Tuesday 18 December 2018

Wedding Bliss .....and Baby News !!!

Two weeks ago my baby girl got married and announced she is having a baby girl !! ..... Wedding guests got a wonderful surprise as the celebrant announced their baby girl is due in May....it was a truly beautiful wedding ....Flowerdale Estate in full bloom and the sun shone all day.    So lucky !!

Me the proud mum.....walking my daughter down the aisle.
Giving my girl away.....her lovely man waiting at the altar. 

The big announcement.....they are so excited.

The happy couple.....the roses on the arbor and surrounds were so beautiful.

The gorgeous garden and amazing tree at Flowerdale .

The kiss......and the cake....fresh flowers and three different flavours....scrumptious.

My girls....My eldest daughter (Matron of Honour) and the Bride......and the bride's best friend (Bridesmaid).

My beautiful family.....my husband now in trouble for not buttoning his jacket !!

The amazing pavilion where we held the reception....all the roses on the property were in full bloom....!!

The Tables....waiting for the guests.
Like most country weddings it involved an overnight stay for many of the guests....
so lovely to see the newly weds next morning at brunch.....
Before they headed off for a honeymoon in Thailand.

The new mister and misses.....complete with matching t-shirts and baby bump 

I was joined at brunch by one of the resident Maremma's ....... I LOVE DOGS  ... just sayin'......!!
 I've been incredibly lucky this year with two weddings.....
both of my girls now married to lovely men
.... and a new grandbaby on the way....
....fabulous.

Thursday 11 October 2018

A Few of My Favourite Things ......!!

Spring has arrived in a flurry and the garden is alive with bees, birds, lizards and insects...was so excited to find our Japanese Maple absolutely dripping with ladybugs....they've arrived in time for the annual aphid infestation I think.  They are mating and laying eggs all over the tree...I have done a bit of a google and they are 'Harmonica Conformis' or the large spotted ladybug.  We use no chemicals at all in the garden and vegie beds and the earth is full of worms, the borage and lavender humming with bees and now the ladybugs!!.....We have installed a habitat pond but as yet no frogs...hopefully they will arrive soon.

Ladybug and her eggs...the tree is crawling with baby ladybugs
They were busy doing what ladybugs do....quite a few of them were in threesomes?


All of the fruit trees have blossomed and hopefully the bees all do their thing and we have loads of fruit this season.
Apple Blossoms...hope this means lots of fruit!
An early Spring morning shot driving past the small lake at the end of the street.....it was so beautiful in this light with the morning mist rising off the water....lots of new baby duckling swimming around there now.
The lake at the bottom of the hill.
 This dog of mine is such a gentle laid back beast......she is so relaxed ...spends most of her time lying near me wherever I am....She needed a clip and a bath....the glasses stayed on for ages!

Daisy....Crazy hair and a pair of my glasses.
After a trip to the groomers it was time for a snooze on the couch....she's hilarious !!  when she gets into these positions I always do a quick check to make sure she can breath with her face stuffed into pillows. 
It's a hard life !!
A travelled by train to Melbourne and met a friend for the MOMA exhibition at the art gallery....I'm not really a big fan of modern art, I guess it's all in the understanding of what the artist is trying to say....but I did love this huge piece from Ghanaian artist El Anatsui ... a sculpture made from liquor bottle tops and seals discarded by Nigerian distilleries.  Anatsui and his assistants flattened, folded & linked the pieces together with copper wire....I thought it was spectacular, and my favourite modern piece.

Europeans used alcohol to barter for African goods and it became a key commodity in the transatlantic slave trade.
 It is always great to see original art from famous painters that we rarely get to see here .
I took a few pics of some of the great names..

Don't love Picasso but great to see an original

I love Frida Kahlo...one of her self portraits was on display


Van Gogh's famous portrait of a postman....I love some of his other major works


The original Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe

That about wraps it up.....my favourite things for September and October.....!!




Monday 27 August 2018

Day's of Love, Letterboxes & Longing......!!

It was my 25th wedding anniversary on Wednesday so to celebrate I took my man away for the weekend to Daylesford....which happened to be the second weekend of the Words in Winter festival being held there...love it when I can kill two birds with one stone...I'd never get him interested in a writers festival !!...so he amused himself while I joined a couple of 1 hour sessions I wanted to attend. ...we spent the rest of the time idyllically enjoying the beauty and fabulous community that is Daylesford.

Getting there, I have to admit to an obsession of mine .... which along with old cemeteries...is loving the letterbox groupings that abound in country Victoria....I always look out for them and when they sneak up on us I shout out to pull over,  which never gives my man enough time or space to stop.....so we revisited these two near Daylesford just so I could take a couple of pictures....I love them...such a quirky part of the rural landscape.

On the Midland Hwy just out of Daylesford....
Just off Porcupine Ridge Rd.....I love them !!

We had two nights at The Hide studio Mt Franklin ...a beautiful self contained cottage on 44 hectares...complete with a frog filled dam, beautiful cattle, geese, native birds and about a thousand kangaroos...I have never seen so many...they were everywhere.... but still those wide open spaces set me craving !!
Beautiful accommodation at Mt Franklin ..the little cottage in the middle next to the dam
A trip to Daylesford wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Convent Gallery.....we had a lovely morning tea in the atrium soaking up the fabulous sunshine streaming through the glass...the weather was perfect all weekend....we were so lucky. Inside the gallery I was mesmerised by the incredible artwork of Barbara Hauser ..... Acrylic on Printed Fabrics.....they are so fabulous if I had the money I would love to own one of them....!!




 I can also admit I struggle to walk past a plant nursery without going in and buying a little something to plant when I get home...and this pocket sized nursery in Daylesford is just amazing....it's a work of art in itself and the plants and garden bits and bobs make it a treasure chest of goodies.....such a creative and fabulous use of space...rusty galvanised iron has been put to delightful purpose...everywhere you look there is a creative little gem waiting ...  If dreams were wishes I would love to own and work in this place..!!

Love, love , love this nursery......!!
So much to look at and so beautifully done.....!!
 We had a great weekend away to celebrate which left me longing for all the beauty and creativity that I saw and experienced.....but I feel wonderfully inspired and motivated to get fired up on my own creative projects that always somehow wind up on the back-burner !!  

I'll finish off with a pic of the beautiful bunch of anniversary flowers from my husband.. second time around for me and third for him.... 25 happy years...can't really ask for more than that.



Monday 30 July 2018

Goodbye July ....!!!

I seem to have completely lost track of time...It's the last day of July !!!  Where did the last three months go??...I've been remiss and not found the time (should read not made the time !!) to pop in here and share what's been going on....I like to think of my blog as just my memory of what's been happening and also a bit of a photo album. ... Just had to update my mobile phone which died and my first thought was..'Oh no' what about my photos!!...thankfully all good but was a reminder to put up pictures here that I will always want to look back on.  Digital images are great but if you haven't printed them..(and not many of us do that anymore)...and something happens, they are lost.  Here's a little bit of what has been happening recently.

Mid May we celebrated a beautiful wedding when my eldest daughter married her best friend...my fabulous G-boy did a great job walking the bride in and giving her away .... a heart warming marriage ceremony followed by a gorgeous afternoon tea to celebrate.... shared by immediate family and closest friends in a romantic cottage on a strawberry farm in Wallan....perfect!! 

The cake 
My daughter made her own cake the night before ... and iced it the morning of the wedding
I decorated it with flowers and strawberries and little cactus from the garden...simple but elegant I think!!

The buffet table....delicious and divine goodies.
Gorgeous home made delights....by both of my daughters and her future mother in law....(just simple fingers sandwiches made by yours truly)...I did do flowers and table decorations though !!
My G-boy proudly walking his mummy to her future husband......so CUTE !!
 My daughter was lucky that a very dear friend and wedding guest is now a photographer and kindly took fabulous happy snaps on the day.....you can see more of Dani's photography on her professional website HERE ..We were so grateful for the great pictures she took....so creative and got the feel of the day exactly how it was....joyful.
Just love this "artistic" shot by Dani....highly recommend her for any photography needs, big or small.
Congratulations to the happy couple.......love them to bits.


We have another wedding this year when my youngest daughter ties the knot in November....so  lots to look forward to !!

Early July I took myself off on a 6 day yoga retreat at Mission Beach QLD....Quite an adventure....Yoga three times a day...very extreme location in a rainforest at the top of a mountain...(really large hill actually..but felt like a mountain walking the 600m from carpark ...very very steep and a tough climb)...full of wildlife at your door....cassowaries, huge lizards, monster spiders you name it....and it was all vegetarian meals!!....Really delicious and I have often thought of trying to be vegetarian....but boy I really missed proteins...eggs will only go so far....Food for thought because I think I would struggle to be totally vegetarian.... Organised through Robyn ...(my Yoga teacher when I lived in Emerald)...along with 22 others... the experience was really amazing and I learnt a lot more about myself than I thought possible. ....Namaste !
The wonderful Yoga studio....
Three yoga sessions a day in the studio....7am Hatha Yoga , followed by pre lunch Yoga Nidra and pre dinner Vinyasa Yoga.  Really beautiful experience included essential oils for Chakra healing.
Patterns on the sand
I was absolutely fascinated by the beautiful patterns the crabs make all along the sand at Mission Beach...truly amazing...it looked like masses of flowers or fireworks spread as far as the eye could see.
The view of the rainforest from the balcony of my cabin...lots of wildlife going on in there !!

Cassowary walking along the path
Picture of the cassowary who thankfully didn't tear me to shreds when it walked past...did give me the 'stink-eye' though!!  ...  they are rather intimidating up close and personal....but so spectacular to see and hear them walking about the place. 


Brooks Beach 
A few hundred metres from the Resort is Brooks Beach....happens it's a local nudist beach...and 'No' I didn't join the few brave Yogi's who took a skinny dip!!  I had a fantastic and challenging time...learnt a lot about myself  and feel I came back a more balanced and somewhat humbled human being. 

Tuesday 24 April 2018

Autumnal April - Bliss.....!!!

There comes a time when you have to take a serious look at how much you are actually spending in the supermarkets and shops on food...  we have been spending an inordinate amount of money recently without any idea of how much is too much.....So we are trying to track our food money spending... I thought I would start with one weeks groceries and see if I could avoid return trips over the next seven days....I took a picture to remind myself what I had bought and was shocked to see (for someone who thinks she is conscious about not using plastics !!) the huge amount of plastic contained in one supermarket visit.  While I never use plastic bags to put fruit and veg in (usually not purchased from the supermarket but this was a test) the plastic wrapped meats ( I usually buy at the butcher), cheeses, pasta and roast chicken etc...... WOW all that plastic !!! While the menu planning did work and I didn't return to the supermarket for 7 days, the truth is I want to avoid the supermarkets all together...easier said than done but my meat and vegies will continue to be sourced from the butcher and organic store, need to find unwrapped cheeses etc..  Food for thought.

Supermarket shopping for one week.....SO MUCH PLASTIC.
The unseasonal autumn heat has thankfully settled down and beautiful mild days have been the norm....I love autumn..long shadows and falling leaves......planting out the vegie beds and growing our own seedlings and getting into the garden...I didn't like the shrub that sits alongside the deck and contemplated pulling it out, but decided to trim it into a love- heart.....'corny' right but I really like how it looks now and happy to not have to remove it.

Practicing topiary in my yard 
 It was a glorious day on Sunday so we took a drive to Noojee.....it was a beautiful trip...we had a picnic on the lawns behind the Noojee hotel....live music was playing as we sat by the river, we then took the dogs for a stroll on the Loch Valley tramway walk...followed up with afternoon tea (thermos and home made fruit cake..very 'old school') and enjoyed it alongside the old trestle bridge.


Trestle bridge in Noojee... amazing.
I posted recently about my wonderful Auntie who passed away from an unexpected stroke .... my cousin was very chuffed to see that they have made a memorial gate in her honour at the football club....so nice that the community remembered her in this way, for all her help and support of the sporting groups over many years....RIP darling Joyce  xx

The sign on the memorial gate in honour of my Auntie.
I've recently joined a fabulous yoga and mediation studio in Warragul....finally found the right teacher who resonates with me and what I hope to achieve through Yoga and daily practice..... so far it's been a really great experience and I think I've learnt quite a lot about myself....I love it....Namaste !




Monday 19 March 2018

What's Happened to Autumn ....!!

Is it just me or are we still waiting for Autumn....some of the trees have lost a few leaves and the pumpkin vines have all but died off ,thankfully leaving quite a few pumpkins......but what's with this weather....I love Autumn, in fact it's my favourite time of year.... but it's been so hot and dry here I just want some beautiful mild days and a lovely bit of rain. ... 
Spending so much time watering the garden....the droplets on this plant looked beautiful in the light
I found this picture of hand embroidery in a magazine....I just love it and would really love to learn how to do all of these wonderful stitches.... there is something so beautiful and timeless about this piece.........if I get brave I might give it a try when the weather cools down !!

I just love this embroidery....looks really difficult but I would love to try.
 Couldn't resist adding a couple of pictures of this little minx....she spends most of her time laying around wherever I am ..... 
Daisy in her usual spot on the couch.... !!

Daisy with 'Bed Hair"....she comes up for a cuddle in the morning.
 This week will find me in the vegie garden with more planting for the coming season....fingers crossed we get  a nice decent downpour.