Sunday, July 28, 2013

Today we welcomed Spring

This morning you would not have anticipated this afternoon at all.

This morning promised a search for self-entertainment in confined spaces due to impending inclemency...
But it seemed it was not to be
For today we welcomed spring.

Nature spoke in the back yard of Paradise this month.
I have helped entertain 8 households with herbs these past few weeks
The coriander exuberantly bolted upwards, delighting in the sunlight and warmth
Galloping gaily towards bloom.

Echoed by the abundance of the legume hedge.
Youthful exuberance coupled with a basic failure in understanding the principles behind the gentle parental guidance to use two hands to harvest
 
Means it is a mess,
 a mass of vines and flowers and suddenly apparent pods

Our centre of philosophical corn still stands
The pyramid of tomatoes above received a hearty prune
(as did the hedge of romas, cherrys and a curiously striped tiger variation in the corner eco-system)
And we look forward to a million and two green tomato time bombs.

In the last go round of the Garden Share Collective (thank you Lizzie from strayedtable for your inspiration.  My "if I had not a care in the world" daydream this week was the workshop they ran over the weekend) - anyhow, in the last go round of the GSC, one thing that truly struck me was the number of fellow gardeners and bloggers out there who had a completely different relationship with the avialae genus than we
who actually encourage and plant trees

Specifically for their property
Of attracting birds.

You know you are in paradise
When you are sipping coffee
 
on a Sunday afternoon
And have the luxury of feeling acceptance
By birdlife


(who incidentally also display territorial spats and marketing campaigns of suitors-to-be
indicative of Spring-ie 
Potency.


We even squeezed in a trip to the playground and beach



I have just pulled a loaf of bread out of the oven
Finished colouring my hair
And ticked a major list item off
In finally kicking to the kerb the el-cheapo DVD player
That frustrated us greatly with its
None too cute inability of translating the frantic jabbing at grey buttons on a black box
And tendency to tantrum and switch off like a 14 year old with a Manga habit.

How was your Sunday?

Friday, July 19, 2013

Vignette - or is that vingette? Or vinegarette? Anyhoo, little bits of life right now...

I went to a photography exhibition and saw something that reminded me of work (and now, not the toilet part)


I stayed at the most gorgeous B&B with views (thanks Mum & Dad)


I saw rainbows





I saw people who really needed help


and people who were happy to help

I have spent hours on the phone and talking face to face with people and verifying forms and filling documents and pushing with bureacracy and photocopying and photographing and driving and  folding piles and international land deals and phone calls I should have made to embassies and small organisation machinations and impossible demands and wins and water and husky voice and rusted cars and mandarines and despair and delightful roses

 ...  well, what can I say, it has been a week.

How was yours?