KT and Coffee: garden

Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts

Wake up and smell the roses

Walking around the roses always makes me think of my mum and then my nan. So it's a happy time, but I miss them so. This time I also thought of our first trip to Wellington where I sought out the rose garden in the Botanical Gardens. I took photos of nearly all of them to share and show my mum. Back in Auckland we have the Rose Garden in Parnell as well as the Botanical Gardens, so really never far from my mum and nan at all.

Auckland Botanic Gardens 2015

My 2008 Rose Collection. When sharing photos of Roses the names come to life in the same way the fragrance does when you walk by them. These are all from my Flickr photo stream, so you should be able to see the title if you hover or some internet magic thing. These were taken with a Casio EX-Z1000 and I can pretty much guarantee back then I would have been shooting on auto.

Onto 2012 and the Rose Garden at Parnell. Here I am playing with the Hipstamatic app on the phone. the phone has added a whole new world to my photography but in even in the short time since I took these photos so much has changed.

Homegrown

The veggie patch is looking forlorn and neglected (well, there is a lesson for me right there), I did though still manage to rescue a spring onion (OK, now moving into that cross between a leek and an onion stage) in a home made soup (yummy). I had great plans for this space, involving a fair amount of hard digging, slab laying, ground flattening, weed mat laying and likely back breaking work that I would live to regret. So in a moment of honesty about my life right now I realised this is all too much and it's just adding to that 'to do' list I use to beat myself up with.

This lightbulb moment early in the morning was sudden and definite and really, why didn't I realise this before. My plans are now changing and I'll get back to gardening as a source of joy and self care rather than of failure and guilt.

Being honest and being OK with it.

My Morning View

I've been subtly trying to work through this blog the effort I make to create some space between my job and the rest of me. It's been years and I am no where near an answer, solution or even close.

There are many reasons why I pour my heart and soul into my work, but the video from Jamie Ridler as part of April Love from Susannah Conway really hit a nerve. I've never had lessons on self nourishment, I learnt from watching the women around me that we come last, everyone else is before me and when we do have time for us/me it will involve cake. So the video really did ring true, that these things I do for me, don't sustain or build me. I know what I need to do, but actually doing it is so tough. Let me show myself a bit of kindness here in that I have started and I'm loving the Saturday yoga class. Going with a friend helped and I feel great after the class.

I have digressed from 'my morning view' somewhat. On waking up on the 1st April, it was dark, I tried playing with the iPhone, but that wasn't going to cut it. On leaving for work, still dark, and then there I am at work and in I go. I did for a brief moment think, oh that pile of papers on the table, that will make a great photo. But a fleeting thought was all it was. Twice or even three times I thought about snapping the great view that I pass when walking from my office to various meetings. Again, a passing thought. What did I think was going to happen if I just stopped for two minutes and took a photo. Seriously.

So now it's a long weekend, and I can sit and type and sound wise and insightful, but really how do I translate this to everyday. My morning this morning. Nourishing. The cats played nice and both curled up on my lap while I enjoyed the lie in, watching the increasing light filter through the blinds. I took photos in the garden to play catch up with the April Love posts, then spent a good while looking through all the other wonders that Intstagram had for me. Oh and a bit of breakfast, leaving the full cooked breakfast for later in the weekend it was fresh croissants, jam and coffee.

I'm sure the chaos of the clothes looks better in black and white

This close and still purring

OK, there is room for two

Any flower is a favourite

Breakfast at home. The fruits of doing some shopping after work.

Day thirty. Thank you

I should have done a before and after shot but my garden was getting a bit crazy. In fact it was a meadow, rather lovely, but driving my hay fever mental. Which added to the challenge of cutting the grass. Hot sunny weather (not moaning) did send the hay fever crazy and then add in super long grass, what was I hoping for. I did a section - mainly to be able to see the vegetable patch if nothing else - found a dead rat in the long grass - nice - so knew this job was needed and soon.
We casually mention to the neighbour and heh look…..we come home from work today and the grass has been cut. "Oh well", he shrugs, "who knows how many dead rats you have in there and I had nothing to do, plus my mower has four blades and yours only has two, so it was easier for me than it would be for you".
Wow
Beers on us then.

Day twenty eight. Love is

Love is this man…building me a (not that straight forward) garden thingy for my vegetable patch on a hot and sunny afternoon.

Day twenty two. Fragrant

The fragrant bounty of my graden. That 'well known' Christmas combination of rosemary, lavender and rhubarb.
Home grown gifts for the staff at work.

Day Eight. Sunset

The oddest sunset. We have had some glimpses of summer but today was a cloudy day. Sunset was around 8.30 and I'm normally heading for bed. if i climb up a little hill in our garden (I wish I could explain that better) I can see the sun going down over the rooftops. This is our tree at the top of our little hill and is the last to bloom in the summer, giving this a wintery halloween feel, not summery at all.

Day Five. Leaves

The aforementioned neglected garden has no shortage of leaves and I did have fun playing in the garden. Playing under the willow tree felt like stepping into another world.

Day Four. Red

I was impressed by how much red I found in the garden, but more impressed by how well the neglected garden was growing

Day Two. Light

A walk in the garden after a day of sleep. Light. Sun. Suncatcher.

How to grow spinach

Not sure how this happened. But I have created a spinach tower. Volcanic soil, lots of rain, some warm winter sun and heh presto. The veggie patch may be a little neglected. I look out the kitchen window and plan the spring work to come.

Happy Evening

The light was just going, the ground a bit damp. We sat bare footed and enjoyed the trees, the birds. Day 73 of the happy days project.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Not happy

I noticed the hedge when we pulled in from work. We'd been waiting for the hedge to be tided but this was half the size. We then noticed that it looked rather more bare behind the gin place / summer temple area. The garden that we have been slowly building for two years. That I had lovingly named the Ruth Parker garden in honour of my wonderful aunt who had sent me some money for my 40th birthday that had started the garden. Yes that garden. Ruined. Wasted. Totally wrecked. All the solar lights broken or uprooted. most of the plants crushed in some way and several of the plants just plan gone, stripped out. I'm rarely an angry person. My garden is the source of a lot of anger I'll admit, the time, effort and love I put into it. It's personal. It's my escape and the way I unwind from work. So it's important. The gin place / summer temple area was just right. We had made some really effort for our upcoming visitors. Most of our weekends had been spent getting this right. Lizzie and Jan had enjoyed it, so that is great, but my mum is coming next week. Her first visit. Likely her only visit and my beautiful garden, named after her sister, is no more the joyous area of colour and light. Am I angry. Just a tad. Ranting online. This is a new one for me. Forgive me. Forgive my unnecessary overuse of punctuation. I'll be better soon (though the grammar may not). I know. It will grow. I'm just angry today.

It was a hard area to take photos of. There was a lot of green and the light was challenging, so there aren't many pictures for me to show of. There is a couple where is forms the background. Please see the joy here - the lovely red flowers in the background - gone.

And here is the pain -

This was a lovely large colourful busy lizzie

A crushed and broken Lilly (I think)

This is where the large red flowers were.

General carnage

Broken flag

100 happy days

#100happydays, originally uploaded by KTandCoffee.

Today's happy thought was a no brainer. Last week we had ran out of gin - 'how did I let that happen' as a good friend said to me. We made an effort yesterday to vist a good bottle shop to have a good choice of gins. I was after a New Zealand made gin that I had read an article in a magazine ages ago. So Lighthouse Gin it was. Blimey, rather strong. Such a glorious feeling. Siting in the newly damn near as ready gin drinking summer temple, reading (OK, reading work stuff - you can take the workaholic out of England.....), drinking and enjoying the sun.

Growing

It's been a good day, we may not be totally ready for the visitors that arrive on Friday but the new plants in the new decking that were pallets are not dead. Happy.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Dirt under my fingernails

The garden has not been a big feature this year, shame as fantasy garden is one of my favourite pastimes. Today was a day to mark though so I sit typing this post with the dirt still under my fingernails - it was that exciting - we mowed the lawn.

Feeling rather grown up but yet still childlike and rather excited, as the last time I mowed a lawn was probably in my grandparents house, we mowed a small section of the lawn. Our new purchase was inspired from broken solar lights. We rent our little house (another fantasy game there but too painful to write about) and have the lawn mowed as part of the rent, but a few broken pots, several sliced plants and then the solar lights smashed meant we thought we'd be better off just doing the lawn ourselves. No small feet and a decision we may wonder at in the future, but for now it's all exciting. It's a fair size garden and I really enjoy working in the garden - I enjoy sitting in the garden drinking gin more but I do realise that some effort has to be put in.

I suffered today with a most impressive rash from who knows what that drove me to the heavy duty cream and the drugs - that's what you get for weeding.

Early 2014 is a busy social time with lots of visitors so the pressure is on to finish some long overdue projects - mainly the gin drinking zone - so I will endure the rash, take the drugs and get on with it.

Fifteenth

Fifteenth, originally uploaded by KTandCoffee.

The garden has sort of been neglected (actually totally neglected) but the carrots have struggled on and despite my neglect (or maybe because of it) they seem to be nearly ready for eating.

First

Leaving work too late and the garden being in darkness was no reason not to get the traditional first photo of the August Break; see 2012 and 2011

Bird table raising

The garden hasn't had a mention for a while. We do get into the garden, even a fair bit at times and we've done some great stuff over the summer. In that elusive quest for balance and getting to grips with us both working Monday to Friday in jobs that we love that little bit too much writing about the garden has taken second place. Admittedly second place to lounging on the settee with a glass of wine but that's another story. Our garden is a little overwhelming at times. I really don't care that it's only a rental. I have so enjoyed growing things, eating said grown things or really just watching the seasons and the changes. It's a great feeling to get very dirty and muddy, breathe in the air, talking to the weeds and feeling so refreshed when settling down to that wine on the settee.

Today saw us achieve a goal we'd been striving for over some time. One of those goals that had me throw a strop attack in the DIY store and abandon my trolley, leaving, needed chocolate. It was a bizzare thing. I wanted a bird table. I had a great plan from a magazine and was going to build one - that didn't happen - above strop attack saw that idea die a finial well deserved death. I found a fabulous website, Creative Woodcraft. All New Zealand made, rather wonderful things. Our rather amazing bird table turned up and then the quest for a post began. We learnt a new phrase/word - standard waratah - I'm not going to explain it - you google it and see what you make of it and work out where to buy one. Today was that quest. it really did feel like a quest. When I heard Adam say "I think I've found a waratah" I was cracked up. This really was a quest. Out joy and smile as we high fived, finally finding the post for said bird table. I am carrying around the post thing that was going to be attached to the bird table. Now I'll celebrate the opening of an envelope and in my job you do learn to appreciate the little things, such as being alive, so to say we are sitting here drinking bubble because of completing our quest may explain how much this has meant - or I really do like bubbles.

So while Adam was doing the work, I scrambled around the garden still trying to get to grips with new flashy rather lush camera.