Poppies and lupins

Sorry, after my Blogtober I was a little burnt out, added to a busy work week the camera had stayed in the corner of the room all week.

I rushed out this morning to catch the morning light in the flower garden.

The red poppies are about to go nuts.


The bumble bees are quite fond of the lupins.

Day 31 - Kardinal

So Blogtober began with the Queen of the Night tulips and closes with a Kardinal rose.
The flower garden has changed dramatically over the month, and I may not have noticed how quickly if it wasn't for the blog.
I have captured snippets of our life, perhaps a little mundane at times, but it is all real, and where we are at right now.

I hope I can continue to blog more frequently, maybe not everyday but a few times a week. It has felt a bit like a deadline to meet each day, but I did enjoy taking photos and briefly writing to them.

Thank you for reading along and commenting. Glad to know people do still visit!

Day 24 - Freesias and the first rose of the season

A quick Friday flowers post.

The freesias keep blooming, and although the coloured ones are striking, I think I prefer the creamy original "Grandma's Freesia", with a hidden golden throat.


I picked my first rose for the season today. Elle.

Day 17 - Spring garden

These are probably not the best photos of our flowers. But with fading light I ran out to capture some of the blooms in the picking garden.





Iris, Ranunculus, Geum, Poppy. Everything is a bit wild, and my original colour beds (white, pink, red, burgundy/blue, orange and yellow) have become a little mixed, but that's ok. I like it.

Day 10 - Michelia

The Michelia hedge is flowering well this year. I love the furry brown sepals almost as much as the creamy flowers.
A quick post, we've been grocery shopping, the double trolley ride is still a highlight for the girls, and they receive a lot of attention as we go around the aisles. A visit to my parents to say hello to Grandma and Gramps and then the girls fell asleep in the car on the way home. So I've unpacked the car and done a few jobs and have lunch ready for when they awake. I even have managed to write this blog post!
Happy weekend!

Day 3 - Flower garden

Thank you for your supportive comments yesterday, I'm glad that I'm not alone in the feelings I expressed. The girls ended up sleeping for 1.5 hours, which was enough of a recharge for all of us to enjoy our afternoon together. I even got to prepare dinner without girls underfoot.


I took a quick walk around the flower garden this morning. Reliving my past Friday flowers posts. Despite not receiving as much attention as it needs, the garden is rewarding us with spring blooms. The daffodils and snowbells are over, the tulips are at their peak and the ranunculus is just starting to get going. The new flush of growth on the box hedge is ridiculously green.


Queen of the Nights in the garden.

Ad Rem tulips.

Golden Parade and Golden Apeldorn tulips.

Happy weekend!

Friday flowers

Two babies sleeping. Must be time for a quick Friday flowers.

Foxgloves

Poppy

A rootstock rose from a failed graft I think.

Chicago Peace

I am being a bit impatient for the roses to get going. Then I remembered that last year they started when I was in hospital trying not to have the babies! Dear Rob would bring in a bunch of my roses each day, to brighten up my dreary room, and our mood, as I tried to put off the inevitable. 

Our girls were 11 months old (7.5 months corrected) on Tuesday. I can not believe they'll be one next month. I have not shared much of those scary days prior to their birth or indeed the night before they were born. I was in labour, all on my own, as I had sent Rob home, and I stubbornly didn't want to believe it was happening. So I didn't trouble the midwives much until I realised that I had gotten to the pushing stage, then the midwife found out I was fully dilated, with Maggie's head ready to go. The phrase "emergency Caesarian" doesn't quite describe that last crazy rush to theatre (with Rob speeding in from home to make it just in time). 

I've been thinking about it a lot this last week. I may even write about it day by day leading up to their birthday, as I think it is too much for one post. 

Friday flowers

I tend to feel I need to write a lot for my blog posts to be legitimate. But that's silly isn't it?

I love going back and just looking at what the garden is doing. What we ate. Where we went. 

The sage is in flower, I see it every morning from my bed through the French doors.

The roses have started. 

First Prize. 

Kardinal.

It's Friday which means it's cheese night. The girls both enjoyed the goats cheese on our spring risotto last night. So I suspect tonight they'll want to share our cheese too.

Happy weekend.

P.S. I am halfway through part 2 of our weekend away. 

Friday Flowers

The ranunculus has started, and that makes me happy. 

Some of my freesias evaded the slugs. 

Grape hyacinth and our first rose.

More ranunculus and anemones.

Ah, spring.

Friday Flowers

I haven't had many flowers to post recently, but finally spring is on it's way. 

I picked a selection of white flowers for the table last Sunday.

The white garden has stock, candy tuft, honeymoon tulips, gerberas, snowflakes, anemones and poppies. Also daffodils and jonquils but they are too smelly to pick.

Our yellow bed has daffodils in large and miniature size. The blue bed is awash with anemones. There are also orange and yellow poppies and marigolds. 

Speaking of yellow the valley has turned golden with the flowering wattles. A stunning sight in late winter. 

Friday Flowers: yet more roses!

Late again. Still a few roses left to grace our tables.

A bunch of random red roses.

Glorious one of our favourite yellow roses.

Finally Flamingo.

I think that might be the end of the roses this year. I'm inside with the girls while Rob is outside staking and pruning, with Nigella and Claudia of course.

Can't help but share my latest purchase from Devra party in Brooklyn, NY. A kaleidoscope of coloured honeycomb paper decorations to add to my collection. They make me so nostalgic, as my father had a couple he would put up every Christmas. This time I ordered some 12.5cm cuties and completed my collection of 30cm. I just thought they might come in handy to celebrate a few little people one day! 

Friday Flowers

I missed Monday Menu this week, do not worry we ate! I'll try and be back next week. My rose garden is still producing blooms. This week I picked Valencia roses. I love how deep the yellow is. It is also fragranced. They graced our table this week, for my tea breaks, and for a morning tea with a friend, and her 3.5 month old son. Who is the size of our two girls put together. He is already in size 0. Our girls have certainly made the most of their 0000 clothes, Elisabeth is about to move up a size. She has hit the 4000g mark, Maggie is catching her though, closing the gap, she is 3590g.

Wednesday's post came out of nowhere, I have been drafting a birth story, but I was only half way through. I had been describing the last 8 days of my pregnancy: the scary diagnosis of TTTS; the amniotic fluid drains; the stress of the daily ultrasounds to check on how the babies were going; trying to halt labour for 4 days; and that final night before their birth when I had sent Rob home and I laboured alone. I ended up getting to fully dilated with Maggie basically ready to go with only a heat pack and a panadeine as pain relief. I didn't bother the midwives cause I didn't quite believe it was happening. That final crazy hour when it all got scary as the babies needed to be born by c-section and the nurses and doctors later told me they thought Maggie might arrive in the lift! Rob was still at home as they prepped me for theatre and he only just made it, apparently humming the James Bond theme as he sped into the city. 

I'm not sure how or when I'll share the rest of our story. It is emotionally exhausting to write, let alone read, so I will see, and keep chapters of the story for when it feels right to share.

Happy weekend to you.

Friday Flowers: roses

The roses are still flowering at the hut. When I got 5 minutes earlier in the week I grabbed my new rose pruning gloves and picked some more red roses. The pink selection I picked last Friday are still looking beautiful in their vase. 

This dark red bloom is called Black Magic, it produces long stemmed roses, perfect as cut flowers. I think it's Rob's favourite.

These dark blooms are from a plant called Black Beauty. It produces tiny perfect blooms profusely on a thorn free bush, the reverse of the petals actually start off yellow.

The garden will be thankful for the constant showery rain we had today. For the first time since I was sick with mastitis I stayed in bed until lunch. The girls went to sleep by 9.30 last night, but woke at 1, 3, 5 and 7! So this morning when Rob got up I said I would be staying in bed! The girls even let me nap for an hour or so.

The girls are getting so chatty now, they love cooing away to us, and in the last few days to each other. They were 22 weeks old on Wednesday, or 8 weeks corrected. Despite being sleep deprived I enjoy my time with them so much. Even when little jobs I intend to do remain unfinished at the end of the day, I don't mind if I know I spent the time feeding, playing, talking or cuddling them.

Maggie

Elisabeth 

 

Friday Flowers

24 degrees Celsius? In mid May?

The roses continue to give bunches of blooms and it's only their first year.

This morning I picked red, pink and white. I'll keep the red ones for Rob's mother, but the white ones I stuck in a vase I bought years ago with this very arrangement in mind.

Happy weekend.

Friday Flowers

A really quick post. I haven't had a chance to take flower photos this week. Funny that.
But yesterday I picked a few roses that are still producing blooms.

Cinderella and First Prize

I have started to write the girls birth story. I wrote notes within days of their birth, but it didn't feel I could write it properly until they were home. I'm hoping it's not too long already. It wasn't a simple birth by any means.

Happy Weekend to you.
P.S. I think regular blogging might help me keep track of what day of the week it is too!

Friday Flowers

Despite being neglected our flower garden is still producing blooms. The local fruit and veg shop always sells potted Chrysanthemums around Mother's Day each year. We bought a few last year then planted them out in the garden.
So we have been rewarded with flowers to bring in this year for vases.
Rob ducked out yesterday and picked up another 8 plants.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions about privacy and blogging. It feels right at the moment to bring back my regular food and gardening posts and I'll throw in a few baby posts in between. Might even join in Jodi's 52 portrait series. The thing is, I really value my online community of friends, and some of you have helped me in ways you might not have imagined by sharing your lives and experiences. I think it is important to not just take from friendships, be them real or virtual, but to give back as well. Which forms part of my desire to keep blogging.
The girls had their 4 month vaccinations on Tuesday and are not quite themselves yet. I'm hoping to get a few power naps in this afternoon, so best go.

A flower for Friday: a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

So yesterday afternoon I totally undid any calm or peace I may have felt after pregnancy yoga by my second attempt at maternity bra shopping. The less said about the bra I ended up with the better. In my defence it was the only one in my size in Hobart and I really needed one. (Rob's verdict was not pretty, when I was trying to get dressed this morning, the words "the most horrible bra ever" may have passed his lips, needless to say I have jumped online to find a less grandma like bra this morning and I am just praying it gets here QUICK).

Anyway, I drove home to find Rob had cleaned the whole house and picked fresh flowers from the garden. This stunning rose was next to my bed. Which instantly made me forget the shopping.


I exclaimed over it's colour and form, and how beautiful it was. I couldn't tell which one is was so asked him. Rob looked a bit sheepish, and said "you're not going to be happy about this, it's Limona". I didn't quite get it at first, as Limona is a pale yellow. Rob had to spell it out, they've mislabeled the rose and I've planted it in the middle of my yellow roses! Maybe I shouldn't be so particular about my rose plantings, but this is going to stick out like a sore thumb! May need some rearranging over winter.
This weekend we're having guests over for lunch on Sunday, so there will be some cleaning, baking and cooking to be done.

Friday Flowers

Well it's a bit hard to see, but there are flowers in the photo below.

I love having a personal photographer who is willing to get up early enough to catch our garden in that perfect golden early morning light!

The flower garden is coming along, the roses are expanding and most have buds so I should be able to see what each one looks like this first year.

My original plan for the flower garden was for it to be a picking garden, so we have tried to keep things in the four quadrants to certain colours (white, pink, orange + yellow, red + blue/purple). In theory this had worked but there is the occasional mislabeled plant that is popping up in the wrong colour bed.
But I'm ok with that.

Now that the tulips have finished, the ranunculus are still going, please hold me to this- instead of 40 ranunculus corms next year, I'm going to plant 200 per quadrant. We both love them that much, and I won't feel so guilty picking them.

We have been collecting various annuals and perennials so it will be interesting to see what they end up looking like. We seem to struggle to fill the red bed (after the failure of my red ranunculus corms) so I'd be interested in any suggestions for red flowering plants.

My lilies are the main players in the garden still (after collecting them for years in pots) and they are all popping up quite happily now. Again my labelling may have left a little to be desired or we've mixed up the bulbs, because I can see the occasional plants with reddish tips to their leaves in the yellow bed. There are fat little buds amongst the leaves waiting to expand, it won't be long I don't think.

Again I have plenty of orange, yellow, white, and cream lilies, a fair few pink ones, but not many red ones. I've tried a few different reds but never been totally happy with their colour. Rob did utter a sentence I never thought he would "we need some more lilies" when looking at the red bed.

Thankfully I have felt much better this week. Today we had an appointment with our obstetrician and got to take a peek at the twins. I always feel so much more relieved after a visit to our Dr. He is quite lovely and reassuring. They now weigh 500g each! He measures their heads and tummies and they seem to be the right size for their age (about 25cm long at 22 weeks). Apparently at the moment they both have their heads down and their feet are at the top on each side of my tummy (which explains all those kicks I'm feeling!!) They are still able to move around quite a bit and always put on a good show.

So we treated ourselves with some lunch from Sweet Envy (conveniently positioned on the way back to work), their potato bread is still a favourite. Rob picked a lemon meringue donut which didn't make it past the city, and I picked Alistair's take on a Tim Tam or what he calls a Mit Mat. I have been saving it, and tried a mouthful at afternoon tea.  I may never eat another Tim Tam again. His, unsurprisingly, wipe the floor with them!

This weekend we're at home, so there will be garden tidying, grass cutting and hut spring cleaning (the windows are pretty bad with our two dogs smearing their noses all over them and the birds).

What are your plans for this weekend?

Friday Flowers

The grass is taking off at the moment at the hut. Rob spent a happy day in the orchard with his scythe getting the grass down, although I suspect he'll need to be back not before long at the rate it seems to be growing!

I quickly snapped a photo looking from the orchard into my flower garden and onto the hut. It's starting to look really good now, the lilies have started to get growing and my beds are filling up with flowers.


Nigella and Claudia always like to follow us about when we garden, they particularly like to sit on the paths and sniff the breeze. You can see my nicely mulched rose beds (with pea straw) and behind them our happy almond trees.

I think I will see my first rose over the weekend, I've been impatiently watching this bud develop and colour up- appropriately the rose is called "First Prize".

The roses seem very happy in the clay soil, they certainly get plenty of sun and now they are mulched we shouldn't need to water them much. Finally the ranunculi are going crazy, neither Rob or myself can pick a favourite colour, each is so perfect.


Hope you have a lovely weekend whatever you get up to.