Superb summer lilies and Heart Garden happiness . . .

Hello my welcome e-visitor

This summer has suited many of our lilies. There's been plenty of rain. I've given them plenty of food. Mostly though, we haven't had strong winds to knock them around. Here's a photo of me in my role of civil marriage celebrant, task completed, champagne in hand, standing smiling by the magnificent lilies our son and his family gave us for Christmas.

In Australia, we call these white fragrant beauties 'Christmas lilies"

The crinum lilies are coming into flower now, with their soft pink petals, and exuding their gentle scent.

The spicy exotic perfume of the ginger lily will soon be filling the garden.

The whole Heart Garden has been just so lovely in this spring just gone and in the summer we are nearly through. (In Australia, we have summer officially from December 1 to the end of February.)
I got such a surprise to count the small private weddings here since Spring began on September 1.
Nineteen weddings so far!
Twelve were in the Spring, seven in Summer.

Vicky and Jorge were married
in the spring Heart Garden 12 October 2012

And seven Heart Garden weddings were in the Summer.

Newlyweds Sarah and Alex embrace
4 January 2013

And all the weddings were so happy and successful, each one unique and special. And just one more to go before the Autumn weddings begin. I get to share the joy of so many couples as they begin their married life together. I surely have the best job in the world!

Krysty walks into the garden for her marriage with Jesse
on 1 February 2013

Kyrsty signs my register

Winter has its own delights while Spring is still a promise . . .

Hello my dear e-visitor. You are so welcome.

The wattles are coming into bloom. It must be nearly Spring!

Many members of the narcissus family, like the glorious daffodil above, are now at their best, taking the season seamlessly from late Winter to early Spring. 

As usual, our winter-flowering apricot was spectacular this year. It began to flower right on cue on the long weekend in early June and as usual, visitors to the Heart Garden with traditional mental associations of ‘blossom’ and ‘Spring’, remarked that the blossoms were ‘very early this year’.

What’s so wonderful about prunus mume ‘The Geisha’ is that she’s meant to look warm, pink and cheerful on chilly winter days. She’s now starting to produce her Spring leaves. In the photo above, taken August 1, the blossoms are fading but the King Parrot is looking resplendent! 

To the left is a photo of a King Parrot and a Crimson Rosella, both waiting their turn at the seed tray. Below right is a couple of white cockatoos.

All our Spring flowering blossoms are actually still in bud. I anticipate a burst of flowering pear blossom in the first week of September, along with the arrival of all the flowering plums which turn our driveway into a spectacular pink tunnel.

 

As always, we notice more birds in the winter garden when food is scarce elsewhere. Word soon gets around when I fill the seed tray and birds arrive en masse. Families of parrots, rosellas, galahs, cockatoos, crested pigeons, plus many honey-eaters, supping from the camellias, and all sorts of birds having baths -they're all welcome here, except for the cockies. Cockatoos are magnificent birds but very destructive. Their place is in the bush or open plains, not suburbia.

There was a wedding in the Heart Garden a couple of weeks ago and the groom’s aunt was loving the garden. She took many photos and showed me one like the photo on the left.

‘What’s this flower?’ she asked. She thought it very beautiful. An unusual camellia perhaps? ‘It’s a cabbage’ I replied and everyone laughed. A more complimentary name is 'Ornamental Kale'.

Camellia reticulata 'Howard Asper'

As always my beautiful garden brings me great joy and freely shares its bounty of beauty with anyone who comes to visit. Plentiful patches of colour from blossoms, polyanthus, violas and ornamental leaves, plus wafts of perfume from sarcococcus, daphne, wintersweet, woodbine and the large narcissus family will gladden the heart and inspire a warm smile of contentment, even on the bleakest wintry days. 

Farewell to autumn . . .

Greetings my welcome e-visitor

Autumn in Canberra has been delightful this year. We’ve had many clear still sunny days, and just enough rain to keep everything healthy. Almost no cold winds to add a wind chill factor - that's lucky. The begonias and fuchsias have been particularly beautiful and long-lasting. And the roses! 

(And everything else that's lovely! There are more photos in the ongoing sldieshow on the right, plus web albums, listed month to month, especially so marrying couples can see how the garden will look around the time of their special day. Just click the links.) 

We’ve been well blessed with long-lasting colour this year. Many trees are still in autumn leaf, like the twelve trees in our birch grove. (Yes, twelve birches together on one suburban block!) Other autumn glories are still to turn, like our blueberries, oak-leaf hydrangeas and our larger liquidambar.

I enjoy so much, joining with our three-year-old grand-daughter in her fascination with the way that the trees are ‘going to sleep’, just as the daffodils are ‘waking up’ and popping their new shoots through blankets of mulch.

In my role as civil marriage celebrant, I've held weddings in the Heart Garden in all three months of autumn.

In March . . . 

Collage of 3 photos from a private wedding on March 5 (That's me on the right)

In April . . . 

Kie and Jill were married at the Heart Garden in mid-April

In May . . . 

At the chilly end of May, the wedding, signing and celebrating for Aldo and Francesca's wedding all took place inside

Francesca arrives for her marriage with Aldo
in late May

                                                                                                                                                                                       Of the several small weekday weddings this autumn, nearly all were held on fine days. 

Sometimes the low temperature meant we needed to hold the ceremony inside in the ‘green room’, where windows in three walls overlook the garden. The bride and groom can stand in the bay window, surrounded by garden, but warm and snug. Often, as winter draws closer, when the weather’s pleasant enough, we go into the garden for photos after the ceremony and signing, with crystal glasses of bubbly in hand. 

Even on cold days, guests will linger because the atmosphere of the very romantic Heart Garden is so inviting and welcoming. This feels good for my heart.

I love these three 'hats': 

- Heart Gardener

- Marriage Celebrant

- Grandmother to children who are loving the garden already, and just may choose a garden-related career, as our younger son and daughter have done. 

This too is good for my heart. 

Here is the gate to the Heart Garden