Popping In & OPAM Reminder!

Here I am ... managing to pop into blogland for a little visit. I am SOOOOOO far behind in reading my fave blogs, WAAAAAY behind in answering emails and overdue to pop back here for a visit. All of these things are symptoms of the one problem ... a laptop with a dodgy battery. :0) You see, answering emails, blogging and reading blogs are all done on my laptop ... whose battery won't hold a charge for more than about an hour and a half before having to be plugged in. Then I end up tangled or tripping over the power cord, or I have to relocate to set up at the dining table ... and in all honesty it just falls into the "Too Hard" category and gets put off. SORRY! :0)

The other factor contributing to my blogging absence has been my grown-up job continuing in the crazy-busy category. But ... I HAVE been doing a bit ... some gardening and some sewing.

Two weeks ago was the Carnival of Flowers weekend in Toowoomba and I usually try to team up with a friend to see some of the gardens entered in the competition. This year, we decided to check out a couple of out-of-town gardens, so it was a mini-road-trip. :0)

I LOOOOOOOVED the Grand Champion garden so much this year. It's what I call an "achievable" garden ... the type of garden that looks spectacular, but doesn't rely solely on having buckets of money, either to pay a gardener to maintain the garden for you, or to splash out on thousands of spring annuals that will be over and done in a matter of a couple of weeks. It was the sort of garden that you can see would have something to see and some splashes of colour all year round. And it didn't have a lot of expensive exotic plants ... lots of old fashioned favourites, many of which are dry-weather tolerant ... a VERY important factor for us as we rely solely on tank water. Want to see??

PRETTY!! There were daisies, lavenders, roses, geraniums and flowering shrubs as the basis of the garden, with pretty annuals plugged in for spring. The really amazing thing about this garden was, that just eight years ago ... it was a cow paddock! There was a lot more to it, as the garden wove right around the house, with lots of sweet features like ...

... this. Ivy grown over a frame with a basket of pretty flowers hung from the centre. To be honest, I was so busy drooling over the pretty flowers, chatting to the owners to get tips and collecting cuttings from the lovely owners who encouraged me to 'give it a go', that I only took two pics. This is what OUR garden would like to be ... when it grows up! :0) Then, we headed off to another country garden ...

It was getting on for late afternoon by the time we got to this one and the sun was in the wrong spot to get photos of most of the garden, but I loved this sweet faux gateway ... this has been on our garden "to do" list for some time, so now even more inspired to do it. :0) 

Sadly, our own garden isn't quite ready to put on a spectacular spring show this year ... it was badly affected by extended dry weather through autumn, then beaten up by a rather nasty hail storm at the start of winter and we're just starting to get back into the clean up and revamp ... or in some cases ... the vamp ... since there hasn't been anything done there previously. :0) But ... a couple of lavender bushes I planted this time last year are putting on a fabulous show ...

They have each doubled in size and are flowering madly. The bees love them even more than I do! ;0) Apart from that ... I have been doing a LITTLE bit of sewing ...

Hmm ... what do you suppose I'm making?! :0) Loving these seafoamy, sagey, minty greens. I'm hoping to get it finished for my September OPAM list ... and speaking of OPAM ... OK gals ... time to update your sidebar lists of finishes and drop an email with your tally to me and my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg. What have you all been creating this month? Can't wait to see. :0)

But right now, the kettle is singing it's siren's song and calling me to have a cup of tea, so I shall sign off for now. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS