More Flowers from Mum's Garden

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Why Mum's garden again, I hear you ask. Well, she's the keen gardener, I'm just the flower photographer! My garden is very small and basic - mainly paved with one small border and a couple of shrubs on the other side for balance. The paving is a wildlife haven though - I have ants, woodlice, snails and loads of self-seeded 'weeds'. It takes me about an hour a week just to keep it relatively clear of growth but I do potter a bit occasionally. Anyway, without too much more waffle, here's a few beauties.

Does anyone else have formatting problems with their blog? It doesn't seem to matter whether I preview or just guess but I always have to edit and re-publish about 6 times to get it looking OK.

Happy Holiday, Rotten Weather

Well we left the UK in sweltering sunshine and arrived in Menorca to rain and more rain. We weren't too bothered though - we'd been there several times before and really just wanted a change of scenery and time to relax. On the other hand, we hadn't really counted on 4 days of rain and grey skies!


The wonderful thing about this holiday was the memory lane trip - we stayed at this exact hostel exactly 20 years ago on our very first holiday together, just 6 weeks into our relationship. We arrived to check-in and a lady came out to greet us - she took one look and started rabbiting on in rapid spanish. We recognised her easily from our first trip but it turns out - she remembered us too!

The sun did come out for the last 3 days though - we jumped on a local bus into Mahon the capital, not realising it was market day. What a lovely bonus that was. Spent a few hours wandering round the stalls but a lot of them were basic typical market stalls (not much interest for holidaymakers) and most of the others were pure tourist targetted. There were a few unique stalls in there but we ran out of time to really get down to serious shopping. Lucky really - I could easily have spent a months' wages on one stall in particular!

The following day, we hired a jeep-style vehicle and went exploring some of the smaller roads that we'd found on our last trip. This lighthouse was an old friend from 20 years ago when we were taken to a beach nearby (via a dried-up riverbed type track) but we'd not managed to find the actual lighthouse - until now. It was a wonderfully wild and desolate spot - shale/slate beds on one side of the headland and a sandstone sort of terraced/stepped landscape on the other.


We also found some lovely little beaches and coves - mostly deserted this early in the season and of course, the weather wasn't helping. I love empty beaches though so I was perfectly happy just to mooch along, take some photos and do a bit of beachcombing. This perfect little cove is near a place called Binidali and the water was this amazing blue - I'm not sure the camera has caught the vibrancy of the day but you get the idea :-)

Obviously, being a bit of a photo-nut, I've got quite a few more but I won't overdo it - I know how boring other peoples holiday photos can be (My mum often comes home with 1000+!!) so maybe I'll show you some more tomorrow. I did get some interesting abstact rock ones so if the are any rockhounds out there, maybe you can put me straight :-)

Snails, Snails and more Snails

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I missed last week 'cos I was away on holiday in Menorca and I don't have any new stuff from my own garden because I've been washing/drying and ironing for most of the last 2 days! But I did get some vaguely garden related piccies whilst I was on hols so I thought I'd post them.

I usually go on holidays around May time so often catch places in their spring colours. Cyprus was all yellow and white wild flowers with a teensy bit of pink. Menorca on the other hand, is pinks and purples with the odd splash of white (cow parsley) and some patches of red poppies. This piccy shows some pale pink convolulus and what looked like a clover but in lilac. There was another convolulus in many places which was a very deep bluey-purple and with really quite large flowers. It was all past its' prime by the time I got there though so no decent piccies.

The bane of my life with a garden full of hostas are snails - I can home to very lacy leaves so I have to get out there with the snail traps soon. Over in Menorca, I found this lovely little fella on a reed alongside a little boggy area. Never noticed them before but it looked a bit weird having this fat juicy snail on such a slender stem.

Further down the path, there was this huge number of snails on this grass like plant - this is only a small section of the plant but it was obviously very popular with the local snails!

More holiday photos to come soon but I wanted to get these ones up tonight. It seems like I always post late on a Sunday evening but that's just the way my weekends work out I think. Back to work tomorrow which I have to admit, I'm really, really not looking forward to. There's just so much stuff I want to be doing but it's work that pays the bills so I guess I'll have to drag myself out of bed anyway.

Green Thumb Sunday - More Auriculas

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Well, as promised last week, the sun came out gently again today (and yesterday) so off I went to Mum's garden to grab some more shots of her auriculas. Have to say I am really pleased with how these turned out so I will stop blathering on and just let the photos speak for themselves :)

Green Thumb Sunday - The Sun Came Out!

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Yesterday was the warmest day of the year so far - it hit 22 degrees centigrade on our north facing verandah so it must have been much warmer in the actual sunshine. I actually managed to move my butt, pick up my camera and wander over to Mum's garden (only about 30 yards away tho') to take some photos.

Why Mum's garden, I hear you ask. Well I'm not much of a gardener really - I know loads of flower/plant names and even quite a few of the latin ones but that's just because I bought loads of gardening magazines a few years back when we were trying to design our garden. It never came to much but I did get to know quite a few plants! Mum on the other hand could probably spend all day, everyday pottering in her garden and mine as well now that hers is so full! She can never remember names though so between us, we make a good team!

One of her favourite flowers is the auricula family. She has about 20-30 different varieties in her little patch - some special named varieties in individual pots and the more common ones grouped in larger planters and troughs. These two photos are the best of the batch but once she's home from holiday and can supervise me moving the special ones around for better lighting, I'm going to do some more.


In my garden, my hostas are just beginning to show through and my darling acer (japanese maple) is doing really well. He's called Arnie 'cos he's grown from little more than a stick into a beautiful example of treehood! I used to name my special plants - Terry Triffid got eaten by our cockatiel and Sam the spider plant died of over watering. I've learnt much since then but still manage to kill houseplants on a regular basis.

Garden plants tend to fare a bit better - I only 'look after' them for the first few weeks to help them settle in - after that, they're on their own. I think that's probably a good thing given my past record, don't you?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Art vs Craft - My thoughts on the subject...

as suggested by Lostintheforest. Hmmm, good one this - although a bit difficult to discuss with oneself. It's more the sort of subject I would love to discuss over a meal and a bottle of wine with friends. Anyway - in the spirit of improv - I will attempt to have some thoughts on the subject although as I haven't really ever thought about it before, I suppose they will be initial ramblings, loads of assumptions and all totally open to change and/or correction! LOL

My initial thought was art goes on the wall and craft stuff is useful and perhaps decorative. Then hubby pointed out that sculpture is classed as art and that doesn't go on your wall and art cards are useful and decorative. Bang goes that theory!

Then I started to try to define in my own mind what I thought about each and it came to me in a flash (well, more of a fizzle actually - I was supposed to be processing invoices at the time) - art is more of a talent and craft is a skill. Now don't get me wrong - I'm not saying there is no talent in craft or no skill in art but if you think right back to childhood - who 'taught' you to draw or paint - probably no-one initially - you may have taken lessons later but initially you just did it and out came a picture. Craft on the other hand is usually something that is learned - whether your gran taught you to sew or knit, a teacher introduced you to pottery or textiles or you taught yourself decoupage/felting/silversmithing from books or internet articles.

I suppose one of the more obvious distinctions is selling price and where it sells - but is this distinction a fair one? Of course not! It's a matter of perception and educating the buyers. There is a snob value to 'Art' which craft has never really achieved for some reason. I suppose there are a few exceptions - Faberge is the only one that jumps to my mind - his work is definitely superb craftmanship but over the years has become 'Art' in many peoples minds.

<--- And as for modern art - we won't even go there. I mean come on, a pile of bricks is a pile of bricks, however you arrange them and as for the famous half a dead cow (was it? or was it half a dog, can't remember, sorry) well, that's just bloody ridiculous in my mind.

I don't think the general public really care about this debate. I certainly didn't even think about it until the other night when Lost suggested it! If I like something and have a use for it then I will buy it. I don't care whether it is classed as art or craft by some high brow, posh talking knowitall - if I have a need or use or wall space for it - it's mine! (bank balance permitting of course).

It's been a while since I've had to write a discussive piece - they were always my favourite types of essays at school 'cos I didn't need to come up with a story line - just place your arguments in a logical order and come to a conclusion. I don't think there is a conclusion to art vs. craft though - it's an evolving and never ending debate with new and old technologies thrown in for a bit of spice. What do you think?

Moving Home - 1st Improv challenge

So todays' random subject is Moving House suggested by the lovely Claire who is in the midst of this stressful process herself.

So shall I tell you about my moves or make some suggestions for making it easier? Hmmm, well as an adult I've only moved twice. Once was when I left home to live with boyfriend (later to be my hubby) so I only had a bedroom to empty and the second time was when we left our little council flat to move into this house.

We decided that we would do the move ourselves as it was only 2 miles across town - you know, hire a transit van, get the boys in to help and run back and forth. Well, we had 3 strapping lads loading and unloading the van and just little ole me packing the boxes. Except we only had about 10 boxes which we used over and over. Except they were shifting them faster than I could pack them. Except there was no sensible female at the new house to tell them where to empty said boxes. Are you beginning to get the picture?

In the end, I was just using my whole arm to just sweep stuff into the box or tipping a drawer straight in. Needless to say, it did not make for a very organised move although it wasn't particularly stressful 'cos we were laughing so hard most of the day. It took me weeks to find everything again though and even now, 14 years later, I still have the odd box tucked away in the back of a cupboard or in the attic which still hasn't been sorted out!

So, what common sense suggestions would I make?

Pack the kettle and tea/coffee things last - even make up a coolbox with some sarnies, cutlery etc just in case you need it. A house is not a home until you've had that first cup of tea/coffee and besides, the removal men never say no to a cuppa!

Make up a mini toolkit and keep that separate too - a couple of screwdrivers, a sharp knife, some WD40, some lightbulbs (you wouldn't believe what some people take with them!) and some strong tape.

If you've got kids - keep a few of their toys or games handy. They'll get so bored - my parents kept some garden games out so at least we could play in the back garden while they were filling the house from the front!

Be prepared - get loads of boxes, label them up well and try to declutter as you pack. Try not to take all that crap with you 'cos you'll only have to find somewhere to put it in the new place :) (and if you can manage this one, you must be an amazing person because I don't know anyone who starts packing early enough and is this organised)

So, tomorrow's post is Art vs. Craft, suggested by LostintheForest. Could be a bit tough for me, this one - never really thought about it but I've got all day at work tomorrow to mull it over! If you have any random suggestions to add to my list, just leave a comment and I'll get there eventually.