:: unknown beauty ::

Funny how things low to the ground can easily be overlooked...like this startlingly bright pink sweet pea-type shrub with its amazing contrast of lime green foliage.

I have no idea what it is, but the flowers that bloom develop into a pea family-looking flower.

Do you know what it is?

:: lamium purpureum ::

Finding a flower each day is a challenge, for sure - sometimes in finding the time, sometimes in remembering and sometimes just finding a flower!  It is really getting cold here now, with snow to low levels predicted for the South Island over the next few days.  I'm partly highly excited by this idea and partly, because of how cold it will be, apprehensive. Mostly excited.

With the colder weather comes the dramatic slowing down of growth and the struggle to find flora.

In between 'real' plants in the unkempt parts of our garden (most of it at the moment! LOL!) there are loads of these little flowers peeping in between...what are they? Well, after using the best words I could to describe them, I did find them fairly fast on the internet.  

I believe they are 'deadnettles', from the mint family, with the square stem and with the hairy scalloped leaves, only not stinging as the hairs on the leaves are 'dead'. 

They're not particularly interesting other than that...and now that I know what they are I think I might just acknowledge them a little more happily when I come across them while weeding.

:: taraxacum iii ::

This dandelion seed head (or what's left of it!) is a little bit how the season feels at the moment - all but completely spent and ready for the bare and barren time of Winter...

:: african flower blanket WIP ::

 I've noticed lots of pretty flowers today...a miniature bridal veil hanging from a basket...some meagre golden yellow daisies existing in the cracks in the pavement...and a swathe of cool-coloured anemones leaning away from the wind in a city-centre garden bed...
...but did I manage to pull out my camera? NUH!

 Instead I bring you a glimpse of a crochet project I've been working on - an African Flower Blanket, bringing together my love of flowers and hexagons. The colours are much warmer - the red is a crimson in real life and the darker blue is a bright turquoise, while the pale pink is, well, pinker! Still, you get the idea :-)

:: narcissus iii ::

Much mirth for me when I spied this young erlicheer 'thrusting' upward, striking out..doesn't it look like it's going "YEAH!!!"...or is it doing the fingers? I giggled, anyway :-)

:: narcissus ii ::

here's another 'early' earlicheer from yesterday morning's walk

:: narcissus i ::

Nature is full of surprises - on the morning walk this morning the last thing I thought I'd see, flowerwise, was the harbinger of Spring, the earlicheer, standing cheerfully enough in thick pockets behind a small brick fence on our way back home...

:: dianthus caryophyllus iii ::

I only noticed the ant in the middle of the carnation bloom now...and it is dark...won't be re-shooting that one! LOL!

Maybe it is ants that chomp all the pretty petal-edges into such delicate frills? ;-)

:: ameria maritima ::

Over the river from school is a fabulous front garden - I have a feeling the owners might have something to do with a landscape gardening company...
...there is no grass to mow and it is a textural sensory pleasure to gaze upon all year round...

...in particular I like the clumps of these thrift scattered throughout the sloping perennial plantings...

...like pompoms on stalks and oh so beautifully PINK!

:: rosa xxii ::

A broody Autumn afternoon - stormy Southerly lashing at the front of our house with what feels like more moisture inside as we have the heat pump pumping and it is less than 10 degrees outside...brrr...

...perfect for hunkering down and making stuff, reading, baking, cooking, chatting and sipping lots of tea...

...more rosiness here today...

...these perfectly wrinkly little wonders are some flower carpet rose blooms that were lovingly arranged at my bedside by Miss P, perhaps, 3 months ago...

...as they gave way from fresh and pert to soft and droopy and browning slightly at the edges I looked at them sideways from time to time...

..."should I put you in the compost bucket today?" I thought...nah...

...this went on for several months as you can see...a couple of times others in the household have asked me how long the dead flowers were going to stay on the shelves...

... at some point I noticed the softness had dried to a delicately-crumpled rose petal leather...

...and I fell in love with these pretty pink mini-roses all over again...

:: rosa xxi ::

How beautiful is the spiral wrap of petals in this stunning deep red rose?

...I also am moved quite deeply by the darkness between the velvety petals - sometimes looking closer describes remarkable characteristics I am awed to either purely observe or cogitate on...

...this here rose could be called the 'gratitude' rose, for that was the intention with which it was warmly given...

...It got me to thinking a bit (or a lot, maybe!) about gratitude and its far-reaching effects...

...when I feel appreciated, I feel so much more than just the thanks for a job done. Somehow I feel boosted(and usually surprised, too) by the thought that someone else noticed and it made a discernible difference for them...

...and when I feel gratitude, I feel so much happier and however I might have been feeling before, my new lens seems to give me a much more content view of my world...

:: cosmos v ::

An appreciation of the simple beauty of the cosmos is entirely appropriate tonight as we are now home and debriefing (as you do!) after a 'cosmic' class play experience - entitled "The Order of the Heavens"...

...what an interesting and intense experience it is being on the periphery of the journey a class of 29 takes in the creation and performance of a play and all it entails...

...so many parts, props and people, so much excitement bubbling and fizzing, taking on responsibilities and the mantle of another, literally, just by being in costume...

...of course there are the awkward moments, the mis-timings, the forgetting of lines memorised and when the curtain just stays open too long...and each of these things are just small little parts of the whole - the fantastic, colourful, energetic whole that is 29 kids all working together to put a cohesive story (or in this case three stories!) to an audience...

...what a great day for them all - proud as a parent - especially of a child who has grown immensely more confident during the time she has been at the school - from shrinking away from a speaking part two years ago to offering to take a second part in this year's play...

...the mysteries and wonder of the way things work...cosmic!

:: rosa xx ::

where's my motivation gone...? 

time to get my astrology stuff out again and see what the planets are doing...

...maybe that might help...

:: rosa xix ::

...super bright and vivid colours - what a wonderful sunny surprise after such a stormy start to the day...

...you got to love the hope in flowers that still bud up at this time of year, with plummeting temperatures on the cards... 

...this particular rose (mutabilis) has this intense cerise red colour at bud which then softens through apricot and ends up another kind of brightish lighter pink on its last day...

...pretty darn chilly here...won't be long until the garden becomes skeletal...

:: calendula ii ::

Today has been all about the colour yellow, sunshiny yellow, even though now the wind is battering the side of the house with a powerful, relentless Southerly gale...and...it is dark!

Very often we connect with others just exactly when we need to hear what they have to communicate with us and this morning as I was heading back home from a (these days unusual) school run I had a very inspiring talk with another woman, also deep in mothering and creating.

All day since I have been surprisingly aware of the colour yellow - in many varied and unexpected ways - what a fun day it has been - and it's good to get surprises, isn't it?

:: rosa xviii ::

...on a roll with roses...the rock'n'roll rose - making the most of the little bit of sunshine today...

:: rosa xvii ::

...on a roll with roses...

...this is one that I nearly ripped out - there is definitely much scope to improve our rose, ahem, 'patch'...up close this one is way more attractive than its 'flower carpet' growing form (scraggly!)...and Miss P would not be easily forgiving if I had...

:: rosa xvi ::

rosa mutabilis

:: rosa xv ::

Still got some late-blooming beauties in the front garden, though judging by the crazy blasts of wind this evening, there may not be many roses left out there in the morning!

These three made me think of the three of us...and how much we hang together.

:: chrysanthemum ii ::

Accompanied on my morning walk today by Mr M...guest photographer of this stunning monarch butterfly, on the chrysanthemums around the corner from home.

Still slick from not being long out of the chrysalis, perhaps?

... and drying itself in this very lovely warm wind we are enjoying here in May.