The Toadstool Holiday & The Gifts of Imperfection

Goodness....

haven't the days of November flown by!

Our little toad-stools have been seconded by fairy folk

 & been for a little holiday down the road. Frog isn't best pleased but I'm sure he'll recover shortly.

 Last Sunday was the annual Taikura (Rudolph Steiner) school fete.
I am so glad that it's just down the road; an easy little stroll from our house.
This is one of my favourite stalls...decorate your own floral crown.

 It must be so nice for the children to use their little tickets to buy fresh & delicious treats all by themselves.

 It's not often that you see true beauty at a school fair...

 It's a big job to put it all together & the parents are required to contribute quite a great deal.
Aren't these adorable...

 a basket full of cats & a row of expectant dogs.

 The Ice Queen was tucked away in her hideaway in the shade of of rhododendrons.

 And the Fairy Queen was over this way...

 She didn't mind an adult popping in.

 Calm rides on white horses along winding trails.

 A clown or two doing the rounds. The sign on his rear end says "Kick yourself".

 Would you like to come to a puppet show?

 Or have a little kiss from an angel?
These wee double rhodohypoxis (what kind of a flower name is that!!) are called Angel Kisses.

 Do you know about Motherwort?
It's a wonderful herb, also known as Leonurus Cardiaca...lionhearted one!
I found some very useful information just here.
And more over here at The Polishing Stone:

"Motherwort provides strength and comfort. The word itself derives from the Old English words meaning "mother's plant." Another name for motherwort is heartwort. This and its species name, cardiaca, speak to motherwort's usefulness as a gentle tonic that strengthens the heart. So next time you sense your heart sinking and feel you can't possibly make it through the days or weeks ahead, reach for motherwort. I certainly plan to do just that."

This is just the right stage to harvest the herb.

 So on a nice sunny afternoon this week I picked my Motherwort & snipped it with kitchen scissors fairly finely, then to one jar I added organic cider vinegar & to the other vodka. It should be 100% proof but I don't have any that strong so I used what was in my cupboard. Now I have put them in a cool dark place to sit for 6 weeks.

 My little garden angel lost all of her paint (somehow!) so I have given her a little reviving coat of pink. Isn't she sweet....did you catch her kiss?

 I think that she's been secretly painting the pansies in the night.

 This true geranium called Rosanne is the prettiest shade of blue. There are holes in her petals where "someone" had a nibble, but such is life...holes & nibbly bits, bugs & annoyances;

 rust & paint that falls off.

 In the end everything ages & wears & starts to smell a bit funny...

 I have always wanted to paint an old suitcase & this one was either going out to to the op shop or having a revamp & since the outside was the vilest shade of bland brown I decided that I would paint it pink! Well ok, the first coat was white...

 but the next ones were pink. Much better. Now it can stay.

 I found an enticing little recipe recently for making an apple spice mix with fresh spices. I made a batch using almost all whole spices....oh wow, what a wonderful smell!!

 I grated & ground them in my dear little old coffee grinder.

 The only thing that I added already powdered was the ginger.
I have been cooking apple for our breakfast, adding a few sultanas & a spoonful of this heady mix...divine, especially with creamy yoghurt or kefir!
I found the inspiration just here.
The quantities go like this:
4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom

 We are all packed up & off to the Waikato for a few days tomorrow morning. We're so looking forward to seeing David. He's been working here at Zealong for a few months now & loving it. He is the only caucasian amidst the Cambodians & Taiwanese workers, luckily his Chinese is very good now & the Taiwanese coming along well. Zealong is New Zealand's only (organic) tea farm. November is a busy month & the first harvest of the season.

David says that he hopes to visit this beautiful tea plantation in Taiwan next year.

Are you a tea drinker?

This is surely true...tea can be such a comforting friendly drink.

Shall I put the kettle on?

Thanks so much for your visit.

I'll catch up when we return.

Have a lovely week.

Much love Catherine x0x0x

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