It is a funny thing this blog … it is kind of like a very private journal where I share personal reflections and yet, I allow it to be a post that anyone anywhere can read. It allows anyone anywhere to pass judgement, offer contradiction, show empathy or simply ignore. 
 
Sometimes it is a long time between posts.
 
Isn’t it peculiar how I can share such personal thoughts and feelings in such a public way?  Wonder why I do that? Is it that I feel so threadbare, that I want someone to pull out the needle and thread and with a darning eye, repair the fabric?
 
When trying to find the sewing kit recently – I was talking to someone about the feelings and reactions to what feels like after two very bizarre years …. They asked me a question.
 
What is your happy place in your physical and/or head space?
 
It was a quick response.
 
Physically it is when I can feel the earth in my hands when I am gardening.
 
My head space was a  different response – it was the emotional, soulful and quite inexplicable other sense/space.
 
NOTHING, absolutely nothing, can compare to the pure joy of holding a newborn babe in my arms, resting on my chest.  The gentle breeze of their breath, the rise and fall of each breath, the gentle beats of their little heart, the flutter of the eyelids and the warmth of the bundle of their being a new person, being in my arms.  There is NOTHING ELSE that compares to that sense of love and hope.
 
So many memories of so many babes in my arms – it grounds me. That is my happy place.  
 
Go well
 
#allyouneedislove
DC

​Whatever your plans are to celebrate across the festive season, take time for relaxation, fun and of course, don’t forget to smell …… the ROSES.
 
Stay well & travel safe
DC

Being able to and fill the sink with enough blooms to create a spectacular bouquet, is certainly worth the effort that goes into gardening. 
 
Maybe I am showing off a little, but I do love to share the end results, whether it is giving a bunch of roses to someone or by sharing these pictures.
 
“Do not watch the petals fall from the rose with sadness, know that, like life, things sometimes must fade, before they can bloom again”. (Quote: unknown)

​Stay well & travel safe
DC

According to the font of all knowledge [that is, the internet] …..
 
“Yellow roses are often given to loved ones as a way to bring joy and cheer. Due to the yellow rose's bright colour, many attribute it to the warmth of a sunny day, and rightfully so. It's an absolute beauty to behold, bringing happiness to all who receive it. Furthermore, yellow roses are said to symbolize friendship”.
 
I feel like I have neglected to represent the yellow and orange Roses, that are indeed many here at PCH.  So today I offer the humble, yet at the same time  glorious, Yellow Banksia creeper.
 

​Stay well & travel safe
DC

“Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose,” (Quote: Gertrude Stein)
 
Sometimes it can be difficult to find yet another expressive adjective to describe a bloom you find yourself gazing at.
 
This particular Rose is a bit like that.  That is why I rather fancy  this Gertrude Stein quote above, to describe this one.

​Stay well & travel safe
DC

When I was a little girl, I would visit my grandfather and there were many things to be in awe of.  His really old vintage car, his boot making skills, his incredible hothouse where he grew dozens of orchids, his Tynee-Tips tea bags that included the bird cards he collected and his Cecile Brunner Rose bushes.  They were absolutely incredible. I first recall being conscious of them,  when I was about 6 or 7 years old.
 
All these years later I have also grown Cecile Brunner Rose bushes.  Everything about them is “little” even though the bushes grow to tall heights.  The stems are super fine – the blooms are not much bigger than a 20 cent piece - the pink is so soft - the buds are super tiny.  It takes a lot of pickings to make a small posy to place in an old fashioned vintage vase.
 
They make me think of Pop Wood.
 
“I should own up that for me, growing roses is all about creating a cheap supply of fabulous, favourite blooms. I’m no Martha Stewart; I just love cutting flowers and bringing them into the house where I can focus on their beauty” (Quote: .Jane Eastoe)
 

Cecile Brunner Roses 

​Stay well & travel safe
DC
 

“I don't know whether nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice”. Roland A. Browne

​Stay well & travel safe
DC

Marketing experts, florists, promoters, and restaurants appear to have promoted the single Rose as the ultimate symbol of romance/true love. Maybe I am a tad cynical about that concept, but a single rose to me looks a bit lonely.  I don’t deny the beauty, but if one rose can be so magnificent, surely when there are many, the beauty is intensified. 
 
“The rose is a flower of love. The world has acclaimed it for centuries. Pink roses are for love hopeful and expectant. White roses are for love dead or forsaken, but the red roses, ah the red roses are for love triumphant”. (Quote: unknown)
 
The mother earth blessings at PCH are plentiful, as it is rare for only a single rose to appear.
 

The single Red Rose

​Stay well & travel safe
DC

“Roses are older than we are, but younger than the dinosaurs”. (Quote: Jane Eastoe)
 
Some Roses I know nothing about. With no idea of their classification, type, variety or name, I just see them bloom in the garden and think they are so pretty. They are their own bloom and at the same time add an extra dimension to a bouquet or vase.  
 
This pink rose was transplanted for terry’s mother’s garden in Echuca about 15 years ago. We moved quite a few of her old roses for her home there to PCH.  Many of them had been previously moved from the farm in Patho to the house in Echuca.  SO …  the journey of this pink Rose may be quite a long one.  We don’t know, but here and now we enjoy the pretty in pink.

Pink Rose 

​Stay well & travel safe
DC

Roses can inspire art, music, poetry, love and life. Like every person, each rose is unique and announces its own existence. Put a whole bunch together in the kitchen sink and all the colour, perfume and individuality make an incredible bouquet. The gift of that beautiful bunch of flowers is then shared with another.
 

​Stay well & travel safe
DC

Most days white Roses are my favourite. Every so often another bloom captures my attention and the look, the colour, the perfume, or the light just makes me think – “oh, you are my fave Rose!”  But I soon return to white Roses. I can’t explain why – there is just something really pure and indefinable about white roses.  I have several varieties in the garden, and I love to mix them up.
 
Quite a long while ago I had a boyfriend who I only partnered with for a short time. He was a tattooed, fiery, redheaded, wild Scotsman and we had had some fun!!  But my heart did not feel the right vibe and I told him it was not a long-term plan.  Apparently, I broke his heart. A short while after I dumped him, he sent me 60 white long stemmed white Roses in a truly magnificent bouquet. One rose for every day we were together, the card read! The story goes, I told him at some point in our “Scottish affair” that white Roses were my favourite.  He remembered!
 
“Do not watch the petals fall from the rose with sadness. Know that like life, things sometimes must fade before they can bloom again”. (Anonymous).

Mixed white Roses

A twitter comment I saw recently stated that the writer had observed the blooming of a Crepuscule Rose at dusk and “It was very self-aware, for a flower”.
 
I always think of them as the creeping rose that can always be counted on. In Rose catalogues it is described as a ‘reliable, strong rose’ of the Old Garden category. Perhaps that is why it is such favourite at Flemington Racecourse. It always makes its appearance in time for the Spring racing carnival. Reliable, strong and such a gorgeous apricot colour with a sweet musky fragrance.
 
In the PCH garden it always blooms in time for my birthday in early November. 

Crepuscule 

​Stay well & travel safe
DC

It has been a while since I have done the 12 days of Festivities.
 
Feeling so fortunate to have the ability to toil the soil in the PCH garden and the bounty it reaps, I would like to share it with others.  
 
This year I thought I would share some of the gifts we receive from the PCG Rose Garden.
 .

Pierre de Ronsard

​Stay well & travel safe
DC

One of the advantages of working from home is that you gain a new insight into what goes on during the day, when normally one would have been at the office.
 
This morning, while working in the study, I overheard the activity of the husband in the next room. Our library is situated in the sitting room, with a desk and comfy chair positioned in front of it. The perfect spot for ‘zooms’.
 
So that gives you the setting – here is some context…
 
As you know my heritage is Italian. My name gives it away, if nothing else does.  Over the years, especially during my time with the husband, we have shared many wonderful times in Italy and closer to home, seeking out Italian food and cultural influence, where possible.
 
The husband was born and bred in Carlton. An inner Melbourne suburb that in the halcyon days of Italian migration to Australia, supported a significant Italian community. I have always maintained that Tezza Ed is a “wanna be” Italian and that is really why he courted me as his life partner.
 
Motivated by a variety of reasons, in recent years he has been learning the Italian language.  He is modest about his skills, but I can proudly state – he is GOOD.  Not a week goes past that he doesn’t share with me his knowledge of conjugated verbs ….. over and over and over again !!
 
This morning, for no particular reason, I seemed to zone in on his class, being held on zoom in the sitting room. Suddenly, at a very loud volume, I heard Dean Martin belting out “that’s Amore”.  Thinking, “oh, how sweet, he is sending me a message to say he loves me”.  I left my desk and came to the sitting room to return the sentiment – oh no, it was not for me he was playing the song, he was playing it for his classmates.  He tells me it was the song he chose for last week’s homework activity.
 
In true Italian “moglie” style, I reacted with jealousy …… Wouldn’t you if you realised he is the only bloke in the class ? 

in case you have never heard the song, here are some of the lyrics.  If you have heard it before - now try and get the tune out of your head .  Or have a listen by linking in above.

Enjoy & stay well
DC x

In September 2001 we moved into the first (and only) home purchased as a married couple. Plough Creek Homestead has been a chameleon that has continuously and at times, breathtakingly, enriched 4/5 of our married life, in more ways than were imaginable.
 
Not least is the love affair between Mother Nature and PCH garden. 3 acres of unsophisticated and informal Aussie backyard has been the architecture of the PCH garden. The husband and I have very different ideas on how the garden should look. It is fair to say that Mother Nature has been the true master designer of what has evolved over the last 20 years. Season after season, she has nurtured, endured, and reacted as the dirt is exposed and lays bare in Winter, so that all that is hidden underneath the surface can hibernate. The growth from the previous year is pruned and the dirt is toiled. In Spring she allows buds, blossoms, and blooms to sparkle like confetti everywhere one looks. Summer can be harsh with hot days that make all the growth go limp until the evening watering or look stressed if there is threat of fires.  Then Autumn dances with breezes and colours that heralds the resting season of Winter. So, the cycle continues.
 
Over the years, there have probably been many moments where I have bored people (especially on my social pages) with the pics of the PCH garden and my comments of being awestruck by what Mother Nature creates and nurtures in the garden. The fruit and veggies, the herbs, the flowers, the leaves, the birds, and the continued changing landscape that is just repetitively joyous.
 
My master plan was always a garden with many ‘rooms’. His idea was a rather formal neat, structured landscape that had even edges. Somehow, we managed to not quite have exactly what either of us visualised, but have loved the textures, perfumes, colours, vistas, and beauty of what has evolved, not quite by design, but by luck and with Mother Natures supervision and oversight. 
 
Plough Creek runs through the gully and the supposed ‘dry creek bed’ is meant to be a cricket pitch in summer, however the continuous water flow allows the majestic swaying gum trees and willow trees to provide an environment that invites and entertains so many varieties of birdlife, that it creates a private sanctuary.  Max (our dear old Labrador) believes that the creek is his personal hydrotherapy and nearly every day, enjoys a dip. He and the birdlife seem to live in harmony, with a mutual love of the water.
 
The succulent garden, succulent pot plant garden and the alfresco dining room under the grape vine create the most zen place to sit and not think. This ‘room’ is possibly my most favourite spot in the garden, especially in autumn when the colours of the falling leaves are truly breathtaking.
 
The various rose gardens, the hellebores free and random, bushes, shrubs and bulbs, together with creepers and vines that find their own trellises, provide so many blooms that I am able to have fresh flowers and share bunches of flowers nearly the whole year round.  The black lily garden bed, the hippeastrums and the bearded irises scattered in unexpected spots. Camellia and rhododendron trees that are old, cranky and weird shapes, but always bloom with magnificent flower and colour. All amongst the many varieties of trees that hide critters and fungus beneath them, the orchid pots that were from my grandfather’s hothouse in the 1960s and often other surprise plants are found, that are quite unexpected. Across the front fence are the Australian natives that frame the entry driveway.
 
There is the veggie garden, the herb garden, the citrus grove with more than 20 different varieties of fruit and then the other fruit and stone fruit trees, interspersed with olive trees that all provide bounty, that means that Plough Creek kitchen can bubble and brew to make homemade fare to share with others.
 
And then, on other days the garden provides the serenity, safety and glorious back drop for parties, wedding, celebrations of life (funerals), family living and festive occasions.
 
Mother Nature and Plough Creek Garden, I want to say thank you for a love affair that has quite simply filled my soul with pure joy and wonder.
 
Take a moment and go enjoy some time with Mother Nature, wherever you are.

Stay well, go easy and #allyouneedislove

​DC

Mother Nature is a personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it, in the form of the mother.Wikipedia