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.