7 simple pleasures this week

1. The scent of a rose

My Wedding Bells carpet rose is my favourite rose. It's scent is gorgeous and it has decided to start flowering for the 3rd time this year! We have had an unbelievably warm Autumn, which has confused a lot of my plants, and Winter starts tomorrow! I spent ages looking at the rose, smelling it and then taking photos.

The scent of this rose reminds me of my childhood in England where we had abundant roses growing in our garden. My best friend wanted to show me how to make perfume out of rose petals. So we picked every single rose in the garden and mashed the petals to a pulp with water. The smell was divine while we were preparing the perfume. But not so heavenly after a week in a bottle. My father didn't say a word, amazing.

2. A stroll around our land

We had a few days without rain despite the weatherman forecasting rain all week. So I made the most of it by going for some leisurely walks around our land with my cats Abby and Otto. My cats always come with me wherever I walk on the land. They get all excited and run up and down the trees.

3. Discovering the umbrella grass

I found that the umbrella grass patch has sprouted up again with beautiful green leaves. It has even started to flower. The seasons really are mixed up.

4. My nephew's nature collection

A few years ago I encouraged my young nephew to start a nature collection. I gave him a large shoe box with a lid and we went hunting on the land for little treasures. Now at age 10 my nephew still has his collection and still adds to it. I help him also by keeping my eyes open on my walks, for natural things to add.

On my latest walk I found a monarch butterfly which had died and was lying amongst the dried brown fallen sycamore leaves. It was just by fluke that I spotted it as it was quite camouflaged. My sister-in-law is very squeamish when it comes to insects, so she won't be happy with this find.

I also found 2 feathers, one from a magpie and the other from a pheasant, chestnuts in their prickly cases and a pine cone. I can't wait until I see my nephew again. I haven't seen him since lockdown started.

5. The first snow pea flowers

This afternoon I went to have a look at the vegetable patch and found that the snow peas had started to flower. I was really surprised as it doesn't seem so long ago that I sowed the seeds. Fingers crossed that the bees and other insects will still be around to pollinate them as the weather cools.

6. Planting more vegetables

Dad finished clearing and digging the remaining half of our enclosed vegetable patch this week, then he bought some seedlings to plant. The garden centres are now open with plenty of stock and luckily weren't too busy. We felt that it was too late in the season, with the colder weather coming, to try to grow these from seed.

We planted; celery, lettuce, curly kale, more kohlrabi and sprouting broccoli. Then protected against slugs with slug pellets the next day because the slugs had had a feast in the night on our new veggies, grrr.

7. An afternoon tea treat

I bought a box of Mr Kipling's French Fancies as a treat this week. They are imported from England and I found them when I was doing our grocery shopping online. They are little petit fours made of light sponge and icing. They went perfectly with my Twinings English Breakfast tea. Yum!

What things have you enjoyed this week?

Looking forward to hearing from you :)

Rose x

Edit: Post linked to "My Corner of the World" at the Photographing New Zealand blog

It's bright red and spotty all over!

The fly agaric mushrooms, amanita muscaria, have opened up at last underneath our chestnut tree. It all looks very autumnal with the chestnuts and brown leaves scattered amongst them on the ground.

You can now see the white gills underneath the mushrooms and the remnants of the veil (the white frilly bit on the stem).

The warty white spots, dotted over the red, were once part of the veil that covered the whole mushroom.

Slugs have had a great time munching on the mushrooms leaving big gaping holes. But don't be fooled, these mushrooms are highly poisonous to humans.

I went for a walk in the light drizzling rain this afternoon to take these last two photos. The cloudy weather and water have made the colours in the mushrooms really pop out.

The mushrooms look like they could have come out of a fairytale. All we need are some little elves and goblins in the photos!

I am getting happier all the time with my new cell-phone camera. It is much better and easier to use than my old camera. I can now take clear close-up photos. Big smiles :)

Hugs

Rose x

My Autumn vegetable garden is growing well

We didn't grow any vegetables over Summer this year because the weather was so very hot and dry. The soil was as hard as concrete, impossible to dig. We hadn't intended on doing anything with the vegetable patch through Autumn either, due to the continuing drought.

Then lockdown occurred so suddenly. People started panicking over possible food shortages and a lot were bulk buying, leaving shelves in grocery stores empty. Dad was getting very worried, it reminded him of his experience of severe food shortages during World War 2. So we talked and decided to ressurect the veggie patch again.

Luckily we'd had some rain at this time which had softened the ground up a bit, enabling it to be cleared and dug over. Dad fixed the fences around the vegetable enclosure to stop (or try to stop) the cats from digging in the soil and also to stop the pukekoes from raiding the patch.

Buying vegetable seedlings was impossible for us because the garden centres were all closed. The only thing we had available to use were packets of seeds left over from previous years. Some of the seed was past its use-by date, but we decided to try using it anyway. We also had some potatoes in the pantry that had started sprouting.

We decided to grow mostly Winter vegetables:

- Silverbeet (Swiss chard)
- Kohlrabi
- Pak Choi
- Sprouting broccoli
- Snow peas
- Potatoes

As well as some quick growing vegetables:

- Radishes (German Giant, French Breakfast and White Icicle)
- Mesclun
- Dill

The mesclun grew very quickly and was ready to start harvesting after a month. I pick individual mesclun leaves from the plants as the plants will keep on growing. I love cut-and-come-again plants like this.

The snow peas are doing very well too, despite the seed being so old. I covered the snow pea seeds with wet paper towels overnight before sowing them. I think that that helped.

(If you look carefully at the bottom right of the snow pea photo, above, you will see my cat Abby trying to figure out a way into the veggie patch!)

The dill has grown prolifically this time. It is the best success we have ever had with dill germinating. The seeds used had been gathered and dried in previous years.

It is really too early to harvest any dill yet as the plants have only just started growing. But I needed 1/2 a cup for a recipe I was making. I took a couple of leaves from some of the plantlets, just enough for my meal, I think they will be okay. Fingers crossed.

Everything grew apart from the kohlrabi and silverbeet, which is a pity because I like these. I did find a perpetual silverbeet seedling in one of the old overgrown vegetable patches that I will transplant.

But first I need to do some more weeding. The weeds are growing as fast as the vegetables. I notice the weeds more in the photos than in the garden! Dad removed tonnes of oxalis, but didn't manage to get all of it out. We don't use any chemical sprays, so this means finding the oxalis bulbs and picking them out by hand. I wish the slugs would eat them instead of my vegetables.

Thanks for stopping by. See you again soon.

Hugs

Rose x

Autumn treasures in my garden today

This morning I had a lovely walk around the land to see what treasures I could take photos of. I decided to give my cell-phone camera a try with some close ups, and I'm so happy with the results.

The weather started off cloudy, then, shortly afterwards, the sun came out and it was glorious. The temperature is 24 C at the moment, which is great for Autumn here. It feels more like Spring!

Some of the orange red hot poker, kniphofia, flowers are starting to open. Most of them survived the Summer drought that we had. We have only lost one plant as far as I can see.

The stinking iris, iris foetidissima, seed pods are bursting open with their bright red berries.

The ground is covered with prickly chestnut cases. Unfortunately this year the chestnuts inside are tiny and shrivelled, I think due to the drought.

Fly agaric mushrooms, amanita muscaria, are popping up all around the chestnut tree. They are just starting to open. Their creamy white veils are slowly breaking apart as the red mushrooms grow bigger. The veil will form the classic white spots on the red mushrooms.

Our feijoa, acca sellowiana, hasn't fruited well this year. Again I blame the drought for this. And what friut has fallen is quickly gobbled up by greedy pukekoes. (Feijoas are also known as pineapple guavas in some countries).

Japanese anemones, anemone japonica, are flowering by the house showing off their bright pink petals and yellow fluffy stamens.

The snowball viburnum bush, viburnum macrocephallum, has turned a beautiful russet red colour. I can't wait until Spring when it is dressed in its large white pom pom flowers.

The hydrangea flowers have turned a deep purplish pink colour and are looking very pretty.

This is one of our yellow buttercup trees, senna corymbosa, coming into flower. They look lovely when all of the buds have opened. In the background you can see purple tibouchina flowers. The tibouchina bush flowers all year round here and survives our light frosts in Winter.

I had fun walking through the fallen sycamore leaves, crunching them under my feet. They remind me of when I was a child in England when I used to do the same thing!

And finally I discovered that my Jerusalem sage, phlomis russeliana, has survived and is starting to push up its furry green leaves! I planted it a few years ago and am still waiting for it to flower. Hopefully next Spring I will be lucky and be rewarded by seeing yellow whorls of flowers. Fingers crossed.

What time of year is it where you are?

Lots of smiles.

Hugs.

Rose x

Thriving in my lockdown bubble

I thought that I would share with you some little things that have helped me to survive life in a lockdown bubble here in New Zealand.

Being in a bubble of 3

I am not isolated from absolutely everyone. I am fortunate enough to be in a bubble shared with my elderly parents. We live in a house with two living rooms and are situated on a 10 and a 1/4 acre lifestyle block. So I feel very privileged compared to those having to go through lockdown by themselves.

Being an introvert

I am also lucky in that I am an introvert and find pleasure in the smallest of things.

Computers, Apps and phones

I still miss being able to visit the rest of my family and friends. To solve the problem of being totally isolated from others, I downloaded Zoom onto our computers. This has been great. Mum, dad and I have been able to hold 40-minute chats, for free, with the rest of the family. It is lovely to be able to see people at the same time as talking to them.

Mum also has FaceTime on her iPad for talking, with video, one-on-one with family, again for free.

Before lockdown I had never used those Apps. I was even apprehensive (pun intended) of using them at first. But they have been wonderful to have. I also talk to my sister on the phone daily. She is not so computer savvy, so we find it easier to chat this way. Together with texts and emails.

Daily routines

Early on in lockdown I realised the importance of setting myself a daily routine, to keep some structure in my life, as I was starting to spend too much time napping. I made lists of things I like to do by myself and with my parents. I also made lists of things that I needed to do.

Online shopping

After the craziness of trying to do my grocery shopping in-store when we first went into lockdown, I decided to try online shopping.

The grocery store that I usually shop at only had online click-and-collect shopping, with no option for home delivery. So I had to choose a more expensive supermarket.

It was difficult to get a delivery slot at the beginning of lockdown. But later on I found that I could get delivery bookings 7 days later. I got into a routine of planning our menus for the week 2 weeks in advance. Then ordering our groceries to be delivered and then quarantining them for 3 days before using them.

We have been able to buy most of the things that we needed with the exception of wholemeal flour and desiccated coconut. Some weeks I have been unable to get chicken for some weird reason I don't know of. And thank goodness there has been no difficulty in buying food and cat litter for my cats.

Online shopping has also come in very handy for birthday and Mother's day presents. These can be delivered directly to whoever you want them to be given to. Albeit that the postal services are slower due to the lockdown, so planning way ahead is necessary.

Some of the things that I have enjoyed that pass the time are:

Colouring in books

I have been busy with my Johanna Basford Lost Ocean colouring book, colouring in a few fish, copying colours used from internet searches. (I wasn't quite confident in choosing my own colours).

eBooks and eMagazines

Mum and I love reading, however our libraries are all closed due to lockdown and we only had one book each left to read.

The problem was solved for mum after she mentioned this dilemma to my brother. My brother kindly couriered mum an old iPad that he had. He pre-set it with an App compatible with downloading eBooks, for free, from our local library.

While I was downloading books for mum I noticed that there was also a smartphone-compatible App on the library's website. So I set it up on my smartphone and hey presto I am now able to read eBooks on my phone....Yay!

I then looked further on the library website and discovered that it was possible to read eMagazines on my computer, full-screen size. Another big yay!

OneNotes and moodboards

I invented a new hobby for myself using the eMagazines, the snipping tool in Microsoft Windows and my Microsoft OneNotes program. Making moodboards and daydreaming about my future home! Lots of fun and a pleasant way to pass the time.

Television on demand

Watching television is not something that I usually spend much time doing, but I have enjoyed watching Escape to the Chateau and Gardener's World on demand TV.

There are so many programmes to choose from for free here in New Zealand. On TVNZ On Demand, Choice On Demand and HGTV On Demand. Plus I get free access to Lightbox through my Internet Service Provider.

Our Auckland library also has free films that can be watched online, but my internet speed isn't fast enough for the library films for some reason.

Phew this is a long blog post!

I hope that you are managing to cope with lockdown isolation/quarantine. I would love to read your comments about your coping strategies in this strange new world.

See you again soon.

Hugs

Rose xxx

Two new lovely cats in the family

It has been a long time since I last posted. I had a tough time last year losing my three cats Oscar, Ginger and Felix due to different serious illnesses. And then my brother-in-law passed away on Christmas Day which was heartbreaking for all the family.

Things started to settle down this year until we had to go into Lockdown, due the Covid-19 virus, 6 weeks ago. It has certainly been a turbulent time for everyone. I am trying to focus on positive things now and things are certainly improving.

I would like to introduce to you two new additions to the family. Abby and Otto. They are both rescue cats which were born a day apart from each other in February last year.

I adopted Abby and Otto after falling in love with them at first sight. Abby is a silver tabby and Otto is an orange tabby. They have settled in well and love each other despite being from different litters. They are very playful and inquisitive and get up to plenty of mischief, keeping me on my toes.

Abby and Otto like snuggling up to sleep together, anywhere that is comfortable, regardless of how much, or little, room there is. I found them squashed into one basket quite happily purring. Then Abby decided to sleep on the cat-scratching toy.

I managed to find another basket for them, so they can sleep one in each, and they are very happy.

See you again soon.

Hugs,

Rose x