This one must be nearly perfect!  Except for the BS on the leaves!

And a nearly perfect Lucetta . . .

all tangled up with a pelargonium, after Saturday's fierce wind . . .

a lovely mauve foxglove . . .

Reine des violettes flowering its head off . . .

Leander being generous . . .

I don't usually include me in the photos but look at the size of Peace . . .

'Not Abraham Darby' in the western bed is looking suspiciously like it is doing a 'Lucetta' impersonation!  I wonder . . .

Maybe Blueberry Hill looking lovely . . .

every shade of aquilegia . . .

the first flowering of Buddleja alternifolia at Kurrajong!  With some white lavender getting into the act.  I do so love this shrub!

I have been washing - and watering.  Came in from outside this morning and wondered where Merlin the Great had gone.  Mike and I have two pillows each on our bed, handy for propping one up to watch television (Mike) or read gardening books (me).  We actually never sleep on both, and Mike has a habit of pitching his non-sleeping one off before he goes to sleep, which I then have to pick up again in the morning.  This is where I found Merlin . . .

Oh dear!

Dear old Daisy waiting in the hall for me to come back inside.

Look what happened in my kitchen this afternoon . . .

My sisters will recognise it.  It's our Mum's old recipe for Chocolate Slice, a great favourite with the grandkids, especially my son.  Within four years, my mother has not only been dispossessed of all her kitchen paraphernalia, (as well as her kitchen) but even sadder, of her memory as well.  How come?

The quest is on . . .

to find the perfect cupped Reine de Victoria bloom!

Is it this one?

Maybe not.

Could be this one . . .

no, I think its this one!  Then again . . .

The aquilegias are all coming out in flower, despite their lack of care and attention over winter.

As well as purple and blue, I have dusky pink ones and white ones flowering.

Not a very good photo, but I'm kind of charmed by the white foxglove flowering behind Lucetta.

Here's something not so charming!  This is what happens when one doesn't prune one's roses.  They grow all long and caney, with the green leaves at the far end, and then they bloom up by the guttering where you can't enjoy them.  Note to self - next year, I will prune all the roses, I really will . . .

October . . .

Last Friday, while having a quilting day with my sister-in-law, I picked up a folder of photocopies of other letters that my Uncle wrote home from the day he enlisted till the day he was killed.  I have spent the last week reading and re-reading them.   I have followed his changes in mood and attitude from the brave new soldier in his new uniform describing himself as 'some class', to the homesick boy in the trenches, admitting to his mother that he keeps himself cheerful by telling himself lies about his safety and situation.  For the first time, I feel like I might, in a very small way, 'know' my Uncle.  And I must admit, he would appear to be a completely different person to what I thought, from the tiny amount we were told as children and probably that our childish imaginations made up about him.  He was full of life and enthusiasm and somewhere between then and now, things in our family changed dramatically.  I feel very sad when I realise that what we were told was the truth turns out to be only someone's interpretation.

I have a very real need to visit his little resting place.  Mike is not very interested at all.

Meanwhile, in the garden, things are positively blooming!

DA Lucetta is once again looking gorgeous.

The clematis on the archway over the side gate.  The rose on the other side of the archway is Crepuscule, and it is covered in lovely apricoty buds, which will, no doubt, open the moment the last clematis flower is done!  So much for thoughtful colour combinations.

DA Mary Rose - delicious!

Peace on the archway near the front door.

A blurry DA Summer Song in the snake bed.

Vivid Reine de Violettes (with a bit of BS thrown in for good measure).  Even tardy old Leander has heaps of buds!

Tall yellow iris in the snake bed - a super eBay buy!

The cheery faces of violas - Johnny Jump-ups - and they do!  My dad used to love these plants.

Pink geranium in the front bed.

I have so much lavender in flower along the gravel path, that when I walk along with my little watering bucket, I basically have a bow wave of bees go along in front of me.  Sometimes there are so many, it makes me laugh.

I took more photos but they turned out awful, and were deleted.  My computer is having an issue at the moment, and deleted all my 2010 photos from iPhoto the other day, most of which I managed to recover.  Technology!