The Language of Love & a Wedding of Authenticity

 Hello sweet friends.
I hope that you have had a happy, smooth & relaxing transition in to our new year of 2015. 
 I personally really like that we get to "complete" a year & then begin all over again with the next, yet in truth, time just flows on all by itself; seamlessly.
In this past year I chose a word of intention,  a word that I felt would characterise that period of my life. That word was bloom. As time went by through last year I  began to feel, rather sorely, that I had made a serious mistake & that perhaps bloom just wasn't going to be mine at all. But there is an interesting phenomena that I have learnt from my garden & it is this: plants like people can only truly bloom if they are planted in the right place & have all reasonable conditions to thrive & bloom. If the petunia doesn't get enough sun it will quite presently look a very sorry specimen & sooner or later it will become covered with powdery mildew & you'll not notice it's poor showing of flowers so much as the unsightly blight that covers the plant & stunts it's growth...there is no remedy for this condition save to pull the whole plant out & discard it. When flowers are planted in the right position, either by serendipity or gardener's choice & if it is the right season & they are happy, they will soon flourish & bloom & bring joy to the garden & those who have eyes to see their beauty. A grannybonnet does not wish that it was a violet, nor a chrysanthemum long to be a marigold, they all happily join in the symphony of beauty just being themselves; authenticity! So....as it turned out I am a Katie Garden Fairy planted in just the right place, however, I discovered that many of the conditions of my position in the garden of life were hostile to me & had to be changed if there was to be any chance at all of a blooming. I made changes this year; it was my only chance & it was hard work. I detoxified the soil & cut back the overhanging trees so that the sunlight could reach me. Eventually...I began to see new buds & growth. I began, at last, to bloom.

In the flow of life & at just the right time I was asked to bring the bouquets for a wedding.
A wedding set just inside the door of the new year. 

 It was high summer & public holiday time here & all the florists were either closed or out of stock...so a garden gathering it was to be. As I opened my eyes to every possibility I was able to wander my neighbourhood & pick long wafts of honeysuckle from the Steiner school fence, summer jasmine, ivy tendrils from the roadside & old soft pink roses from a vacant house & garden down on the corner, right by the traffic lights & all the cars going by!

I tested to see what would hold well (we don't want drooping flowers at a wedding now do we!) And then stored my gatherings in the old Kelvinator out the back.

 Most of all, I considered "The Language of Flowers" in my bouquets, In Victorian times messages of the heart & intention were sent by written note & by flower. It was a very effective & enchanting means of communication. 

My bouquets are a letter to the couple.

They speak of everlasting love, constancy & intertwined hearts. 

Whoever would have thought that flowers for a bride could be far more than just pretty & decorative but could also speak an everlasting blessing over a marriage. 

 Hydrangeas speak of gratitude & heart-felt emotion, dahlias: dignity & good taste.
Agapanthus are the flower of love. I was rather biased & selective when i searched for the meanings & in some cases I chose the modern meanings over the old..,much better!

 I managed to find my nail polish & even put it on straight.

 Then on Saturday morning we loaded the precious bouquets & ourselves in to the car, to journey an hour & a half south, to a homestead called "Uniquity",

To a small gathering of locals & travellers,

 family 

 and friends.

The beautiful, glowing bride was Sarah...

 here to marry her Matthew....singing his own song "My beautiful lady",

a perfect serenade.

 Fynn is our grandson & Matthew's son. He was a happy & charming best man.

 Matthew & Sarah put the whole wedding together themselves...  

 cooking all the food in the days before; amazing sourdough breads & salads. A lamb & a little pig were gifted to them & cooked to utter perfection.... for the wedding feast.

 They are care-taking this wonderful old place as the owner has recently passed away without family to leave it all to. Life suspended, a marriage enriched & blessed.

Dear George...such a wee character. 

 Plums almost ripe...

 Fynn & Pop taking time to re-connect (Fynn has been living in Sydney with his mum this past year).

Marriage is still a grand & magic connection. Family can be amazing when sewn together with threads of love, laughter, honesty & grace. 

I love the ease of children...Nina.

They sang together in harmony. It's sometimes a little hard to be the centre of attention. 

I wish for them so much joy & harmony in their journey together & the years ahead!!

Matt & Sarah's wedding day touched me in it's authenticity...unique, just like the name of the house "Uniquity".

My word for this year was easy...

JOY!!

There are more photos here on my face book page.

And here. So kindly & fabulously taken by my brother Tim. 

SO lovely to see you all. May your year be blessed with grace, happiness & peace.

Much love Catherine x0x0x

Joy, Peace, Hallelujah & Gooseberries...

Thank you so much lovely friends for all your kind & encouraging comments on my last post. I have shared them all with Rob...we are both so grateful.

Whether you're just glancing by or perhaps you have time to pop in for a quick visit...thank you!! Thank you for your friendship & company....all of you: those that are local & lovely & perhaps a little shy (but treasured), all who have popped in from time to time & all my dear readers that have faithfully visited & perhaps commented over this past year...bless you all. 

I hope that your Christmas-time is full of sparkle & joy. Sparkling conversations & joyful connections, wherever you may be in the world!  

Sparkle is all in the seeing,

catching the light just right..

observing, being fully present in the moment.

 The hollyhocks are glorious "volunteers" & the chandelier a precious passed on gift.

There are fairies that live in this tree & they like the hollyhocks too.

More & more I find that I love our Kiwiana flavoured Christmases...

there are gooseberries to top & tail.

Cherries by the mile.
I found these on the road side. I bought a large box & sold them at the gate & gave lots away. They were very cheap as they had splits from the rain. They are so luscious & called "sweetheart".

I have just discovered that blueberries baked in a little honey & apple pie spice become extraordinary after about 20 minutes.

Poor Lucy is undergoing some repair work just now..

but there are still spaces for little Lucy Christmas arrangements.

I've been listening to old music.

This is my favourite record just now.

It sounds like long, happy summer days at the beach with the caravan (oh yes, that would be Lucy!)

Actually, I'm not sure that Rhonda is wearing much...perhaps she's ready for the beach! 

I have sweet peas growing by the gate. The scent wafts over us as we walk past each day.

I pick them often as it keeps them flowering.

This little green & red alstroemeria is aptly called Christmas.

Feijoa flowers tinged with gold..

Always the best way to come to Christmas...with a heart shaped bikkie & wings.

(picture from an old calendar)

Mary & Jesus by Margaret Tarrant

If you have time have a wee listen to this lovely version of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah...it's so precious.

Well here's a grand wish for Christmas, thanks to the talented Kelly Rae Roberts.

Wishing you much joy & peace dear friends.

See you soon.

Much love Catherine x0x0x

Keep Calm & Carry On: Tea & Biscuits

When I was young I didn't have a dream for the future. 

I never really even imagined what the future might hold for me & I had no idea what I wanted to "do" with my life. So I can only imagine that if you did envision a future for yourself as a young woman, it most likely would include getting married, or at least falling in love. I doubt that many dreams involve wanting to get married 5 times or facing 7 broken relationships & 3 miscarriages.

The month of December always finds us chatting & thinking & celebrating about how we met so long ago & how we've somehow made it to 34 years of being married.

It's a long time ago now, that we first met!

YFC trip Samoa 1979,where we met.

Many people gave us 6 months.

Had we understood the odds stacked against us we might have moved to another country, first off!

But we didn't & the trials have been enormous. But, no one else understood just how much we loved each other & how that would see us through, sustain us; be made new over & over.

A few weeks ago, a friend posted a link from The Business Insider (of all places). The article looked intriguing so Rob loaded it on to his iPad & we took it away with us when we went to the Waikato; the title "Science Says Lasting Relationships Come Down To Two Basic Traits". 

The opening premise is this: 

"Every day in June, the most popular wedding month of the year, about 13,000 American couples will say “I do,” committing to a lifelong relationship that will be full of friendship, joy, and love that will carry them forward to their final days on this earth.

Except, of course, it doesn’t work out that way for most people.

The majority of marriages fail, either ending in divorce and separation or devolving into bitterness and dysfunction.

Of all the people who get married, only three in ten remain in healthy, happy marriages, as psychologist Ty Tashiro points out in his book "The Science of Happily Ever After," which was published earlier this year."

Did you hear that...3 in 10 remain in happy, healthy, marriages!!

So...what makes the difference?

It's actually really, really simple...in this study they conclude that it all comes down to kindness & generosity!

To me, it's a whole lot like "love your neighbour as yourself". It's in the marriage that we get a million opportunities to work out our own stuff; to learn to be kind to ourselves & to be patient with one another, to learn the language of attention & generosity; only then, can we make a half decent job of loving others in the "neighbourhood".

So right here in the middle of our messy, topsy-turvy, rough around the edges, unfinished life we chose to celebrate our love & be grateful.

We still find ourselves feeling timid & shy & not terribly brave (which frankly, is quite ridiculous!) but we managed to take ourselves off to West Quay in Ahuriri & to Mexi Mama for dinner last week.

 This seagull flew in with his catch as we watched.

The Mexican food & vibe were fabulous.

This old shipping warehouse vault had been transformed in to a quintessential Mexican shrine to St Thereses of Lisieux at which candles are lit each night at eight. 

 St Therese is also known as "The Little Flower of Jesus" so I guess it makes sense that they'd paint her with heaps of roses.

 It's such a nice time of the year to be grateful & celebrating...
but there's always so much to get done!
A lesson we learned a long time ago is: the imperfections truly do not matter. Just do the best you can & don't fuss. 

 Keep calm & carry on.

 None of it requires perfection just great kindness & love.
I have been putting together a random patchwork Sanderson tablecloth for some time now, not complete yet...we used it anyway.

We have very busy birds here you know...there was just no time to wash the outdoor chairs so we plonked down old towels & covered them with pretty vintage blankets.

We picked flowers from our own garden during the day.

Every year this rose Jubilee Celebration flowers right on time; a little later than all the others.

 A friend came to serenade us (well sometimes she's a friend when she's not dropping on the chairs!).

The accidental hollyhocks towered nearby.

 The 6th of December, our wedding anniversary was warm & fragrant.

 We'd been at Mitre 10 earlier buying potting mix & paint & admired the enormous pots of gypsophila (I was going to call it Babies's Breath but we don't want any of that now do we!) Rob managed to miss the cue but got it eventually & returned to bring one home. "So sorry", he said, "Please keep telling me & help me learn to be more romantic."

 We found this amazing green vase in Cambridge on our little holiday It'll be our celebration vase from now on.

 We took some tripod selfies so we'd remember our sweet time in the garden beyond the day.

 Borrowed he may be but nosey, non-the-less. Never one to miss a get together...

 our Charlie from friend from next door.

 Earlier in the day another lovely old friend Kerry popped in for a visit.
It's lovely to have old friends. They are so important.

We bought a wee gingery treat from the raw, vegan cabinet in a cafe in Matamata & loved it.

When we got home we had a go at recreating the flavours.

 They are so delicious you really probably should consider where to hide them before you even make them. You can find my recipe here: Really Gingery Ginger Snaps.

Goodness & now it's nearly Christmas!
Wishing you a December of sweet memories, kindness & generosity of heart...& a little peace.
Much love Catherine x0x0x