Sweet Mary

A lovely autumn day, just right to plant up a few pots of spring bulbs with "guard" satay sticks included. My cats love fresh soil to dig in so I must protect, but the sticks will also provide an extra bonus as supports when the bulbs are up and thinking about falling sideways. An autumn lunch was also had. Bread from Entice , Gernot's morello cherry jam, walnuts and a golden queen peach. all from our excellent Farmers Market . Blue cheese is Kapiti Kikorangi, my favourite. The girls thought it was the perfect day to sleep...alot.

Pale, pale pink, blue and green Chook Eggs on sale at the Links Organics stall at the Hastings Farmers Market last Sunday - double click on the photo to enlarge and read the information. You know its autumn when the fennel is as pretty as a picture. There is something wonderful about the intensity of colour in autumn flowering roses.

Two beautiful bunches of sunflowers to enhance our sunny autumnal days in Hawkes Bay. I put them up high so that they could be seen in all their glory. While on the sunflower theme, just had to take a photo of the "sunflower" quilt that I am making for a special wedding in France this summer.

Last Saturday we drove over the Gentle Annie to stay a couple of nights at my godson's holiday home in Ohakune . We drove past the beautiful Mount Ruapehu at about six in the evening and stopped to take this photo. The first of many that we took over our two days of rest and relaxation and one slightly challenging walk. Its not far, my husband said, and very easy! Last Monday, we drove home again to be welcomed, late afternoon, by this gorgeous autumn scene on the driveway leading to the house. Last Wednesday, I finished the quilt for baby Isabelle and posted it off on Friday. Last Friday, yesterday, Nic and I had a drive out to The Paper Mulberry Cafe for a fix of their excellent date scones. Their coffee is very good too. We sat outside, at a table that was once an old blue door, the sun shining on a perfect autumn day with views across the countryside. At that point, life seemed pretty good. Last week sometime, I started to pick up and eat the feijoas from the orchard - ...

People who know me well will know how much I love the season of autumn. The intensity of colour after the heat of summer is especially evident in autumn fruit. I find it hard to describe how delicious these figs were this morning, just take it from me - they were! Cox's Orange Pippins are my favourite apples and we can only buy them for a few weeks each year. Cooked or raw they are pretty well perfect to me. Nearly the last of the blueberries and autmn fruiting raspberries. All this and much more at our excellent local Farmers Market and all grown within a few kms of the market.

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day in the Hawkes Bay. We were up early as part of our "autumn/winter project" to get the house and garage sorted and de-cluttered. It will take us all this time because there is so much to do! We spent most of the morning in the garage and after the third and last load was hauled off to the tip - recycling where we could, it was all looking pretty good. Coffee with raspberry and lemon muffins while looking out over the garden was our reward. Holly tree in a pot in the foreground still decorated with fake red holly berries from Christmas time. It even fools the birds! Its actually a holly that has yellow berries and only in winter which is nowhere near our Christmas time in New Zealand. I spent many years living in the UK and still miss the "specialness" of the celebrations there. Thats not to say I don't enjoy myself here, there is just something about Christmas in a cold climate that is magical. This is the tree that Annie loves ...