Warmer Days

The weather is getting warmer, I love cutting the rose blooms and bringing them inside. Their fragrance is more intense in closed room and the perfume wafting through the air is highly intoxicating.There are many things on my "To Do" list today, I ought to go and get them done. So I'll just leave you with these pictures for your enjoyment. Have a lovely day, everyone! As you can see, I haven't finished painting the arch, I'm still waiting for hubby to have some spare time to position it more accurately as we made a mistake and he's more meticulous about doing it right than I. LOL. Thinking of using Pierre de Ronsard (a climbing rose) to climb on the arch.

Good things come to those who wait............

I didn't get a new camera. I invited my brother over for dinner on Friday night to celebrate my honey's birthday with us, I asked him to bring his camera so we could take some pictures. Unexpectedly he offered me the use of his camera as long as I like, basically as if giving it to me. I declined at first, but he insisted that he doesn't use it much, and besides, he can get a new one. His camera is not old(just a little more than a year), not bottom of the range, in fact, it's a good one. In the end he won and I gave in to his exceeding kindness and now, I'VE GOT A CAMERA!!!!! I'm so blessed and grateful that I have such a great brother!

I'm still exploring all the functions this camera can perform, I pored over the user's manual, I'm excited to try out all the different settings.Can you spot our puppy Belle? Hope I can get her from the front next time.These are photos of the back garden, many rose bushes have already been deadheaded and so I missed photographing the first flush of Spring blooms, even though there are still some left. The actual garden area is not big, as we decided to have more lawn area for the kids so they can play sport, roam and run in the backyard. It's a suburban backyard, not huge with rolling hills and acres of land for trees and plants, but not too small that there's no outdoors to speak of either. I'm still working on the finishing touches in various parts of the garden. I'm putting up two arches at the front of the garden bed, I'm painting them white. I'm also thinking of putting in white picket fences so I can have pretty climbers cascasding down. I pulled out two huge shrubs which became too invasive, and now I can use the space for "garden rooms" which will have benches for us to sit and use the garden more. I still need to plant more climbers to cover the ugly fences in the background. I'm also planning to have birdbath, birdfeeders and birdhouses or nesting boxes to attract birds to us. This garden is a work-in-progress, I'm enjoying the journey and am learning as I go along.

A year ago today...........

Jubilee Celebration and Jude the Obscure No, it's not this blog's first anniversary yet. I still haven't got my new camera, so I thought I'd post some old photos. These are photos I took a year ago today. All these roses are in flower now in the garden as well. Due to the rain and cool weather we've had, roses' colours are even more intense this spring.

The Dark Lady, Radio Times, Sir Edward Elgar, Ambridge Rose, Anne Boelyn and TamoraChina Doll Weeping Standard Rose Jubilee Celebration, Jude the Obscure, Tamora and St. Cecilia Sir Edward Elgar Heritage Radio TimesJude the Obscure

Bloggie's Nightmare

I've been hit by the worst bloggie's nightmare- my camera went dead on me on Wednesday last week. (Now I can understand how Kate from Our Red House felt when her camera was lost in the ocean) I found out when I was trying to transfer some pictures onto the computer and it wouldn't do it, the LCD screen wouldn't show any pictures while the camera turns on and still takes photos. The first thing I did was to look for the receipt and warranty. The warranty had expired. I rang the store where hubby got it from ( it was a Christmas presy in 2005) mainly to see if it was worth getting it fixed, as many gadgets like that are not made to last these days and often it's cheaper just to get a new one rather than attempting to get it fixed.

To cut the long story short, the prognosis by the very helpful technician was that it might have either short-circuited (in which case not worth fixing at all) or something might've got disconnected on the inside of the camera. They couldn't tell unless they open it up to have a look, but that'll cost just a wee-bit less than buying a new camera, so I might as well buy a new one, newer and better model, higher mega pixels etc as prices of digital cameras have reduced significantly in the last two years.

So there, now I'm in the middle of waiting to get a new camera, hubby teased that I might get one for Christmas. I expectedly protested, "No, no, that'll be too long to wait!" "Can I have my Christmas presy early?........... Just for once?............"

Anyway, here are some photos I took prior to the "breakdown", they come in handy now.The rose bushes are laden with flowers at the moment, yet I can't take pictures of them. (Sigh) I've been continuing with the "renovation" in the back garden, have been labouring hard doing brick-paving. I had to pull out the old and put in the new and weed in between. I've got more respect for people who do jobs that need physical labour now. The first day I did it, I literally staggered and thought I was going to black out (How unfit!) when I stood up after two hours of kneeling and bending over and my fingers were sore from handling the bricks. The next day I was sore everywhere, especially in my thighs, shoulders, arms and fingers. I thought gardening was hard work, but brick-paving, that's HARD work! Anyway, I quite like the result, very pleasing indeed, it looks much better than the way it was. I've still got a bit to go, but I'm much fitter now. Couldn't take photos of the process! (Sigh again) Patience, patience, I tell myself............

Celebrating Spring

Roses, roses, roses, can't have enough of them, they are truly magnificent..................

Bunches of Roses

Roses are beauty, fragrance and colour all united in one............
Above are my most recent roses from the garden. I'm enjoying them heaps.You can click on the pictures to view larger images.

First Roses in Spring

"I wish the sky would rain down roses, as they rain from off the shaken bush....... They would fall as light as feathers, smelling sweet: and it would be like sleeping and yet waking, all at once."--- George Eliot

The majority of the rose bushes are still budding............But some blooms were ready to be cut.............(Wish you could smell them...........mmm!!!!!)Having some fun with them at dusk...........