A Lazy Sunday Afternoon....

Hello Dhaaarlings...

This is how We spent a lazy Sunday...

  

On the banks of the Murray River...

A one and a half hours drive to the North from home...





We spent a lovely day relaxing with the family and this was the closest we got to celebratory fireworks...

A pot belly stove... just the ticket for boiling up a kettle for some tea...

The obligatory barbeque was fired up for the evening meal

The kids dropped a few lines in the water... but sadly the fish were not biting...

But the sunshine on the water...  did look lovely...

All day we wre entertained by the local inhabitants....

Families of Fairy Wrens were everywhere and quite oblivious to our presence...

They sounded like tinkling high pitched wind chimes as they hopped about in search of food to feed their hungry broods of chicks...

At one time we counted 8 pairs all with 4 to 5 chicks hopping about learning how to catch bugs and forage... They were facinating to watch. They flit about so quickly that i was lucky to get this male on camera. He was there with his partner and one of the chicks as i took the shot but as you can see the other two darted out of frame.

Ther was also a lot of entertainment from some passing not so locals...

The "not so locals"  were also out in force... Water skiing and wake boarding and generally falling off into the water...

And quite a few were flying the flag...

there was even the occasional jet ski thrown in for good measure...

This one was a tandem... I think the two men on board were only hugging... but I couldn't be sure... they zoomed past so quickly darlings....

All in all we had a lovely day...

Happy Australia Day Darlings...

Mad Hatter?....No Darlings... I'm the MAD One...

Hello Dhaaarlings...

With a cool change comes madness...

The heatwave lasted for four days of above 40 C with minimums in the low to mid 30's... Nuff said....

Prinny was quite knackered after that.... and it took everything in my power to keep the water up to the garden... (I'm dreading the water bill) But stuff it! I didn't plant out a garden to have it turn to dust overnight...

As the weather has cooled I've been game enough to get back to creating some stuff.... and this time around...

It's hats darlings!...

The youth theatre group has the rights to "The Music Man" this year...

It's a Musical set in early 1900's America...

The costumes are lots of long straight skirts, blouses and angular jackets with peplums and mini bustles... But more of them once I start making them...

Oh... and did I mention marching band costumes? No?... Well I've got them to make too... At present the figure is for 12 band costumes...

 but knowing the producer... will probably have grown to double tht by the time the show is cast...

In the meantime...

I thought I'd start playing about with some hats. Here are some of the results...

Something over the top and just a little ostentatious...

Perhaps for the Mayors Wife... "Mrs Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn"?

Here's what to do...

Take one large black sombrero...

Hand-stitch some satin lining to the undersid of the brim...

  Machine gathered and then hand-pleat as you go...

Pin into place then stitch and remove the pins...

Add some madly oversized peoney roses, sprigs of bright yellow freesia and mauve wedding bush...

Add some more Satin to the crown and wrap around a goodly length of scrunched up mauve tulle... Stich the tulle into place and tie it off in a big oversized bow...

What more could any girl want?

Something a little simpler perhaps?...

These three for instance...

The dark blue... is an original felt and ribbon found at the op shop for $2! Bargain! I just fannied about with some flowers to spruce it up a bit...

The other two... the brown riding hat and cream boater came as new blanks from various thrift shops.

The blue i've already mentioned but the Green is an original find again from the op shop... It came with it's original silk rose and grosse graine ribbon trim... The brim is oval in shape with the sides being much wider than the front and back of the hat...

I've just added the peacock feathers... I think the green in the feathers just give it a bit of a lift...

The Dark Blue on the left is another find in an op shop.

I've done nothing to alter it... It's in it's original condition... dust and all.

Here it is from the back...

I love the shape of both crowns and the curve of the brims....

 and both still have their original ribbons which I don't intend changing...

I'll be getting out the glue gun now... Well... After the long weekend... to fix all the flowers into place...

(They are only pinned at the moment)

But in the meantime Darlings... I'll be thinking of you all as I sit raising a glass in your honour and sipping something cool by the riverbank while the Empress and I Celebrate Australia Day...

Bottoms Up Darlings...

A Little Indulgence... Or... The Day I Went Mistress Spotting...

Hello Dhaaarlings...

Feck it's hot... Someone pour me a cocktail before I melt... Lots of Ice darling... No... no... don't put it in the glass darling you'll spoil the alcohol.... just throw the ice down my clevage...

42 C in the shade today and another 4-5 days to look forward to of the same.... above 40 degree temperatures...

Anyway... what does one do to stay cool in this heat?

Why go to a gallery of course...

And what did I go to see... you may well ask?

"Modern Love"

Fashion Visionaries from the FIDM LA

It was so Cool... The airconditioned gallery was devine... No really... It was darlings... 
I propped the Empress and her friend visiting from England on a lounge in front of the footage of (Stick Insects) er...fashion models strutting their stuff on the catwalks of the world... wearing many of the items surrounding us on show behind the glass cases...
 Fashion from the likes of Westwood, McQueen. D&G, Chanel, La Criox, Miyaki et el. 
I left the girls sitting recovering from the sweltering heat while I popped off to snap some gowns...

Here are some of the Pics... The lighting is a tad on the dark side to say the least and of course like at most of these events... flashers...er ... I mean Flash Photography isn't permitted... But i did try my best to give you a glimpse of how I managed to chill out for part the day....

And don't ask me which garment belongs to which trendsetter designer...I didn't take notes!

Imagine my surprise to see one of Mistress MJ's favourite outfits...

The striped tights were a give away darling....

And even one for Mistress Maddie ...

I know!... Pea...Cocks...

Just Swoonable...

Eventually the Empress had cooled enough to wander about with her friend... who I might add... is a bit of a fashion guru and named all the designers on just the sight of their gowns... No need to follow the catalogue here...

I asked the Empress what she'd thought of the footage they had sat and watched while esacaping the heat...

"It was was lovely" she said "but I didn't like the tits..."

"What do you mean? I said.... "Too much on show?"

"No" She said... "The poor things didn't have any! And they all look like they could do with a good feed"... 

Now!

More Ice Darlings and a large refill... It's going to be a long hot night! And I seem to have a heap more photo's to collate for further posts on this topic...

that's if you want me to show you more darlings...?

Is it Just Me?

Hello Dhaaarlings...

Is ist Just Me?... Or have you too noticed that the "word verification" process to leave comments on some blogs has seemingly done away with "words " altogether and hve been replaced with strings of numbers..

I'm wondering if it's a sign of things to come... in that words will be done away with all together and we will only be permitted to communicate using numbers...

I've been thinking that perhaps we are  innocently typing in the coordinates for the next drone attack, a missile launch or opening bank accounts for some sculduggerous money laundrering underworld types...

I guess it's nice to think we are all part of something much bigger darlings...

Beauty's In The Iris Of The Beholder....

Hello Dhaaarlings...

Yesterday i promised to bring you more pics of the new Iris bed...

And I will...

 But first... For those of you freezing your pink bits off... in a sub arctic winter.... a heart warming burst of colour...

This is my Climbing Rose "Leonardo DaVinci"... this is it's second blooming for the season... the inital blooms came out in clusters of 8 to 10 flowers in great cascades of colour... of course "The Empress" got to most of them with her seceteurs "They'll look lovely in a vase on the mantlepiece"

Which... in hind sight... was probably a good move as the weather became extremely hot and burnt most of the remaining clusters of the following days

The flower heads are not as abundant but they still provide some lovely colour...

Now! To the Iris bed... 

Fortunately the soil remained damp and retained the copious amounts of water I'd spent the previous afternoon literally digging in..

They are now planted in... ahem... sort of rows... as i didn't want them looking too regimented and clashing with the randomness of the other garden beds and areas...

I'll let them settle in and hopefully put down some new roots over the next day or so... before feeding them with a water soluable fertilizer...

They have grown in all sorts of odd directions whilst patiently sitting in a bucket of water in the fernery over the past couple of weeks... while awaiting replanting.... I guess they had been searching for some better light...

The only thing left to do for them now is to purchase some sugarcane much to asist in retaining the moisture in the soil...

You can see in this picture the amount of leaf litter an bark that the gum tree in the background drops... Yes that is the base of its trunk... which is as wide as the delapodated old park bench in front of it...

(I sometimes do my best thinking there)

The leaf litter is roughly piled up around the bench seat at present but will be put to better use as natural mulch around some native grevilleas I've recently planted on the other side of the tree.

I'm in the process of attempting to reduce the amount of "Lawn" in the yard... I say "lawn" as so much of it is weeds that only grow and look green in the winter after rain... and dry out to create a dustbowl in summer...

Some time back I had a vision of creating a "Native Garden Walk"

To reduce the amount of water needed on the garden and cut down on mowing and constant weeding and water costs.

So the vision has started on it's journey to becoming a reality

I'll do a post when it is starting to look presentable...

In the meantime here are some more blooms from about the garden...

Enjoy!

Lambs Ears with it's silvery grey foliage...

A close up of it's little mauve flowers...

Which the bees seem to love...

A close up of it's furry velvety leaves...

One of the brighter Geraniums growing in the garden in all it's crimson glory

along with the Hot Red of the  variegated Geranium...

the new White geranium has quite large blooms...

Please ignor the Milk Thistle in the background between the two flower heads... It was unceremoniously ripped out by the roots soon after this shot was taken....

the bees also seem to love the cosmos flowers... in recent years with the weather being so dry... the bees have been rather conspicuous in their absence...

But this year they seem to be returning...

This bee was so busy on the cosmos flower that... in her ignorance...

 I was  able to get an even closer-up... close-up!

This is a ground covering or creeping daisy we call a "Black Eyed Susan"

I don't know the origin of the name but I remember it growing in my grandmothers garden...

This one is a self sewn rescue as I found it had sprung to life at the base of another old gumtree stump in the yard... It's seed may have blown in on the wind... or it may have been washed in during the last flood event we had.... I really don't know... "It's mystery"

The canna lillies have had enough water this year to enable them to flower profusely... I love how they give some height to the garden...

I have one at the moment that has grown to a hight of over 12 feet...

Well...  with their tall thick and rigidly firm stalk... Large lush leafy... almost tropical foliage... topped with brilliant head of red-orange flowers what more could one ask for?

Apart from perhaps a little pink rosebud...

I do hope you are all feeling suitably warmed Darlings...

Bottoms Up!