My gardens week in short

The last week in my garden started with rain.

And lots of it. 4 out of my 5 newly planted proteas have gone over to the dark side and joined the dead plant society. They clearly just don't dig my garden unless it's six feet under

I'm also saying a final goodbye to my little tomatoes - these are the last of them I think.

There are things, however, that do like these conditions!

And much to my astonishment the sweetpeas are at it again in a different bed?! Not to be left behind the gooseberries are clearly not going to be the wall flowers - they've just taken over all the other bald spots. I'm even potting them for the ceramics class!

The only colour in my garden at the moment.

And the week ended, yes, in more rain. Winter is truly apon us.

The Come Back Kids

The wonderful thing about a garden is that everything happens in it's own time - but you can be sure it does happen. Almost a year ago my lavenders suffered a serious set back. Colin & Mill came to my rescue. Here is their combined advice. So I gave all my lavender bushes in the front, the equivalent of a number two hair cut. It's taken them a good while (like nearly a year) but they've staged a come back I am proud to say. If the two of you are still out there thank you!

Lichen or Seaweed?

There's been a ghost in the machine again and I haven't been able to blog for a week. I'm hoping that it's been exorsised. I caught up briefly with Freshly Found and found this post on lichens. Denise has such a talent for spotting the little things. Funny enough on my trip to the Wild Coast in April it was one of the things I noticed as well. Amazing how much a tree trunk can resemble a reef.

I suppose the humidity has something to do with it. Have a great weekend.

Cry and celebrate my beloved country

Africa, with all it's riches and plights has been weighing on my mind heavily of late. So I have started a series of pinch pots that reflect the bounty and the starvation in the context of eating and serving food.

Here is the first prototype before bisque firing with my reference pic ~ quite surreal. I tried using slip but that was a disaster so I went back to underglaze on the inside.

'Tis not the season

This weekend we had the pleasure of a visit from Ireland. I wanted to put some flowers in the guest room but after having a look at the predictable shop versions I decided to try my garden - ambitious for this time of year! As it turns out, even more so than I thought.

So I decided to make it a 'spent-season' bouquet. A gathering of garlic chive seed heads, spent rose heads, butterfly bush stalks, berries and basil pods with some green in between.

Ok, and I admit to stealing the honeysuckle from my neighbours, but it's growing through my wall!

Some people might only see the spent but I find it quite pleasing on the eye.