CHRISTMAS CARD

We received our first Christmas card of the season today.  It was from a cousin in Toronto but I see it was made in England. Isn't it lovely.

GARDEN DISCOVERY DAY 2

We had just two more gardens to view today with showers forecast.   The first was a 20 minute drive north, and as the brochure stated it was a 3.5 acre garden, originally a clay paddock and was seven years old.  It was made by two avid gardeners who both work full time.  The hard landscaping was all rocks found on the property.  The showers held off.

This was our favourite garden.

We then drove back towards home to visit a 2 acre garden that we had visited before but were keen to see again.  Unfortunately, it started to rain before we got there so it was a quick visit.  One bonus was that the Garden Club selling plants decided to sell them all for $1.00 so that they didn't have to take them back home.  I had a $5.00 note so bought five - 2 geraniums, chives and 2 petunias.  

The rain made it difficult to take photos so just the one.

QUARRY GARDENS GARDEN DISCOVERY

The Quarry Gardens Garden Discovery is on this weekend.  I think it is their main fundraiser.  There are eleven gardens of various sizes.  We visited six today.  Two that are further out we have been to previously and skipped and two we plan to visit tomorrow. The other is the Quarry Gardens itself which we visited recently.

The first five photos were from a small garden that backs onto some bush.

The next three photos were from a lovely large garden we had visited before and it was interesting to see how it had grown.

The next photos were from a lovely garden on the Harbour's edge.  It was actually the first garden we visited and Doug took the photos.

This bottom photo is of part of a wonderful mosaic wall in a bathroom of the first house.  I took the photo with my phone and could not get far enough back to get the whole wall.

We really enjoyed the day out.  There were a couple of very short showers but otherwise it was a lovely fine day.  

IRIS

Occasionally Doug's eldest daughter gets given plants and often passes them on to us.

One last year was a rhizome with a bit of leaf.  A lovely surprise last week when it flowered for the first time.

I think there were a few of them that I planted around the garden so look forward to more of them flowering.

QUARRY GARDENS (DOUG'S PHOTOS)

Doug's youngest grandson (27 years old) came for lunch today and sorted my problem with getting Doug's photos from his camera to my laptop (something to do with Microsoft).

So here are Doug's photos, much better than the ones from my phone.

We sat under a shelter at the far side of the lake and a Swallow kept flying around waiting for us to move so that he/she could come to the nest.  He landed on a rock briefly.

QUARRY GARDENS

It is a while since we visited the Quarry Gardens but we decided to go this morning.

Last year cyclone Gabrielle did a lot of major damage to the gardens but it is amazing the amount of work that has been done since then.

We sat in the shade enjoying the waterfall in the background of this photo. 

Some of the destruction that hasn't been able to be restored.

The photos got switched around - this little chap hopped around while we were sitting.

Doug took some photos on his camera but my system won't let me download them. Grrr.