The weather has been great and the moon calender says it's time to plant seeds! Yay!! I jumped the gun and got in some jade sunflowers and more calendulas and some nigella sown direct on my birthday, just cos the time was gifted to me and i couldn't let it go to waste! So it will be interesting to see how the two compare, if the seeds planted on the dark moon thrive or not. Today i will try get in some more sunflowers, some zinnias, caryopteris, more cosmos, salvia, and delphinium. And some anise hyssop for delicious scent and foliage. God damn i hope something grows... faith. I have the coolest sunflowers, apricot coloured and with twisty petals. I did the big summer order from kings seeds last week, so hard to hold off until spring, but my little greenhouse should help everything through the next month, fingers crossed! Please join me in crossing our fingers for good growing...

Birthday dinner

Last night was really lovely. Despite all the family pulling out and opting to stay home in bed due to illness aplenty, we had a gorgeous little dinner for my gorgeous little girl. We had mulled wine warmed in the crock pot and a birthday berry trifle, which are incidentally my favourites. We listened to music and chatted into the night, and Ishta provided the entertainment, just as a good hostess should, by dancing to everything from Biggie and Meth to Mazzy Star. The girl has got mad skills...

A 1st birthday table

Blowing out candles with uncle David

Hooray for me, i survived the first year.... barely. I still may not last out the day. Cant remember what it feels like to NOT be sick, and my poor angel baby is sick for her big first birthday as well! It is so gorgeous how blissfully unaware they are of the fuss, Sonny has only really just got into the birthday thing in the last couple of years. He is planning his party already - racecars apparently!! So much of what i have done for Ish is for his benefit really, she couldn't care less, although i bet she enjoys the cake (may appreciate it more than the present).

Birthday gardening

Well i have finished planting all my new birthday plants, there are poppies poppies poppies of all kinds EVERYWHERE and i cant wait until spring when i get to see it all come to fruition and all these flowers in bloom. I am very much looking foward to not looking upon all the dirt and sand, the seedlings should all fill out and fill the beds nicely. I have packed everything fairly close together, now i just have to stay on top of the weeds.

We also planted the dwarf apple tree that my mum bought for me and Ishta for our birthdays, apparently has extra cancer fighting properties. I got Ishy's placenta out of deep freeze where it's been for almost a year and planted it underneath. I have been wanting an apple tree since i read about apple woods magical properties, so now i have magic wood and Ishta is forever joined to the earth...

Oriental poppies, shirley poppies, iceland poppies, and our new Monty's Surprise apple tree in the foreground

My birthday

I am trying not to feel old. I resolve to make the next 10 years the best of my life so far. I will have a fantastic party next year and celebrate the hell out of my 30th. BUT for today i will garden... yesterday i got some more poppies, ranunculus, and some cool new Niche seeds, jade sunflowers which are the most beautiful shade of white/green. I LOVE Niche seeds, i cant wait to harvest the rainbow carrots we planted months ago, which will hopefully look like this:

Book club

I have committed to holding my first book club meeting before the end of August. I now need to recruit some members, decide a theme for the first month, and decide a name. I am currently thinking "faire des folies" which is 'to commit acts of extravagance'. I plan to make everything i ever do EVER for ever and ever an act of just such extravagance. I am slightly concerned that all these french names have little to do with me and i should be embracing a theme a bit closer to home, but i'm so over kiwiana. Cant it be just part of the extravagance?

to me on Monday...

Mystery daffodil

There is a mystery daffodil in my garden. It definately wasn't there last year, so have there been garden fairies tip-toeing through in the night? I cant wait til all my spring bulbs start flowering but this one is somewhat of an enigma...