Tag Archives: polka dots

My Nest

21 Friday Feb 2014

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Last year I visited the fabulous Sydney Flower Market at Flemington. Oh, I love this place and I sure am due for another visit very soon. I bought lovely bunches of flowers which adorned my home for the following week/s, helped a friend choose flowers for her wedding and found myself the cutest little nest made from dried Dodda Vine.

Nest

Dodda Vine also has charming common names such as devil’s guts, devil’s hair, devil’s ringlet, hailweed, hairweed, hellbine, pull-down, strangleweed and witch’s hair. Anything with a common name containing devil, hell or weed makes you stop in your tracks. It comes from the Genus Cuscuta and is a parasite which means it attaches itself to another plant and literally sucks the life out of it draining the host plant of nutrients making it weak, vulnerable and eventually rendering it lifeless. I read a forum in which the author of the post wrote that she had received Dodda Vine on a bunch of flowers (not uncommon) and that it had started to produce roots. STOP! I had fresh Dodda Vine too but I didn’t see any roots being produced, thank goodness. If this is you don’t throw your Donna Vine in the bin, get yourself busy making nests, wreaths and all things doddery before it dries.

Anyway, back to my nest. It is the cutest thing and I originally bought it as an Easter decoration. I planned to put spotted chocolate eggs in it and use it as a table center peice for the Easter period. This didn’t happen because I was unable to find Fairtrade spotted chocolate eggs (better luck this year). I did however find the cutest little family of Fairtrade bunnies that happily made their home in the nest before being consumed.

Easter Nest

I have also used my nest for Autumn and Winter decorating but my favourite has been using it during spring and summer. Summer is without a doubt my favourite season, I love the smells of summer, from sunscreen and salt on a beach towel, to seafood on the beach with a glass of Riesling. I love warm evenings under the stars and diving into the salty water at the beach. I just can’t get enough of it. Over the years I have collected little bits of nature and this year has been no different, a shell here, a beautifully formed leaf there. But this year instead of my little found treasures, also called Polka Dots, being randomly placed around my home and eventually making their way to the garden, I have put them in my nest. So, cute!

Nest and Drift Wood

I have collected my finds on different adventures I have had during Spring and Summer and each piece reminds me of a place I visited and enjoyed or a beautiful day. There are leaves, gum nuts, Kangaroo Paw, feathers, drift wood, shells, dried pods and underneath a teeny tiny scattering of sand. It’s easy to do and I am sure some of you do forage when your out and about. Keeping your eyes peeled for little Polka Dot treasures encourages us to be mindful and present because if you’re distracted and rushing your eyes might just miss something worth capturing.

Nest On The Old Radio

Inside The Nest

Gum Nut in Nest

Nest Foliage

Nest With Draping Foliage

Feather In Nest

I foraged my little Polka Dots from the ground and I cut the Kangaroo Paw from my garden. I didn’t break branches, steal flowers or damage bushland in order to create this beautiful nest. It’s amazing what you can find when you walk with mindfulness.

Until next time.

Carmel

Apple Picking in Bilpin

07 Friday Jun 2013

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Recently, my husband Dave and I spent a wonderful polka dot filled weekend in the Blue Mountains (NSW). We browsed through the lovely shops, wandered around the cool climate neighbourhoods in full autumn colour, drank delicious hot chocolate and foraged for mushrooms.

Spectacular autumn colour in the Blue mountains

Spectacular autumn colour in the Blue mountains

You’ll know from reading ‘Foraging for Fungi’ on Gardens and Polka Dots last time that Dave is a ‘doer’ he’s not a ‘gunna’. He gets an idea and the next thing you know, the wheels are in motion and he’s making whatever it is happen. Like I said, ‘it’s exciting to be me… (sometimes, depends on the idea)’.

Last winter Dave made apple cider. He bought a fruit press and all of the ‘other’ paraphernalia and by Christmas we had delicious apple cider (bubbly and alcoholic of course!). And it was pretty tasty for a first go. So considering that we would be in an apple growing region in apple picking season we, yes WE, would go apple picking for Dave’s apple-cider apples.

The fruit press. The fruit goes in the juice comes out, but not quite that simply.

The fruit press. The fruit goes in the juice comes out, but not quite that simply.

We spent the night in a little wooden cabin in Blackheath and woke to the most magical of days , perfect for, you guessed it, apple picking, but also lunch at the Apple Bar in Bilpin and a visit to Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens. It was a sun-filled autumn day and we had lots to do. Breakfast was a super delicious blackberry muffin. Blackberries are a weed in these parts, so to say the berries were fresh is an understatement. We had an unexpected visit to a delightful market and walked away with vegetable seedlings, annuals, honey, bees wax candles, nuts and that warm fuzzy feeling you get after you visit a really good country market.

Feeling all warm and fuzzy will I look at the fresh produce at the country market.

Feeling warm and fuzzy while I look at fresh produce at the country market.

Next was a short drive to the northern side of the Blue Mountains, to the Bells Line of Road. It is a beautiful drive and you can get wide open views of the Gross Valley and picture perfect views of the Australian bush.

For our apple picking we decided to go to Shield’s Orchard http://www.shieldsorchard.com/

We had heard about Shields, so that was the reason for choosing them over all of the other ‘pick your own’ orchards and we weren’t the only ones. It was a busy weekend in the Blue Mountains.

Apples ready for picking

Apples ready for picking

When we arrived we chatted to the owner about our quest for ‘lots’ of cider apples. Unfortunately (to our knowledge) all of the cider apple trees have been removed from the Blue Mountain orchards. They weren’t popular a decade ago and were ripped out, but now, with the increase in popularity of apple cider they are more in demand. However, Granny Smith, Pink Lady and Sundowner apples will do the job.

A Granny Smith apple waiting to be picked

A Granny Smith apple waiting to be picked

We were given our baskets and pointed in the direction of the orchard where we pillaged the ground for any suitable, unbruised, freshly fallen apples. Often when you pick one apple another apple will fall off the tree. Often they are left on the ground by the picker – I guess it isn’t as much fun to pick apples off the ground as it is to pick them off the tree. But they are perfectly fine and they are the ones we got for Dave’s apple cider.

Granny Smith apples for our basket.

Granny Smith apples for our basket.

Of course I picked some apples off the apple tree for fun and eating, yum!

There's one in every group!

There’s one in every group!

All up we collected about 30 kgs of apples to make apple cider. As I write this the apples are fermenting and I can hear the water valve releasing carbon dioxide out of the fermenting bottle, a sign that all is going well with the apple cider making.

It is truly exciting to be me, I have a ‘doer’ in my life and I couldn’t be happier. “Thanks Dave!”

Until next time.

Carmel

Foraging For Fungi

24 Friday May 2013

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When I think of mushroom picking it creates romantic images of skipping through the forest, with basket over arm, collecting wild mushrooms and returning to a hill side cabin to cook them up in the most delicious of ways. My imagination obviously leans toward European foraging…

The Blue Mountains from Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens

The Blue Mountains from Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens

Recently I spent a polka dot filled weekend in the Blue Mountains (NSW) with my husband, Dave. Dave is an ideas man, but not only does he have the ideas he follows through and makes those ideas come to life. It’s very exciting to be me (sometimes – depends on the idea!)… and this time the idea was mushroom picking in a pine forest which we did near Oberon, west of the Blue Mountains.

Dave did all the research required including what mushrooms would be growing, what mushrooms to avoid, where they were growing and how to find them. So we set out from Leura after a spot of shopping (Yay! that was my idea) to find a pine forest that would yield us our mushrooms.

Foraging and finding - perfect!

Foraging and finding – perfect!

The mushrooms that we were looking for were wild mushrooms, in our case Saffron Milk Caps. They can be found in pine forests from late February to early May. We drove looking for Hampton State Forest – persistence is the key here. After driving for what felt like ‘too long’ we came across the odd cluster of pine trees, then some more clusters of pine trees. These were either too difficult to get to or didn’t have any mushrooms. So we kept driving and there it was, football field after football field sized areas of stumps. The loggers had been and there were no trees in sight. But, we didn’t give up, we kept driving until on the not too distant horizon we could see the tips of more, lots more trees, enough pine trees to be called a forest. And that is exactly what we were looking for.

Careful does it. Once you have cut the stem you cover the part that is left in the ground with pine needle, that way you encourage the mushroom to shoot again next year.

Careful does it. Once you have cut the stem you cover the part that is left in the ground with pine needles, that way you encourage the mushroom to shoot again next year.

I should mention here that there was no skipping, only precarious foot steps to avoid treading on pine needle obscured mushrooms or running into a spider’s web (I didn’t want to disturb any of the wild life either). There was no basket (because I forgot to bring it – shame on me and my mushroom foraging), but we did have, you guessed it, recycled paper mushroom bags, the ones we all know and love. There was however a hillside cabin to return to, but no cooking, we waited until we were in our own kitchen (to keel over and pass out…) to cook them.

Two for one!!!

Two for one!!!

Even though Dave had done the research I was still a little concerned that we were picking wild mushrooms. When the first one went into the bag I remember saying to him, ‘don’t lick your hands or smell you hands or put them near your face and don’t eat any!’ The look of response on his face was mixed. It said ‘don’t you trust me’ and ‘how bloody stupid do you think I am?’

All up we collected about two bags worth of mushrooms to take home, that was plenty for the two of us.

Mushroom foraing success.

Mushroom foraging success.

The mushrooms travelled back to Sydney with us where Dave cooked up a pot of soup. I have to be honest the images crossing my mind of newspaper headlines containing my name very close to the words fatal and mushroom did not help my wild mushroom soup go down. I tried but there was a very definite divide within my brain, ‘it’s totally fine – we’ve done the research’ and ‘it’s oh so not fine – we’ve never done this before’. Even after each mouthful Dave had, I asked if he was ok.

Wild mushroom soup. It's orange due to the bright orange sap that seeps out of the cut end of the mushroom.

Wild mushroom soup. It’s orange due to the bright orange sap that seeps out of the cut end of the mushroom.

Even while eating the soup I kept searching the internet for things that would ease my mind. But it wasn’t very ‘eased’ when Deathcap Mushroom came up in a Google search.

Sadly I didn’t finish my soup, as I write this it sits waiting in my fridge at home. And that brings up a whole other concern, ‘should you keep wild mushroom soup?’, ‘will mushrooms that have been cooked and stored produce a highly toxic substance that renders them DANGEROUS???’. Reasonable or unreasonable, I’m not too sure!

Now here comes the warning…

I cannot stress to you enough that you should never, ever eat wild mushrooms unless you are 100% certain that you know what the mushroom is and that it is non toxic and suitable for eating. Some mushrooms are highly poisonous and eating them could be fatal. If you are not sure of the identification of the mushroom, don’t touch them, leave them where they are. A leaflet and directions are available from the Oberon Visitor Information Centre.

Dave and I survived… of course we survived, we had done the research and knew exactly what we were picking and eating. When there was any doubt as to the identification of a mushroom we left it alone. As they say, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Until next time

Carmel

Crepe Myrtle

01 Friday Feb 2013

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Lagerstroemia indica, more commonly known as the beautiful, the gorgeous and the delicious Crepe Myrtle. Oh, how I love this tree and wish there were more around our streets, gardens and parks. They herald the warm days of summer with eye-popping pinks or majestic white and provide a structural element to the garden during winter when the tree is bare and without its leaves.

SAMSUNG

The trunk is multi-stemmed which means rather than having a trunk with a mop of green leaves on top like our childhood tree drawings it has any number of trunks sprouting from its base. The trunk is mostly salmon in colour with lovely flecks of green throughout.

Crepe Myrtle Trunk

Here’s an idea, when the branches are long and strong enough to support weight, you can decorate the bare stems with lanterns or fairy lights or even tea cups.

Decorating a tree any which way you choose!

{I found this picture after I had written this piece, it’s so perfect to share here.}

In spring we start to see the first flushes of new leaves and you just know that with a little patience the crepe fabric flowers will follow. We’ll delight in this sight knowing that the cycle of the seasons will bring a carpet of flowers underfoot when they float down away from the branches. The leaves will change from green to red, yellow, orange and crimson and soon after the trunk will be exposed, letting us know winter is approaching.

We don’t have a Crepe Myrtle planted in our garden, just a sad little one in a pot that my husband rescued {it needs a lot more lovin’ still}. We do however have the luxury of having an uninterupted view of our neighbours bright pink Crepe Myrtle. It is quite old and has the most beautiful display of flowers at the moment {it did have a beautiful display before the storms over Australia Day weekend}.

Our neighbour, the owner of the Crepe Myrtle does a fantastic job of maintaining it. Each year after it has lost all of its leaves {when it is dormant} he cuts it back to about 2m from the ground {remember it is multi-stemmed so it has lots of ‘trunks’}. By doing this he is can maintain its height and it also promotes healthy new growth in spring that results in new branches with an abundance of foliage, followed by an overwhelming display of flowers. This Crepe Myrtle shares close quarters with a mature frangipani {this also gets a chop every now and then} that has a fabulous canopy, maintaining the height keeps them from getting all tangled up in pink and white loveliness.

Oh, and the best bit about the pruning is that our view of the ocean gets replenished each year. Yay!!!

Crepe Mytle flower

Crepe Myrtles are a fabulous addition to any garden. If you are thinking of adding one to your garden now is the time to purchase, they are flowering in all good garden centres so you can see them in flower and pick the perfect colour.

Lagerstoemia indica – Crepe Myrtle

    • Family: Lythraceae
    • Plant Type: Deciduous small to medium size tree
    • Flowers in late summer to autumn in colours of pink, purple, red and white
    • Foliage colour change in Autumn
    • Requires full sun but will tolerate some shade
    • Prefers moderately fertile, well draining soil
    • Prune to shape in winter if required
    • Dought tolerant but will produce good flower display if kept moist
    • Fertilising not required once established
    • Plant in open area with good air circulation

All posts need a Polka Dot so here’s one for those that REALLY like their Crepe Myrtles. How about a Crepe Myrtle print dress like the one below?

Crepe Myrtle print dress from Anthropologie

Crepe Myrtle print dress from Anthropologie

Until next time.

Carmel

‘It’s been a while!’

25 Friday Jan 2013

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Oh my, it’s been a while!

I hope that your days have been filled with Polka Dots and Garden happiness. Mine have… from surprise birthday parties with friends I adore, to over night stays in my favourite country pub, celebrating my 2nd wedding aniversary with my best friend and companion and finishing the year with a family feast – well not all of my family, not even half really, just a few! Peppered in and amongst those glorious times were far more Polka Dots, far more I am sure than you’d care to read about.

 Bubbles''''''''
 

And now, I find myself as you do too in January 2013. A little surprised that it appeared so quickly. But happy just the same and ready to get on with it. With all of its highs and lows, surprises and dare I say it disappointments, I am ready!

But what about your garden?

While you are quenching your thirst and hiding in shadows don’t forget about your garden, be it in the ground, in a pot or in many pots during these (gorgeous) hot summer days.

Daisy love

If your garden relies on a little help from the hose give it a big soaking when it needs. By big soaking I mean let the water really sink into the soil, down into the root ball and into the surrounding soil. You’de be surprised how far a plants roots will travel. Your garden will love it and you’ll be able to sit back with cool glass in hand and watch your garden flourish.

If your garden is an assortment of pots these will need more regular watering. Pots will dry out quicker than a garden bed especially with these hot dry winds we have been experiencing.

And if you have indoor plants don’t forget about them, they like a good drink too. Take your pot plant outside, imagine filling the pot with water and allow the water to get into every space within the soil then allow the water to drain out the bottom of the pot. Don’t let the roots sit in still water, generally, your plant wont like it. Yes, there are exceptions to this rule but we’ll keep it simple for now.

Rose bud and Lavender

There is no one rule for watering indoor or outdoor plants. You need to look for signs that your plants need watering. Look to see if the foliage is drooping, feel the soil by sticking your finger into the soil and if you have pots try to lift them to see if they are light and need water or heavy and have sufficient. It’s all about understanding what each plant requires and how best to monitor it and it can take a little practice to get it right.

But be careful when you water because in many areas there continues to be Water Restictions and where Water Restictions have been lifted there are now Water Wise Rules that I have list below:

  • All hoses must now have a trigger nozzle
  • To avoid the heat of the day, watering is allowed before 10am and after 4pm
  • No hosing of hard surfaces such as paths and driveways. Washing vehicles is allowed.
  • Fire hoses may be used for fire fighting activites only.

This list was obtained from NSW Government website here.

Heirloom tomatoes

So, on that note I wish you happy summer days.

Good luck with your summer watering.

Until next time.

Happy Composting………..

29 Friday Jun 2012

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For a number of years before purchasing our ‘wonderful, light filled unit’, Dave and I lived in a very small one bedroom unit with an even smaller shared ‘concrete’ garden. Our unit neighbours and ourselves had a few pots for interest but the area was so hot in summer that it required constant watering and tending to. Often it was neglected (mostly by me) because I didn’t enjoy going out there and I found it really unpleasant.

The other thing I didn’t like was that it gave us no opportunity to have a compost. I asked for a worm farm for my birthday one year (I thought it was a great gift, Dave on the other hand thought it less than suitable – thank goodness) but the poor little worms would have cooked before they had a chance to even meet each other. I thought about a tumbler compost but we didn’t have the room or the amount of food and garden waste required for successful composting. So after my worm farm idea was rejected… we just ignored this ‘want’ and decided we would deffinitely have one when we moved (crossing fingers we found a unit with a suitable garden).

However, in a fabulous little shop in Bellingen NSW a few years ago we discovered the Bokashi Bucket and have been composting ever since, yes, even in our little unit.

So, what is a Bokashi Bucket? Bokashi is a Japanese term meaning “fermented organic matter”. It is a bucket sized composting system designed to break down kitchen waste with the help of micro-organisisms. It produces nutrient rich juice and compost as good as any. No bad smells are produced from composting this way so the bucket can be kept in the kitchen under the sink. It is convenient, compact and user friendly.

Bokashi Bucket

This is our Bokashi Bucket. We keep ours in our garden – because we have room now. Ideally you would have it elevated so that you can easily drain the juice from the tap.

How does the Bokashi Bucket work? The bucket is divided into two sections, a top and a bottom. The top is where the kitchen waste is collected and the bottom is where all the juicy goodness is drained to. Along with the bucket you need the mix. The mix can vary but the one that we currently use is made from ‘crushed Australian grain fermented’ with ‘beneficial microbes and molasses’. These beneficial microbes, when in contact with your kitchen waste get to work breaking it down. They work in an anaerobic environment (no oxygen) which means the bucket wont produce heat or smells and there will be no visits from insects or rodents.

As you accumulate your kitchen waste you place it in the top section of the bucket followed by a sprinkling of the Bokashi mix, continue the process until the bin is full.

Beetroot

This beetroot has been fed with Bokashi juice. It helps encourage strong healthy growth.

What then? During the process of filling up the bucket you can drain the juice from the tap at the bottom of the bucket (so handy) and use it on your garden, just mix it with water and watch as your garden flourishes with new, healthy growth. When the bucket is full you empty the contents, just dig a hole, pour in the Bokashi kitchen waste, mix with a little soil and cover. It is at this stage, when the beneficial microbes and the kitchen waste come into contact with the soil that the real work starts and the waste breaks down into compost. Soon you will have a wonderful compost to add to your garden and the process starts all over again.

Cauliflower

This cauliflower was planted only a few weeks ago and is also fed with a mixture of Bokashi juice and water. Yum, can’t wait for these gorgeous veggies covered in white sauce.

What can you add to the Bokashi Bucket? Anything…. We all know that you shouldn’t add meats to your compost or dairy to your worm farm but the Bokashi Bucket has no restrictions, it will compost almost any organic matter, meat, dairy, seafood, bones, hair, the list goes on. So get started….

Chilli plant

Unbeknownst to our neighbour, he planted this chilli on top of Bokashi compost. The plant is healthy, pest free and covered in chillis.

I would recommend the Bokashi Bucket to anyone. It’s convenient, compact and user friendly. Even if you think you wont have anywhere to bury the compost, be creative, there is an endless amount of possibilities beyond your front and/or back door. And if you do have space it is still a wonderful addition to a composting system as you can add the Bokashi compost to regular composts and watch it break down even quicker.

You can purchase Bokashi Buckets and Bokashi mix from Eco stores, some health food stores or online.

So, on that note, happy composting.

Until Next time.

Carmel

Super Special Secret Soap

18 Friday May 2012

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I love discovering ‘Polka Dots’ during my day. I usually write them down so that they don’t just become part of my daily landscape but that they actually stand out. We all live in this busy world and the fabulous little details can often get stuck, wedged or swallowed up by the ‘other stuff’. Sometimes the ‘other stuff’ is important, sometimes it is far from it.

The other day I discovered a ‘Polka Dot’ that I share with a friend. I was fortunate to have a few hours with a very special friend of mine (actually I saw a few very special friends that day, lucky me!). But this particular friend and I somehow started talking about how we both love soaps (I love how one conversation can quickly and magically turn into a different conversation and you don’t even know how you got there). It wasn’t just about any old soap, it was about super special soap. You know, the soaps that smell divine and have delicious names that sound like fancy cocktails or deserts. The soaps that get wrapped in tissue paper at the counter and popped into a little paper bag. The soap that you keep and keep and keep, admiring it and occasionally picking it up to make sure it still smells like it did when you purchased it or when it was given to you. The soap that you can’t possibly use until just the right moment in time, then you carefully place it in the soap dish. Yes! That super special soap. If you don’t have any yourself then I am pretty sure you would know someone that does.

Even boys need super special soap…

Goats Milk Soap. One of the new additions to my ‘super special secret soap stash’

I remember when I was growing up there was always pretty soaps in the bathroom and it smelt so wonderful, fresh and florally. It felt homely and inviting. Now in my own home I love to have nice soaps and I love to give pretty soaps to my friends. When my Bridesmaids visited me in Sydney a few months before my wedding, I put out their towels then placed a pretty little soap on each of their towels. The soaps were a different name and fragrance especially chosen for each of them. I love to do unexpected things like this!

Recently I gave a friend a cute little soap for her birthday it was wrapped in blue and white stripped paper and had a little jewel on the front. It even smelt cute. And even more recently I bought myself some delicious soap, one was goats milk soap and the other, Pear and Ginger. Wow! The Pear and Ginger is beautiful (and sounds like a tropical cocktail!).

Pear and Ginger soap. This soap smells divine. I wish you could smell it too.

One of my favourite ‘can’t go past’ soaps is goats milk soap. It is great for your skin, especially in winter when the weather is drying. It is so creamy, delicious and nourishing and has such a wonderful soft scent. Fortunately for me, Dave understands the requirement of me having super special soaps and has contributed to the supply on occasion. A few years ago he gave me a wonderfully named soap for my birthday called ‘Oaty Goatie Goodness’. I was looking at it and smelling it recently (yes, to make sure it still smelt oaty, goatie and goodnessy!) and I think it might be getting close to optimal use time.

Oaty Goatie Goodness. Winter will be the perfect time to use this lovely earthy soap.

So, my friend (let’s call her Kate), who I share this soap love with was telling me about a lovely soap she found in a store in Melbourne. It’s fragrance was ‘orange and cinnamon’ (yum, if that’s not a fabulous winter-time soap fragrance, I don’t know what is). That evening I received a message from Kate saying that she had located an ‘orange and cinnamon’ soap in her ‘secret soap stash’ which she would like to give to me. Oh how wonderful! The anticipation of waiting for the soap to arrive so that I could smell it was so exciting. And just so you know, I did give Kate an opt out with no hard feelings clause, just in case she changed her mind and found the soap too delicious to part with. She was grateful for the clause but fortunately for me she found no need to use it.

Orange and Cinnamon. Prehaps beautiful soaps will be like plant cuttings, shared and enjoyed amongst family and friends.

Now I have a growing ‘super special secret soap’ stash. Well, not all that secret, but believe me Dave would not know where to find many of them. I am looking forward to using some during winter and finding more beautiful soaps for myself and to share with my beautiful, kind friends.

What is your favourite soap frangrance from your ‘super special secret soap’ stash?

Until next time.

Carmel

All Wrapped Up Into One

06 Friday Apr 2012

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I don’t think there are many people out there that wouldn’t consider flowers a Polka Dot and I’d find it difficult to believe that shoes are not many peoples idea of a Polka Dot. Well imagine flowers and shoes all wrapped up into one gorgeous Polka Dot.

I got these in my mail box (that’s hopeful), no, my inbox a few weeks ago and couldn’t wait to show you, they made me smile with delight.

I hope you also enjoy the wonderful creations and photography of Michel Tcherevkoff a New York City-based photographer.

"Chiquita" Banana flower

Introducing you to ‘Chiquita’

Lily White / Calla Lily

Meet ‘White Lily’

Divine / Parrot Tulip

And now, ‘Divine’ – isn’t she!

Fatal Attraction / Rose

The one and only ‘Fatal Attraction’

I have to admit, Fatal Attraction is my favourite. You should never mess with a woman wearing thorns.

Miss Tress / Amaranth

And finally ‘Miss Tress’, just in time for Autumn

You can see more of these wonderful creations along with a discription and the plant name at Garden Design or visit Michel Tcherevkoff’s website and be amazed or inspired or both.

All images; www.gardendesign.com

Do you have a favourite shoe flower?

Flowers for Fridays…

30 Friday Mar 2012

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While thinking about all of the wonderful Polka Dots out there I decided to start with this one. Flowers for Fridays.

A beautiful bunch of flowers bought on a Friday afternoon (or any time for that matter) and savoured over the weekend, it is one of the most wonderful and simple Polka Dots of all. I think flowers in the house are such a delight, they bring the outside in and I find flowers so relaxing and comforting.

Image from: Garden Design www.gardendesign.com

I grew up with flowers in the house, not all the time, just on occasions and it was so lovely, like a new view or a tiny holiday for your eyes as they search the room for something predictable. Oh, and the joy of giving flowers is a Polka Dot all on its own, who doesn’t love to see the smile created when giving a beautiful bunch of flowers.

While I don’t have a favourite, because I think any flower in the right vase can be spectacular, I do love Australian native flowers and arrangements. But you have to be careful when asking for Australian natives because you may just find a South African King Protea in the mix. It is a spectacular flower but it will not make your arrangement an Australian native flower arrangement.

Image from: Australian Native Flowers. www.australiannativeflower.com

Different species of cut flowers require different care so remember to ask your florist or seller how you can get the best from your cut flowers to make them last day after day after day. Also think about the vessel, if it can hold water it can hold flowers. Be imaginative and create something wonderful to bring a quiet corner of a room to life.

What are your favourite Flowers for Fridays?

Aside

Welcome…

26 Monday Mar 2012

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Welcome to Gardens and Polka Dots.

This is a place where you can come to see interesting gardens of old world classic beauty, modern ideas or where you can marvel at the innovation of great garden designers, landscape architects and engineers. I love the outdoors and am continually inspired by the magic that some designers are able to achieve.

But what are the Polka Dots, I hear you ask? Well Polka Dots are for the finer things in life, like, a day at the beach when the sky blends effortlessly into the sea…a cup of coffee with a rosette on top… a glass of Rosé that smells like summer and looks like sunshine… a smile from a friend at just the right time… a fig picked from the tree and shared…

They are the unexpected surprises in our lives that seem to just appear from out of nowhere. However, some Polka Dots are always there, we just haven’t noticed them yet.

I am always on the lookout for Polka Dots during my day. In fact I can see one now, a Dragonfly with a red tail just landed on the fence outside my window. It could have picked any window, but it picked mine. How lucky. And off it flies…

Please feel free to share any Gardens or Polka Dots that you discover during your day. Who knows, maybe there is a Polka Dot just outside your window.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you enjoy Gardens and Polka Dots.