HELLO AGAIN AND SOME EXCITING NEWS!

I always love the beginning of a new year.  It's 2016 and my very best wishes to all of my dear readers for the happiest, healthiest and safest year ahead. 

I love the thought of the whole year stretching ahead filled new possibilities and experiences.   

Last year ended with a bang in this family.  My daughter's wedding at the end of November, Christmas following shortly after and a trip to Sri Lanka at the beginning of January.     

What a special day this was.

The wedding reception and the beautiful flowers.. what a joy it was walking into the room and the fragrance of the roses was amazing.

Christmas flowers at my daughter Sarah's home.  She and her family hosted Christmas this year for our family and some of their friends. Sarah and Kirk worked so hard and we had a splendid time! 

After Christmas we headed down to the beach house.  These dahlias are from my garden at home and they travelled down with me. 

I managed to salvage these Hydrangeas from the seaside garden.. most had been burnt by a recent heat wave.

 Penny taking refuge from the noisy grandchildren!

Our New Year's dinner table. 

I've spent many happy hours in this little space since Christmas!

We left for Sri Lanka in early January

We stayed at the Kingsbury hotel and the lobby had huge arrangements of red roses throughout.

We spent a wonderful day visiting Lunuganga Estate - the country residence of the late Geoffrey Bawa, renowned Sri Lankan architect.

The Lotus flower ponds

Looking down towards the double ha-ha - there is a hidden road beneath those grasses.

What a wonderful colonial verandah!

This is a photo of my Dianthus in the garden last year.  They have been very disappointing this year for some reason!  I adore their fragrance.

Some news is that I am currently re-designing a new look for this blog.  I will be focusing mainly on gardens and garden design this year.  Once the new website is up, the blog will include interviews with various garden landscapers.  I was very fortunate when the renowned Australian Landscape Architect, Paul Bangay agreed to an interview.   I so enjoyed chatting to Paul over afternoon tea and I will be posting this interview as soon as the website is up!  


Happy week everyone!!

AURICULAS, A GREENHOUSE, THE GARDEN AND A VISIT TO THE BEACH

After a month of rushing around, the suggestion to go to the beach for the weekend wasn't really tempting as all I wanted to do was stay put.  Once we got there however,   it was like balm to the soul.  Perfect weather,  quiet empty beaches and that wonderful sea air.  After three nights,  I returned home really refreshed.

We experienced an extremely cold winter this year  and because I have so many plants in pots,  some of which are tender,  we decided that a small greenhouse would be a welcome addition to our garden.  Our builder, Wes has taken on the task of building it.  We have decided to site it beneath a huge Hymalian Cedar in the corner of our garden.  The Cedar is an old tree and we will need to get an arborist in to trim out all of the dead wood.  I'll post some photos once it is installed.

The plants that really suffered in the winter were my Auriculas.  Known to be tricky,  they really hated being outside during the icy months.  The European growers keep them in the greenhouse until they flower and then bring them out until Autumn.  The pleasure of seeing some of them flower this year has been enormous!  Soon, it will be time to divide them up and re-pot them.  Their flowers last on the little plants for ages and they are so beautiful.  Watering them is also tricky.  They dislike getting their leaves wet,  so a watering can with a long nozzle is the answer.  This takes time!!!  

The summer garden is slowly emerging.  The foxgloves are flowering as well as the Iris.  The Clematis blooms have opened and I'm hoping that the roses will start this week.  The Aquilegia are lovely and seem taller this year.

The other news is that I've finally had the living room wallpapered.  Subtle, but lovely I think.

This gorgeous Orchid lasted for four months!

Have a great week everyone!

TULIP FESTIVAL IN BOWRAL

Spring played hide and seek here in the Highlands before finally arriving a week ago much to the relief of the Tulip Festival Organisers in Bowral.  

Bowral has celebrated the Tulip Festival for the past 55 years.  The design and planting plan varies from year to year and the gardeners usually plant in excess of 60 000 tulips, much to the delight of the thousands of visitors each year.  

Getting the tulips to flower at exactly the right time each year is a challenge.  Spring arrived very early last year which meant that many of the tulips were almost over by the time the Festival opened.  Despite the cold spring this year,  only a few tulips failed to open on cue.

The planting design and colour choices this year are a bit too dramatic for my taste.  Hundreds of people would disagree it seems!  See some of my photos below.   

Last year's tulips in my own new garden.  The Parrot tulips in the pot were spectacular again this year.

This photo is from last year's Festival.

Below are a few photos of the green and white parrot tulips from my garden.

Wishing you all a great week ahead.