How To Be An Explorer Of The World

Up the Garden Path, through the Woods, across the Summer Meadow or along the River Trail, which ever it is that takes your fancy, there's always an adventure to be had along that narrow winding track.

The winter waters have receded from our local rivers, leaving their annual silt deposits & new fertile riverside spaces that are quickly re-greening & bursting with new life. We walked around a corner & just a little bit further, on a recent walk & discovered this verdant, willow hung, shady trail that...

eventually burst out at a perfect swimming spot..if you're spring keen!

Lucy & the flowering cherry are happy friends.

I painted the top of these wee stools a cheery red. You never know when small friends might come down the driveway & need a perch.

The very red that I went to find to paint this old tin grater, that had seen previously sharper days, but was too friendly just to pass along as yet. And so I made a perfect little Lucy Christmas tree instead. 

A month or two ago a lovely fruity customer arrived to buy mandarins & also thrust a book into my hands saying "Here take a look at this, I'm sure that you'll like it too" and like it, I most certainly did!

 I have learnt to ask lots & lots of questions, through the years & to ponder things, every single day. I just want to KNOW about stuff! Mainly the things right in front of me, the issues & the gaps of knowledge that arrive right at my feet. For instance, I have been learning about fluoride recently, the stuff they put in our water supply here. All that I have discovered is not good & led us to start collecting our own water from a large tap right outside the treatment station..minus the hydrofluorosilicic acid. It was while I was learning about the nasty stuff that I found out about EZ water, but I'll tell you about that another time. It's good to ask questions & it's grand to be an explorer.

Sometimes, I think that we could all do with a fabulous pair of Enhanced Perception Googles so that we can easily spot "never before seen details of everyday life".

In the book I came across a project to find & befriend a tree. I knew right away the exact tree that I would write about, so off to the park I went & along the way I found white Dogwood flowers..

& heavenly lilacs.

This grand old sequoia has been a special friend to me since the winter I found it draped in over -wintering monarch butterflies. 

There is a seat at it's base that was made from the rubble from our 1931 earthquake that devastated the region.

People pause & rest right here, lovers rendezvous, some stop to read a while in the shade of these grand trees.

The bark of my tree is thick & protective.

I am a little sad that the park people have trimmed up the branches quite so high, in recent months.

There is a lovely vista from the stone seat.

The sequoia leaves are feathery evergreen & fragrant with a cedar-like scent.

Right next door, there is a kindly plane tree friend.

Do you have a favourite tree in your garden or a local woods or park?

I love this pretty combination of roses & cherry blossom in my back garden.

The flamingos are playing hide & seek amidst the rocket flowers.

I have also discovered that if you plant a buxus in a square pot you get square roots!

A serated fishing knife is brilliant for trimming the fibrous root ball (square).

I have repotted most of my buxus now. They last for years & years in pots if they're trimmed watered & fed along the way.

I have been keeping a very close eye on my lovely lily-of-the-valley.

The scent & delicacy of the flower is just like heaven to me.

If How To Be An Explorer Of The World appeals to you at all, you can find it on Amazon, Fishpond & at the Book Depository at a very reasonable price. I think it'll make a grand Christmas gift.

Thank you my friends for coming to see me.

I'll leave you with Joanna Wang...such a wonderful old song.

And what a voice!

♥♥♥♥♥