day seventy six

I keep cooking tomatoes - picked 17.3kg today!!! made pizzas with them tonight - every night needs to include tomatoes
The perfect meal includes potato, courgette, lemon and tomato!! with perhaps a little rhubarb

day seventy five

This stunner grows where there was once an arch/rose walk - unfortunately it came down in the snow a few years ago. Hope to one day rebuild arch! about 2019 maybe!

day seventy four

This is a beautiful, tiny rose, about 15mm across.

day seventy three

My courgettes are rapidly turning into marrows, people keep giving me their courgette/marrows so I am struggling to use my own - grrr

day seventy two

My tomatoes have gone crazy!! picking about 6kg per day - there is a limit!

day seventy one

Another lovely rose, this grows over the gateway into my veggie garden

day seventy

I love this rose and I am so glad it is blooming again, I have two large plants which grow over two 8 foot tree stumps -it is a beautiful double buttery yellow rose

day sixty nine

This is a real dusky rose, it looks unreal

day sixty eight

At spinners and weavers we have been making poppies as part of an ANZAC project to make a poppy for every ANZAC life lost in the war

 

All the poppies together

And the wreath we put together to be presented on ANZAC day

day sixty seven

I found this hellebore and loved the shape of the leaves!

day sixty six

This is another project I have on the go, we have been asked to help organise a back to back where, in a team, you shear a sheep, spin the wool straight off the sheep, ply and knit all in one day - in fact we will have to do it in about 5 hours. This is part of my planning/research - I need to establish what can be achieved in the time in order to be done in time to be part of the finale/prize giving.
This is a child's Guernsey and is still too big at the speed I knit! I either need to scale down the size or learn to knit quicker!
The wool is from a Homebush Romney, it has an amazing staple and washes to a beautiful silky white!

day sixty five

There are several white amaryllis flowering in the secret garden, they really glow and are far more stunning than the pink

day sixty four

The dahlias are flowering, I love their old fashioned look - this is a favourite

day sixty three

I found these on a sales table, they were for children to make friendship bracelets but I thought they would make a fabulous woven scarf! The weaving templates have to gone to DD1, she is a teacher and is planning to make friendship bracelets in an craft club she is running

day sixty two

Spinners and Weavers purchased a blending board last year and I used it to make this rolag in sunset colours

day sixty one

The roses are in their second flush, this is one of my favourites, I am not a yellow flower fan as a rule but these are hard to beat. The hold great in a vase and are scented beautifully too

day sixty

Sunday and it has been drizzling so is still too wet to paint - shame!!
meant I could assemble the warping frame and wind my first warp. Unfortunately the weather is supposed to improve again so I will be back to painting and this will have to wait.

day fifty nine

My latest love, I got a loom for Christmas and have now assembled it. Can't wait to get going on it but have rather a lot of things on the go at the moment - roll on winter!
The loom is an Ashford 8 shaft 800mm loom

day fifty eight

This beautiful white agapanthus has a head bigger than a football - when I say a head, yes it only has one! I haven't noticed it before so hopefully it is getting established and will produce more of a show next year!

day fifty seven

I had my hair dyed and there was a bit of dye left over so my lovely hairdresser bagged it up for me! I dyed tis skein of wool and some merino roving by painting the dye on and 'cooking' in the greenhouse for a couple of days - I would just say the colour is different on the wool to my hair

day fifty six

I thought the campions in the secret garden had died in the frazzling summer we have had but my DH has set up some irrigation and it has popped back into life!

day fifty five

And talking of cuttings, here are my babies. I love propagating but haven't had much time this year - I will be soo glad when the whole house is finished
Here are Penstemon, antirrhinum, pink carnations, mint, pelargoniums and a couple of roses - when the weather eases they will be ready to go out into the garden

day fifty four

This plant is beautiful, it grows behind the swimming pool, I don't know what it is and I couldn't get any closer to take a better picture without swimming! One day I will have to hack my way round te shrubs to get some cuttings

day fifty three

I stuck a few sweet pea seeds under the scarlet runner beans - it has been so dry for so long that only the ones that got watered regularly thrived but the colours of these were pretty - they were an antique mix

Day fifty two

It's the first time I noticed this red hot poker hiding under a philadelphus in the swimming pool area

Day fifty one

The roses are getting into their second flush, this is a lovely pink David Austin

day fifty

The scarlet runner beans are going behind now, I think it's the nor'wester but the bush beans are taking over nicely - these are borlotti which can be eaten fresh or left to mature and dry the beans to boil and use in the winter - I also have French beans and butter beans - not the dried sort, they are just yellow French beans

day forty nine

I bought a couple of antirrhinum from oderings and chopped their heads off and took several cuttings - they took well and are now flowering

day forty eight

I bought some tiny plants from the side of the road at Rolleston for a few dollars and they are now flowering and growing well

can't tell you what this is!

A pretty little Verbena

and a Penstemon - I do love my Penstemon so I am hoping this a different colour to those I already have - I had a couple of lovely winey purples at the old house and still looking to replace them

day forty seven

Some of the antique pansies - as always the purple ones do the best - that I grew from seed in the spring

day forty six

Geranium, well pelargonium really - grown from cutting two years ago and been overwintered in greenhouse twice! I don't really do many pot plants - don't have time for all the extra watering but I love red geraniums - remind me of the Mediterranean

day forty five

It's 8.30pm in the evening and it's the most beautiful evening you can imagine. It's warm and still - we have the radio on, enjoying a beer while we finally get some colour on the house

The yellow colour is the primer on the boards, we had to reclad the house and we are now painting it in a bluey-grey colour - I like to call it Nor' west grey with a touch of blue as I am hoping it won't show the dust after a nor'wester wind!

p.s. - DH is on far left still painting - we finally called it a day about 9.30pm

day forty four

Cornflowers and sweet peas - from Mother in laws garden.
The in-laws have moved heaven and earth - literally - to clear a garden that they can inject their own style into. And to get some colour into their otherwise green garden, of course MIL's first seeds were sweet peas

day forty three

Son's birthday - 16!! How did that happen

Cake was our take on Chocolate volcano

day forty two

Here is the alpaca I spun for a festival challenge, I was supplied with the three colours of Alpaca and have to make a neck warmer (not a scarf) by any means I like - I am planning to weave mine.
It has to be completed and submitted by the end of March
I like a deadline!

day forty one

The tomatoes are ripening rapidly, picked a few for tea - will soon be looking for tomato recipes - a glut is not far away I feel!

I wonder if they would make a dye? orange?

day forty

back to spinners today after the summer break
I finally finished the scarves I wove on the groups sample it loom in time to return the loom!

I used an old patons sock wool that I bought at a red cross shop in Rangiora and they came out quite well

day thirty nine

The garden is full of bears breeches, they seed readily! They are really scratchy too and yet I quite like them - they just need a firm hand!

 

day thirty eight

Penstemon are one of my favourite flowers, they are dainty, old fashioned, really tough and they flower for months and months - I don't know the names of these, I inherited them with the garden but this one reminds me of apple blossoms

and this one makes a real show as it is a big clump and brightens the border all summer

oops not great focus!

he he not much better - the bloomin thing keeps moving in the wind! I bet David Attenborough doesn't have these problems!