Flowers, mandalas and the smell of spring

First there was pancake Sunday, we love the Bowerbird dad and his arty pancake ways.

Now we have a new tradition, Mandala Monday. As Spring marches its way towards us there is an increasing choice of flowers to play with. Our Monday ritual started mid winter with some inspiration from some beautiful Instagram pictures on the other side of the world, (checkout #Mondaymandala), Kirsten Rickert has some particularly beautiful flower mandalas here.

Making a mandala is so peaceful. The gathering of flowers, basket in hand, watching the changes in our garden, seeing closed petals unfurl, tight green wattle buds popping out sunny yellow stamens. Looking up close, exploring nature, even when the wind is blasting and a chill creeps through our bones. It is surprising how many flowers can be found in our winter garden. We enjoy the quiet meditation of creating patterns, the beauty of the circle and all it represents. Finally the lesson of impermanence, the joy of letting go, a mandala is not another thing to find a place for. We scatter spent flowers through the fairy garden, and by our front door. The little Bowerbird loves making them and has said making one was the highlight of her day. "Is it mandala Monday?", she pipes. The littlest has collaborated with her mum, sister, and dad, and made some of her own.

Flowers are all the rage at kindergarten too

 Lawn daisies are emerging, asking to be threaded and adorned

The daffodils are almost out, a true sign that Spring has arrived.

The “circle with a center” pattern is the basic structure of creation that is reflected from the micro to the macro in the world as we know it. It is a pattern found in nature and is seen in biology, geology, chemistry, physics and astronomy.

On our planet, living things are made of cells and each cell has a nucleus — all display circles with centers. The crystals that form ice, rocks, and mountains are made of atoms. Each atom is a mandala. Within the Milky Way galaxy is our solar system and within our solar system, is Earth. Each is a mandala that is part of a larger mandala. Flowers, the rings found in tree trunks and the spiraling outward and inward of a snail’s shell all reflect the primal mandala pattern. Wherever a center is found radiating outward and inward, there is wholeness–a mandala.

Source: http://www.mandalaproject.org/Index.html

Read more: http://www.arttherapyblog.com/art-therapy-ideas/healing-with-mandala-art-a-multi-cultural-idea-worth-exploring/#ixzz2bo10tJpD

A Stroll in the Garden

When I visit someone's house I love to be taken on a guided tour around the garden, big or small, neat or messy, it matters not. I was privileged to get a great guided tour recently when dropping off my daughter on a play-date. There were seedlings thriving in the hothouse, newly planted beds, chooks, vegies in abundance, and problems to solve... I was in gardening heaven. When my partner returned to pick up our daughter he came home with her and a bottle of a milky coloured spray. It was some Envy to put on my citrus to help protect them from frost (I'd mentioned they were looking a bit sad). My friend had mixed up too much and didn't want to see it go to waste. A whole world of plant care I knew nothing about, apparently its good for using in the hotter months too.

Inside is interesting, but outside is where its really at for me. My Nannas were big on a garden tour too. We would have a cup of tea, perhaps a scone or a cheeky bit of slice, make ourselves comfy, and then receive the most delightful offer "Want to come on a stroll around the garden?" Their gardens ever changing landscapes always had something to delight in and learn from, there was something beautiful in flower, a tiny bulb or a haze of smoke bush, a bed of pansies or a beautifully scented rose, a plant name to learn, and often something to eat on their well tended fruit trees. They knew how to delight in the little things and their enthusiasm was infectious. One lived in Ballarat and the other hailed from Merbein (near Mildura), very contrasting climates, each presenting their own unique gardening challenges. After a visit you never went home empty handed, a bulb dug up, or a cutting taken, a jar of jam or pickles.

Why don't you come for a stroll with me.

Here's a little visitor from my garden yesterday, you'll need good vision to spot him, this Scarlet Robin was the highlight of my day.

The Autumn Harvest - Golden Days

Still Autumn sunny days and a giving garden. Sun enough to warm the soul and dry washing. Pulling out corn to make way for spinach and endive, replanting forgotten garlic as it sprouts and abruptly makes its hiding place known. The littlest helps me plant peas and sprouted potatoes, even though the potato harvest won't arrive until late spring, they will lie ready and waiting rather than rotting in the compost. Gathering the seeds of marigolds, lettuce and sunflowers. Forever spying on bees going about their business (they must think I'm creepy) and plotting new ways to attract them to all parts of the garden. Rosellas gather to gobble tiny seeds of lettuce, their is plenty to share and watching their flashes of red feathers is payment enough. It has been a great year for pumpkins, potatoes, mini capsicums, chilli, bush beans, zuchinni and cucumber.

Baby skinks keep me company in the garden, our dog pounces at them and I grumble. The first pomegranate flower is born, I call everyone to come and admire it, but it is on the ground a few days later, the potted plant turns brilliant yellow, no pomegranates this year but I am hopeful for the next. Birds snaffle our strawberries and raspberries more this time of year, a berry morsel is a lucky find. The tomatoes are fading as the cold sets in, still plenty to eat and perhaps enough for some tomato chutney, I have to bring the tomatoes in at the first hint of colour or the birds peck them and then the millipedes have a party. The Autumn garden is filled with flowers, Native Bluebells, Cosmos, Daisies, Crowea, Correa, Catmint, Pink Boronia, Salvias, Roses, Petunias and Violas. Self sown seedlings of Borage and Love in the Mist fill my beds. A final sunflower has unfurled its golden petals, turning its head towards the sun, it seems to be smiling too.