Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
The wildflowers were the winners (by a short head) in yesterday’s poll, so here they are! These pictures were taken during a snatched visit to The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I thoroughly recommend a visit: allow at least half a day if you want to see everything. Continue reading “The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, TX”
This is a close up of a large, limestone boulder, pitted with a network of holes. It was part of a water and rock installation we saw in the family garden at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin Texas. I’m sharing it in response to the weekly photo challenge: intricate.
Continue reading “Weekly photo challenge: an intricate rock”
I stir a little honey in my coffee each morning and firmly believe it’s much better for me than sugar (please don’t break the illusion!). It’s sweeter and tastier, so I use less.
I’ve recently sipped my way through a special jar of crinum honey, made by bees lucky enough to forage in idyllic surroundings on the crop of crinum lilies that flourish almost at their hive legs at Jenks Farmer’s flower farm. Thanks Tom and Jenks! Continue reading “My morning honey, crinums, hives and carpenter bees”
Bluebells. For me, they’re a sign of home. My tiny garden is so full of the sturdy, Spanish ones that I can’t plant anything else without digging a few up, no matter how careful I try to be.
We stumbled upon these ones growing wild on Darwen moor, not far from Sunnyhurst Woods, on our way to the Jubilee Tower last spring. A field of bluebells is enough to stop even the most experienced of ramblers in their tracks. It makes me happy to think that this year’s flowers aren’t far away now. Continue reading “Weekly photo challenge: bluebell blur”
I’m writing this with a shiny face. My mother has some unusual allergies (including to blue dye) and I’ve inherited enough skin sensitivity to be cautious. So don’t buy me expensive formulas of soap, shower gel or bath stuff – I’m a Simple girl in more ways than one.
If I fancy a blissful, relaxing bath, I often swirl in a few drops of natural essential oils before stepping in – perhaps rose or neroli, which is made from the flowers of Seville oranges.
This kind of bliss isn’t just for girls – my initially highly skeptical sweetheart now loves this kind of pampering (though he prefers jasmine, sometimes called the King of Essential Oils).
These three natural perfumes are luxury purchases but I enjoy having this small way to harness the natural healing and soothing power of plants.
The garden is more of a miracle than we know. Continue reading “Bliss in a bottle”
The best thing for me about the weekly photo challenge is that it encourages me to share pictures that would otherwise never see the light of day. Continue reading “Weekly photo challenge: Sea bird”
I don’t know whether you think this Galapagos tortoise is cute or more of a strange, slow moving, ancient curiosity. He could move surprisingly quickly if tempted by anything succulent.
Susan Rushton 