The man of the Forest

This photo was taken in 2006 at The Lost Gardens of Heligan, in Cornwall, England.

Heligan, was the seat of the Tremayne family for more than 400 years, and the site of beautiful gardens. However at the end of the nineteenth century they were neglected and became severely overgrown with brambles and ivy. The trees grew tangled and unkept and it resembled an impenetrable jungle.

It remained abandoned from 1919 when many of the gardeners went off to the First World War until 1990 when the derelict gardens were discovered by Tim Smit and John Willis (descendant of the Tremaynes). The restoration of the gardens has been an ongoing project involving many many volunteers.

Tomorrow - his slumbering partner in the same forest. They are known as the mud man and mud maid.

Farewell Sir Howard

Cobweb lace

Telling it Like it is!

Colour all around me!

Australian Imports

Here are three of my favourite plants in my garden, all Australian.
















































The first is a Bottlebrush - the origin of the name is obvious! The second photo is the Australian frangipani. Although the flowers are insignificant, the scent in the evenings is heady and tropical. The last single red flower is a Waratah. This is a stunning flower which is highly sought after by florists, it makes an excellent cut flower. My little two year old tree is only about one metre high and it has produced this single flower.

Flashy Foliage

Wellington

The photos above show the Beehive which is part of the Houses of parliament, and two views of the waterfront and harbour.

Last weekend we treated ourselves to a few days away in Wellington.

We had a lovely time, it was beautiful warm spring weather and the city and harbour looked magnificent. Wellington has a reputation for being very windy but the air was calm and still.

The flight there and back was the clearest I have ever seen. We flew over the volcanic cones of Mt Ruapehu, Ngaruahoe, Tongariro and could see Mt Taranaki in the distance.


Wellington is at the very bottom of the North Island, Cook Strait separates the North and South Islands. It is the seat of our Government and the head office for many of New Zealand's large businesses.

We visited the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa, as well as a newer museum on the harbour front - Wellington City and Sea. Te Papa had an exhibition of Formula One cars which was of great interest to my other half.

And of course we sampled food at some of the restaurants - Thai food one night, Japanese the next, and on our last night we visited Indian friends who cooked us a meal.

You know its spring when........

The Clivia, which has cowered in the shade all year, bursts into colour.



















The bird of paradise plant reaches for the sky...........
































and the plum blossoms arrive before the bees have realised that spring is here!

I Did it! (paua photo added)

Some time ago I wrote this post here about my latest challenge. Well, many weeks later I have finally completed the challenge.

Sorry about the quality of the photo - it doesn't do the colours justice.

We used the 'quilt as you go' method where each block is quilted separately then they are all joined. The blocks have such interesting names, Churn dash, rocky mountain, drunkards path, dutchmans puzzle, railway tracks, attic windows, broken plates, dresden plates and the square in the middle is a seminole.





The paua shell was my guide for choosing the quilt colours.