA tamaki $26
1 nectarine – KOANGA black pearl $26
1 walnut – wilson’s wonder $50
1 quince – taihape $22
1 cherry – compact stella $24
1 grape – KOANGA black dalmation $16
1 pear – KOANGA triumph de vienna $26

PS. Yes, photos all gone from flickr. Will be sorting them out this end evenings… more new Blurb books and photos back on the blog.

Spending quite a bit of time discovering the joys of twitter too. Pardon the french. It’s what working in advertising does to you.

So much to write and show and so many emails to ask if things are ok and they are. I am gardening with ferocious intent. My camera cable breaks after thirty images download and I’m too lazy to do buy one after one failed attempt.

Mimi had her first birthday and I need to do last year’s Blurb family album. I cook, I garden, I play with the kids, I go to work and sometimes I clean. Or sew astrids curtains. which really ought to be finished by now.

And then there are all the things I want to do but don’t; including knitting, making moisturiser, baking muffins, digging a vegetable patch, cutting down deadish shrubs. But I have ordered heirloom Elderberry bushes. Five of them. From Sarah at Edible Garden. And we planted beans and lemon trees this weekend. And I washed the carport. And cleared the front garden. And Astrid helped. We’re going to become members of Koanga so we can access their rare heirloom seeds.

For winter we’ve ordered a small orchard of heirloom trees suited to the Auckland climate; Almonds, a Walnut, a Nectarine, Apricots, Cherries and a Quince. We’ll be planting the Elderberries this weekend, creating suburban hedgerows.

Not a jot of sewing or knitting is being done. Expecially now Astrid’s the head gardener (and cake baker), and Mr Green Rabbit (one of Dawn’s Jacks) has the vision. He’s the one giving the instructions.

Something I have so far failed to mention.

We’re home. We. Are. Home.

We’ve got mixed views on being home. The good news is Astrid and Edith are both into the school we came home to get them into. We all miss our walks around the Heath. We all miss the villages in the area we lived in. There’s not really that much to walk to from here. Mt Albert shops anyone?

The cats are happy though. The kids adore the garden. I adore the garden. There’s no rhubarb yoghurt. But there is passionfruit yoghurt. Living here is without a doubt more expensive than London.

So I’m now working full time. And currently I’m lacking much motivation to do anything past that. I get home and cook, we give the girls a bath, put them to bed and then flop out. I miss making, creating, sewing and knitting. I’m half way through sewing a curtain and it’s taking forever because it’s just too hard. Really, it’s dead easy – four hems? Waaay too hard. It’s going to be a beautiful curtain though – vermillion cotton velvet from Trelise Cooper. It’s all pinned. Only two hems to go. Might finish it tonight.

One thing I am interested in though is the garden. So far I’ve planted four feijoas, four guavas, three redcurrants, three blueberries, two passionfruit, six pots of lettuce and a pile of heirloom tomatoes. I’ve also pruned and dug and weeded and cleared; put down bark and de-forested the carport.

In fact I had planned to not sew for a while in order to sort the garden. Really it’s one or the other for me. Both are so demanding. As is having a full time job and a mortgage to pay. Today I was saying to Kevin how it’s not really public knowledge just how expensive it is raising children. Anyone know how much daycare costs? Or a nanny? A lot.

So here we are, back in our beautiful oasis. Thinking about getting chooks and bees. And hinting like mad, Kevin, about the cheese making kit for Christmas.

Oh! And 44 times two lives…

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Just down the road a little old lady has a wonderful meadow garden. Ours never had the chance to establish itself but this is exactly what we’re after. Vegetables in amongst the flowers and flowers everywhere. Perfect!

I felt a little bit naughty taking photos so these don’t quite capture the full magnificence of it all.

Two of my other favourite gardens are this one and @N02/3129500873/" target="_blank">this one.

Yesterday Astrid took her first steps. Today she left the house for a walk with a new nanny. They’ll be back soon.

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As the souls of the autumn leaves slip quietly into the sky and their bodies shatter underfoot, another year passes – another circle of time completes. This is my time of year; when nature speaks loudest – the colours intense, rich and vivid, the light moody and sharp, the air teeming with atmosphere.

So close to the end… things never seemed more alive.

Today I finally got around to creating the new Lovely NZ homepage – which lists all updates. So people no longer have to trawl through each site, hoping for updates (when there probably haven’t been any). Now it’s easy to see all one the one page – and I even updated each and every one of the sites today too!

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In between all that I managed to waste plenty of time looking at vintage kimono and checking the chirimen on Yahoo! Japan auctions. I also received the brilliant news there is at last a certified organic preservative on the market (very big YAY). Astrid has just learnt to sit up on her own so every now and again there’s a big thud as she falls back onto her head *ouch*. The office is now full of cushions but the thuds are still getting through.

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I did cheat a bit with the Ellerslie Flower Show story – I’ve not actually written anything yet – just uploaded the photos. Tuesday was Media Day and it was very cool going when it was so empty – it only took me an hour and a half to look at everything. I slightly missed the crowds though – they are in fact quite a part of that kind of event aren’t they?

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The only slight bummer was the food people were still setting up. So no yummy samples this time – especially from naked organics who are always the best. Anathoth Beetroot Relish was a good discovery while we were away at Sandy Bay. Highly recommended with sausages and burgers which I think is all we ate whilst there – and we’re still recovering.