Luminous greens of Spring

I am lured to this place of luminosity every day around 3pm in recent days. It is a view just outside our office on a path to the Homestead (main office). ... so cooling and calming. Green is the colour of healing and who better to spread her healing hands than Mother Nature? Spring, the season of new growth colour and the promise of life! What a delight for the senses.


It is little wonder poets, photographers
artists are inspired to record these days
with artistic perspective.

I love the play on green and
dream of the chance to to sit amongst the rustling trees to paint, to meditate, just to watch the fading light as the Spring show curtain falls for yet another day.

Lemon meringue pie

A kind friend gave me one dozen
eggs from her laying hens and I have been having fun making
deliciously decadent recipes such as this
tangy pie, a true Australian favourite.
But read on for its history according to
Australian Gourmet/Traveller...
Lemon meringue pie history

My favourite recipe book these days is www.taste.com.au/ and this is the origin of my recipe for the Lemon meringue pie.

Japonica

The japonica flower is a delight to see. The flowers form, and then they form, and then they just keep forming for months and months before this delicate cascade of bells finally shows in early Spring. They take me back fondly to a wonderful trip we made to Japan in 2003.

Can you imagine dainty geisha girls with their ballet like grace

and hair adorned with delicate mauve japoncia flowers tinkling and swaying this way and that as they gently incline their pretty little faces to smile up at you?

Orchids

My favourite old orchid has finally burst into flower. The plant itself is around 30 years old and has seen many moves. The buds dotted all the way down on each of 9 spikes took so long to open this year. I wondered if they were in shock from our recent move and the extra bitey prolonged frosts we have had in Muswellbrook. They are much happier and healthier since moving to the Hunter Valley. On the coast and one block from the sea in Port Macquarie NSW we were lucky to even see one spike per year.

A drive along the Golden Highway

Saturday is my fun day and I love to go for a drive around the district particularly at the change of season. Spring in the Upper Hunter Valley is beautiful and everywhere there are signs of new life. The Golden Highway from Denman to Merriwa is alive with golden splashes of colour, perhaps not the original reason for naming this highway, but the wattle everywhere would fool you into thinking that is the reason for it's name (fools gold maybe?). Up close, the wattle is such a textural and visual experience, radiant luminescent yellow with green spikey leaves, the flowers like feathery tiny pom pons. The green and gold is so typical of Australian scenery.

View from the common room

Late winter view from the common room. This is the view looking over Aberdeen escarpment as we lunch. The days are getting longer and it is really pleasant sitting out on the verandah eating our lunch, fully catered by my workplace. The girls work very hard to provide us with interesting and varied lunch menus and we just get to sit and enjoy over happy conversations and a lot of laughs with colleagues.

Some views from my office window. How lucky am I to have these seasonal moody views overlooking the horse stud farm. The escarpment in the far backdrop calls me to ancient times in this picturesque backdrop. This winter the citrus trees have yielded their gifts of oranges, lemons and mandarins. Late afternoon you will hear the lament of a single bird as she calls to her family.

Muswellbrook winter 2008

Muswellbrook winter. The streets are ablaze with the glorious jacarandas in foliage. The colours are electric, almost as beautiful as the purple flower of the jacaranda itself. Beautiful old trees lining all the streets of Muswellbrook I await your unfolding beauty with delight.

Scrapbook Sally 2

Well the scrapbook page is well and truly finished and I am now hooked on scrapbooking. I am only frustrated by the lack of items to hand and my limited time. I sent this page in an album to Sally hoping that her daughter will add to the album at some stage. Maybe a start of something creative for Sally herself? Sally takes fantastic arty photos. I was inspired by her talent and eye to see a photo in the lens. And incredibly, even tho' we had never met before Blackall late June 08 we found we had the same camera!

Chewiest chocolate brownies

I collect small pottery and porcelain dishes. I have dozens of small pieces which I have collected from many different sources. This gorgeous little platter was given to me by a lady who was leaving the company I just joined. We were so taken with one another that we vowed to keep in touch. Her present to me was a Christmas gift and an 'I wish you well in your new job' type present. How coincidental that her gift should be in a colour that I adore and feel that I could dive into for its richness and clarity? I use this little platter a lot and think of my friend Doreen. (We do see each other, and each time is like a recharge of energy for my soul). These chocolate brownies are my favourite brownie recipe decadent for their addition of cocoa and couveture chocolate... and thank you Doreen.

Scrapbook Sally

Here are the elements of a scrapbook page which I intend to create and send to my friend Sally. (Her photo is on the right hand side). I have always loved paper craft and have enjoyed calligraphy, pergamano, folk art, marbling, card making, stamping, decoupage, stencilling over the years. Scrapbooking has so much potential to incorporate all these crafts. I'll post this to my blog when I have sent her the page!

Merriwa NSW

I just love the trip to Merriwa which is approx 60km from Scone. Along the way the countryside is ever changing and according to season, brings surprises and delights every time.

This rock formation is grand and moody, adapting to the weather and season and reminds me of rock formations in Northern Territory and Western Australia. It particularly reminds me of the Bungle Bungles in WA. Oh to revisit with a digital camera!

Scone late autumn

Today I set up my display of yarns etc for 'Festival of the Fleeces' at the Visitors Welcoming Centre, Merriwa. On my journey to Merriwa I found some deciduous trees still displaying autumnal beauty, just outside of Scone. This area with its distinct four seasons is at its best in Autumn in my humble opinion. This is an example of nature's colour palette.I am loving my new camera, a Canon S5 SI, altho' fixed range focus, the quality is very good at 8 megapixels.