spring morning in the garden

Love the mornings after a 12 degree night …….. and warming to a 25 degree day. I took a wander into the garden this morning just to spot a few of the flutterbys that have been hovering over the new blossoms. We have an abundance of insects this spring and I’m sure this will be followed by an abundance of chewed foliage. One has to see the good in this! This will be a great season for the birds! They keep me amused each morning by squabbling with each other over who owns the fruit on the fig next to my deck………more time spent eating and less time vying my feathered friends.

Step off the steps….well I haven’t quite decided what to call the rocks that lead to the deck other than ‘watch where you put your feet’…… and you meet purple. Love these little fellas! I do not profess to know the names of the plants in my garden and I am happy with that!

Then on to the next…..you don’t mess with this fellow, though he is showing ‘mower messing’. I had no idea he would get this large so quickly! I do apologise profusely to him for the odd nudge.

                 Flax is always at home in a large garden.              

Then on down the drive to some more purple and green.

How delicate, and had to fight off the native bees to take this one.                      

Then another giant or two to avoid getting friendly with. I love these structural plants.

     Now just ‘wait- a- while’!

On to the wood lost in the blow earlier this year, seasoning for next Winter, and the first flowers of my eucalyptus. Oh yes, my poles add colour to the garden too. This one tells a story of the first travellers to this garden.

      Umbrellas for the fairies that reside under the old fig tree.

   On Guard!

What can I say. Spring mornings are beautiful in my garden. Enjoy your garden too this Spring – every moment in every day you have to walk bare feet on the earth.

Love Mirri

spring evenings

The morning breeze that hints of warmer days to come touches the valley floor below and the climbs to the top of our ridgeline. The days bring warm earth smells and feet covered with dew and mowed lawn clippings. This year I have added a few annuals to rock faces and they are beginning to show. The days are longer because I am waking with the sun earlier and I love that! Sometimes the fog is still heavy in the valley at 8 and I have even noticed  low cloud misting the ridge line after sunset.

But it is sunset I want to reveal today.

Today a good friend underwent an operation to fix damages from a serious accident where life could have been forgotten. I passed time during the day doing the daily chores all of which seem somewhat mundane where someone’s

life is concerned. The day did not flow as well as usual but I expect some preparation was being done by the universe in other places as it flowed very well in that operating theatre.

I spent the approaching evening sitting on my deck overlooking the world as I know it. Wondering too how that good friend was doing after his six hour op to restore his good looks! Now, I believe, looking like a beardless Samurai Warrior.

Watching the sunset always brings much gratitude for the life I live here and never fails to amaze. God’s colour palate is endless and this

world is a beautiful place.

It was late into the night before I heard everything had progressed well and a sleepy voice confirmed Life is good and meant for living.

Blessings go to all who give their time to ensure we have a chance to live it!.

Much love and happiness……….and a sunset or two!

Mirri

time and mindfulness

I am worrying…well not exactly worry, more like I haven’t sat down to blog in quite some time and I need to talk to someone if not myself!… Perhaps there is someone out there who does read and enjoy my ramblings. That’s the thing about linear time: we created it and now we have to live with it skipping past at an unstoppable rate. Or do we?

Every moment in every day is yours, so what ever your doing make it count for you. Each new task deserves a few deep breaths just to quieten the mind and set the body in motion on something new that it hasn’t done before. As many times as we laboriously begin an action, we can celebrate in that action being completely new and different from the last time we did it. No two are ever exactly the same. Take a few breaths and dwell in what you are doing. At the completion, take another few breaths and dwell upon what has been achieved. And yes, as mundane as it may seem, you have had the opportunity to do it again, and I bet you will be grateful if you are here tomorrow to do the same.

Do the same with the not so mundane, the exciting, the completely new, the challenge, the next time you get or give a hug! Take a few breaths and live the time you have given to the experience. You will never have exactly the same again. Such is the progress of time! Breathe through the happy and the sad moments and know the next will not be the same as the last. You

have the opportunity to do something new. You have the opportunity to create your life.

watch the sun rise!

Too early you say! You have got to be kidding, me, up before I need to get up on a day off. The sun comes up every day and for most days of the week, now that it’s Winter, I’m up before the sun. And you want me to get up to look at the first rays of light reaching my face.

Well yes I would have been with you tucked up in bed, enjoying the warmth of the feather quilt except for one day last week. You see I have a good friend, who, in their wisdom, has taught me one of the most ‘wonder full’ (that’s not a spelling mistake) moments of the day is sunrise. I have seen many sun risings, out in the paddock behind the house, with the morning mists rising to reveal the odd fox scampering home late with a tasty morsel. Taking rugs off ponies that delight in snorting misty breath into the fine air. And when it’s raining, I have begged the sun to appear between the clouds giving me some idea of what cover I should leave on them for the day to come. You know what it’s like going to work without your jumper!

I am such a softie and they see me coming.

Back to that sunrise. You see I was visiting a friend in northern New South Wales and on this morn I was woken abruptly and hustled outside with one arm stuck in the armhole of an oversized warm coat, my trusty camera thrust in my hand. ‘You’ll love the experience, nothing can come near the sunrise here.  I ‘ve spent so many mornings just waiting and it never fails to amaze. Go on and I’ll bring you a coffee.”

‘That would be nice.’ I added, and without time to contemplate my journey, I was down the steps, across the road and on to the beach.  I might add I was so excited…make that asleep…that I managed to misplace the lens cap of the camera. I say ‘misplace’ because its probably hiding in the grass waiting for my next early morning.

This is what I saw. Words can’t describe the incredible beauty I was privileged to be breathe in. Not a soul in sight, everything perfect on Mother Earth waiting for dawn, and God in heaven!

Just my footprints…..or was I being carried!

Then it happened.

My coffee came. Mmmmm warm! HOLD IT PLEASE!

And that was just the beginning of one day of my life. What will tomorrow bring?

Take a moment of your time……walk outside before sunrise….take yourself and your family to the beach for brekkie in the first rays of the morning…walk the dog….play….capture the moment……..

in your heart! FEEL THE WARMTH!

Mirri

open a ‘book’ garden

Are you like me? I ponder over garden books for hours and dream about all sorts of wonderful changes I can make to my garden. A trellis would look nice there, and I can make up a piece of sculpture from those old shovels in the shed (just a quick lesson needed on how to use a welder of course), or perhaps I could do a pottery day with Fried Mud studio! My vegie garden is a little over-grown, but I’m sure it will look great when I clean it and plant the Winter crop! The options are endless. My available energy to manage 2 acres is not! I love my garden and I thought you might like a photo just to confirm my musings! I live in the most beautiful spot in the Blackall Ranges, Sunshine Coast Hinterland, and if anyone is interested this garden is for sale!

I have come to realise that sometimes I am much better just ‘dream’ gardening in a book, tucked up in bed with the fire going on a Winter’s day. What an adventure one can have!

Books of good quality and gardening magazines can be expensive, and, at the rate I ‘book garden’, I would be poor! There is also a need to store them and if I am going to collect anything, it will be a book or magazine! After many years of moving home and garden, I have decided to cull my magazine collection down to my beloved ‘Country Style’, ‘Tropical Gardening’, ‘Sanctuary’ and a few more “green” mags. I have convinced my family I am well on my way to saving money and cupboard space. I have even considered buying a tablet so as to cull further, but I love the feeling of paper in my hands, covered in beautiful pictures and inspiring words. Something has been lost in the computer screen visual! My daughter attempted to reason that I have a laptop to read from but I argued a tablet would be much more like holding a book. She sighed! Would you like another peak at my garden?

Allow yourself to dream. Garden in a good book. Too expensive you say! I use my local library to keep up to date with the latest magazines and garage sales are great to buy old editions at pocket money prices. Plants never go out of date and you can take all the time in the world to enjoy those great photos over a cuppa and cake.

I have also become a regular Op Shopper!  You don’t have to be a ‘regular’ to find that interesting book with full colour illustrations and of course take time to enjoy the whole experience.  It is worth the moments to find that something ‘special’. My last visit turned up this ‘House and Garden’ edition and I spent just four dollars. A bargain! Hours of turning pages and ideas to ponder. And you can always pass on the gift to someone else for the price of a coffee out.

Just imagine the money you will save to buy your new seedlings when you do get that plot prepared, and if you can’t get out to dig in the soil, it’s too hot, chilly or wet, be still, grab a cuppa, cuddle a pillow, relax and allow yourself a personal moment to dream.

Tell yourself you deserve these moments  and open a ‘book’ garden

smell the roses!

Mirri