Skip to main content

Signs of Summer

I have been spending a little more time in our garden lately, and have noticed that this week it is definitely showing signs of summer. This morning, I took a break from weeding and photographed  many bushes and trees with their flowers coming to an end after the Spring burst....  like the bottlebrushes (above), shedding their flower spikes; the last Kangaroo paw, waving in the breeze....
and the Dianella droppingtheir bright purple berries .... 

but some are still in full bloom like the purple melaleuca....
and the 'Robyn Gordon' grevillea which seems to flower all year round
  I want the Australian Christmas bush, with just a few buds opening now, to slow down so it will be beautiful for Christmas.... 
While most of our garden is native,  the little chameleon roses are blushingly beautiful,  but the summer aphids are also busy as you can see from this photo ...
and this year, I planted a hydrangea cutting, and its first flowers appeared this week peerless pink ... 
It seems that summer is also appearing in my art work - I made cards for a handmade sale on the weekend and this was my most popular sale item ... the summer tree series....
These are made with cardboard cut outs of trees pasted to card, over an overlay of " ground" from decorative paper, and  buttons sewn at the end of the branches to represent leaves or buds. 

I gave them exotic names, too,  for example  Middle Earth tree ... Cherry Blossom tree...  I had so much fun making these..... 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Countdown to Christmas 20 - Fruitcake song!

There are many songs about fruit cakes  - not all of them referring to the Christmas cake we know and love.It is really surprising to learn via Google that there are 89 listed songs with references to Christmas cake or fruit cake - not all of them complimentary.   Probably one of the most famous folk songs about Christmas cake is Miss Fogarty's  Christmas Cake (a favourite sung by The Irish Rovers).  This first recorded comical Christmas song was written by C Frank Horn in 1883 in Pennsylania, as a variation of an Irish folk song, 'Miss Mulligan's Christmas Cake' . The chorus might give you the hint that Miss Fogarty's cake was not for the faint hearted or those who suffered from a weak stomach.    Chorus : There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue There were caraway seeds in abundance Such that...

Christmas Countdown 15 : Christmas Tree #11 - Disposable

Plastic cups  https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/christmas-stem-ideas-kids/ Advent Blog : Day 11 - Disposable  We are all so much more conscious about ridding our landfills and oceans of plastic waste. For Christmas, here is a way to use up some of those disposable items which seem to multiply at holiday parties and celebrations, or perhaps you have just been saving them up for a creative use.... Who would have thought coffee pods would make such stylish Christmas trees ? ... Add caption If you don't have one of those machines, then perhaps you have coffee on the run - Starbucks or Nescafe ?  from  https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/369858188126737920/ Nescafe cups https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/72761350208620530/ The disposable cups don' t have to be brand names to work well as materials for Christmas trees. Taking an engineering approach to plastic cup trees seems to be the answer for a more ornate result.  from  https:...

Christmas Firsts #11: Penguins

This year, I fell into the sentimental trap of making some penguin softies for Christmas .... and I am not the only one - penguins seem to be everywhere at the moment dressed in Christmassy costumes, with trees, bells, and all kinds of Christmas paraphernalia.   Should penguins really  be associated with Christmas?   Probably not  and not as Santa's helpers as they often depicted. Penguins inhabit the Antarctic region in the South Pole, while Santa Claus it has been established has his home in the North Pole. The theory is that somehow penguins are associated with snow, then Winter, then Christmas, but what about us in the southern hemisphere. Perhaps they are just cute?  Whatever the reason, when were penguins first seen as part of the Christmas scene ?  While there is no verifiable answer, it would seem that Monty the Penguin in the John Lewis Christmas advertisement in 2014  popularised  the trend. (If you are not famil...