Lilac time

I was up early this morning and doing a few rounds of crochet while breakfasting!
Little Thrifty Fox had given me some beautiful thrifted Mohair yarn a while ago and I thought it was time it was turned into something, it's a big granny square knee rug in the making.
While drinking my tea I had to smile..on the coffee table I had laid my crochet, the novel I am reading at the moment ......and beside it a jug of Lilac from the garden.....

...bit of a colour theme happening here!!!

I thought I would look up Lilac in my "The Secret Language of Flowers" book by Samantha Gray that I love and this is what the beautiful pages say.....

 

..............and these words at the bottom of the page are so lovely aren't they!  

white lilac in the garden .

 

my favourite Lilac in the garden, it is really perfumed and such a deep colour.

 

A lilac coloured candelabra primula at the pond.

 

My daughter gave me this gorgeous old chocolate box and although I can't see a Lilac bush in the garden....I am certain there would have been one!

A kitchen corner.



" The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly place carrying gifts, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them silently away."

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)


Have a happy week and enjoy the gifts your days bring.

Beauty in common things

Another round of Chemo has been and next week it will be time again.  It is amazing in how short space of time your life can change....and your world becomes a little smaller, being unwell and confined to home .   I so love my wee nest and garden that it hasn't been so difficult to enjoy the every day joys that make up my life.
I have had a beautiful old book for many years and it's title is Beauty in Common Things, the words say it all, the cover is gorgeous ( and funnily enough...Blue!), it has beautiful illustrations. It is making an appearance in the living room where I can enjoy it.

...see what I mean!

 

It is very old and was awarded as an art prize, I can only imagine how the girl who received this must have treasured it.

It is quite old and in perfect condition.  

 

All of the illustrations include an insect the colours are beautiful and each picture has a tissue paper page to protect it that whispers as you turn it...

 

each page has a little information on the plant shown as well as quotations and little bits of poetry. 

Not a lot of crafting has been happening as I am out of action for about a week each fortnight now ,  however I did have a x stitch framed and hung up , it is above the book, 

 

so as well as enjoying the beauty in common things I am reminded to live each season as it passes.

My world is beautiful!!!

The garden is doing some very pretty painting, embellishing and embroidering of its own, 

come rain or shine the wisteria is gracing the verandah.

 

and this little guy had a lazy bumbly snooze  on a sunny afternoon....

Molly Bailey a gorgeous tree peony has decided to really put on her finery this year...after a long wait...but it has been worth it!

 

not to be out done my favourite Viburnum is looking her best as well...

 

I am still picking arm loads of Solomans Seal for the house,

 It has been overwhelming the love and support we are receiving from friends, the daily mail with pretty cards and caring words, the beautiful and thoughtful gifts, the cooking, posies, phone calls and emails what wonderful people are in our lives. A parcel arrived from Canada and enclosed was the most gorgeous twig spoon and some fabric that is so pretty I am scared to cut into it. The spoon is so exquisite!!!!  

We have had our two beautiful daughters home, they have looked after us and been amazing, cooking, gardening, cleaning etc and making sure I am doing what I am supposed to be!!!
Our little Thrifty Fox arrived back to her home to find that her partner and special friends had had a huge working bee and constructed some raised vege gardens for her as a surprise......overwhelming yet again the kind and good people around us.
Our Melbourne daughter has had the support and care of her friends and work colleagues , we are all just so grateful.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Every spring I get out this little girl and fill her basket with tiny flowers.



" Remember this, that very little is needed to make a happy life."

 (marcus aurelius)

Have a happy week enjoying each day.
x

Where has all my blossom gone....

.....its blowing in the wind!!!! 

...and I must say it did look very pretty whirling and dancing across the lawn like snow, usually it gets to stay on the trees a little longer than it has though.

The lovely Spring warmth, blue skies and windless days have gone....we have the fire roaring along and we're tucked up indoors! 

Outside at the back of the house, the rhodo's and a green viburnum are making a lovely show.  Looking through the bathroom window with it's opaque glass it's like looking into  a big frothy pink piece of candyfloss...

 

How would you ever choose a favourite flower!  Each season seems to bring one you look forward to...at the moment the Solomans Seal is making its demure appearance, some people regard this plant as a weed as it spreads quite readily but I adore it...it's so graceful with its arching stems and flower droplets.  It lasts for ages in vases so I pick armfuls of it for inside..its especially lovely in tall containers or put up high so you get the full benefit of it's graceful stems.

 

I have often wondered how this plant got it's name, after a bit of reading it appears that when the roots are cut transversely the patterns revealed resemble Hebrew characters.  It is also said that King Soloman who knew and believed in  the virtues and diversities of plants has set his seal on it in testimony of it's value to man as a medicinal root.

One herbalist of old thought that it's name was given partly because the root bears markings like a seal - but more because of it's use in sealing up and healing of old wounds, broken bones etc.

This year the wisterias on the verandah are just beginning to flower (last spring some vandalistic little sparrows cut off most of the buds for fun! this season they haven't been interested in doing that...maybe they have grown up a bit!!!)

 

I have had another session of chemotherapy so have had some knitting time, the second little 'rainbow blanket' only needs a couple of rows to be completed. 

Next project i think will be this x-stitch pattern I bought earlier in the year.

 

cute aye!...I love the way they are sneaking along....going where?....to do what?........ something naughty for sure!

 So some happy stitching hours ahead.

Tulips from a friend.

"Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.  It will not lead you astray."

(rumi)

Have a happy week doing what you love.

x

 

snow in October!

yes!!! snow in October! and it was so pretty...it only lasted for the morning...but a little lingered in mossy pockets ...

until early afternoon.

The rest of the week the weather was pretty nice....all was peaceful down at the pond ..it was very exciting to spot some baby fish in there.

 

Every year we have a pair of Blue Herons return to nest in the big trees behind our sheds.  In previous seasons they have treated my pond as a 'take-away' outlet! they literally drop in for a snack ...and my poor wee goldfish just keep disappearing...I hope that's not the case this spring.

 

 where the wild things live....

..my garden isn't a tame one.

 

A lovely wee clematis...I think it's Alpina...but I'm not sure.

I have been doing some more knitting another little baby snuggle blanket with 'stash wool'..

 

This afternoon some sea air was  required so a quick trip to Fraser's Beach, the sea was quite rough today...the sea spray was whipped up and it all felt so good....

 

To live content with small means

To seek elegance rather than luxury,

and refinement rather than fashion

to be worthy, not respectable.

and wealthy, not rich

To study hard, think quietly,

talk gently, act frankly

To listen to stars and birds,

to babes and sages with open heart

To bear all cheerfully,

do all bravely,

await occasions,

hurry never

In a word, to let the spiritual,

unbidden and unconscious,

grow up through the common

This is to be my symphony.

William Henry Channing

 

 

In the porch a little basket from my daughter with hellebores and auriculas.

Have a happy week.

 

 

Knitting up a rainbow.

The past couple of weeks have held many new experiences for me and having chemotherapy was a bit scary for the first time.  Knitting is soothing for me so I have been knitting up some gorgeous 'stash' wool!!  It's like knitting a rainbow, just simple stitches over and over but the colours are vibrant and happy and all go together to make a bright splash...think it will be a cuddly rug for a little child.  I have finished one and started on another.

 

The garden is putting on a lovely show for spring!! lots of blosssom and plants emerging !!!! very exciting!

Take time to find something beautiful in each day!

beautiful sky!

 

crabapple blossom

 

 

"And Spring arose on the garden fair;

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast

rose from the dreams of its wintry rest."

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Lots of parcels and cards arrive daily in my mailbox....

exquisite embroidery on a little sachet.....

 

a beautiful hand painted brooch

and so many other touching gifts, cards and emails.

I put the finishing touches to the mirror frame I had been painting, after a coat of pale colour I used a dry paint brush dipped in white paint to skim over the flowers ...and I really like how it has turned out.

 

Today I made up a wiggly woggly cushion for the house  at the sea, the stitching is thrifted and in a frame...and it was round....so I ad libbed the stitches and colours and squared it off!! then using 'stash' fabric made the cushion...our house is at the sea is a bit wibbly wobbly and so is the couch the cushion will live on...so it will be very much at home!

 

" Do small things with great love"  [Mother Thereasa]

Tussie mussie from a friend.