This morning the sky was blue, and the garden looking lovely, despite the ominous warnings of the impending cyclone, named Owen. However as the day has drawn on, the weather has become more sultry, the skies cloudy, and the weather forecasts are changing by the hour it seems. I think that the media drives a lot of these reports however the average person is over a barrel in determining what is actually happening, and often it is a wait and see game. We should see some weather action here by Tuesday.
I hope you enjoy these photos of my garden turning on it's red Christmas lights, without any batteries or electricity involved, just the sun and the rain. The African Blood Lillies appeared without any fanfare and are stealing the show, and the rain has certainly helped their bulbs to multiply and produce magnificent blooms this year.
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| African Blood Lilly |
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| Medinilla |
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| Bromeliad flower |
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I hope you enjoy your weekend my friends. I have had enough of the shops this Christmas. I think that one of the solutions to a stress free Christmas is to stay away from the shops and shopping centres as much as possible. All of my Christmas shopping and wrapping is done, our Christmas letter written, Christmas menu partly planned (of course), edible gifts distributed, and now I am preparing batches of Rum Balls, and whatever else I find time to do. I have been surprised, frustrated and dismayed at the amount of up selling that department store staff are trying on this year with every customer. Surely this must result in overspending by many people which becomes very stressful when the credit card is due in January. No doubt the message and training is coming from upper management to shop staff to try and sell as much as possible above and beyond what the customer came into the shop for. Oh well it didn't work with me.
On the kitchen front, I made a delicious cake loaf yesterday, which I hope to share with you in the next couple of days, combining Dulce de Leche, banana, spice and all things nice. Stay tuned for that. Hopefully I will get back to blogging in the next couple of days.
Take care everyone and I hope you have Christmas preparations under control and don't feel stressed out by it all.
Best wishes
Pauline
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What pretty colors. Very app8for Christmas season. 😊
ReplyDeleteI don't like shopping and especially try to avoid shops now. It's great that you already have all the gifts ready.
Have a good weekend Pauline.
Thanks Nil. Happy New Year to you.
DeletePauline, no Christmas stress here. I haven't even dug out the Christmas decorations this year. LOL! Perhaps I will next year if the family comes down for a holiday. A friend gave me two blood lily bulbs a few years ago but they have never flowered. They do look fascinating and I have seen them on a few blogs recently. I hope you keep safe with Owen hanging around and let's hope he doesn't reform next week.
ReplyDeleteOops I really thought I had replied Chel. Put it down to the craziness of Christmas. I think Blood Lillies are very tropical. We have the best show here for years because of the rain and heat. Happy New Year to you both.
DeleteI love those lillies, but have never grown them myself. I looked out the window the other day to see one of my orchids flowering - they seem to like this weather! I have made all my Christmas gifts this year - it feels so good, and doesn't break the bank!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. Yes the orchids love this weather. Happy New Year.
Deleteoh such gorgeous colours. perfect for christmas. yep we stay away from stores too at this time of year. they are just dreadful ... cheers sherry
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Sherry.
DeleteYour garden looks so lovely. Our garden is mostly white and frozen up this way so looking at your images is very pleasing. Christmas is all shopped wrapped and ready here as well. Menus set, most of the food shopping in hand.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ron. Happy New Year to you.
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