Another week flies by and lots of average excuses for posting this late! I won't bore you with them all though ;)
Hubby and son returned from their Boy's Own Adventure, crossing the continent and back, covering 3500 miles and with thoroughly sore rear ends LOL. I survived being Farmer Piper again (apart from a seriously trying morning moving cattle with two 9 year old girls helping - I'll leave that to your imagination!) - luckily the split water pipe didn't appear until the morning after hubby's return as that's really something that I couldn't have fixed!
I started the mammoth job of weeding my rose garden last weekend. And if you wonder why, after a week I've only weeded half of it, I will now post a photo on my 'wall of shame'! I need a lot of coercion to get into the garden at the best of times so I ignore it all through summer, apart from watering if required. Well this year we have been blessed with regular rain, so I haven't even had to do that. This is the consequence though.
Yep, that's a tangle of weeds folks, and in the centre of this photo is supposed to be a path - you can see it at the top of the photo, in the half that's weeded. No, it's NOT a pretty sight. My keen-gardener-mother-in-law has to force herself NOT to look when she visits as she is totally appalled. Amongst some very spiky rose bushes there is a mixture of 'paddy melon'-like vines, kikuyu and rye grasses, lucerne, a variety of burrs and thistles and the odd nasty patch of 'sticky-beaks' that are even taller than the roses!
It's taken quite a bit of persistence on my part to get as far as I have. If you had been watching me I'm sure you would have opened your eyes just a tad wider at my numerous vocalisations, which basically centered around the word 'OUCH' and the odd, colourful adjective. Luckily roses are hardy and some lovely blooms are still coming forth in what will be probably their last flush before the cold weather closes in. This is a David Austin double pink with a terrible, rangy habit, but gorgeous scented flowers.
I'm feeling a little floral at the moment ... the roses in the garden, photos of spring blooms at every turn on the web and my girls have been making paper flowers which currently have pride of place in a vase on my dining table.
Have you ever made flowers with some sort of medium? I've made some floral designs with gems in the past and I saw today that Phersmay had posted a photo of some organza flowers that she has made to attach to headbands, brooches and hairpins.
Totally NOT floral, however, today's jewellery piece is a wonderful long, long (did I mention it was long!?) strand of lustrous peacock freshwater pearls in semi-baroque, stick and coin shapes. It's so long it makes a decent length 2 strand necklace or a brilliant shorter length 3 strand. I've added in a sprinkling of amethyst, iolite and tanzanite gemstones to enhance that purple-blue hue that I love so much, and a gorgeous starfish sterling clasp. Do you like it?
Till next
Annette :)
14 comments:
Wow, it looks like a lot of work, but the roses are beautiful. What a pretty necklace, I bet it is cool to wear long too.
That sounds like some adventure your son and husband had! And the weeding does look like a ton of work, but it'll make room for beautiful things to grow!
The necklace is lovely--I am actually going back to look at it again.
I always love your creations Annette.
I have a little patch that tends to be forgotten in the garden, but I LOVE it when I finally get down to weeding. I feel like I'm weeding the junk from my mind and it's such a weight off when it's done.
I don't know how you do everything on the farm, with business and still come up with an informative (if not amusing) post to boot!
I need to come and live 'A Day in the life of Annette Piper' to get some tips.
I am loving the necklace - I adore the lustre of those pearls you have choosen :) best le
Herding cattle - ugh! I grew up on a farm, so attempting head cattle in any direction is next to an impossible task. I hope the girls have had experience, or they would just add to the work.
I totally love the necklace. Anything with a marine theme goes right down my alley. I love, love the starfish clasp.
Have a nice day, Annette!!
Beautiful flowers, GORGEOUS necklace!
Oh I love that necklace! The colors are just beautiful!
The rose photo is beautiful as well. :)
When my stepfather passed away my Mother had bracelets made for all of us out of roses. They are so pretty and smell so good! :)
Looks like lots of work. I hate weeding.
Beautiful new necklace.
It sounds as if your hubby and son had a wonderful adventure. Your rose garden reminds me of how much I need to weed my herb garden. :)
The necklace you designed is lovely.
I love, LOVE that necklace, Annette! When I look at it, I instantly think of warm summer nights. It's really beautiful!
And as far as weeding, I despise weeding as well! What I do to deal with it is I set a timer for 15 minutes each morning and that's about all I can take. But doing it that way seems to get the job done...eventually. ;o)
It certainly sounds as though life is one big adventure for you all. I can only imagine what moving cattle with 2 nine year olds would be like. Sounds as though you did a brilliant job as Farmer Piper, and I'm sure the weeding can wait just a little longer.
You can't impress me with bad gardening. I have very little land and it's a wreck. Desert landscaping and yet the weeds in my side yard are so big and fluffy you can't see the rocks. I do have to keep the front in some order or I get fined from the HOA. I keep meaning to take pics of my mess.
Rose is gorgeous as is, of course, the jewelry!
Love the necklace, Annette! And, you're not alone in having a garden unattended for too long... I applaud you for having the courage to put a pic up on your blog! Maybe if I did I'd find the kick in the you-know-where that might get me to do some much needed work there... Just maybe...
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