Spring in the garden

Hellebores watercolour

On Saturday it was garden weeding day.

Hellebores from the garden

Henk was doing the hard work, chain sawing in the paddock the tree he felled last weekend and working on our new garden beds.

Only a few weeks away and we can plant the first seed potatoes and I can sow peas and carrots.

We still get heavy frosts some night, so I have to be patient sowing directly into the soil.

I have already started sowing under glass, mostly flowers for the summer garden.

This year I want to grow more cut flowers for my posies I sell at my plant stall outside the gate.

While I was weeding I noticed the Hellebores, each winter they flower very quietly under shrubs and their flower heads are tucked away between the leaves.

I love Hellebores, the colours are so delicate and I have purple and green Hellebores in my garden.
They don't last long in the vase inside, so I picked a few and painted a little watercolour to make into a card.

In the afternoon I took Ollie, my dog for a walk and I noticed the first Spring lambs in the paddocks and  I also took a photograph of Somerset Cob Cottage that was build around 1860 and it housed a family with 11 children!
Now it is a little museum.

Every Sunday I take part in Sunday Sketches.

Somerset Cob Cottage

A suprise visit

On Monday we had a lovely surprise visit from our son Paul.

While Henk and I were gardening, Rachel my daughter picked Paul from Nelson airport and they walked up our drive together. We live 800 km apart and we don't see each other often, so this visit was very special for us.

The weather was great, sunny and warm for winter and as a family we went for coffee on the Mapua warf and on Tuesday for a picnic in Tapu Bay.

We had a lovely family time together.

I didn't have a lot of time for painting, but made a quick sketch of  winter flowers and grasses from our garden.

Winter bouquet 

  

Mapua warf

My water colours

Father and son

Winter picnic

Every Sunday I am part of Sunday Sketch

Nearly Spring

Spring is not far away, only a month, but for now it feels far away.

Spring Birds nest

The South Island is in the grip of winter and it has been snowing in many places.

The top of the South Island were we live has a more tempered climate, so snow is not common,but frosts are and last night was one of the coldest nights we had this winter.

Oke, I find it cold, but minus 5 is for many places in the world a bit of a laugh, I know!

But in the garden the tops of Spring bulbs are appearing and the snow drops are flowering. 

I make up little Spring posies to sell at my plant stall and they sell well, I think a lot of my neighbours are waiting for the beginning of Spring just as much as I am.

I painted a little birdsnest with eggs to remind me that warmer weather is on its way.

Honor

Also I painted a little water colour portrait of Honor I send to Paul and Emma, as a memory keepsake for them.

A few weeks ago I taught a mixed medium workshop at a drop in center for people with mental health illness and we made collages with old magazines.

I was really impressed with the collages, not all the work is finished, but I post some examples.

Some collages took three sessions to finish, but we hope to work towards an exhibition in the near future.

Flowers in vase

All blacks Rugby player

Cup cake

I am part of bluechairdiary.blogspot.nl/2016/05/sunday-sketches-pocketful-of-memories.html