HELLO AGAIN AND SOME EXCITING NEWS!
17
Jan
2016
I always love the beginning of a new year. It’s 2016 and my very best wishes to all of my dear readers for the happiest, healthiest and safest year ahead.
I love the thought of the whole year stretching ahead filled new possibilities and experiences.
Last year ended with a bang in this family. My daughter’s wedding at the end of November, Christmas following shortly after and a trip to Sri Lanka at the beginning of January.
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| What a special day this was. |
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| The wedding reception and the beautiful flowers.. what a joy it was walking into the room and the fragrance of the roses was amazing. |
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| Christmas flowers at my daughter Sarah’s home. She and her family hosted Christmas this year for our family and some of their friends. Sarah and Kirk worked so hard and we had a splendid time! |
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| After Christmas we headed down to the beach house. These dahlias are from my garden at home and they travelled down with me. |
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| I managed to salvage these Hydrangeas from the seaside garden.. most had been burnt by a recent heat wave. |
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| Penny taking refuge from the noisy grandchildren! |
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| Our New Year’s dinner table. |
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| I’ve spent many happy hours in this little space since Christmas! We left for Sri Lanka in early January |
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| We stayed at the Kingsbury hotel and the lobby had huge arrangements of red roses throughout. |
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| We spent a wonderful day visiting Lunuganga Estate – the country residence of the late Geoffrey Bawa, renowned Sri Lankan architect. |
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| The Lotus flower ponds |
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| Looking down towards the double ha-ha – there is a hidden road beneath those grasses. |
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Some news is that I am currently re-designing a new look for this blog. I will be focusing mainly on gardens and garden design this year. Once the new website is up, the blog will include interviews with various garden landscapers. I was very fortunate when the renowned Australian Landscape Architect, Paul Bangay agreed to an interview. I so enjoyed chatting to Paul over afternoon tea and I will be posting this interview as soon as the website is up!
Happy week everyone!!
They catered my wedding last month and they were amazing! Don't overlook these gorgeous Seattle Wedding venues!! It's something you have to check out in person. My family and friends could not stop talking about how good the food was and how sweet the staff was!
I'm looking forward to the Paul Bangay interview, and I'm glad you found a direction for your blog. Love all the garden and wedding photos. Gardening is a relaxing pasttime I have come to enjoy in my old age. Seeing the flowers bloom is a joy to behold. I would love to visit the Lunuganga Estate's gardens myself one day.
Zack @ My Net Wire
Congratulations on your news and your hydrangeas are gorgeous. May I ask what you think of using both mophead and conical (limelight or oakleaf) hydrangeas in a small, fairly formal garden? Considering the limelights as a back hedge border with the existing mopheads in the front beds. Thank you – Rose.
Hello Heather! Thanks so much for the recommendation for Taprobane .. Lots of things lined up for our next trip! Thanks also for the lovely comments re the wedding. I will probably do a 'wedding' post once the professional pics arrive! Jenny xx
Will definitely take all your tips on board for our next visit Pammie! Thanks so much. Jenny xx
Hello Karen … Thank you so much for your enthusiasm! just heading out for a long day walking in Paris! Jenny xx
Hello Heidi!.. Thank you for kind words.. The wedding was amazingly beautiful and I will post more photos here when the professional pics arrive. a wedding post amongst gardening!… The girls did all of the running around and I lent a hand with final install!… Xx
Love the sound of the refocus of the blog to gardens, although I've enjoyed your current format so much anyway Jenny! I hope you will still include photos of your beautiful homes and table settings and travels.
Claire's wedding looked absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. I loved the flowers at the reception, they were just stunning. The bar is certainly a lot higher for brides these days than back in The Olden Days when I was married – the arrangements we had were simplicity themselves by comparison!
Well done on the new business too, and on turning around a house so quickly! I had one of those (as you know as I contacted you about it) before Christmas and it was a lot of work. With the wedding as well you no doubt had your hands very full. xx
Taprobane looks like everyone's dream of a pocket handkerchief private tropical island getaway. When we lived in Colombo T was still a rather mysterious private residence, so was not open for visitors. We swam at the beach right there and enjoyed daydreaming over it, including imagining it in Paul Bowles's time. It's not far from the shore but you'd need a boat or to swim across-certainly at high tide anyway. At the time of the tsunami believe the owners were swimming in the sea just off the island when it hit – and by a miracle survived.
Good luck with getting there – believe it is possible to rent rooms now. Would be superb! Pammie
Hi Jenny well you know I'm a big fan and love all of your instagram pictures. I look forward to the new direction of your blog as I love learning about gardening. Thank you for taking the time to write the blog and good luck with your business venture.