Our family Easter celebrations began two weeks ago this year. My eldest son and his wife are in Bali for the long weekend, while youngest son, his wife and their two boys are in Adelaide, so we had a “whole family” get together two weeks ago for Easter. This weekend I had my two daughters and their families here. So what with one things and another, it has been a busy time.
During the past two weeks also, we have had rain nearly every day, not huge in quantity, but enough to prevent me from doing any gardening. How frustrating! Yesterday, however, when the sun shone for the first time in days, I got all my washing done. I also put my empty “bunny” vase in place last night, ready to add flowers today for my contribution to Cathy’s regular Monday event, In a Vase on Monday.
And what did I awaken to this morning? You guessed it, more rain!
Between showers, I collected a few pretties to add to my vase, although my lovely Gerberas, which I had thought were finished for the season, are a tad bedraggled again. The weight of the raindrops tends to make their delicate petals flop downwards.
Raindrops on roses – (and whiskers on kittens – sorry, I had to say it!) – on the other hand always look so beautiful. This lovely rose is a long stemmed ‘Olivia Rose Austin’; all the other roses on the bush were short stemmed, so wouldn’t suit my bunny vase.
There were a few red roses, but I only chose this one as it is fully opened. I am surprised by how many rose buds are still on all of my rose bushes, given the time of year and the number of rainy days we have had.
The Tibouchina flowers look rather stunning with raindrops on their petals as well. They are slightly weighted down by the moisture, but being stronger petals they seem to cope. I should also mention that the green foliage in the background is a few stems of Port Wine Magnolia. It isn’t in flower just now, but the foliage acted as an ideal vase filler, to hold the flower stems in place.
Being Easter, I had to add a prop of Easter eggs with my vases. The little ones all know where Nana’s stash is, and know that a simple “please” when they visit will have me sharing their “special treats”.
I read today that in the USA, there are no chocolate Easter eggs; also, there isn’t a four day long weekend over Easter, which is what we have here in Australia. So perhaps in the comments you can let me know how Easter is celebrated in other countries? 🙂
When I turned the calendar page to April today, I was surprised also to see a picture on the calendar of cows. That’s not very Easter-ish, but I do love cows. The calendar has an Australian country scene for each month, so that might be something that might interest some of you. This stand in the main living area, where I keep my recipe books – well, some of them – has become my favourite place to display my vase of flowers each week.
I have a row of various coloured Impatiens in my front garden and they have survived the hottest summer days, and now the cooler autumn days very well indeed. When we have a fine day again I will take a photo of them in the garden, as they really do look lovely.
This small vase of Impatiens sits beside me as I write. They have been indoors for about five hours now and I have noticed that the petals, now dried, look much more lively than in this photo.
It is rather late though, so I won’t take another photo. Today was another busy day, complete with visitors – who raided Nana’s Easter egg stash while here 😉 – and I am about to call it a night. I am dreadfully behind in replying to your lovely comments and also visiting everyone’s blogs, but this week I expect life to return to the usual schedule for a while.
Thank you once again, Cathy, for hosting In a Vase on Monday. ❤
In My World 
Your flowers for my Monday morning always deliver warmth and smiles. But no chocolate eggs in the USA? Hmmm … fooled me! Hope you had a wonderful Easter.
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I thought it sounded strange, which is why I asked! I hope you indulged on a few yourself, Frank. 🙂
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Lots of gorgeousness to brighten up a very dreary day here 💚
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Always happy to do so, Cathy. 🙂
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I love your gerberas– as I’ve mentioned before, ours are more hybridized with ‘fat’ petals and heavy heads, I much prefer yours. Nice to see Impatiens, a good annual for shade here. Sounds like you had a great Easter with lots of family gathering. The best!
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I would like to find some more “fat” petalled gerberas, Eliza, to have some contrast in the gerbera patch. They seem to enjoy our climate! As for the impatiens, I have a row of them growing along a garden bed which gets full sun. They must be pretty versatile plants.
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You have been busy, and your bouquet is beautiful! Happy Easter and Happy Autumn to you! 🙂
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Thank you, and Happy Autumn to you, Beth! 💕
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Your display is perfect, I hope you had great family time!
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Thank you, Tracy. I had a wonderful time with my family, and hope you managed to enjoy some family time over Easter too. xx
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It must have been nice seeing all your family recently, even if it wasn’t all at the same time. Your roses always look so lovely in your vases, Joanne – how long do you fnd the stems last? I don’t know Tibouchina, but it is such a pretty bloom – and you have included those lovely spikey gerberas agan! I would have never have thought of picking impatiens, but what a lovely posy they make – thanks for sharing both your vases today 👍
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Thank you, Cathy. 🙂
During summer, the roses only last indoors for two or three days, but now the weather has cooled they are lasting for around five to six days. The impatiens didn’t last long indoors, they started dropping leaves and petals almost immediately, so the next day, out they went! It was odd, as they still looked fresh, so perhaps they are simply not designed for vases, no matter how pretty I thought the vase looked.
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We have our spring bulbs in bloom – the daffodils and grape hyacinth, with tulips just starting to open. My lilac bush has buds. Your flowers are as lovely as usual – I have never thought of cutting impatiens either – but then I rarely cut flowers, other than peonies and lilacs. Not sure why. Perhaps because I have no talent at arranging them.
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Well, as people often celebrate 12 days of Christmas, it seems right to recognize Easter over a long period too! The Gerberas look like cheerful fireworks to me and I love the bunny vase.
Although I’ve heard reports of a run on chocolate and zooming prices on chocolate worldwide, there are still plenty of chocolate eggs to be had in the US. I Googled that rumor and found numerous responses referencing that the US had chocolate everything, which is sort of true. However, it is true that there’s no general recognition of Easter as a 4-day holiday. Decades ago, when I worked in the banking industry, we used to close early on Good Friday but that practice ended long ago. Easter Monday isn’t a recognized holiday here either, although some federal and state offices are closed today because it’s Cesar Chavez Day.
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How lovely it must have been to caught up with all your family recently Joanne. Both attractive vases. My favourite is the little rosy teacup filled with the imaptiens. Those little chocolate ladybirds caught my eye too 😂 Like you we have the same four day Easter weekend although many shops are open and some businesses too. When I was younger not a single shop opened on Good Friday and newspapers were not published either. Times have certainly changed.
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No Easter holiday here in the US, though many children are on spring break from school. I have not noticed any shortage of chocolate and there were big chocolate eggs at my grocery store this week. I love those Gerberas and your roses look wonderful. I had a Tibochina like that for a while, they don’t last long here. Wonderful vase for your Easter holiday celebrations.
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I love seeing the tropical colors of your prolific blooms. Wonderful Easter.
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Your vases are lovely, and the Tibouchina is spectacular with those red stamens–marvelous with the gerberas!
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Your Easter bunny vase is lovely Joanne, and I do so enjoy seeing your Gerbera! I find it hard to believe the Americans don’t have chocolate eggs – was it an April Fool’s joke? In the UK they go over the top with big chocolate eggs but here in Germany there are lots of smaller ones, small bunnies and other sweets on sale. It’s a long weekend here too, with both Friday and Monday bank holidays. And when it is a bank holiday in Germany the shops remain closed, unlike in the UK where many still open. In Germany there is an old tradition of hiding eggs (originally real ones, coloured and hard-boiled) in the garden for the children to find. Naturally this has been commercialized in the UK with big events at parks and large hotels offering activities for kids and big ‘Egg Hunts’. I find that strange as Easter was always home and family time in our house!
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I love your bunny vase, so perfect for Easter and something visiting grandchildren will remember fondly, I’m sure. You do such a beautiful job arranging your garden flowers. There are plenty of chocolate Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies available here! I’m pretty sure the only four day weekend we have is for Thanksgiving in November.
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your flowers look so colourful! We have mostly daffodils for our vases here at the moment. We celebrated over four days with my little two year old grandson Finn. We have close relatives in Adelaide. Best wishes, karen ( bramblegaren.com)
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Brown paper packages tied up with string… I totally would’ve said it too. I’ve had about 3 recent lyric references in blog posts since my return, lol.
No chocolate Easter eggs? Is that an April fool? But the no 4 day weekend is true. Enjoying your flowers as I always do. The raindrop on the rose is my favorite shot.
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