Garden Craft

I completely loose my yarn mojo in summer. So last summer, in the absence of a sewing machine, I started gardening. I became totally obsessed (for those seeking a timeline this pre-dated the ebay obsession and followed the George Eliot* obsession). Trips to bunnings, trips to flower power, trips to random nurseries took up every weekend and most afternoons. This went on until I ran out of space in the bakyard (I ran out of money long before that but persevered!) Kel was my design consultant throughout this whole process.

Garden Craft lasted until the start of bulb season, and then gracefully gave way to the cyclical beginnings of yarn season (and thus began the great baby cardigan explosion).

I got home a bit earlier than usual today, having finished the report i've been working on for the last six months, and it was light! So I wandered into the backyard. I had always thought that in winter gardens kind of died back and had a well-earned rest, preparing themselves for the excitement of spring. How wrong I was.

My grape hyacinths are starting to flower and they're the most vibrant purple. I wish I could get yarn in that colour! Hey, I just realised that they're purple and green, they're my suffragette flowers, they match the suffragette overalls! (Which I picked up again last night, finally, and will post on soon)

Looks like there's more in store too. The tulips have taken a lot longer to come up than everything else (i didn't refrigerate them, naughty naughty). I noticed they're just starting to peak through!

Must be because buzzy's giving them a helping hand by nesting them.

When I started gardening I made an off-hand remark to mum about orchid's being my favourite plant, but I didn't think i'd actually be able to look after them and they were too expensive anyway. Mum was kinda silent for a bit and then she told me that my grandfather loved orchids.
She had collected some of them after he died and kept them. She gave them to me for Christmas. I repotted them and have done my best to keep them alive. Turns out I haven't done too bad a job. They're blooming.

It had such a lovely feeling when I walked outside and saw this. This plant is my spoon.

*Remember at the height of this I was going to name my hypothetical girl-child George?