tiny succulent village // hamilton's world of cacti

I went adventuring with my dear plant pal Georgina {theplanthunter.com.au} to Hamilton's World of Cacti in Llandilo. There were some pretty great cacti planted around the property and some great hoop houses/greenhouses/igloos which had magnificent potted cultivars but we weren't allowed in to touch them and mysteriously weren't allowed to know who owned them {someone renting the igloo, apparently}

It was a fun and slightly weird adventure.

My favourite bit was seeing the beautiful geometric marks on the aloes made by the leaves {no doubt the incorrect term} before they unfurled.

Also, I planted a few handful of tulips and bought a new heuchera {Peach Flambé}, my third-dearly adored companion. I was laughing to myself as I buried the tulips and kept the potted heuchera near me because I was thinking of it as companion planting. Oh. Dear.

Cold air // exquisite blooms

This is my first autumn in the Blue Mountains. It is so beautiful. Chimney smoke is always moving lightly through the streets, the leaves are glorious, we are eating lots of soup and exhaling what my boyfriend calls 'dragon's breath'. The whole bit. But it is ridiculously cold. Even in the day. It's good for the flowers though. These tulips were from the markets 8 days ago and they were kind of open when I bought them.

My muscari are growing in the garden. So are some other bulbs I can't remember the name of. I'm about to plant some tulips. Basically I want to just grow flowers and photograph them. Or just sit near them. Sure, maybe that's a job.

May Farm Flowers

I'm not entirely sure where times does. We moved up to the Blue Mountains four months ago. There's been a flurry of weddings since then I feel like I live partly in the mountains and partly at the flower markets, in a bucket of flowers. Not a bad situation at all.

A lovely friend {the lady behind henryhudsonblog.com.au a wonderful floral design blog} took me to  May Farm Flowers near Windsor. The grower there is a dashed lovely man called Chris. He grows ranunculus, roses {great old varieties and excellent new ones too-of particular note a couple of my favourites Hot Chocolate, Sentimental and Graham Thomas but also so so many more splendid roses}, poppies, lisianthus, kale, lavender, dahlias, buddleia, achillea, gardenia, veronica, smoke bush and some wattle and gum foliages. Really great stuff. Oh and rose hips and the most glorious exuberant scabiosa I've ever seen. Chris was really interesting to talk to. It's good to hear things from the growers point of view and also kind of scary. I guess it's the same with everyone growing/rearing things there's a lot of uncertainty.

Chris is at the EQ markets at Fox Studios on Wednesdays, fridays and sometimes Saturdays being kind, slinging flowers. What a world, eh?

He let us cut whatever we wanted. It was a life highlight.

Thanks Chris.

And warmest thanks to Amy for sharing the days photos with me-long live flowery adventures x

flannel wanders // wood workin'

The only antidote for the gear box dropping out of a van you've owned for four days is to be taken on an adventure where you see plenty of wild flannel flowers growing in the bush.

It's a peculiar and oddly comforting feeling to see them growing wild and honestly having no inclination to cut them.

Ahhh flannel flowers. I am utterly undone by you, everytime.

These {and many many more} are to be found at Manly Dam. You'll see lots of birds {rosellas, crows, black swan, herons, kookaburras, m a s s i v e geese, ducks} and lizards {water dragons and other ones that I can't yet identify but I plan on getting my hands on some sort of reptile/bird watching literature as we are moving to the mountains and I want to nonchalantly impress visitors with my knowledge of the land and its creatures}.

I found a whole heap of old fence pailings at a council pick up about a week ago. I made a low little bench/shoe rack to act as a pedestal for my boyfriend's not insignificant collection of running shoes and then I made a planter for our tomatoes/herbs/probably will just be lots of scented geranium because I adore them more than anything.

I love projects like this where you just bumble along and figure it out as you go. I really like using my dad's old power tools. He is one of those wonderful people who know how to make anything.
This planter took about an hour. I want to become a carpenter.

Why is it so satisfying to build things?

Rhododendron gardens, Blackheath

I was struck by the beauty of this garden. It's rugged and rambling and Australian. The rhododendron garden covers 45 acres of bush land set in a little sloping valley in Blackheath. The volunteer-maintained garden takes you on a wander through incredibly tall and glorious rhodos and azaleas plants amongst different gum trees. There is such variety to these seemingly delicate blooms. The garden are open year round with peak season from early October to mid November but we visited a few days ago and the flowers are still looking grand. I met rhododendron in Rebecca before I met them in the tangible world. I adored the imagery of the rhodos/Rebecca's presence taking over the garden/life of whatever the narrators name was. They also serve Devonshire tea during peak season. Just sayin'

Also, here's to the kind of human who takes you on adventures to gardens in the mountains and understands {and assists} your compulsion to pick up good looking lichen covered branches and sticks.