It's been a while

 I have been very slack where my blog is concerned. I have no excuse really apart from the fact that I have become addicted to reading and have read a few hundred books in the past couple of years. Oops! I think I know more now about the Civil War in the US, life in the Regency Period etc. than I do about Australian history. I find it all quite fascinating. I have been especially interested in the late 1800s when my grandparents were born in Scotland.

Getting back to reality and life on the Darling Downs....we have had a lot of storms including two hail storms in the past few weeks but the one we had last week didn't do any damage this time thankfully. There were severe storm warnings out for our region but according to the radar we were just on the edge of the worst of it. The hydrangeas have survived and are doing well.

A friend who has an exhibition garden visited recently and brought me some beautifully fragrant Gardenias from her garden. Don't you love those kind of friends? 

Another friend who has all types of lilies growing at her place brought this yellow lily along to our Simple Living Toowoomba group's Secret Santa at our break-up and seeing as I had first choice of the gifts I picked this plant to add it to the purple one I picked up at a previous break-up. 

I have learned a few things this year as regards when and how to plant hollyhocks and foxgloves. I planted these foxgloves in pots which wasn't a good idea. They have only just started to flower in November/December when it is getting hot so next year I will plant the seeds earlier so that the seedlings can be planted out in March and they won't be grown in pots.  They are pretty though I must say. 

You may remember the 'growing of the pineapple' saga we went through this year. Well, I was quite disappointed that the ripe pineapple wasn't as sweet as I expected and I was going to throw out the rest of the plants but my hubby said to leave them and now I notice that we have two new ones growing. They do take a long time I must say but must be liking all the rain we have been having. 

I had a lovely surprise in the mail last week. We are having a Christmas swap on The Homemakers' Forum and I scored this lovely gift of matching dishcloths and handtowels for my kitchen which has green tiles and red caddy etc. Some of you may remember the renovations which were done a couple of years ago. 

There have been Blogger changes this past year or so and I have discovered that the old posts I add to the section on the sidebar called 'Have you read this golden oldie?' can now only go back a year or so. In the past I have done a few Christmas craft posts so if you are interested you can find them on this page Christmas. I really don't like changes being made where blogging is concerned....too set in my ways I guess. 

This morning at 1am the Queensland borders opened so it will be interesting to see the news tonight as thousands of travellers were expected to enter the state today. One of hubby's brothers is already on his way to the border so there will be a lot of chatting going on soon I imagine as they haven't seen each other for many years. 

Have a wonderful week and enjoy the school holidays if you live in Australia.