Flowers, fine china and marmalade

Girl and poodle with 'pimelia physoides'.

(see below for comment)

Yellow carlton ware 'cottage' with primose

design.

This is a not very good shot (too much light) of my yellow carlton ware bits and pieces of tea set. The figurine in the middle is also yellow, and I couldn't resist putting a sprig of wattle under her arm. The wattle is just beautiful at the moment. Such a lovely, bright sunshiney yellow!

I used to have a large collection of carlton ware, but because it is prone to 'crazing' I very seldom used it. Of course, I have never used these cups or the teapot, just in case they cracked. Never having been seasoned, I dare not, and they will go back into the cupboard. I suppose I should sell them off to someone who might like to enlarge a collection of said ware. I need to think about that! My youngest son is always offering to sell things on ebay for me, but I am not ready to part with a lot of part collections that I have acquired. Ah well, I am determined not to buy a bigger home just so that I can store more. That would also mean my husband storing more 'rubbish' if that happens. (Well, I think a lot of it is rubbish. I mean, who wants 10 year old accounting magazines and receipts etc.? Not me! I can't get my 'stuff' into the filing cabinet now.

I just had to share the beauty of our pimelia physiodes (above) with you. It is a native of Western Australia, but seems to grow very well here in Victoria. We have a lovely example growing in the back garden. Green bell like petals, overlaid with a light burgundy colour, and long yellow stamens. The honey eating birds just love it as it is full of nectar. In fact, our aggressive kamikaze bird and his kin spend a lot of time feeding from these flowers. They bounce around and break pieces off, hence I was able to have a small vase inside. So, I decided to try a bit of fancy photography, again showing one of my embroidered tablecloths, and a figurine that my sister purchased for me last Christmas. It goes well with all the green.

I am busy making blood orange marmalade at the moment. It is bubbling merrily away on the stove and will be for some time yet, as I have to wait for the peel to soften before I can add the sugar. I have always wanted to use blood oranges. I found a recipe in one of my Gourmet Traveller magazines, so it is obviously upmarket jam! A bit like chilli jam I suppose, for being popular with the gourmands of this world! We will see what my end result is! The above photos are those I was complaining about losing in my last post. After much frustration, I finally found the missing photos. Hooray! Blogging is obviously teaching me other things as well.

Well, I am off now to add the sugar to the jam. And hopefully to get outside to do some planting. It is raining and off, quite heavily at times, and it would be good to get plants in so they don't dry out. I am just loving all this rain (yes, I know Some of you have had too much.) But here in Melbourne there is still not enough to boost our water storages to a reasonable level. However....

Did anyone watch Juan Deigo Flores on SBS television yesterday afternoon? He has a glorious voice and I could listen for hours, and do, since we purchased his CD. Also Rolando Vilazon, who was on SBS the week before. He has lost his voice I heard yesterday, and has pulled out of the Salzburg Festival this year, along with several other big names. The commentator wondered if singers said 'yes' too often these days. Once they took weeks to get to a destination, and now they can sing in New York one evening, and be in Milan or Paris to sing the next night. Could be something in that, I suppose. No rest for the vocally gifted these days!

Enough waffle from me! Happy blogging people!!

Ps. A possum raced across the roof last night and scared the living daylights out of me! Sounded like a herd of elephants! The possum strikes back!