Easter is a time for . . .

rain!  Why does it always rain at Easter?  Particularly when Easter is at a slightly different time every year? This year, Easter long weekend coincides with our Anzac long weekend - two long weekends together equals one brilliantly l-o-n-g weekend, Friday through till Tuesday, yay! and it's rained a bit every day.

Raindrops on the orb weaving spider web which hangs above the front steps and keeps one on the lookout when one walks on the path at night time!

I have been back in the garden, have weeded and cleaned out the bed along the front of the verandah, filled the bin at least twice, am a little in despair of the bed at the end of the verandah, the only rose doing well there is Lucetta, and maybe Jean Galbraith, I think I will move the others somewhere else (??) I dug out the huge Mexican Sage, which was draping itself over everything, and donated it to my walking friend who wanted one but don't think she was expecting one so big!

I took myself up to Bowen Mountain last week to visit Honeysuckle Cottage Nursery!!!!!!!  Anyone who's been will understand all the exclamation marks.  Such a pity, as finding the sort of plant I like, the so called 'cottagey' plants, is almost impossible at your average suburban garden centre.  I came home with a blue flowering lacecap hydrangea 'Blauling', an Aquilegia 'Ruby Port', which I have bought seeds of before but had no luck in getting them to germinate, and a Japanese windflower, a double pink, which I had at Castle Hill.  The single pink I have here is flowering at the moment, such a pretty thing, I went out a little while ago thinking I would take a photo but the rain was pouring down and their pretty pink faces were all looking down at the ground.  I will try again in a little while.

So I did get a few things that I liked, and there were more there that I could have bought, but the fact that you almost need a four wheel drive to get up the bank that doubles as the two car parking area really is enough to almost put me off going.  That said, I still love to drive up there just for the view of almost the entire city of Sydney, on a clear day.

Okay, been back out in a lull in the rain - here they are, nodding their faces in the breeze -

They became very invasive at Castle Hill where all the trees made the garden totally to their liking.

So our long, long weekend has been a little dreary, made no better by the fact that I have a cold.  And to make me feel much better worse, I've been getting emailed photos for the last week from my son and daughter in law on their honeymoon in that glorious tropical paradise called the Maldives!  Thanks kids - I'll just blow my nose again before I admire the crystal clear water that you are diving into!  Will just go and put on another jumper before I tell you that I hope that sunburn you've got isn't too painful!!