Mother Nature Is One Fickle Dame

Saturday morning was fair but cool and Mr Shoestring and I sashayed forth to the monthly Matamata market where I was very satisfied with my purchases.  (One might also say smug and smirky.)  The deepest blood red/purple trailing geranium, not to mention various unusual perennials (I always love it when the vendor tells me I have made good selections, though to be honest why would they not say that?), and my very first Carlton wear piece.  I have always loved Carlton wear but as per usual a lot of other people seem to share my passion and it is ridiculously expensive.  This foxglove plate may be showing signs of wear but it was inexpensive, and as it had been languishing on the stallholder's table last time the market was held it was obviously in sore need of a good home, so it came away with me.

For months I have been idling around the stall where a man cunningly crafts cut outs in old coins into jewellery and torturing myself as to which piece I would choose.  This weekend I threw caution to the wind and snapped up this one, cleverly using two coins

and just as I was turning away with my purchase clamped in my hot paw I spied this very pretty enamelled spoon, transformed into a pendant.  The blue and pink shades in the sky are so intense and realistic, I couldn't resist it.  

Having happily dragged my treasures home to my lair I spent the afternoon tossing compost and coffee grounds about in the garden, murdering slugs and watering my new treasured plants.  I noticed with satisfaction that some lilies had already opened and a lot more were promising to do so any day. 

Imagine my horror when I woke up in the night to hear the wind howling and the rain lashing down on the roof.  In the morning most of the lilies were horizontal rather than vertical, the wind kept up its pace, and the rain continued to beat down upon us.  I could only be glad that I had planted my new plants while I had the chance and hope that they survived, and weren't ripped from the earth. Luckily I had picked the last of the roses and some fragrant pinks, but it wasn't much of a consolation.

 And true to my promise from last week, here is a picture of The Infinity Quilt in her glory, finally completed.  

She really isn't that bad and she did use up all the scraps from a favourite fabric I used to make dresses for my daughters all those years (decades) ago

Here is a the back, and you can see the way the edge is cunningly finished and the way I had to create miniscule triangles (and diamonds too, though they aren't in the photo) to complete it.  You have to be extremely dedicated and patient to accomplish this - I wouldn't recommend it to anybody unless they were making their master work.  

 I couldn't resist putting in a couple of pictures of this embroidery from an op shop which uses only the most simple of straight stitches but gives such a feeling of movement in the fabrics of garments, also in the trees and windmills.  Look at the little patch pocket on the brown trousers!  

A Bit Blue But Mostly In The Pink

One of the best parts about a weekend when there is a good market on is getting back to Shoestring Cottage and unwrapping all the many and varied treasures such an expedition produces.  Usually there is a quiet time of sighing, stroking and exclaiming over the wondrous bargains the market can turn up.  This weekend I was doing just that when it occurred to me that there was a definite blue cast to my purchases.  Last weekend I bought the strange little vessels with forget me nots on them which might have been the start of it all.

This weekend I found a heavenly silk paisley “Peerless” lounging robe for Mr Shoestring, complete with its original tie (often they are missing) and these lovely details on the pockets. 

I was unsure as to how he would receive this gift and slightly alarmed when he accepted it with enthusiasm and declared, “Great, I can become a lounge lizard!”  I am hoping this doesn’t mean he intends to retire from home improvements at Shoestring Cottage, rest on his laurels and take up cigar smoking, whisky drinking and generally become a bit of a wastrel.  I shall have to keep a close eye on developments there.  It has been my experience that too much leisure is bad for a man, Mr Shoestring being no exception.  

The next blue treasure was this art deco looking bracelet (no doubt encrusted with real sapphires and seed pearls!) which will be perfect to wear at next February’s deco.

I will have to make sure I have a suitable ensemble to set off the bracelet, I know I have some perfect navy crocheted gloves and some suitable shoes stashed away somewhere.  I had better get out one of the blue “frocks” and add some decofications to it, maybe a collar, sleeve trims and pockets to set it off nicely.  The Dancing Queen is usually very lady like and proper in her deco costumery, and is sure to be impressed.  

  

Perhaps the best thing of all was this matching set of blue rose earrings and brooch. 

I have long been wanting to start a collection of this of Denton china jewellery, I read that the ladies who originally made them can recognize their own work and each one must have slightly different ways of putting the flowers together.  A blue rose would not be my first choice (blue roses seem wrong somehow, like red delphiniums, and I have never thought a blue rose was a good thing to try to breed) but it is hard to find them in good condition, usually there is some damage to the petals.  Also there is the matter of cost, and these ones were very cheap.  Screw on earrings are a bit of a pesky nuisance but Mr Shoestring can convert these ones into pierced earrings for me (when he is not sitting around smoking cigars and drinking whiskey, wearing his blue silk robe and possibly wearing a fez). 

Even one of the plants I got from the stallholders at the market was blue, despite the fact that I was trying to stick to my resolve to get more white plants for the white corner in the garden.  This pretty little campanula with its wiry stems will hopefully be a good doer (like most campanula) and fill a vacant spot. 

Not all was blue though, the other good find was this little pink souvenir from the South Seas Exhibition of 1889.  

I had an idea that the exhibition took place in Dunedin and a little reading confirmed this to be the case.  I was charmed to discover that at the South Seas Exhibition they recreated the Eiffel tower, only in wood.  Surely only in New Zealand could such an undertaking take place.  On the very year when the Eiffel tower was created for the World’s Fair, and was the talk of the world, showing off the way iron could be used structurally in ways previously undreamt of, only would we erect a similar structure using homely old wood.  It is surprising to think that the iconic Eiffel tower originally caused howls of outrage from the artistic community, who believed it to be “useless and monstrous”.  The Otis elevator company used the wooden “Eiffel” tower at the South Seas Exhibition to show off the wildly modern and revolutionary elevators they were hoping to promote in New Zealand. 

In the garden there was a lot of pink going on as well, in fact lately the recent additions seem to have had a bit of a pink theme.  My mum gave me some big bromeliads which she was casting off as they were too prickly to weed around. 

She has been waging a war against snails of late and giving me reports as to their dwindling numbers each morning after she completes snail patrol.  She originally reported culling more than 100 in the mornings and eventually there were only three, then on one wonderful day none at all!  Imagine my horror to discover great numbers of them all clustered within the protective leaves of the bromeliads, some of them engaged in unspeakable acts.  For one moment with the paranoia of gardeners around the world,  I wondered whether my mum had given up on destroying her snails and decided to simply export them to my garden, but that would be too harsh. 

 Apple blossom pink geranium flowers

 More brash and larger geranium flowers (also pink)

 Pink begonias

 Pink foliage on the heucheras

 Pink "polka dot" plant leaves

Pink bromeliad flowers

This (pink) hollyhock is a stately specimen I grew from seed. 

The only fly in the ointment is the fact that they are terribly susceptible to rust and according to gardening lore each rust affected leaf must be destroyed (or the spores will live in the ground and proliferate), so each weekend I remove more and more leaves until there is left a somewhat grotesque looking towering stem with blossoms but hardly any foliage.  The best hollyhocks I ever grew were a kind called “powder puff” and they were the most beautiful soft apricot shade, the petals looking like crushed crepe paper.  I might have another try with them but for now I found some old seed lying around which is supposed to be a “black” hollyhock, and so will use that up first.  Imagine black hollyhocks amongst the white garden, very effective and striking. 

But enough of these diversions, the white garden will eventually triumph over pink and blue pretenders - once I can overcome this temptation to flirt with all the more vibrant shades on offer.  

A Well Rounded Weekend

Well, upon my word what a well rounded weekend Mr Shoestring and I had this weekend possums.  There was a surfeit of delicious comestibles including fresh fish from Thames by the sea, the first of the mysterious berry fruits (possibly raspberries) which we managed to salvage before they were stolen by the birds, and some catching up with the dear mama and the sisters, a coffee with Mrs Peaceable (during which we came to the conclusion that we could put the troubles of the world to rights if only we were in charge of most things), and of course a bit of shopping.  Not to mention a day in the garden wrestling with coffee grounds and compost, very satisfying!  In Thames these wonderful art deco style earrings were on the market stand and begging for a new home with somebody who would appreciate them.

After a lunch with the sisters, the dear mama and the nieces (poor Mr Shoestring being the only male present but putting on a brave face), the dear mama gave me this beautiful silver piece which I think is half of a traditional nurse's belt buckle presented upon graduating from training and becoming a registered nurse in England or possibly Scotland.  Somewhere or other the other half is to be found (I had to insist to the dear mama that I do not posses it, and she has not given it to me in the past), but I am sure if I do some research I will be able to discover what part of England or Scotland it comes from and what year it was issued, using the hallmarks for silver.  I love the look of the little cherubs though the one on the left looks decidedly more sombre than the one on the right, who has a cheeky grin.  It could quite easily be worn on a chain as a necklace.

One of the sisters has recently moved to a new home so we all got to play that wonderful game where you descend on the garden of the poor defenceless new home owner and trail through it, looking for interesting and unusual plants which you can uproot and transport to your own garden.  We came away with a couple of new irises (one a very nice yellow and one mystery specimen), plus the obligatory "pity" plant.  I don't know whether other people have "pity" plants but I suspect I could easily end up with a "pity" garden.  This week's candidate was a monstera deliciosa (Swiss cheese plant or "delicate monster", which were wildly fashionable in the 1960s but like so many other unfortunates have fallen from grace).  My sister only wanted to be rid of the wretched thing, so we have carted it back to our garden and given it a spot in the hope that it will survive.  These are the plants you put in your garden not because you love them or have a suitable spot for them, but because they deserve a place to put down their poor tired old roots.  If there is any sign of gratefulness from the delicate monster it will make itself at home and put on a good show, but if not nobody needs to feel that they haven't done their best for the orphan.  

I managed to wheedle this interesting bromeliad from the dear mama.  It actually will climb up the trunk of a tree and I am fully prepared to cosset it and give it anything its heart desires

.  

Everything in the garden is thriving and I was very pleased to see this rose flowering.  I bought it last year from the bargain bin at Le Maison Rouge and I didn't remember what colour it was supposed to be, or its name.  (I can't bear to put the name tags of plants in the garden, because if they die as they sometimes do, you can be left with a dreary collection of little markers which give the garden the appearance of a graveyard with tombstones spotted all around the place, very dreary and disheartening.)

The hydrangeas which were tiny cuttings last year are starting to flex their muscles and I am thinking that some culling might be in order - what with the magnolias, the Australian frangipani, all the hydrangeas plus the philadelphus and other shrubs.  

These lavatera trimestris I grew from seed last year and they have proved to be a great success.  The interesting thing about them (apart from their resolution to thrive and put on a good show) is that some of them have a slight green tinge around the edge of the petals, as the one above, some are pure white, and some have a slightly pink blush.  Perhaps it depends upon how much sun they receive?

I badly wanted a philadelphus (mock orange blossom) for the perfume but this one didn't offer up a single blossom last year - after a severe pruning to show it who was boss if has fallen into line and given us some beautiful scented flowers this year.  

The most exciting find this week was the Christmas present Mr Shoestring gave me.  (Very early for a Christmas present and we will wrap it up and put it away until Christmas.)  It has everything to recommend itself to me.  Black checks, golden touches, roses and a hint of green, could anything be more perfect?  A French antique canister set, I am in paradise.  The one sad thing is that I might have to retire the more pedestrian cream and green enamelled ones (in the top picture), but perhaps we could have a rotation system going on.  That would seem fair.