First Week

 Last week was my first week working for myself again.  Its great to have a little time to do the little things again.  Like hanging out the window, just taking pictures of my garden in the rain.

 Picking lots and lots of limes straight from the tree.  I love lime juice.

And best of all time to trawl around op shops to find lots and lots of bargains.  I came home with armloads of goodies today all for $11 total.  

Today in my winter garden..........

 In my Winter garden today there are still roses blooming against blue skies and daisies turning their heads up to the sun

 Thank goodness for the Queen's birthday long weekend, giving me an extra day to get out and enjoy the sunshine.

 And do a bit of well needed gardening.  Vege beds cleared ready to get spring plants in soon.  Just seven borders to weed and the wild place to strim.  Oh well roll on next long weekend.

What I did today...........

Today I just sat around feeling a little bit sorry for myself. I have a bit of a virus, infection, rashey, swollen neck thingy. So I was told it would be a good idea to sit still for a day or two. I am not that good at sitting around. It seemed like a good idea to do a bit of messing about with my camera, trying out different settings and attempting to read the really boring manual. Here are some of the results.

Sometimes I feel a bit like this daisy all swamped.

Found this tiny little pansy with what looks like cat whiskers.

Messed about with the big long lens to pry into the live of a couple of butterflies.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Winter

The last daisies of summer are still flowering happily in the garden, despite the fact that March has roared in with a full winter blast.
The lower part of the North Island was hit by a weather bomb yesterday. We got off very easily with just one broken branch on the Acacia tree at the bottom of the garden. I heard it crack as it broke but could not spot the damage at first. I am hoping that March will creep out like a lamb and somewhere around the corner there is an Indian Summer just waiting to heat us all up again.

Its great to have the time too............

Paint the new chair for the veranda. I picked it up in a second hand shop for a fraction of the new cost. And paint and reupholster another bargain I picked up on my travels with my friend Sheena when she was here. And no I have not forgot that I have not finished posting all the pictures of that trip.

Some more winter garden colour

The quince is flowering at the moment. As the last rays of the sun fall on it in the late afternoon, it looks like there is a fire in the heart of the bush.

Today's daisies and some extras

Here are a few of the daisies that are flowering in my garden at the moment.

The dual images are inspired by one of my favorite blogs at the moment, Fryd. I don't have her knack for taking amazing images yet, but maybe one day.

I could not resist including these other extras. Not daisies but amazingly beautiful, especially for bursting into bloom in winter.

My favourite flower is ...........................

Surprisingly, no daisies are not my favorite flower when it comes to scent. For me freesias have the most wonderful aroma. When we first arrived in New Zealand it was September. On the first morning walking down into the village, I could smell the blooming freesias. What a brilliant country I thought.

To bulk up the small bunch of freesias I bought I added some leucadendrons.

I was going to add some gardenias to bulk them up, but the scent of the gardenias was a little strong and did not add to the freesias.

An exceptionally beautiful flower.

When you look at them closely. But in my garden they flower on a bush that looks like somebody emptied a waste paper bin on it. Perhaps I need to prune it to a more compact shape.
While out in the garden picking flowers, I got a little sidetracked by autumn colour again.

The liquid amber has almost lost all of its leaves but the colour is still amazing.

And while looking up at the liquid amber I spotted this beautiful kingfisher on the telephone wires.

Stunning isn't he, I love the colour of his tale.

Playing in the woods down at the creek

In one of his books, Monty Don says that gardening is playing in the mud for grown ups. I agree. As a child I liked to play in the woods, I loved just wondering around and sitting eating a secret bar of chocolate in among all the greenery. Now as a so called adult nothing has changed. I still love to muck about in among the trees. I am so lucky to own the smallest wood in the world, with a creek running through it.
A few weekends ago I had a spare day with no jobs to do around the house, no bits of wood to rub down or oil, no meals to cook as Peter was at home. So I gathered together a few cutting tools, my radio in a handy basket and off I toddled into our wood, to spend the day clearing up.
I am glad I did, the previous few days winds had blown down a lot of walnuts, which were just lying around ready to grab.
I was not alone down there. Mr Blue Eyes the eel was interested in what I was up to.
Little Miss Fantail, was also not far away. Tweeting away in annoyance at every little branch I moved.
There were even a couple of Tui's hanging around. And I swear they were singing along to the music from the radio, 70's hits. Or maybe they were shouting at me to turn it off and stop spoiling there peace and quiet.
At the end of it all a good bonfire, to clear up all the dead branches. Which is when the rest of the family turned up with sausages, bread and ketchup. Wish they had brought some marshmallows too.

Time to start gathering this year's apple crops

Autumn is here again. The apple tree is laden with rosy apples. The trick is to pick them just when they are ripe, before the birds get them and before they drop from the trees. So far I have picked two baskets full of deliciousness, made batches of apple sauce ready for freezing and a eaten a few bowls of apple crumble. Rana was not impressed that her basket was full of fruit. Amazing how cats can get you to do things for them without saying a single word.

Perhaps a bit of blue too far

The outside furniture was looking a little tired, so I thought I would spruce it up a bit. My first thought was black. While I was mulling this over I noticed we still had quite a lot of the blue I had used for the windowsills on the outside of the house. Ah ha I thought that might work. Now that it is done I am not so sure. Keriann suggested maybe the basket chair needed to be a couple of shades darker. I think she is perhaps right. What do you thing? I don't know why but it makes me think of Aristocats, the disney movie, weird.

Today's Autumn Dasies

In my Autumn garden the pink daisy anemones are flowering, all over the place. Another flower I have been told is a weed.
I am not convinced. The colour is a bit strong and perhaps does not really go with the red roses. But sometimes I think you need to enjoy what is.