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I've been mostly home for the last couple of weeks after I had my tonsils taken out (yes, ouch!) 2 weeks ago. I'm going back to work tomorrow, but wanted to wander around the garden I've enjoyed looking at during my recuperation.


Out the back door. This sold the house to me more than anything else. We've just painted it red and redone the white. It is my favourite part of the house to sit in and talk to friends, or just enjoy a coffee and the paper. Or a barbecue cooked by my gorgeous husband. The mint smell is just divine.


We gave most of the family 5 chili plants in a pot as part of their Christmas present, and kept 5 for ourselves. I can't wait to start cooking with these.


This hibiscus just keeps on giving - my poor husband has had to cut it back 4 times since we moved in here. It smells gorgeous, the birds love it and the flowers are sooooo pretty.





The plants in this bed mostly come from old rental places I lived in. Mum snaffled cuttings of everything I liked and kept them growing in pots at her house. Now they are settling into our house.



I can't wait for these trees to begin fruiting. One of them is a double grafted lemon/lime tree, and the other is a lemon tree we were given for a wedding present. They were both so tiny when we planted them, but they are growing well.



Our first vegie patch. It went absolutely crazy. so far we've enjoyed rhubarb, brocoli, silver beet, and tomatoes. Next year we plant different things there and move to the next patch we are planning at the moment. The rhurbarb came from my father in law.



The fence is falling down, but we thought we'd get a summer of beans out of it first before we replace it in autumn. We are snap freezing them as we pick them to keep us well supplied.



A little peek over the fence - no wonder we are such a popular place to visit for all the kids in our world. And yes, the new fence will have a gate.



It wouldn't smell like home to me without jasmine. Lots of room there for another compost bin and more vegie patches.



The plants in this bed all came from my Mum's house. Just before she moved from my childhood home we spent an afternoon raiding her garden and about 85% of our cuttings have taken.



George thinks he is lord and master of this house - so I had to include him.



More fruits of the garden - picked today. They are exploding with flavour - I just wish they didn't hurt my throat still. Give me a few more days.

That lovely husband of mine has done more than 95% of the work in the garden. I enjoy it, give my opinion and pull out the thistles. When I do the washing, I do the watering. We've got a long way to go to get it where we want to, but with the water tank, grey water and buckets in the shower we'll get there eventually. I love that it has so much of our history in it too.

These dreams go on ....

Last night I dreamt that I slept in and when I went outside to get the paper I discovered that my brother had dug up the front lawn and put in a swampy marshy area which was full of reeds and lilies. It was absolutely stunning, and the lilies were all in bloom, with just about every colour, various shades of pink, white, a rich deep red, yellows and a very pale purple, so pale it was almost blue. It reminded me a little of a photo I took in Ballina when we were on holidays last year.

He said that he had changed the garden so that we had a better supply of water so that I could have the roses I wanted, as well as the camellias. I can understand the roses, because I have been coveting the blood red roses, so dark they are nearly black, with their rich scent. Camellia's have never registered on my radar though.

I woke up after this and had a bit of a prowl around the house. When I went back to bed I managed to get back to sleep, and found myself back in the dream. Unfortunately, my next door neighbour burst my bubble, although why he looked like Rupert Murdoch I've got no idea. He peered over the fence the way Wilson used to in Home Improvement and told me that it was an illegal water feature, and we would need to get it fenced off or fill it in because we were breaking the law. Then he told me that it was attracting mosquitoes and would continue to do so unless we could guarantee that the water would be constantly moving. Damn reality intruding on my dreams.

I've got no idea how the hell I came up with that one, but it is definitely bizarre. I've just worked out where the lilies and camellia's came from. I've been rereading Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series (I do like a romp through Melbourne in the 1920's) and there is a character called Camellia who designs Phryne's garden for her and includes lilies in one. There was a whole section about a Chinese custom of putting tea leaves into a lotus flower overnight creates an exotic tea. That is a relief.