TULIP TIME IN BOWRAL

Last Thursday we drove an hour up to the Southern Highlands to visit Bowral for their Tulip Time. We dressed in layers and took our overcoats but the weather was quite warm.
 Corbett Gardens in Bowral was awash with colourful tulips and pansies.  The blossoms trees were just gorgeous.

 We visited Red Cow Farm at Sutton Forest.  It is a collection of garden 'rooms' and was just magnificent.

 Corbett Gardens

 This was an amazing Peony.  I saw my first peony at a B and B we stayed at in Ipres in Belgium.  I had to grab the owner and take her to it in the garden to ask what it was.  Then when we stayed with our friends in Somerset in England, Linda had one.  This is only the third one I have ever seen.  The flowers were as big as a bread and butter plate.

 This gorgeous Japanese Crab Apple was just beautiful.

 The beautiful St Jude's Rectory in Bowral.

 Red Cow Farm again.

 Beautiful Rhododendron at Red Cow Farm.  I just loved the Peter Rabbit watering can in the garden.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN FOR A MONTH

 I hurt my back 5 weeks ago and was totally laid up for a week, flat on my back.  Jeff had become chief cook and bottle washer as well as nurse and maid, as well as trying to keep up all his own activities.  I tried not to be too demanding and give him lots of thanks and praise, but after a month of not being able to do very much at all, we are both getting very tired.

Fliss and the children came down for a couple of days to cheer us up.  Cooper helped Jeff prepare chicken schnitzels for chicken parmigiana.  Yes, Jeff's cooking has become very creative over the last month.  Today he has even attempted a quiche, making pastry for the first time.  Looking forward to tasting it at lunch time.

Jeff reading the children their bedtime stories.  "Just one more" is usually the cry.

Sienna loved the fact that I was confined to my easy chair and bought me numerous books to read and sat on my lap to watch TV.  She kept me company for hours.

 Charlotte and Jaimeson came to visit me too, when I was a little bit more mobile.

 Jaimeson LOVES the Swiss clock with the little girl who bobs up and down as it ticks.  When it's stopped he MUST set it going.

My right knee still gives me a lot of pain but I can get around a lot better now, but I'm still quite slow and get tired very quickly.

We played outside in the lovely warm spring sunshine.  Jaimeson went through a box of old toys which had belonged to the girls when they were little.  Charlotte oohed and aahed over the memories.

MY WINTER GARDEN

 Our back deck is rather useless in winter as it's on the southern side of the house and never gets any sun.  The seat cushions are retired to the storeroom for the winter.  Actually last summer they hardly came out either as it was so cold and wet over the summer.  Looking forward to a long hot summer this year.

 Our new purchase is the bicycle plant stand .  I saw them in France and loved them but could not fit one into my suitcase.  I was delighted to see this one in Bunnings.  The wheelbarrow is growing snow peas.  The poor old wheelbarrow came with us from Grafton but now is rusted through and ready for the bin.  We will buy a new wheelbarrow to use and recycle the old one into a new vegetable garden.  It's great because you can wheel it round chasing the sun.

 We will soon start heating the pool ready for swimming in October.  Can you see my yellow orchids along the pool fence.  I have had so many spikes this year, but their pots have rotted the pool deck and Jeff has had to do some replacing of timbers.  NO MORE POTS ON THE POOL DECK had been decreed!!

 A close up of my orchids.  They originally came from my Dad via a sojourn in Katoomba with my sister Laurel.

Our front yard.  My stocks have been just beautiful.  I have picked bunches of them.  I just love the smell.  It transports me to my childhood as Mum used to grow them.  My wooden wheelbarrow is now overflowing with pansies and lobellia.