Happy Days

This year the winner of the Great Rose Race is this wee darling - who is either Cornelia or Felicia. Still a mystery after a look on Google Images. Not the best example of her flowers, but still the winner. There are a few bigger rose buds showing colour too, so I'm very excited. 

 The vege patch is making me exceedingly happy too. The cabbages want to be harvested. They are quite a small one, so I mustn't wait too long or they will explode into flower stalks.

 The broccoli are better than the supermarket ones. Conveniently they are not all forming big, plump heads at the same time.

 Mr Pukeko is keeping guard over the lettuce patch. Look how dry the soil is already:

 I haven't watered the garden because we have a weather forecast that a swamp dweller would be excited by. Days of rain. Here is the view towards the back over my first four raised beds. I have to fill the pots on the fence with pretty flowering plants that are tough as old boots. They dry out badly.

 The blossoms are still coming out around the district, and my ones are no exception. The apple tree has lots of pretty blooms. Miss Dog will be licking her lips in anticipation. She ate far too many of my apples last year.

 The blossom tree in the corner is just bursting into bloom. I love the pink buds that open into white and pink tutus. There is a larger tree of this variety out at the farm and it is simply spectacular at the moment. We're a little later here.

 The whole tree will be dancing soon.

 Only about a week ago the Solomon's seal was just appearing above the soil, and I was being careful not to accidentally break off the emerging shoots while I weeded. Now they are flowering. Incredible. If I'd sat out there watching I probably could have seen them heading skyward, then tilting their elegant heads over.

 The bluebells are coming out too, which is perfect timing now that the grape hyacinths are past their best. The foxglove behind is just stretching skyward and will no doubt suddenly flower, much to my surprise.

I love my garden. There is always something to peer at and to get excited by. There are insects, birds, furry friends following me around, interesting seedlings popping through the soil, welcome and unwelcome invaders and glorious colour.

Because it is going to rain, I had to take advantage of the beautiful day to head out to see Zanny and to work on some skills in the arena. She was in a smiley mood, and getting her ready is becoming easier because she is keeping clean now that the soil is drying out. Today when I mounted up I put my foot in the stirrup and the mounting block (half of a big plastic drum) tipped over and I was left dangling. Poor Zanny is such a good girl that she tolerated a bit of a scramble and clump into the saddle. Glad no one saw that little mishap. Not very elegant. We worked on our trotting because she is a speed fiend at trot and I tend to lean forward, which makes her go even faster, and need to work on controlling my rising at trot, tilting my body back a little to slow her. Hard to do, but we made lots of progress today. No, pulling on the reins is not the answer. She hates it so I need to work on my body doing the controlling, not my hands.

I haven't done a lot of trotting on Zanny because of her pregnancy, and now we need to master this skill together. It sounds a bit silly that I need to develop confidence at trot, but she isn't a beginner's horse, even though she is a very good girl. She requires a very gentle touch and can be speedy. She stumbles a bit, which can be a bit alarming, although this seems to be improving with work. Plus we've had about a year off while she was on maternity leave. I'm absolutely loving being her special friend. I love to spoil her.

This weekend was our friend Barbara's birthday, so I made her a chocolate birthday cake using the Edmond's Cook Book recipe. It turned out well considering baking is not something I do very often. She came around for afternoon tea and we had a wee party with the cake, chocolate eclairs and a birthday present, of course.

So I've had a very happy day. I seem to have solved the problem of the slimy varmints eating my baby seedlings with liberal applications of snail bait. Then I solved the problem of the glasshouse being too hot by leaving the door open and putting netting across (Mr Mouse and Miss Dog proof netting). I watched an episode of Dexter- that programme has more twists than a candy cane! I put on one of my 1950's style dresses once I got home from riding. It felt like summer. And now I'm recording my Sunday night programmes and watching a Harry Potter movie. Even better- no work tomorrow- heaven!