And out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain....

Hello lovely friends and readers!

Well the spring rains came and filled up all the rivers & made slips & puddles all over our land.

I squelched around in my rosy gumboots for about a week.
The tulips loved the drenching.

Isn't this Margaret Tarrant picture sweet.

Others took it all with good grace.

 Then there was a wee break in the heavens and along came the ladies from the gardening group.

In they swarmed, bustling all over the place, poking at things & nattering away.
Someone thought they'd found a four-leaf clover down the back here.

And then there was the "let's see what's over the back wall delegation"!

And then, quite promptly, they were gone.

The bluebells have been such a joy.

I find I have some Spanish & some English varieties. 

We've had lots of delicious smoothies in the mornings lately. This one is made with blueberries, blackcurrants, kefir, banana, chia seeds, ginger & a little honey. Set with a little gelatine the mixture also makes a delicious dessert.

I found the weirdest bread recipe & thought I'd have a go.
It is absolutely delicious, contains no flour & is very tasty & satisfying. It also makes the best ever toast.
I popped the recipe in here.

I am constantly thinking of new kinds of seeds to sell.
I collected these pink nerines seeds in autumn & they are just starting to sprout, all by themselves.
What elegance for seed dressing!

I know that violets like to spread themselves around rather liberally but I've never really studied a violet seed pod before...isn't it just marvellous!! Reminds me of caterpillar eggs.

My dear friend Ruth was delighted to discover that her husband had not, in fact, sprayed & killed her unusual apricot violet, so now we have another to add to the violet collection.

While wrestling with the cupboard moths & tidying out the pantry cupboards I came across this The Zetland jar with a smooth chip out of the rim & thought...excellent, I'll give it the Julie Lealand treatment (ooh that girl's a treasure!!) I used the pastel pink Voodoo Molly Vintage paint that I bought  a few months ago. After three coats on the outside it covered the glass really well. I then gave the lettering a very light sand. Love the effect.

I also painted a grubby old brown wooden tray with a test pot of green & lined the bottom with a piece of Rainbow Rose Cath Kidston wallpaper. I finished it with two coats of Modge Podge to make the surface wipeable.

These potted colour ranunculus & anemones have done so well through all the rain.

Such good value for $2 each as they flower for months & just get brighter & bolder as time goes by.

I so value these dwarf calla lilies for their elegant lines in the winter/spring garden. They last for weeks in a vase.

Sometimes people ask me to tell them about the seeds I have available that have high scent. I've learnt something interesting from this query-it's mostly the bulbs & spring flowering shrubs like this viburnum that are highly scented. Most annuals & cottage garden/wild flowers have very little perfume at all.

Delightful as it is, this little forget-me-not has no scent at all.

Freesias, daffodils & bluebells, however, are just divinely scented, especially altogether.

Yay, yay!! It's asparagus time. One of the main culinary joys of spring.

We went on a long walk in the foot-hills of Havelock North last week & suddenly came across three macadamia trees right by the roadside...

It's must unusual to see mature macadamia trees around here, but they were very happy & the nuts were beginning to fall...even some on to our side of the fence.

We also visited the valley where we know the wild banana passionfruit grow. They were just ripening too. Dear Audrey (my elderly friend across the road) told me about her mother bottling these fruits over 70 years ago in Wanganui, so one day I cooked them & they were absolutely delicious.

So strange to see Lucy & Rob going off without me!!

Good for her to have a little outing, get her warrant of fitness & give me time to sweep the space where she lives.

Then, out came the sunshine & dried up all the rain...

Duchess de Brabant thought she'd make a showing.

And Whistle found himself in the dog box.

I thought you might like to watch this marvellous video too. I love everything about it...the song, the setting, the joy & the instruments used by such happy, clever musicians.

Worth watching full screen: https://youtu.be/WcLuUt-dyks

Thank you so much for visiting.
Have a lovely & peaceful week.
Much love to you all.
Catherine x0x0x

Spring Tea With Lucy & Adorable Things

A daffodilly, sunshiney spring welcome to you all.

Thank you for coming along!

I am so glad that I've learnt the rhythms of the seasons & to flow with them.

Each one brings it's own special gifts. 

Our spring, here in Hawke's Bay, offers the soul-nurturing gift of Taniwha, a cattle station with voluptuous spring style & abundant generosity; open to the Public all September every year, for daffodil picking & picnicking. 

So much verdant green.

Thousands & thousands of sunshiney little faces to walk among & to gather.

It's been quite a deep & profound time for me this year, as my process of metamorphosis continues.

You probably already knew this, but I quite suddenly recently realised, just how much flowers are so truly my friends & have come to grace every part of my life in the most marvellous & homogeneous of ways. I have begun storing my flower stories & passions in a new blog called The Bluebell Diaries.

You can see more of Taniwha & the daffodils just here, if you'd like to.

Quite some time ago I asked if I could have an old disused concrete washtub. At the time of my enquiry it was not certain if it would be used or not, apparently the final decision was not & so off we set a weekend or two ago, collected some compost & the loan of a trailer & the hefty, cracked & marvellous old twin tub.

 Rob engaged his best wood-jigsaw-in-his-head skills & made a stand for my new potting place.

We managed some clever maneouvures & saved our backs & fingers (just!) & got the tub settled on to it's stand down here in my newly appointed "shade house" & potting area.

Potting mix on one side & compost on the other.

 Violets line the pathways

& welcome spring sunshine easily finds it's way to my special place.

 As I make my way backwards & forwards I pass Spring Festival,

 what a perfect name, don't you think?

I am noticing that the embroidery of flowers & colours interwoven in my life become more deliberate, dense & deft as time goes by.
A wee while ago, my sister-in-law & very dear friend Silke, had an inspiration to foster community spirit & initiate a Facebook group for Hawke's Bay people called You Made My Day Hawke's Bay.
Here is her group description:
"I want this group to be a platform for the wider community to engage with each other, to bring people together who wouldn't usually meet, to spread the load, because if we all do a tiny little thing once in a while for somebody else, its a little effort, to create a sense of belonging and caring for all the people and place that we live in without judgement, to link up people who can give a helping hand to the people who need one, to spread positivity, happiness and joy, to share from your heart, to give the people who might feel isolated or alone a sense of belonging, to make this world a better place from the grassroots, to make somebodies day, just because you can. Please get creative with offers, keep them coming in, share excess fruit, some knitting for a mum who can't knit, a service that someone might not be able to afford otherwise - you name it - its great whatever it is, if you can make somebody's day."

There has been a lovely flow of all kinds of offers & requests, large & small, which is most heartening. All any of us can do is to offer what we have & who we are.
 So, I offered "Tea with Lucy".

 I suggested that anyone could contact me & bring a friend for some time out or a special afternoon tea.

 We've had four different groups come to visit, each of them for lovely reasons: two lovely young very pregnant mum's came to have some time-out before their babies were born.
These girls here are family; three generations.

This week we've had two more enquiries. 

I tailor the flowers & the setting for each occasion.

 The last little group came as a treat the day before the Nanna had a double knee replacement. Everything went wrong that could, for them before their arrival, but once they reached Lucy..

the sun came out.

 Isn't that lovely!

Do you remember me telling you about my lovely spontaneous meeting with Gina in Palmerston North? Well, as it so happens, Gina is a charming trade Me seller too.

I just had to buy this dear little sugar bowl for Lucy...it's bound to make someone smile. 

 And...the two little cups to go with the Bambi tea pot that I found sometime ago.

When the little cups arrived in the post, the parcel was enormous!!

Gina had sent me this divine picture with the loveliest prayer.

 With my menopausal waking I sometimes slip in to the spare bed so as to not disturb the Snorer & to have some wriggle room, that's where I've hung this blessing.

 Isn't it beautiful.

 In the early days of my trading I sold a fairy duvet cover to a Nanna, for her grand-daughter.
The little girl had just lost her mother & Nanna was her care-giver, it was all so very sad. They would sometimes go to the cemetery so that she could sit & talk to her mummy. I was so glad that that little girl was given the fairy cover. I took some photos of the fabric but after it was gone I discovered that they were out of focus, which was sad as it was so beautiful. I never forgot the fabric, nor the little girl. How joyful it was to find a little piece of the same fabric in the Gina parcel.

 Joy for all little girls.

 We've had such lovely weather, but one day on an inside rainy day I painted these candle sticks in pastel colours. My dear friend Sue was discarding them as the silver plate had worn & they couldn't be polished up.

Thanks to Julie's fabulous inspiration I popped a double violet in to an old watering can

 to put on a funny old step stool I found at the Hospice Shop.

And after seeing African violets in tea cups I got Rob to drill a few holes in some old jugs & potted them up with some pansies & more violets.

The jugs have more room than tea cups & are very resilient even outside.

This nutty old visitor has been scrambling around in trees quite a lot lately.

Look at this beauty. It was such a nice small compact tree too.

Magnolias really are magnificent.

Another thread in the tapestry...the Nanna with the "knees" asked if her garden group could come to visit our garden, this morning a lady came up the drive to arrange it. Next Tuesday a whole garden group will be having a little lunch somewhere & then coming for a wander around in our lovely garden.
"Ooh do you sell plants too"? said the lady.
Well actually....
There are many ways to create community & happiness, including knitting.
Thought you might like this too.



Much love & flowery hugs,
Catherine x0x0x