delphiniums and snow flakes...

It's 4 weeks today until I return to beautiful York for 3 months of sourcing vintage treasures to ship to Australia and sell over the summer market season. I can't wait to return to that skinny Victorian terrace just outside the city walls and to be reunited with my One-And-Only who has been keeping the home fires burning in the UK for the past two months.

Yesterday he sent me a photo of the delphiniums flowering in our shoebox garden...

I am crossing my fingers that the delphiniums are still in flower by the time I get there! When I was in York at the beginning of the year this was the view of the garden...

...Snowy, magical and oh-so-cold! As an antipodean girl I adored the snow and my very first White Christmas. But now as the season has turned frigid and lonely in Melbourne I am counting sleeps until I see my first English Summer and My Love waiting for me in the arrivals hall...

Gooey or what!!

project pretty #1 - succulent

One lonely 1950s pink anodised picnic cup... One sunny Sunday afternoon... One little itch to get my fingers dirty... Plus two I prepared earlier...

Lidless, lost and forlorn vintage enamel and aluminium pots and containers are great for planting up with succulents that strike easily from cuttings and can be kept outside or in with minimal maintenance. I use a big chunky nail and hammer to make a hole in the bottom of the pots before filling them with a few pebbles and a specific succulent potting mix. This succulent cutting was nipped from the bush a couple of weeks ago and already has roots. It's best not to water them too much... wait until they feel dry before you give them a drink...