Sunshine In a Bottle

The Jonquils are flowering in my garden! Yesterday was a glorious sunny day, lots of blue, blue sky and a few wispy white clouds. The jonquils were like pure sunshine in the garden, gently nodding in the breeze. It felt so much more like spring than almost mid-winter.

 So I picked a few blooms

And put them in a bottle.

A bottle we found buried in the chooks yard last weekend

when Daniel and I were planting the new plum trees.

I wonder what the bottle originally contained?
I wonder how many years the bottle has been buried?
Looks like it could do with a bit more of a scrub up too.

Sunshine in a bottle!

Perfection.

And jonquil shadows on the path!

Even though the jonquils look so pretty and cheery, they will have to stay

out the back on the patio table, as they really do have quite a pong,

rather than a sweet smelling perfume.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Yesterday morning before work I made two cakes. A chocolate one for school lunches and a lemon drizzle cake. I haven't made one of these cakes before, and oh my goodness it was so lemon-y and so good.
I found the recipe here.

Once I arrived home from work, I walked straight in the door and put the kettle on and sliced a piece of lemon deliciousness and savoured every mouthful. Will most definitely be making this again soon, with the abundance of lemons from Mum's tree and eggs from my chooks it is sure to be made again. I had thought about trying to make it gluten free as well for when Megan is home on the weekend, but I have just found out she has to stay at school this weekend for farm duty. Nevermind I have a friend who also has to eat gluten free and is having a tough time of it lately.Think I will make her one to share over a cuppa. Yep that sounds like a good idea. A cuppa and slice of cake shared always help.

Okay, I guess I had better get off here and get myself ready for work. Don't won't to go outside, brrr it's cold out there.

The Sky This Morning

The view from my front verandah this morning.

First the sky started out with a real orange glow...

then started to mellow a bit.

I love how the gum trees are sort of silhouetted against the sky.

After waking up to the sound of rain on the roof at 2.30am the sky out there now is a glorious blue.
Looks like it is going to be a good day. A cold one, but a good one.

The Moon

Previously I have tried to take some photos of the moon and never been very successful. I usually end up with two moons, somehow I get a reflection of the moon in each photo.

With last night being the Supermoon, I thought I would have another attempt. I went outside about 6pm and tried using different settings on my camera. This time a bit more success. Although the moon kept disappearing behind the clouds every so often. Still not the best photos, but certainly better than previous attempts.

I didn't really know much about a Supermoon but apparently it is when a full moon occurs and it is at it's closest point to Earth. Last night is as close to Earth as it will be for this year. Apparently Supermoons appear about 14 per cent larger and about 30 per cent brighter than usual full moons. To me it didn't really seem much larger, but did appear to be considerably brighter.

Well ended up with very little rain yesterday and today is just plain cold. A good day to be inside making soup and doing some baking.

52 Weeks of Happy...36/52

1.  Despite it being winter, I still have have some beautiful roses blooming in my garden...that always makes 

     me happy.

2.   This year has been just glorious with the leaves taking on a real autumn/fall look, with the leaves all 

       turning red, yellow, orange then brown before falling. Such a treat as we don't normally see that around

       here.

3.   My big fat cat Stripes was sunning herself and having a wash on the front steps early yesterday morning

      in the beautiful winter sunshine we had, and I couldn't resist taking a photo of her very cute toes. It truly                          

      was a gorgeous day and made me so happy to be outside enjoying it.

4.   Wandering around the garden with my camera in hand, I was really quite pleasantly surprised by how

       much is actually flowering or fruiting like these crab apples in my winter garden.

Have seen a few of these Weeks of Happy posts on some blogs. After a rough couple of years I find I tend to get so bogged down in what is happening that I forget to appreciate the little things in life. So I thought it would be a good idea to join in with Jen at little birdie. Better late than never to join in.

After two beautiful winter days, we are expecting some rain tomorrow which will be good to help settle in the plants I put in the ground today, so tomorrow is looking like being a day for a few inside jobs to get crossed off the list.

The Garden In Early Winter

The snapdragons have been flowering like mad for months now. They

look really bright and cheery every time I go outside to hang the

washing out. I am hoping they will continue to keep flowering

well into winter.

Most of the winter vegetable seedlings are planted.

This is cauliflower with tiny little carrots just poking through.

Have never had much luck with growing celery in the past, hoping this lot will grow well.

Looking forward to eating the broccoli.

Sharifa Asma

Some of the roses are still flowering well despite the freezing cold weather we have been having.

My favourite rose; Just Joey.

Also planted in the vege garden is kale, garlic, cabbages, dill and Malabar spinach. Still to go in are the snow pea seedlings. Just eagerly waiting for them to all grow and start producing now. Looking forward to eating more meals from the garden.