Happy Reminiscences

An email, this morning, reminded me of this Christmas being 'bitter sweet', as the author put it. She was referring to the absence of my dear Mother who passed away in October aged 90. I hadn't given it much thought up to now, being so busy, but yes it will be (bitter sweet).

Mum with her trusty note-pad and Small; one of her many, many pussy-cats over the years.

I am beginning to remember Mum in flashes now as she used to be. which is wonderful. I very rarely see her now as she was in the Nursing Home. I often hear her voice saying something as I say it, her little quips and one liners. Haha a chip off the old block eh?
My sister gave me boxes of Mum's photos to go through and as I did I was amazed at how joyful, not sad, it made me. I found myself laughing out loud as I was taken back to those happy times with Mum and Dad. It is  a pleasure to see Mum's infectious smile again and look at her with life, and naughtiness, in her eyes. In some of these pictures I can even hear her laughing, a sound not heard for a long time.
So this Sunday will be sad with the loss of a generation from our Christmas table but what is really lovely is that there are newbies to sit in the empty seats to make their own places of importance in our family, as indeed they have already.

So I thank my Mum and my Dad for all the wonderful happy memories given to us of Christmas' past.
And I thank my four beautiful grandchildren for the promise they give of so many wonderful Christmases to come. AND I am sure that Mum and Dad will be watching from somewhere with beaming smiles.
Merry Christmas everyone! xxx

So much fun!

Today my daughter and I made our first Gingerbread House.
It was great fun. We had a couple of anxious moments but it worked out just fine and the finished product is very cute.

Stage 1

The mixture started off very soft but after being in the fridge for a while it was fine and much easier to work with. We used silicone molds which were fabulous. We rolled the dough and laid it in the molds and then packed it full to the top of each one to make sure the walls would be thick enough. It worked extremely well. After cooking it was left to cool in the molds.

April working on Stage 2

- We had lollies and sticky icing from one end of the joint to the other! Haha there was much licking of fingers (and then washing of same!) and eating of rejected lollies - Well really, you just can't put one back in the pack if it's too small or broken - can you?

Finished!

Da Dah! Complete with little Freckles and Musk Sticks Mushrooms. Sour sticks on the windows. *Marshmallow ropes around the roofline and on the corners of the house (*a wondrous find in the supermarket) A pile of Jersey Caramels in the yard for hay bales. Licorice logs beside the house and with Jaffas along the path and White Choc discs for roof shingles. There are assorted marshmallow bits and pieces around the house including the Santa on the left.

The Cooks Extraordinaire!

We look very pleased with ourselves don't we! Haha. It was great fun but I think we will both be suffering from our excessive sugar intake today. Ughhh!! April's off to training tonight - good on her - I'm NOT!

Favourite Christmas Decorations

Have to start with the Christmas Tree of course. 

 

 

We got this huge tree for our other house which had very high ceilings but it fits in the new house thank goodness. The new LED lights are WAY brighter than I thought they would be and when they flash, it appears from the other room, as though the nutty professor is busy in his laboratory!! 

The tree is covered in long tinsel which HAS TO BE placed on individually. This is the kind of Christmas fanaticism which has, apparently, wounded my children for life and I suspect secretly labelled me 'Gestapo Christmas Mum!' Haha tough, it looks so good when it's done properly.

Applique Snowmen Wallhanging

I made this wall hanging a few years back and just love it. 

All the little mittens hang over buttons sewn on the quilt.

Another wallhanging which is a Spotlight Panel - easy peasy

On the right is my tin Santa. I really splurged when I bought him but just couldn't resist!

His Toy Sack comes off his back as do some of the gifts inside. He is quite large at about 30cm

Debbie Mumm Wallhanging

I bought this wallhanging from the Debbie Mumm Store. 

It was made by her to photograph for the pattern and signed by her on the back.

It is approx 60cm square.

Two gorgeous Snowmen

Snowman on the left was given to me by my SIL and the fellow on the right was made for me by Melody from The House on the Side of the Hill. They are both a little rustic and I love them.

Softie Santa and friends

This is another decoration that I splurged on, can't remember where or when.

Cute little Santa tea-light holder

Tea-light Christmas Houses

These two little houses look so quaint with the candles burning inside. 

They weren't expensive and are definite favourites.

So there it is. I hope you have enjoyed seeing the things that give me some Christmas joy.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Lovely Photos for Tuesday Treasures

My very clever daughter just sent me these photos she took yesterday of her kids.
I just had to share them as I think they are just beautiful photos, and kids of course!
The oldest is 16, middle is 9 and bubba is 16 months.

Gorgeous Kids

My Big Brother

Tickle time with Big Sister ... someone's not impressed

Just lounging around - very comfy big sister.

Ah, feelin' the lurve!

Please take a look at more wonderful Tuesday Treasures with Melody at
The House on the Side of the Hill

Some Monday Roses

Hi Everyone,
My garden has given me some most glorious roses so far this season and I was bursting to share them with you.
The rose in the centre of this vase is Grand Siecle and she is superb, as you can see. There is Athena to her outer right with the pink edged white petals. Just above and to her right is Playboy - wow this rose is a surprise! It is gloriously coloured and perfumed. It's petals are yellow/orange edged with cerise. To the lower left of the vase is a double 'mock orange' or Philadelphus (not a rose), I can't wait for it to be huge and covered in those pure white, double, perfumed flowers.

This second vase is full of Leonardo daVinci being the pink, cupped, 'old world' rose and Diana Princess of Wales, the creamy white. Neither of these is perfume which is disappointing but they do make up for it with their abundance of blooms. Playboy is there to the right and I'm sad to say that I do not know the name of the full orange rose on the bottom left. It's bush is big and strong and the flowers are a most striking bright salmon. Alas is is unperfumed also but it stands out from way across the paddock.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing these lovely roses. I will show you some more flowers soon. Hopefully the pictures will be better next time. (I'm having a bit of 'attitude' from my camera.)

My Special, Wonderful Mum

Yesterday at 6.20am my precious mother died.
My mother was a truly unique and wonderful person. She was a nurse who indulged her elderly patients and loved her work. She was an adoring Gramma, and to me she was simply and completely my very, very best friend.
I have so many wonderful memories of her and the fun we had together. The hours of chatting and the gallons of tea we drank together. The gardens and nurseries walked, recipes swapped, new dishes tried out on each other. She often brought me buckets full of hydrangeas, rhododendrons, roses, gladioli, daffodils, daphne or peonies.
I am too overcome just now to say as much as I would like except that; the first time she looked into my eyes 57 years ago she smiled at me and last week when she looked into my eyes for the last time she smiled at me, her sweet, innocent, pure smile. I will have that wonderful picture in my mind for the rest of my life.

I will love you always.
Annie Margaret Emma Henshaw, rest in eternal, blissful peace my darling.

Bugs and Flowers

 I have actually done some sewing!! Really - - - LOOK!

These blocks are to prove that I have been doing some sewing (amongst the gardening).
As you may or may not be able to see I have finished the snail block blanket stitch,am halfway through the caterpillar block and yet to start the butterfly and hearts.
My daughter has the mirror image blocks to do. These blocks are for a quilt I'm making with the help of my daughter for her BFF (Joh's) first baby. Joh is 37 and I have known her since she was a black and white sonograph picture on her grandma's mantlepiece.
We are so thrilled that she is going to be a mum at last. So this is for Joh's Bubba's Quilt
Bugs and Flowers
 Are, no doubt, amongst my favourite things. I love taking pictures of them and sewing them so I have joined up with Melody's Tuesday Treasures (sorry a bit late) and pre-empted my Floral Friday.

I know it's only Wednesday but goodness knows what I'll be doing on Friday so I thought it best to get these pics up now.

All of these shots were taken today.

One of the delicious pink daisies on my lovely plump daisy bush, below.

Above is Osteospermum fruticosum. The flowers open yellow and turn copper as they age.

My wee little Golden Delicious Tree covered in blossom.

A very busy little bee, bless her cotton socks.

Such delicate blooms.

This tiny flower looks like a paper rose, sorry I've lost it's tag.

Red Penstamon in bud, White Snapdragons and Maroon Pelargoniums

Another industrious little bee.

This tiny little spider waiting patiently for her lunch

Oops you have to be quick with the shutter.

 I hope you have enjoyed this little wander around my garden. I have loved showing them to you.

Happy Gardening and Sewing - of course!!!

Selling my Quilting Machine

After much thought I have finally decided to sell my Gammill Quilting Machine. I have a number of health issues which make it difficult for me to do the best that I can and the work is very slow (to say the least) since we moved.
I will be putting a link on this blog very soon for a PDF with the sale details for anyone who is interested.

Floral Friday

Spring Delights:

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I have been away for so long but I have been unwell and haven't really felt like doing much at all. I have a procedure tomorrow which should fix everything up so I'll be hale and hearty again and raring to go in my gorgeous spring garden.
Here are some of the flowers which have already popped up.

Firstly are my pink/white bells so pretty and delicate.

This is the tiny little Viburnum. It's flowers have opened even more now and it looks so beautiful. I can't wait until it's a small tree with those lovely horizontal flower bunches.

This one is my Dwarf Red Flowering Peach, tiny but stunning.

Now for my Waratah. This lovely little tree is only a year old and has grown so much AND has 27 flowers on it. I am so thrilled at it's success.

One of the Waratah flowers - WOW

Pretty little Strawberry flowers. This variety is called simply Pink and has these sweet little flowers and the most delicious strawberries I have ever tasted. The fruit is flatish but still quite big.

Here is my Alyogne again. She is even bigger now and is always covered in flowers.

Here is the Lavender 'Avonview' growing along Harry's fence. It has been flowering and growing this whole cold, wet winter and the bees just love it, as do I.

This is the Maroon and White varieties of the Luecospermum 'Daisy' which I planted at the base of my clothesline. It certainly makes hanging out the clothes a pleasure.

And lucky last is a closeup of my clothesline daisies. I just love them. They are so happy and flower for such a long time throughout the year.

Please share with me any floral photos you have of your Spring Garden.

Floral Friday

Let's warm up a bit!

I - am - cold!

So .....
I have scoured my photo album for some pictures to try to warm me up;
This first one is at Yeppoon in Qld. We were just a stone's throw from Great Keppel Island which can be seen through the coconut palms.
This picture always warms me up:Below: On the Golf Course at Yeppoon. There were beautiful old palms, bamboo forests, lakes full of waterlillies and wonderful lush tropical scrub all around this course. It was an absolute delight to zip around it in our buggy. There is DH down there striding across the green.Below: Here I am in the buggy on one of the beautiful fairways. Just take a squiz at all the bunkers on this hole. I lost count! I really wished that I had brought my "What tree is that?" book with me!Now over to the other side of the country and a little trip we did from Perth down to Albany and around Margaret River etc.
We were lucky enough to plan this trip when most of the wildflowers were still flowering.
Below: Here is the state's floral emblem - Stunning! Click on the pic for a closer look.Below: Look at this fabulous show lining one of the coastal roads. I wish my driveway looked this good.Below: Here I am in front of a Giant Tingle Tree. I wanted to pat them and hug them and tell them how magnificent they were!And some more flowers beside the road to Albany.And Grass Trees of course
I hope you have enjoyed this little look at some warm weather plants and vistas.
Please feel free to share with me anything floral, tropical or pictures that simply warm you too look at them: