Embracing November

November last year was a definite 'blink and miss it' month for me.  I hadn't long been home with newborn Sophie and with her suffering from terrible colic and in extreme discomfort after every breastfeed, combined with my surge of new Mama hormones making me emotional and teary, I was feeling overwhelmed trying to divide my attention between my two little ones. I simply focused on getting through each sleep deprived day as best I could, waiting for the time when things would finally settle down. Up until Christmas really, I was feeling rather frazzled and after the situation with Sophie reached a peak and we ended up in the children's ward in Fremantle Hospital (which thankfully led to us discovering her discomfort was due to lactose overload), Christmas appeared out of nowhere and it was soon the new year.

Fast forward to the same month in 2012 and Sophie's milestone first birthday is now out of the way and I have made the decision to be kind to myself and not host my usual Pink Ribbon Day Fundraiser as I have done for the past three years.  With various functions already being penned in on our calendar for the coming months, I want our days ahead to be kept slow paced and filled with things like time spent pottering around the home, catch ups with friends and their little ones and lots of fun together as a family.

And so, this November, I'm going to take in all the things that I missed last year. I want to appreciate the beauty of our star jasmine bush outside our back door, currently exploding in an abundance of blooms and smelling unbelievable.  I want to spend time in the backyard with the girls, having picnics and tea parties beneath the shade of our bottlebrush.  I want to continue with my spring cleaning projects and hopefully finish before spring is over and summer is upon us. I'm hoping to get all of my Christmas gift shopping out of the way and to do it as stress-free as possible (unlike last year when I was madly running around the shops in the final days of December).  I want to enjoy the warmer weather and the treat of being able to eat outdoors in the evening.  I want to finally join in with the Photo A Day challenge and hopefully capture some great memories along the way... 

How about you?  How is your November shaping up?

Our Wednesday

After all the party preparations of last week, this one has been nice and calm and slow-paced so far, free of deadlines and 'to-dos' and full of play, pottering and left over birthday cake.

One nice surprise this morning was a package that arrived on our doorstep.  Wanting to add a bit of a vintage vibe to Sophie's nursery among all the newer items, I'd been searching on Etsy for a cute ornament of some sort.  After spotting the trio of white swans above at The Vagrant Duck, I ordered them as part of her birthday present.  I chose well as Sophie kicked her chubby little legs in excitement and made her own version of a quacking noise when she saw them sitting on our kitchen bench.  I can't wait to get her shelves up now so I can display them.

The rest of our day has been spent catching up on washing while it's been good drying weather, spring-cleaning Sophie's wardrobe and tending to our vegetable patch.  I've also been sorting through the photos I took on Sunday so I can share some of them with you soon.  Be sure to pop back at the end of the week for a post about Sophie's first birthday party...

One Weekend Wonder: Working Hard In The Garden

Today, I'm linking up with Claire's One Weekend Wonder post - a weekly link-up where bloggers share a special moment or experience captured during the weekend... one they want to cherish...

Our weekend was a VERY productive one.  It was non-stop for us all but we accomplished a lot, especially seeing as we did all we did with two little girls to look after and keep happy at the same time. The majority of our weekend was spent in the garden.  Paul worked especially hard (with Grace and I lending a hand) and between us, we managed to prune, weed and mulch the back garden and most of the front.  It's so rewarding to look out the window now or pull into our driveway seeing everything looking so neat.

Grace especially loved being Daddy's helper.  While I alternated between pruning bushes, doing chores inside the house and keeping Sophie entertained, she and Paul scooped bucket after bucket of mulch, carpeting the garden in pine bark chips.  She loved gallivanting about in her gumboots, climbing up onto the trailer and getting absolutely filthy in the process.

Now we just need to wait for all our frangipanis to come out in foliage again as things are looking a little bit bare and we need to buy some more ground covers and low growing shrubs to fill in all the 'empty spots'.  We're also thinking of planting some tall hedge / screening type plants along the other side of our fence in the top photo, to create a bit more privacy and to hide the view of nearby rooftops and palm trees. It will be nice to look out the back and see greenery above the fence line rather than roof tiles.

In other 'garden news', our little baby dove took its first flight yesterday and left the nest (that's her on the beam in the photo above).  I've found I'm still glancing out the window all the time out of habit though, expecting to see our little friend amongst the branches of the jasmine bush.

How was your weekend?

New Life

Just outside our back door we have a star jasmine bush growing up and around one of the patio posts.  It was there when we bought our home and year after year has continued to grow healthily, becoming carpeted in fragrant white blooms just before the warmer months set in.

In addition to this bush producing a mass of flowers, each year come spring, it becomes home for at least one nest of doves, if not more.  Some take up residence in existing nests, others 'house sit' the homes of their previous feathered friends.

A few weeks back though, our jasmine bush began looking a bit sick - straggly and bare.  Paul gave it a bit of a prune away from the beams and in the process, left a nest exposed right on the top branches, tucked under the patio roof.  This is where our latest little dove friend decided to call home.

Grace and I have been waiting patiently for action and after excitedly discovering several eggs, have been watching day after day to see if any had hatched.  After the weather here in Perth becoming decidedly spring-like over the weekend, yesterday it reverted back to winter with strong rain and hail.  And so, stuck inside, we kept an eye on our dove from the kitchen table.  Suddenly, we saw the little mother bird flapping around and realized one of the eggs had finally hatched.  I raced to grab my camera and zoom lens and managed to snap this precious shot below at just the right moment...

There's something so special about witnessing new life, no matter what its form.  Now we'll keep watch as this baby grows and takes its first little flight... 

May Flowers

In our garden at this time of year, there's one plant which is definitely the show stopper... our pink camellia.  The photo below shows what I see every time I look out our kitchen and living room windows.  I couldn't resist rushing outside to get a photo to share with you while I thought of it so you could picture my exact view right this minute.  While the individual blooms are nothing spectacular and definitely not as pretty as the double style camellia we have in our front garden, en masse these pink ones look lovely, especially as their pink petals carpet the ground.

And yes, that's Grace in her fairy costume yet again in the photo above.  She is still living in it lately, although this week has been a break through in that we've had her stay in her pyjamas in her bed every single night.  Her reward for doing so is me promising to sew her something new for her dress up basket.    

I'm off to a high tea in the city tomorrow afternoon with my two best friends as a belated 30th birthday celebration for me - one had just had her first baby and the other was in Europe back in March so we agreed to do a little celebration later in the year instead.  I can't wait!... I hope the weekend ahead is a lovely one for you all too.

Our Autumn Garden

Here in Perth over the last week or so, it’s really begun to feel like autumn.  Crisp mornings, sunny days, the odd shower and cooler evenings have all been welcomed in this household.  I love that it’s cool enough to put on slippers and cosier pyjamas, but warm enough during the day to spend time outdoors in the sunshine.

With the arrival of the slightly colder weather, we finally got back into the garden over the weekend.  Paul is always out in the yard over the weekend mowing the lawn or weeding, but this is the first time in months we’ve done any actual planting.  The girls and I headed to Bunnings on Friday and bought a whole bundle of flowers to add some colour around the place and with the assistance of my gardening helper Grace, we managed to get them all in before a good downpour that night.  On Sunday, we went and got some more flowers as well as some seedlings to start off our vegetable patch again.  Our previous crop of vegetables got fried during the long heatwaves Perth experienced over summer but we are now growing some cherry tomatoes, beans, pak choi, lettuce and baby spinach with some seeds of chicory, beetroot and spring onions still to be planted.

Our garden is one of the parts of our home that has really changed over the years.  We’ve invested a lot of time and money into changing things to suit our taste.  However, changing things in the garden requires a great deal of patience as lots of shrubs and trees we have planted are yet to grow to their eventual size and so when I look around, I often feel as though there are bare patches in our garden.  What's needed now are some low border style plants and groundcovers to 'fill in the gaps'.

Anyway, all this talk about gardens has made me realise I'd better go and water our vegetable patch before dinner...

    

Container Planting Suggestions

This morning I've woken to a much cooler day with a dull grey sky and rain falling gently outside - bliss! Yesterday, as Grace played happily in our backyard while Sophie had her morning nap, I sat on our patio, Yates Garden Guide in hand, planning some things to do in our garden once it cools down more. With the recent extreme heat Perth has had lately, there have been a few casualties around our place and I haven't had a very good record with our pot plants which seem to dry out very quickly.

I've been trying to research options for container plants. I have a large pot and a few smaller ones in the sun as well as a few under my patio to be filled. There's currently a hydrangea in one but I think it would be better in the ground and it tends to look a bit bare in the winter months anyway so I'm after something with year round foliage. My book recommends a Camellia, a plant I've always loved so I'm thinking that might be a possibility.

Can any of you suggest some options for pot plants that you've had success with?

Image above from Sunshine Ceramics where you can buy the cute little garden sign.
Be sure to check out Tracy's cute herb markers too.

Around Our Place

This week has been a fairly quiet one for Grace and I as we haven’t ventured too far from the house. Apart from my Mum and a few friends popping in here and there, we’ve had lots of tea parties, spent plenty of time outside picking flowers and collecting snails (Grace is infatuated by them) and done a bit of baking. Yesterday we made a batch of delicious Mini Raspberry Melting Moments to enjoy for our morning tea which you can see above on the pretty china side plate I bought last weekend from a church fete.



I have also managed to get a few little crafty projects done, just a few small things for Grace’s room like the tissue box cover above. I’d originally seen a tutorial on Janette’s blog and ended up using a combination of two – the one she’d seen on Design*Sponge and one from here. I’ve also managed to finish adding a few new small touches to our ensuite and once I hang the little piece of artwork I’ve made, I’ll share some photos of it with you next week.





Today I’ve been alternating been pottering around the house and sitting outside in the glorious sunshine (after having a downpour of rain last Sunday and hail, tomorrow we have a forecast of 35!) Paul has been laying lawn all morning and ‘Grace’s Garden Corner’ is starting to slowly look a bit better now that the brick path and grass are in. You can see a current shot and before shot above. I have seen a cute little table and chairs at Bunnings which I’d love to get for here and once we fill the sand patch in the corner with sand, we just need to decide what else is going to go on the lawn – trampoline or cubby…?

How have you all spent your Saturday? Do you have anything special planned for tomorrow?

Latest Backyard Plans

Now that our vegetable and herb corner is up and running and with Paul currently on holidays, we've turned our attention to a neglected part of our backyard. Being hidden from view when you look out our back door, this area became a bit of a rubbish pile at times and the sand which found its way all over the path (thanks to Asha) made everything dirty.

This part of backyard is going to become Grace's corner. Paul has reduced the size of the garden bed on the right in the photo below and found new homes for all the plants we wanted to keep in the one to the left. He has also already shifted a LOT of sand. Now he needs to pull up the pavers and hire a little digging machine to move the rest of the dirt. Then we'll be extending the lawn right up to the fence and creating a little garden path from the gate around to the patio.

We're not sure yet what will end up in Grace's corner - a sandpit, a trampoline, a cubby house or perhaps a swing set. All I know is that I've earmarked a shady spot under the tree for a cute little table and chairs where I can sit with a magazine and a cuppa and watch Grace while she plays.

I'll keep you up to date with the progress of our latest project...

Summer Vegetable Garden

As I was giving our plants a good soak the other night, I realised I hadn't posted much about the progress of our vegetable garden I started back in October. I'm happy to report, we've had some good plantings.

Our four cherry tomato bushes have been producing endless tomatoes. Grace goes out with her little blue bucket each afternoon and we pick the ripe ones to bring inside. Lately, we've been collecting a small bowl's worth each day. I've had to teach her not to eat the green ones though. The first capsicums have been appearing so hopefully we'll be able to pick those soon and much to Grace's delight, we've been getting a few strawberries lately (not that any actually make it to the kitchen!) Our lettuces, rocket and baby spinach have been wonderful over these warmer months. It's been great being able to pick fresh salad leaves just before dinner. Unfortunately the extreme heat we've had has caused them to go to seed already. I tried to plant some new seedlings earlier in the week but despite constant watering, the hot weather has shrivelled them all so I'm going to look into somehow protecting them from the harsh sun. Our baby carrots were a disappointing crop and our spring onions aren't ready to pick just yet.



I have learnt a few things to remember for my next lot of plants - I need bigger stakes for my cherry tomato bushes as they all ended up toppling over with their weight. I'm also going to try sugar cane mulch or something lighter next time instead of pea straw which I've decided I'm not a huge fan of. Finally, I've decided the few things I had put into smaller pots need to be in larger ones to stop them drying out.

Thankfully, my little herb garden has still been going well. Grace was sent a gorgeous little bee wind catcher by Karyn of Hope Island Home and Living last week which she loves and which is perfect for this part of our garden. You can see it in the photo below.





What is flourishing in your garden at the moment or if you have a vegetable garden, which crop has been most successful lately?

Vegetable Garden Progress

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. Today I thought I’d let you know how our little vegie patch we started about a month ago is going. I've included the photo above so you can get an idea where it's positioned in our yard (you can see it in the background if you look closely). We planted seedlings of cherry tomatoes, capsicums, baby carrots, spring onions, a whole bunch of different lettuces, baby spinach, red sorrel and strawberries. In some pots next to the planter, I’ve added another strawberry, rocket and tomato plant to balance things out with my herb pots on the other side and everything has been mulched with pea hay to help keep the moisture in.

All the seedlings are growing really well, especially the lettuces which we’ve already been able to use. There’s nothing better than being able to pop outside to pick a few fresh lettuce leaves to make a salad. I have noticed something is taking some bites out of the rocket and a few lettuce leaves though and a few white cabbage moths have been hanging around, so perhaps caterpillars are the culprits?

This part of our backyard is so much nicer now than the previous neglected corner it was. Also, we have stopped the problem of Asha running along the fence barking at the dogs next door and making a mess of grey sand everywhere. The remaining yellowish bush in between the herb corner and the vegie patch is really in the wrong spot, but it’s growing so well that I think I’ll just leave it where it is. We just need to neaten up the lawn and the edges around the planter and it will be perfect.

Here’s some photos of how this corner used to look and how things are looking now so far…










On a different note, I have to say I feel a real cloud of sadness in blogland here today with A-M’s latest news of her decision to take a break from blogging. Please stop by her blog and offer some words of support and encouragement for such a lovely lady who is going through a difficult time…

Starting Our Vegetable Patch

Now that Spring has arrived, Paul and I have started working on our plans for a neglected corner of our garden. I already have some potted herbs growing here which are slowly starting to come along. I've chosen herbs which I use frequently and I was happy to see in a magazine article written by Jamie Oliver which I was recently reading, all of the herbs he suggested as 'essentials' were ones I have chosen. Currently I have parsley, mint, chives, thyme, basil, oregano, rosemary, coriander and sage. I also planted some marigolds nearby as these are meant to repel insect pests.

As far as a vegetable garden is concerned, I have long wanted to get one established in our backyard. After seeing a sustainable living exhibition at the Perth Royal Show recently, we have finally been inspired to put our plans into action. On Saturday, we went and bought a corrugated iron raised planter which is now in position and filled with nice rich soil. After I dig some manure into it this afternoon, I'm all set to start planting my vegetables this coming weekend.

Do any of you have a vegetable patch at your place or have any suggestions for some good seedlings to start off with?

Camelia Display

Happy Monday! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend. Ours was a perfect mix of morning tea with a friend while Paul spent the morning with Grace, an enjoyable evening at our house with good company, a trip to the local farmers' markets and flea markets and a bit of gardening.

This morning I thought I'd share with you some photos I snapped of our pretty red camelia which is putting on a lovely show outside our front window at the moment. I've been eagerly watching the many buds on this plant and am happy to now be able to enjoy their colour each time I head out the door. It was only after I downloaded these images that I noticed myself in one of the shots :)

What has made you happy this weekend?

Cheerful Orchid

The past week in our house truly was the pits. Grace came down with a stomach bug which I then caught followed by Paul and then she got a terrible cold. 9pm visits to GPs, sleeping the night on Grace's bedroom floor, going without a meal other than crackers for four days and being confined to a house which desperately needed cleaning all made me wish more than ever we were all healthy again. I've decided we all need to boost our immune systems so any advice in that regard would be much welcomed.

To start this week off with something bright and cheerful, I thought I'd share with you all our beautiful orchid which is flowering away at present. To be honest, I haven't given it much care so when I saw that this year it had produced not one but two flower spikes, I was very surprised. It's nice to have something adding a splash of colour to the garden.

What is the stand out flower in your garden at the moment?

Homely One House Tour - The Garden

Following on from last week’s post on the patio, I thought I’d continue the Homely One House Tour this week with our garden. Being on a corner block, we have quite a big yard and a lot of lawn. However, the lawn is Paul’s pride and joy so this doesn’t bother him one bit.

The only ‘before’ shot is the first one below which doesn’t really show a lot. However, we have made some big changes to our garden and much has grown in the five years we’ve been here. The corner garden you can see used to be a real hotch-potch of plants. We removed everything, extended the lawn to reduce the size of this garden bed and planted Iceberg roses down the driveway, a Poinciana tree (which will hopefully one day reach the 12 metre height and 10 metre width the tag says it will) and three Ornamental Plum Trees along the fence as a backdrop.

As for the backyard, lots has grown, lots has been removed and lots of new plants have been bought. Here’s a few photos …

Will be back indoors for the next House Tour post…