Spring is definitely here. The snowdrops have come and gone and the freesias are out-- and one can smell their lovely perfume when in the garden.
I love orchids. We lived in the tropics when I was a child, and my father grew the most beautiful tropical orchids. He had his special ones and he gave me a small part of his orchid house as my little orchid corner-- mainly the ones that were easy to grow and flowered well. We pottered around in the garden together for hours tending to the orchids and the other flowers and fruit trees that grew in the huge garden. I loved collecting ladybirds etc -- poor ladybirds!
For some unknown reason, I did not take to growing orchids here in Sydney. The most common orchid grown here is the Cymbidium orchid-- and I tried growing them years ago-- with little success. Last year, I decided I would give it another go --I bought a few plants whilst they were in bloom-- tended them in the garden-- and guess what-- not a single one flowered this year!! What a disappointment.
Also last year, a friend brought in the tiniest little rock orchid flower and I fell in love with them-- her husband then gave me a few plants to put in the garden. My neighbour few doors down the street also had some tiny rock orchids which I admired--a few days later she came around with some in a pot and I planted them in the garden. Well-- spring is here and they have put on a show. They are only tiny flowers-- but stunning in their beauty and I keep walking outside to admire them. Here are a few photos of them.
We also have some rock orchids from my husband's parents' garden. When these flower, it brings back lovely memories of my mum in law who just loved them. They were planted at the base of an iron bark tree in our garden. The iron bark tree died this year and we had to move them so the tree could be cut down. I did not think they would flower this year after being disturbed when we moved them. Lo and behold, they have produced the most number of spikes on them ever!
This purple flower is called "The Happy Wanderer". It is a creeper and climbs over everything-- but the flowers are so pretty.
I recently bought Lynette Anderson's new Christmas fabric range-- I bought a bundle called an Angel Delight-- the pieces of fabric are 10"x11"in size. I am making another Christmas cushion with the fabric and have enough left over to design a second one. The first will have gingerbreadmen-- almost completed, and the second will probably have some Christmas parcels on them. I took some photos and when I loaded them onto them computer-- found them all out of focus! So have no photos to show you today. Will try again another day. There will be another pattern give away when I have completed the cushion.
Enjoy the rest of the week.
