spring blooming

From blossoms comes

this brown paper bag of peaches

we bought from the boy

at the bend in the road where we turned toward   

signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,

from sweet fellowship in the bins,

comes nectar at the roadside, succulent

peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,

comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,

to carry within us an orchard, to eat

not only the skin, but the shade,

not only the sugar, but the days, to hold

the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into   

the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to

impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

                          - "From Blossoms" by Li-Young Lee

The peach blossoms seem to be bigger and more showy this year. I wonder if it's true, or if my mind is just so wonderfully excited to be seeing them again. These are the prettiest thing in our garden. The trees make me happy all year around, but when the bare Winter branches break into bud and then bloom. Oh oh. So beautiful. 

These have been flowering bit by bit slowly over the whole of Winter, due to our funny weather at the moment. One tree in the garden - in a different section - hasn't yet bloomed and is still a week or two away. Which is lovely, having the blooms staggered. Oh yes. Loving this more than I can say. 

And the white plum blossoms will bloom soon - on they are magical indeed. 

I'm loving Winter, but Spring really is on the way... or some days it feels like it's already here.

why Instagram is so much more than pretty pictures

I just realised that the freaking amazing thing about Instagram is that it's a whole lot more than itself.
Huh?

When I talk to people, who are my Instagram friends, and my real-life friends, they get what I'm talking about. You might not be an Instagram person, so I wanted to explain it a little more to you. What Instagram really is!

Yesterday someone said to me that Instagram is for the kids, she meant teenagers. And yeah, for sure IG is for the kids, the teenagers. But so much more than that. Oh golly. SO.MUCH.MORE.

This is why I think you *need* to come along to the IG talk I'm hosting as part of Creative Business Talks.  Some of the reasons anyway. I'd be here forever if I shared all the reasons. So I'm narrowing to the main reasons. Mostly they come from what I get out of my personal experience with IG, and from what I've seen other people get out of it. And what we all put it.

1. It's fun. So fun. Part of the best gang.group.club ever. But there's no horrible initiation rituals, there's only a whole lot of lovin'. For sure. Don't believe me? Join up to IG now and find out for yourself.

2. You'll meet people. Yep, like old fashioned penpals. Except you can say good night to these people with sweet thoughtful and lovely messages, and someone on the other side of the world will get it when they wake up in the morning. Or even your friend up the road who you haven't run into for a few days.

3. Every single day you'll be inspired. Not only by the amazing beautiful interesting unusual stunning images that people share - from everywhere, all over, all walks of life and all parts of the world - but by what you put into it. By what you give. It makes me think about my daily adventures in an excellent way. I want to share the beautiful in my life with others, and that makes me *see* it more clearly. {And no, it's not about ignoring the mess of life, or hiding the truth, or pretending we're all superhumans. It's about seeing the beauty in everyday}.

4. You'll get some great contacts that may or may not turn into customers / clients / collaborators / connections / cool fun people (that one yep, the cool fun people bit will happen for sure!).

5. People will support you. Having a bad day - let people know and they'll send you love. I know it - it's happened to me. A simple heart and x from one of my IG friends is sometimes the biggest thing that gets me going. There'll also be a lot of love for things you make. People are supportive and friendly and caring and sharing.

6. You have a record anywhere you carry your phone of all those inspiring things you do and make. You can show people what cool stuff you do and make. You can keep a collection for yourself, in a really cool and easy to access spot, of the cool-eo stuff you make, do, see....

Ok. There's a start. Why I really really do think you need to come along and hear all about IG. For me, I've been loving seeing all the flowers blooming across the world - I never get to have peonies in my house as they don't like the heat, but ah ha - I can see them on IG by those who share with me. And woah - the stunning, simply spectacular magnolias that are flowering all up and down the east coast right now (but not in my garden), oh just too good.

Please send questions or comments. I know some of you may not be IG converts, but I'm on a mission to help us all find the beauty-full in every day and share that with our IG friends.

Ready to sign up? Book here for our workshop.  

*All of these images are used with kindest thanks from the IG stream of Ally, IG Sapa, who blogs over here at everyday miracles. Check out her Instagram feed for so much more than floral love.

when it blooms

I feel I haven't shared any floral love here for a while. There's been SO much happening all around outside, in our garden and fields (paddock), and down the road and along the wayside. 

Spring tricked Winter a little, and some blossoms came really early. The peach blossoms are all but done, with the few glimpses of pinky when I drive along the road, and one tree in our garden. The white plum blossoms come a little later than the peaches, I'm not sure if it's a difference between peaches and plums or because ours are in different locations in the garden, and get different warmth and light. I love slipping across the grass to the plum trees. At a certain time of afternoon they have the most magic glowing quality. Actually, anytime of the day they are simply beautiful and intoxicating and magical to be amongst. The trees themselves are old and fallen and gnarled, like wizened fairy trees. Last weekend with the moon glowing through them in the late dusk light I felt truly lucky and special to be able to live here. 

One the weekend we gathered flowers from all over. And our home is now overflowing with vases of blooms. 

White azaleas and one pink rose from the vacant house up the road

White plum blossoms on long branches, tied up with golden thread, from across the paddock

Pink azaleas from just outside our door

One little clover flower picked at the bus stop

A small clutch of yellow dandelions the girl gave me

A woven piece of stick/yarn work. 

Red camellias from the giant tree outside - these are beautiful as blooms, and make a pretty stunning natural dye colour as well. 

 

What's the weather doing there, for you? 

Spring or Autumn settling in, or is Winter having a last little turn, like here where the evenings have slipped back into being cold again.

As always, I "collect" floral love over on pinterest, if you'd like to have some botanical inspired smiles.

all blossomy

We've been having some glorious days lately, as well as some rain and cloudy days. But I'm taking notice of the Winter sunshine warming my body and soul, and also tricking a lot of flowers into early bloom. Our peach blossoms are already in full flourish, and their leaves have some on too. Generally the leaves don't come back - with their iridescent green showyness - until some time closer to Spring.

The mulberry tree down the road already has tiny little fruits starting to grow. It was full Summer last year when we were enjoying their deliciousness - it was dyeing our hands, feet, mouths brightest purple. And while I can't wait to start dyeing fabric and yarn with those little bubbles of colour, I also don't want to rush the Summer heat too soon.

Living where we do, we always have some flowers in bloom over Winter. Our garden is bare and barren, or snow covered like other Winter's across the globe. Nope, the sub-tropics are pretty decent places for Winter. Yet still, to see this early-Spring happening at barely the middle of Winter, means that Summer will be here before we know it. I have a horrible feeling that Spring will pass us by all too quickly and be swallowed up by Summer. And based on the past two years - it'll be wet and hot and steamy. Oh fun.

So right now, I'm enjoying these Winter (ish) days, and the feeling of Spring in the air. The days are still short, which means we chase the sun across our yard and I aim for my afternoon cup of tea to coincide with the golden hour before setting sun. (It tricked me today, as the shift in earth meant a different tall tree shaded the final sunbeams and I lost the light earlier than anticipated. Ah those tall trees that block my final cup of tea in the sunshine!!!). 

I hope you had a lovely weekend. In the sunshine reading The Minpins eating with avo on toast, or hanging washing on the line, or maybe you were giggling in some snow, like Kate's family was.

feeling floral

Summer is over! Yep. Done. And it rained most of the time. 

My garden, what there was of it, is a big overgrown heap of weeds and grass and green. It's surely looking lush. And moss and lichen really are super pretty. But what I'm craving most right now are some blooms. Oh yes oh yes. 

I keep seeing Spring happening all over Instagram (another of the wonderful things about the web is being able to experience other climates and destinations without leaving home). It's so wonderful seeing flowers opening and new fresh beginnings. 

Here the leaves have slowly started turning. The peach trees and the persimmon trees are the first. Almost as soon as Autumn arrived, the baby persimmon tree started to change it's hair. And I love that. 

But this here is really what I want. To brighten these grey gloomy days that have been dragging on for oh a teeny bit too long for most of us around here.

*All images can be found on my Floral pinterest board, with links to sources. {my internet doesn't like these rainy conditions and is being too temperamental for individual linking}.