The Fairy Sweeper Helpers and Other Sparkly Things

Some people have Garden Fairies..

I, have Fairy Sweeper Helpers..and they can be girls or boys!

 I also have sparkly things in my garden.

 I am grateful for the gift of my garden chandelier every single day.
Anything that is warm & sunshiney & sparkly in winter is good isn't it!?

The light comes in lower...sneaking up on us with pretty surprise rainbows.

Even with our feather duvet on it's a wee bit chilly in the night here just now but I find myself quite pleased about that because it means I can get out our precious handmade bedspread & treasure it some more. I hate to think how many hundreds of hours that it took for someone to lovingly make it.

My dearest friend Cheryl came & shared her birthday with me yesterday.

We had such a precious time.

"Look, she said, there's a rainbow on your arm".

I'm glad that it's her nails you can see & not mine!

Garden Fairies are frequently too busy to pay much attention to such things as fingernails.

 I called in to St Andrew's road on Friday..the tree ripened apples at the stalls down that way are exquisite.

 The truly tree-ripened fuji apples have this funny translucent thing going on inside. I wonder what the effect is called?

 Margaret, from round the corner, popped these gorgeous poppies in to me yesterday to say thank you for us helping to organize a pot swap next door. Aren't they amazing.

 She has them growing close to her house where they are sheltered & the soil is very dry.
I love their silky crinkliness don't you?
They look lovely in the old amethyst glass vase I found last time we were away.

There are monarchs over wintering down at the Showgrounds..wasn't this great camouflage!

As we scrunched amongst the crisp leaves we found quite a number of butterflies sunning themselves on the ground.

Matt came home this weekend (got a ride back with friends) so it seemed the perfect time to cut our 12 kg Musque de Provence pumpkin. The one that we bought from Clyde Potter at the Farmer's Market a few weeks back. Inside, it is the most amazing colour!! And yes, we've shared it round the neighbourhood.

I made two small jars of guava jelly this week using 1/2 the amount of sugar & adding just a squeeze of lemon juice. I wish you could taste it...it makes people close their eyes & swoon. We kept thinking that there was something very familiar about the flavour...something we were missing & then Rob got it! It tastes like the most divine tangy, perfect turkish delight you have ever dreamed of. 

 I remembered an old recipe of Nan's the other day. I used to love her fruit delight. I would often help her to make it with all different kinds of fruit. I wrote the recipe out in to a special book when I was 15.
Firstly I made it with lemon & just as the recipe says. You can find it here in our kitchen blog.

 Only I forgot to take a photo until it was nearly all gone!

So while Matthew was here we made another version..

  using some tamarillos.

 I love the colour it went! It is such a nice light dessert, very versatile & actually really good for you since it has eggs, fruit & gelatine in it  & not much else.

Last Sunday afternoon we popped out to Haumoana, which is near the coast & about 10 minutes away, to pick up some mandarins.

As we came up over Black Bridge I saw the sea & a new walk way. 

It was freezing but we hopped out & walked briskly to keep warm as the sun was almost setting. 

 What we found at the end of the road was truly Paradise.

As we left, the moon that Jupiter was about to cross, appeared quite suddenly & enchanted us all the way home. I was so overwhelmed by our serendipitous adventure & so thrilled with my photos I made a little movie which can be found just here.

It is so nice of you to visit...thank you!

I hope there is some simple wonder & good food going on for you this week too.

MUCH

 ♥♥♥♥♥

A Thing of Beauty...

Hello lovely ones!
My goodness it's June and three days into winter here.
I love turning the page on my Victoriana calendar each month and was delighted to find this rose red joy staring back at me this month's beginning.

Isn't this a sweet idea...but oh dearie me I can't remember which magazine I was sifting through!

I love Jessie Wilcox Smith's illustrations...here is another picture from my library discard treasure book "Best of Friends".

I was growing a tamarillo tree in a pot -you know, one of those times where you buy this tiny little tree & you say to yourself "I'll just pop it in this pot over here until I decide where to plant it?" only the tree put down some happy roots, tucked in the shelter of the lemon tree & now it has some fruit. Not sure if they'll fully ripen now that the frosts have begun to grace our mornings with crispness.

This sweet forget-me-not near by seems to have forgotten itself & popped up a flower just because.

Lots of people complain about leaves.
 Some even wage war on them & the trees around them.
 I love them!
 So much so that I have been dragging them home from round the corner near the park...bag after bag and then a neighbour dropped off a trailer load last week.
 How wonderful!!

I have been scattering them all over the place as mulch, especially down underneath the fruit trees.

I adore the vibrant colours & the pleasing shapes of the flowering cherry tree leaves...

so I tend to leave them be as long as possible so that I can enjoy their lovely display.

Of course, leaves do take themselves off just wherever they please, so in the end there is a lot of raking & sweeping...but it's good for you & keeps you warm. Sometimes a helper is required. (Borrowed cat who crosses the road by herself everyday to visit us!)

The days are shorter (& chillier!) but the light is sometimes amazing & makes the colours so much richer,

especially at days end.

Lured by the sight of two vintage prams outside The Mart in Havelock North the other day I spied this sweet little house, outside on a table. Do you think it's a bird house?

And an unusual bird bath that seemed quite perfect to me..

 for the garden at the front that I have just rejuvenated this last few weeks.

A while back, outside a secondhand shop, I found this sheet music free for the taking.
Oh what a perfect title for a song!
The pegs I thought, a rather clever idea found on Pinterest...very handy for spare threads, especially crochet weight or even bits of wool, I expect.

Very kindly, my mother sent a Victoria magazine in the post just recently.
What a divine picture I found in the first few pages...perfect for the quote from John Keat's poem Endymion.

Isn't this so romantic...Among the Wildflowers.

(If you click the picture you will see it bigger)

Beauty is often fragile & fleeting which is why it must be sort out every day, like this winter flowering iris. I am always amazed by it's audacity, so fragile yet flowering in the chilliest part of the year, happiest under trees or slightly sheltered near the house or other quiet spots.

Out walking this week I was suddenly struck (as I snaffled the fragrant twigs of winter sweet as I passed by) with the realization that there are two different flowers for the same bush...look. Same scent, different form.

I had a special visitor this week..about last Tuesday.
A lovely lady called Kay.
She came to talk to me about my garden.
She wrote a lovely story..here it is..click on it & hopefully you can read it...if you're interested!

One day out op shopping I came across this forlorn little picture...the one with the little girl & the bird.
There just seemed to be something special about it.
It's a little dark for me but I have recently found a place for it on the wall over here.

Then I found it on Pinterest & the artists name.
What was even better, I discovered that Simon Glucklich painted this picture of his little blind daughter listening to the first robin of spring.
The picture is entitled "Spring Song" & painted around 1925.
Isn't that so lovely!

Of course when you have boys come to your house for dinner you never know what you might find in your plug hole! Not sure what pasta animal this might in fact be...any ideas?

I have talked to you about Bright Star before...perhaps my favourite movie ever.

Too beautiful not to mention again...indeed A Thing of Beauty.

Even the movie trailer is wonderful!!

Thanks so much for visiting & your lovely comments...so much appreciated!

I hope your day today, your week is graced with beauty too.

 ♥♥♥♥♥