Daffodils to brighten up my desk

This morning I woke up to a lovely and sunny Spring day. I immediately wanted to bring some sunshine into my room, so I went into the garden and picked this bunch of yellow daffodils. They brighten up my desk and make me feel happy.

Their scent reminds me of when I was little when I lived in England. We had lots of narcissi with different coloured petals and trumpets.

My daffodils have been flowering for over a month now. The ones that I picked today are from the later flowering daffodils. I planted two different types, one was King Edward daffodils and I can't remember the name of the other type, but they start to flower as the others are finishing.

I hope that you are having a lovely sunny day too.

Hugs.

Rose x

Early Spring flowers in my garden

This morning I wanted to take photos of my early Spring flowers, but it was drizzling with rain and I didn't want to get my camera wet. Finally, this afternoon, I managed to go for a walk in the garden in between showers of rain. Everywhere was fresh and the soil squelched under my gumboots as I walked on the grass.

The flowers have opened a month early this year because the winter was so mild.

The onion weed has formed drifts in the grass and it looks so pretty. I am waiting for my white and my blue bluebells to open, I love their scent, unlike the oniony smell of the onion weed.

Talking of scents, the freesias smell heavenly. Their flowers are really big and colourful.

This little patch of garden was planted with 100 freesia bulbs after digging in a couple of sacks of compost.

The arctotis has started to come into flower. There are lots more buds still waiting to open. We have interplanted the arctotis with a pale blue Siberean iris that has golden spots on the petals, the same colour as the arctotis. This year I plan to propagate and spread the iris more.

The calla lilies are huge. This patch seeded itself under our feijoa bushes. There is another patch flowering in a gully on our land that I want to photograph when the weather is a bit drier.

It won't be long before the clivia buds open. There are 4 clusters of buds on my plant this year.

This echium self-seeded in the vegie patch.

My succulents are growing well, they make a great ground cover. They are evergreen and flower for a long time. I still have no idea what they are called.

The lavender is in full flower even though it wasn't pruned properly. I shall take some lavender cuttings, when the time is right, so I can spread it more around the garden. I love the contrast between purple and orange flowers.

I am dying to start my wild flower beds again. I have Spring fever and am finding it hard having to wait for the soil to dry before it can be rotavated. In the meantime I have been buying lots of flower seeds. That is another story for me to tell.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs.

Rose x

Quackers and Cheese came back home!

After going missing for many months, Cheese and Quackers returned home a few weeks ago and started begging for food at the window again. They are almost tame still, but Quackers doesn't do her flying-up-and-down-on-the-spot trick any more when I say "fly". I am so pleased to see them and that they survived the duck hunting season.

I started feeding the ducks again because it was still Winter, and I have a soft spot for Quackers. After a week Quackers and Cheese brought 5 little fluffy ducklings to us to feed. The ducklings all managed to hop onto the deck and ran straight to the window encouraged by Quackers.

After stuffing themselves with soggy wholemeal bread, Quackers and her ducklings all snuggled up cosily on the deck for a snooze. I continued feeding the ducks and ducklings 3 times a day for a couple of weeks. Then Quackers and Cheese started visiting without the ducklings. I thought something had happened to them, but they were quite safe hiding by the pond. Cheese and Quackers had had enough of them and decided that they were old enough to fend for themselves.

The ducklings started coming to the house by themselves, hopping onto the deck and tapping on the window with their beaks, begging for food. They have adopted us as their parents. When I open the window to feed them they rush up to me and peck at my toes waiting to be fed. So now they are being fed 3 times a day.

I took the photo above this afternoon. The 5 ducklings are about half the size of their parents now and have got most of their adult feathers.

And here are the mischievous ducklings trying to get into the house. We can't leave any of the doors open, and have to keep the cat door closed because the ducklings try to get into the house. They discovered the cat door a week ago and one duckling managed to get in through it. I was sitting at my computer at the time when I heard a rather loud quacking noise. I found the duckling in the kitchen. Dad managed to get it out through the dining room door without any trouble.

Now the ducklings can hear which room we are in from outside. They go from window to window looking in and if they are hungry they tap their beaks on the glass demanding service. Spring is a wonderful time!

See you again soon.

Hugs

Rose x

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