sweet peas

these sweet peas are the most divine soft purple with the most divine scent imaginable, i put them in our bedroom & they perfumed the whole room. i've been dreaming about french patisseries lately as i have a library book at home at the moment called 'french feasts - 299 traditional recipes for family meals & gatherings' by stephane reynaud. i wish someone would open a french bakery here in nelson, then i could go there & drink strong coffee & eat pastries for breakfast.

lily of the valley

we have lily of the valley growing in the garden, who doesn't love the name of this plant? it has such old fashioned connotations & i'm looking forward to it taking over a larger part of the garden. i bought a bunch of iris bulbs from a second hand shop a while back & i was pleasantly surprised to find them to be such a bright vivid purple.

still life

i was attempting to try to recreate a dutch masters painting here, an ambitious undertaking indeed. anyway i enjoyed the process, well apart from not having any paintings to reference as our computer is broken & all my saved images were inside it & apart from trying to make a studio in our kitchen with an upturned table as my backdrop & 3 curious children all around & all over me.

bird eggs

i found all these flowers growing down the matai valley, mmm great pleasure in that for me. nana's neighbour blew out these thrush eggs for the kids after the mother abandoned the nest, the colour of the eggs is so lovely & i can see why it is often replicated in house paints etc.

white lillies

these flowers were for my mumsy from my sister, i don't think i normally like lillies in bunches unless they are on their own but the colour combination of lime green & white is so fresh. i found this watercress growing in a pool by the side of the river, there was something very rewarding about then making this tasty pesto out of it.

salads

we had a family bbq on friday & i enjoyed spending the day making salads & alternatives to sausages for the bbq - i mean i don't mind a barbie but surely we don't have to only eat snags? more photos of poppies but this one is proudly growing in our garden.

pink roses

i have a back load of photos as our computer is broken! harsh news.

weeds

i made these almond fingers today, the recipe is again from 'ladies, a plate' such a great book with such great results - which is entirely a credit to the well researched & selected recipes.
i'm not sure what this yellow weed is, i'm thinking maybe something beginning with 'c' & maybe something that farmer's feed their cows but i can't be sure.

peonies

sunday. it is addictive taking photos of moving things, goldfish for example.

honeysuckle huts

we had a productive family day today, mostly spent on the property. eliza painted her seats for her 'nature' clubhouse & we planted a circle of cosmos around it, the honeysuckle should enclose the space within a few months - we are both pretty happy with progress there. louis & i have reignited their mid lawn gardens from a few seasons ago, he chose sunflowers & carrot seeds so we shall watch & wait in anticipation there. tom finished painting our fence & celeste toodled around being funny, i feel very satisfied with progress today. :)

guilty

wow another post so soon. unusual! these were flowers from my sister for our mother today. the masked parade is on tonight & for the first time since we've lived in nelson we're not there, i'm trying not to feel too guilt ridden but it's hard. tom has gone out to a work function & i just didn't have the stamina to get all of the remainder of our family out of the general house zone. hmmm the old parental guilt factor, never too far from the mind i'm afraid.

goldilocks

i was really attracted to the cover of this version of goldilocks & the 3 bears when i first saw it. of course - small bear with a tear in his eye, perfect! we had it out from the library recently & i was very interested to find celeste really enjoyed it & requested it heaps. she has decided she is growing her hair influenced by goldie, naturally(unexpectedly for us though as she is our sort of half brother/half sister/tomboy child). my god i am loving daylight savings, actually on that note i had a wee talk with mum the other day & she had heard someone on national radio talking about happiness, they'd said happiness is 'savoring moments' so that is what i mean to continue to do & it has not been hard lately with this gorgeous weather.

garden flowers

today i found this sunprint kit i'd bought ages ago, louis & i had some fun making images together this afternoon. what a beautiful day, we are absolutely loving day light savings. it's so nice to head out to the street for some bike riding in the early evening, lots of other people are coming out too & it feels like winter hibernation has come to an end. these are all the flowers growing in our garden just now.

gingerbread biscuits

fooee it's been a long time since i've written on my blog, a lot has been going on but i haven't really been taking many photos, i'm in a lull. it's a beautiful day today on the 6th day of the spring school holidays & we are mooching around home, it's really rather lovely. 3 loads of washing are out & i've even managed to do some weeding in the garden, i check the garden at least twice a day at the moment because it's so exciting to see things popping up out of the ground & coming out of the winter woody phase. i bought these poppies in auckland for my old friend sarah, i just love love love the colours together. the bright orange flower is my first nasturtium flower from the inside.