The sweet smells of Summer and the bulge

Trailing along our front veranda at the moment is the most exquisite white, starry flowered creeper.

It's a star jasmine. You can smell the flowers from miles away. Gorgeous.

They say you can propagate it from half hardened cuttings in Summer. Think I'll give it a go.

We've been throwing around some ideas about what to plant along the shed (if anything) and star jasmine might be perfect.

Or this ornamental grapevine which loves it's spot on the eastern brick wall of the house.

The shed wall also faces east.
Fresh, green foliage in Summer and colourful leaves in the Autumn. I took lots of cuttings months ago, so have plenty to use.
We will think about it a bit more ( at least I will....that's what Snakes do!!)

Another beautiful perfume that's been wafting around the garden lately is this.......

It's called Philadelphus .
Also known as mock orange blossom.
I adore the sweet scent of this shrub. It is on the south side of the house. Once again you can smell it from miles away especially on a warm day.


Bill and were outside early this morning to spread this mulch on the rose garden. Now we just want some rain to dampen it all down (and everything else for that matter).

We are amazed at the resilience of our roses and irises. Nothing gets watered in the rose garden except for new plantings. Everything needs to be tough enough to rely on rainfall.
This is climbing Renae......

Charles Austin.....

Albertine....also a climber

Soft lemon iris....

Frilly one....

And this one, just to show you that I haven't captured all the bees on my sticky yellow paper!!!

In fact, I will take the yellow paper down later( they are completely covered both sides).White flies are still out there...and so are the earwigs.
I will keep putting out some containers with the linseed oil in water though to try to keep the earwig population down a little bit..
The plants most affected are the hollyhock leaves and white flowered roses in particular.


Bill's potato patch is looking a treat.

And he is delighted to finally get the roller door on the garage.

There is so much anticipation about what is going to burst forth here !! I keep checking the bulge every day!
It was planted towards the end of 2010 and has remained unremarkable all that time....until now.
It's called a Beschorneria yuccoides, hence the yucca-like foliage.
It was described as drought tolerant and handsome!
Perfect. 

Can't wait to see you little man.
Flynn's tee shirt says All Good Things Are Wild and Free.
I suspect there will be plenty of wild and plenty of free going on at Christmas when they get here! 

Plastery dust and a new barbie for Race Day

Glorious sunset on Monday.

When our plasterer left on Friday we had a big clean up of plaster dust. And today......

We have been peering through a white plaster-tinted fog all day and slipping and sliding on the tiles.
EVERYTHING is covered in a fine layer of plaster dust. Our plasterer Russell, left this afternoon saying...Don't bother cleaning up, it will be the same tomorrow.
Oh really???

If this photo looks a bit plastery it's because it is! But I wanted to show off my completed Summer table topper.
Probably could've made it a bit bigger really.

My favourite square is the one that sits exactly in the centre which gets covered with the jug of flowers or anything else that needs to go in the centre!!!! How did that happen!!

The flowers in the jug are called achillea. This is a soft lemon one. I have planted several different ones this year so can't wait to see how the colours look. 

We needed to test the new barbeque out on Monday night before Race day and it worked a treat. Nothing fancy, just a nice big hotplate.
 Such a beautiful setting Bill......

Plenty of space for all the meat on Race Day too.
And the builder's benches made perfect tables.

The shed men were back today.  They attached the door handles. Bill was more than happy with what had been already chosen.

Now it's almost time for the roller doors to go on.

The sticky yellow paper has been doing it's job in the rose garden. 
I keep thinking that there are fewer white flies around out there.....but then again may be that's what I'm wanting to think!
 Sadly, it doesn't discriminate though, so there have been a couple of bees caught in the crossfire. I will leave the sticky papers there a bit longer before removing them altogether.

These four baby willy wagtails were having breakfast outside our window on Monday morning.

They are still being fed by Mum and Dad.

We just watched them for ages.....gorgeous little things.

Pierre de Ronsard climbing up the veranda posts.

We hope to get some mulch on the rose garden tomorrow.  ( Gosh, that sounded easy didn't it??) Hope it's not windy like today.

Simple pleasures

We could tell from the sky on Saturday morning that it was going to be an inside day.

The plasterer was the only worker with us on Friday and when he left late in the afternoon, we got to work cleaning up all the dust.

They are all making the most of an extended weekend. No-one is back until Wednesday.

Simple pleasures #1
 A new table top for the Summer.

I needed to add a few bits and pieces to make it a decent size....a bit of Miss Kate and a bit of April Showers. 35 extra squares in fact. Should have bought two packs now I come to think of it!
Work in progress.....

Simple pleasures #2

We couldn't believe our eyes when three willy wagtails suddenly became four! 

One of them was out of the nest yesterday and then......

Nothing! Gone!

Bill spotted them out beside the granny flat, but one had gone missing.

They are all back together again now .....
Even though number four is not in this photo.


Simple pleasures #3
I bought myself this magazine from the op shop for $2 and browsed through it in our new room over the weekend. 
Truth be told, I went in and out of the new room hundreds of times!!

Simple pleasures #4
The sugar pot to match my mugs ....$5 from my favourite homewares shop.

Simple pleasures #5
The mauve rose that we think might be Blue Moon has been covered in blooms. They smell divine but I've never really liked the colour.

They look gorgeous here but in real life the colour is quite dirty.

Simple pleasures #6
Amy's scrumptious pulled pork tacos.

Our neighbours up the road have been collecting trailer loads of our mulch from the gum trees, for their garden. We had used as much as we wanted, so there was plenty there for them.
 This morning he gave me this book.
  Very kind.

Confession time
 I always deliberate on which packet of tissues to buy. It depends entirely on the design on the box. Always!
At the moment I love this one....must be the circle-y thing going on.

Beautiful boy and his Mummy ......