The winter garden

We had a lovely sunny winter's day today after the bone chilling weather at the weekend when even wearing four layers of clothes wasn't terribly effective in keeping out the cold when outside in the wind. I love it when we have a frosty morning as it is usually followed by a sunny day and it is so delightful to walk around the garden without having to be rugged up and today was one such day. I haven't really taken much notice of what is growing at the moment as there isn't a lot of colour apart from a few old faithfuls that just seem to keep on keeping on without any TLC.

 

 Violets are popping up everywhere. Last year I made Violet Salve and this year I thought I would try making Violet Leaf Soap. We used to eat the flowers when we were children :-)

Like the violets, calendulas are also appearing everywhere. Once I have enough flowers I will 

sun infuse them in olive oil to be used in soap making or to make Rhonda's Calendula Salve.

 

There always seem to be bromeliads flowering in our garden which isn't surprising as we have so many. They are a favourite of the CEO and he often comes home with a new one that has been given to him. He has bought most of the dozens he has from garage sales and one lady rang him up after her garage sale had finished to say that he could come and pick up the broms that hadn't sold! They were worth a lot of money in the nursery too. 

The old faithful lavender is starting to flower and the CEO asked the lady up the road for a cutting of her pinkish one which is ready to flower so I am interested to see what colour it is. Did you see the 'No Sew Lavender Drawer Sachets Free Printable' that Jes kindly shared last year?  There is so much good information on her blog so do check it out.

 The cherry tomatoes have survived a couple of frosts so far and these are growing in a very sheltered position facing the north. I have covered some plants at night to see them through the frost so hopefully won't have to buy tomatoes for some time as I really dislike the taste of the tomatoes in the shops.

 The first fig leaves are appearing and the old mulberry tree which was supposed to have been cut down and replaced by a dwarf mulberry is getting ready to produce another crop so there will be some more Mulberry Cobbler going into the oven in a few months time.

 As usual we have a mandarin tree full of fruit. I have seen the cockatoos eating some of them which surprised me. I thought they preferred to gorge themselves on our macadamia and pecan nuts but it seems they have a varied diet. I will have to think about using some of the up in Mandarin Curd etc. soon and will take some to our Simple Living Toowoomba swaps as well.

 Have you heard of Herb Robert? Well, this is Herb Robert growing over my very expensive peony bulb which the CEO bought me a couple of years ago and which has never flowered so I do hope they will grow here. I saw peonies on a blog that a young girl in the US had years ago and fell in love with them. They are absolutely beautiful. 

Mum's old azalea bushes are still going strong. When she died my sister gave me all the pots of azaleas that mum had growing and they always produce such pretty flowers. 

There are hundred of bulbs spring up out of the soil and must have enjoyed the recent rain. It will be a riot of colour in September especially as the forecast is for more rain than we have been having in recent years which will be nice for our farmers if they actually get it.

Today I received a big surprise in the mail when one of the Down to Earth Forum members sent me a beanie to keep me warm on our cold days. Wasn't that a lovely thing to do? I did feel bad though that I had complained so much about the cold weather that she went and knitted me a beanie. You can't see the pattern in the photo but is really nice and the fit is great. So I am now set for those 0C days that we will undoubtedly have more of this winter as we are one of the coldest places in Queensland. Not quite as cold as Stanthorpe though which had snow flurries on Monday night. 

I hope the weather is nice where you are living. I hope any US readers in the fire or flood affected areas are doing okay. Talk about extremes on different sides of the country. Stay safe everyone!