The Dog House and The Fairy Garden

I truly only went to buy some more lovely free range eggs from The Curiosity Shop (antiques)....but while there, I spotted this dear little picture. I instinctively recognised it as a Margaret Tarrant and indeed it was.

Some of those old pictures just seem to warm my heart and I never ever tire of them.

Aren't camelias such a fabulous compensation for winter.

So pretty in Lucy.

Yes, it's winter & now we've even passed the winter solstice but some days here are really just quite balmy! Last thursday was definitely a shorts day....yipee!

When I returned home from gardening, the man (on a day off) had managed to do some cooking!! He made bread & butter pudding with some of those curious eggs & a loaf of sourdough fruit bread. What a nice surprise.

Sometimes it's hard living with "people" isn't it, even when mostly they're perfectly nice. It's been a bit interesting here in the last month. When you have two crazy-awful family legacies & try as we might to become better people, things can go very pear-shaped indeed; from time to time. So the bread & butter offering was sweet & so were the bees wax tea lights all set out in Lucy. I had no idea we had so many of the dear little green butter dishes...but someone managed to find them all.

I bought some flowering stock that day, just one whiff transports me right back to Wairoa & making sand saucers at Nan's for the local church flower show held during the May school holidays. With that one sniff I remembered just how very much that I loved working with those flowers....their colours & scent & beauty....so I made myself a sand saucer. Not a lot to work with at the moment so it's not very regular & a tad bright but who cares; the scent is heavenly.

The arum lilies love winter & I'm so glad that they do.

They last for weeks in a vase...

ever so good of them.

The hyacinths have joined in the profusion.

But they will go & stretch their necks out a bit too far for their own good...so I gave them a little assistance.

I'm not sure whether my fluffy tui friend is actually chilly or just showing off again, but I'm very happy to wake to his early morning song & constant melody through out the day.

It was time to reorganise the fairy garden, which meant a full shuffle around, clean up & replant.
That was the other thing that I loved to do at Nan's...the constructing of miniature gardens...you know with moss, little mirrors for the pond, plastic animals & real flowers. Did you make miniature gardens when you were little?

Meanwhile, I found a wonderful old dog kennel at the new second hand shop in town, when I went to get the milk on Monday. Alise is such a honey & lovely friend & dropped it off for me on her way home from work. Rob noticed that I tied it in the tree! He says he'll make it a little platform. It's only for fun, not an actual dog...perhaps it might become a gnome house. What do you think!?

I adore obconica primulas, they come in such pretty colours & flower all winter long.

The fairy garden has been refreshed (the light seems to be a bit of a challenge at the moment for my photos).

There's still a little more to do but the fairies will be so relieved...a bit overdue, don't you know!

See why I needed to tie my kennel up there.

More obconicas at the front steps.

And large polyanthus at the back.

Happy veges flourishing in an old babies bath, set in just the right spot down under the feijoa tree.

Winter sun is just so wonderful & precious!

Now dear friends & readers, I am aware that you may not all regard yourselves as older ladies but this little video I came across this week is just quite priceless. It's sure to give you a lift & a giggle...which ever you may be.

So lovely to see you.
Thanks so much for popping in.
Hope you have a wonderful flowery week.
Much love Catherine x0x0x