Wishing you a Happy Easter!

I hope that you have a wonderful Easter holiday with family and friends and that the Easter Bunny is good to you with lots of Easter eggs to share!

With lots of hugs

from Rose xxx

And then the sky turned pink

After the storm we were rewarded with a hazy sunset which turned everything softly pink.

The mist steamed off the hilltop trees as the evening turned muggy and hot.

All is well in our little part of Auckland.

Tomorrow, if the rain holds off, I will take a closer look at my wildflower garden to see if it can be revived.

Red sky at night shepherds delight!

See you again soon

Hugs

Rose x

Friday flower blues

Last night the forecasted storm hit Auckland with a deluge of rain that filled up our water tank. The rain was much needed as our water tank level was running quite low and there is a 3 to 6 week wait for water to be delivered! The wind was so strong it shook the house and then the power went off.

It was quite comforting to be tucked up inside with my cats. No damage was done to the house, but my wildflower bed is flattened and there are no petals left on the coreopsis flowers. All is a mass of tangled stems. I will have to wait until the rain stops before I can have a closer look.

I cheered myself up by looking through some flower photos that I took midweek. The lovely cobalt blue hydrangeas are still intact, as are the agapanthus flowers.

It is surprising that none of our trees got damaged by the storm. We had most of the old and dying pine trees removed over a year ago because they were falling over by themselves and causing a lot of problems. We now have a lot of pine and gum tree saplings growing happily in their place.

I hope that the weather has been kinder to you!

With love

from Rose x

Wildflower garden success, it's looking totally wild!

I started this wildflower garden just over a year ago, in November 2016, and it's still in full flower. The coreopsis flowers have survived the rabbits, lack of rainfall and no watering whatsoever by me.

I trimmed the coreopsis plants down to one foot when they first finished dropping their seed. These same plants came up again, together with the seedlings grown from the dropped seed. I plan to do the same again once the flower seeds have set and dropped.

The main flowers showing at the moment are coreopsis tinctoria. They reach over 6 feet tall, so are quite a bit taller than me!

I enjoy going for a walk around this flower bed very much, especially in the mornings and evenings when it's a little cooler. My cat Oscar usually follows me and meows very loudly if I go too fast.

There are some scabious plants dotted around amongst the yellow coreopsis, in shades of mauve, pink, white and a deep, dark, almost blackish maroon, the petals of which look like rich velvet. The butterflies and bees love it.

The following photos show the view across the wildflower garden and down onto to our neighbours horse paddocks and arena. The hill in the background is a nature reserve filled with native New Zealand bush (woodland).

The weather forecast for the end of the week is for strong wind and heavy rain. I am keeping my fingers crossed that not too much damage will be done to my flowers. However looking at it optimistically, the coreopsis will grow back again if trimmed down.

Time now for a cup of hot chocolate and back to reading my book.

See you again soon,

Hugs Rose x

Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2018

Merry Christmas from Rose - Happy Ramblings blog

It has been a year since my last post, yet it only feels like yesterday. Time passes so quickly. I hope that the year went well for you and that you have time to stop and enjoy the coming holidays.

I finished all of my shopping yesterday for our Christmas Eve dinner and all the presents are wrapped and waiting to be given out on Christmas day. The shops were getting crazy yesterday, even at 8.00 o'clock in the morning, the supermarket was packed. Plus I had to wait for parking at Farro, my favourite delicatessen for all things Christmas.

It is 27 C outside at the moment. It doesn't feel hot as there is a lovely breeze and it isn't humid. Perfect weather for me for Christmas. Usually I feel really hot at this time of the year and don't want to do anything but lounge around the house because of the heat.

I have a rather meagre Santa Sack for myself this year as I had to be very frugal due to not working. I think that I have 4 items in my Santa Sack which I put in at the beginning of the year. Plus Mum has snuck something into it too which is really fun.

During the run-up to Christmas I went to a candle-making party like last year. I enjoyed it very much. I made 2 candles and a tea-light out of soy wax and scented them with citrus peel fragrance. I chose silver-plated engraved metal containers this time. I liked them so much that I kept one for myself. The other is being given as a Christmas present.

Have a wonderful Christmas-time and take care on the roads. Hope to catch up with you again soon.

Lots of hugs

Rose x

Santa sack 2016 - early opening :)

It is the day before Christmas Eve and again I couldn't wait to open my Santa sack containing little presents that I bought for myself throughout the year :) I used money that was given to me for Christmas and my birthday last year, to buy treats for Christmas this year. There are always things in my Santa sack which I have forgotten about because I don't peep into it as the year goes by.

My Santa sack fillers were:

- Body Shop Satsuma soap
- Clinique After Sun (I use this as a moisturiser on my face)
- Turkish delight

- Bath products from Lush (Snow angel bath melt, Snowball bath bomb, Rose queen bath bomb, Green bubbleroon bubble bar, Golden wonder bath bomb and Creamy candy bubble bar).
- L'Occitane products (Vervaine bubble bath, Bonne Mere bath cubes, 4 Reins rose bubble bath and body cream, Bonne Mere soaps and a Pivoine soap.

- A pottery hedgehog plant pot and mustard and cress seeds to grow in it. The mustard and cress will be the hedgehogs prickles. I also bought the same as part of my nephews birthday present and couldn't resist one myself :)
- A heart shaped soap.

- Lindt chocolate teddy bear
- Terry's chocolate orange
- 2 colouring books (Wild Savannah and Magic Jungle)

These will all keep me happy throughout the year :)

All the Christmas preparations are finished. Now there is only Christmas Eve dinner to prepare tomorrow. It is a special time for us. Everything is so relaxed it is amazing. No last minute Christmas shopping, so I can spend this evening watching Christmas themed shows, listening to Christmas music and reading my book.

I hope that your holiday preparations are going to plan and that you are managing to take time out to enjoy yourself too.

See you again soon.

Hugs

Rose x