A Very Floral Day.

Yesterday I was spoilt with wonderful flowers , lunch out, cards , texts, email and gifts.

 ( click to enlarge ) 

 Knowing how I enjoy my garden and flowers and growing things all my family and friends decided flowers would be the ideal gift, for my birthday (75 ) ..and they are but  I was hard pressed to find the ideal  vase and place for them all. I have now and will endeavour to make them all last as long as possible. The cyclamen will probably out do the others for 

lasting but I have my eye on several chrysanthemum cuttings that may grow if I'm smart.

 The apricot and orange flowers are sitting in a small metal bucket inside the kité. 

 In the 3 lots of flowers there are:- lilies; chrysanthemums; sunflower; gerbras; roses; flannel flowers banksias; leucodendrons; carnation;  cymbidium orchids; gloriosa lilies ; dutch iris; an anthurium ; a floral cabbage. and 4 types of foliage.

( so I was doing my bit to support local businesses especially florists. and restaurants ) Very spoilt!

Living in a Florist Shop.

Thank you all for your lovely comments, Leanne, Jennifer, Molly, Deb, Sal, Nicky and Thimbleanna. Yes Sal, I will certainly send you a photo(s) as soon as the official ones are available. Nicky sadly no rain.....most of NZ is now in a very worrying state of drought. We need it desperately as do most farmers ( more on that later. )
    The reason for the heading, " Living ( happily ) in a florist shop," is that I have been for the past week since the wedding, the lucky sitter of most of the flowers from the tables , my own bouquet from the newly weds and also the spray I wore. Teal or aqua is not a very usual flower colour so the florist did well with additions to the white flowers in my spray. After one week in a blue Hogland glass vase it still looks great.

 The white rose buds have been removed ( and were the first to die in most of the flower vases)  but the white  lisianthus bud blossomed, the greenery is still holding. See how the florist put some touches of blue in it with  2 glass beads wired and a small cut down peacock feather. Cute eh. (  fairly amazing  to still be okay for flowers on short stems and wired. )

 This is one of the vases of table flowers still going strong one week later. This one sitting on my hearth  I have topped up the water in them all ( 6 vases ) daily and today changed it and removed any dying  flowers or debris ( mainly leaves) that were souring the water. Flowers that the florist used in these table centres  were lisianthus; alstromeria; roses; carnations and chrysanthemums; 

 Earlier in the week I couldn't resist thrusting my camera up close to some of the beautiful flowers individually to capture their faces. That Sunflower in the  top photo  was a lovely lemon.( not the usual loud sunflower colour ) 

The lime Chrysanthemum is a true work of art. ( that colour worked so well with the delicate pink flowers - mainly Lisianthus )

 I was so glad to see some of my favourite flower, carnations included. Who trimmed that delicate edge and tipped it in a darker colour  - takes my breathe away.

 The lovely flowers the newly weds gave me are this morning out of their cute vox box and just in a vase. The lilies were the first to go and this fab gerbra will be next.

Considering the hot hot days we have been having the staying power of most of these flowers is impressive. Sadly many of the girls could not transport flowers home  with them so I have been the lucky and nearest  custodian.

 My sister who was staying here last weekend also gave me this lovely potted Begonia, which is delicate as well as having flowers of an impressive size.

 So I have been having a floral week while getting back to normal around here. One final comment about the beautiful flowers would be, " where has all your wonderful perfume of yesteryear gone?"

******

 On Wednesday afternoon I moved from 2b to work in block 1 of the Kiwifruit and was alarmed to notice about 3 vines nearest the road end of the block were wilting ever so slightly. I pulled off 50 % of the fruit on them and we managed to string together all our household hoses to reach the vines. With a thorough soaking over many hours on 2 days  I am glad to say we have saved their lives. I hope none of the other vines start doing that cause we can't water them all. ( that was the most likely spot to have a problem) But it means the fruit is no longer sizing up and that will be a national problem for Zespri if the promising season turns into one of smaller than desired / needed fruit. We will have to start inspecting all blocks frequently and may have to consider reinstating our irrigation systems that hasn't been needed for so many summers that it is no longer in working order. We are so lucky to have our own ( now dwindling ) water supply.

 Still on the subject of Kiwifruit I have a little puzzle for you. What happened to these 3 fruit ?

 Leanne you have an advantage here as you know what R gets up to.

 These mysterious  star like little holes travel right through the fruit so they look the same on the other side. Needless to say these 3 hanging together in block 1 had to be removed and are not going on any overseas trip later in the year.

*****

 I have promised myself a weekend at a slower pace. Yesterday I began pinning the half square triangles together or my zigzag quilt. My sewing machine is going to be reinstated on the dinning-room bench and I hope to sew for at least an hour this afternoon( if I can remember how ) Time will also need to be spent processing some of the wealth of produce we have ready in the garden. Time will also need to be spent moving hoses around all areas of our gardens.

 I know there are other events and weddings happening around Tauranga this weekend but I am now thinking rain, rain, rain. Please.

Also noticed this morning the first walnuts are beginning to fall. Autumn?

Helpful Orbweb.

This helpful orbweb spider has made a lovely web just outside the back door. It hangs from the spouting right down to a Jade plant in a pot below. It is catching and eating passionvine hoppers ( amongst other insects ), so it can stay as a new worker around here. Thanks spider, we will try and not break your web by walking too close.

This nasturtium is the first flower out from the Wedding seeds ( all the guests were given )I planted in late October after my Niece's wedding.It is almost red, rather than orange. I might include some in a salad. I hope the other plants from the mix flower too as where i have them is a bit shadey.

Leanne you would appreciate this. Almost every part we grew ourselves.

J and V we are practising vegetarian meals. R made his Autumn Tart which he has added to so it has a really thick filling of tomatoes and onion. He has put some chopped bacon and feta on top ( the bacon could be left off ) It is really yummy and should have a generous filling we both think. We can't say we grew the pastry or the bacon and feta but everything else on the plate we grew. I love that! ( also had strawberries from my patch set in red jelly for dessert )

Here is the mystery photo in total. As it is very warm here R's brew frothed up and out the overflow. This is a beer brew . Yeast works really well with the warm temperature - good for bread making too.
 So the answer was yeasty froth!

Rather Moist.

Like many places in the world this week, New Zealand has been getting lots of rain.
For us that was 170 mls or 6.77 inches in the last 7 days.

Trees and shrubs with evergreen leaves are washed very clean; deciduous ones are dank and smelly everywhere underfoot.This morning is just dull overcast and dreary, so I picked up my camera and went seeking out spots of colour. These are some I found in my garden. Mentioning garden - I need to get out there - I have lots to clean up. I am clearing a patch to extend some decking over when Spring and Summer arrive.

Deciding what flowers or leaves or berries to pick for the house gets tricky too. I love fresh flowers in my house, and always try to have some there for their perfume and to please the eye. I found 5 late yellow roses for a blue vase - poor dears won't last long I know, and I think I have sucked all their smell away as I bend to breathe it in every time I pass them.