This week, I have been a tad out of sorts, with a cold and laryngitis. So today, I appreciate the Silence of Sunday …
In other news, my computer went to heaven. Yesterday, however, my son-in-law installed a new computer for me, so I’m back online. My iPad just didn’t cut it when trying to read blogs and add comments. I will catch up with everyone this week.
And on the weather front, we had a couple of fine, mosquito-free days, which resulted in an amazing sunset in the valley. This photo is straight out of the camera.
It’s time for Wordless Wednesday; however, my photo today requires a few words.
You may recall my Tiny Treasures post on Monday. I added a few Gazanias to a small vase, along with a few other flowers picked from my garden. The Gazania petals looked rather bedraggled, having just been brought indoors after a shower of summer rain. I wasn’t sure how the flowers would cope indoors.
As you can see, the Gazanias are very happy! Now the petals have dried, they have a new lease on life. ❤
In other news, my desktop computer is having a hissy-fit! My son-in-law will be here tomorrow to pull apart the computer and give it a good clean. Meanwhile, I have spent the morning saving all my photos and files to my external hard drive. But I may disappear briefly. If the clean-out doesn’t rectify the problems, I will need a new computer. Fun.
When I went outside to collect flowers between showers of rain, I had not expected to return laden with a large collection of miniatures. My only explanation is that this is the collection of flowers that “chose” to be stars of the vase for my In A Vase On Monday contribution this week, hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
Is that a thing, I wonder – can flowers make their own choices? In my garden, surprisingly, they often seem to!
The native Australian Lilly Pilly buds had already caught my eye today. When I saw them through the kitchen window this morning, the colour of the bud seemed to be a deeper shade of pinkish-brown, compared to two days ago when I took photos of them for my native plants post. I imagined tiny sprigs of the buds looking very pretty in a vase.
In a pot close to the Lilly Pilly bush, I noticed that some of my ‘Chameleon’ roses needed dead-heading. Chameleon – also known as ‘Pur Caprice’ – is a miniature rose, with the blooms changing colour from red to yellow, then pink and white as the flowers age, hence the name Chameleon. Some Chameleon blooms would look lovely in a vase with the Lilly Pilly buds … and so the miniature vase began to take shape.
In yet another pot nearby, the Osteospermum Serenity Pink Magic Cape daisy also needed some attention, so while snipping spent flowers, I chose two healthy blooms to add to the miniature mix. I adore the colour of this daisy! It is not the shade of pink I expected when I first planted the tube stock plant, it’s even more beautiful than I had imagined it would be.
In the front garden, I knew I had some very pretty Gazania flowers in bloom. The colour matches the various pink tones I had already picked, although the delicate petals may have suffered a bit due to being damp from the recent rain. In the garden, Gazania close their petals when night falls, so I will watch carefully as the day turns into night, to see if they do the same when indoors.
When together in the vase, I am quite happy with the selection of tiny treasures I heard calling out to be chosen for my Monday vase!
When deciding on a vase, I chose a tiny jug which is actually a miniature of an old-style wash basin. The design on the side colour-coordinates very well with my flowers as well – perfect!
And my collection of miniature “pets” – the Labrador with four kittens stands guard over the vase …
… with the finishing touch – the tiny bowl under the tiny jug. 🙂
It may sound odd to people living in the northern climes of the world when I say that as we enter the middle month of summer here in Australia, there are slim pickings in my garden. The heat causes flowers to wilt faster than usual. And on Christmas night we had a mini cyclone through the area. We lost power for five hours, but we were lucky: some poor people lost power for several days.
My roses, hardly species that they are, seem to cope well with Mother Nature’s tantrums. So again, I have chosen roses for my Monday vase, this time deep pink Gertrude Jekyll, which I have paired with pale lemon-coloured Anthemis ‘Susanna Mitchell’ daisies.
The Susanna Mitchell daisies are a spring flowering plant. I thought I had seen the last of the blooms for this season when they began to wilt and die, only to discover that after a spot of rain, they had a second flush of flowers. I am very impressed by these plants, they have been in flower since September and if the plant invades its neighbour and needs cutting back, it doesn’t look as if it has been trimmed. I even stuck a couple of wayward runners into a bare patch of soil and they are growing very nicely, without any special treatment.
Gertrude Jekyll is a David Austin rose. Its namesake, Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) was an influential garden designer and author in England, who, according to the David Austin website, advocated for “incorporating roses in mixed borders” ~~ a woman after my own heart! Most of my rose bushes are planted in a long garden running the length of my side front fence, sharing the garden bed with various other plants such as camellias, buddleia, petunias, impatiens, gerberas, and even a couple of Australian native plants.
There are insects galore making homes in my garden during summer, and inevitably I find a hitchhiker or two when I bring the flowers indoors. This week’s interloper can be seen on the lower Susanna Mitchell daisy.
My slightly scorched vase this week is my contribution to Cathy’s In A Vase on Monday challenge at Rambling in the Garden. Thank you, Cathy, for encouraging me to go outdoors and find the beauty in my garden during the hottest part of the year. 🙂
In My World 