Sunday snippets - in my garden & what I made. Blogtoberfest 2013

Mr planet often makes posies

Mr Bowerbird now has 2 bowers

coconut and reapberry slice

Ooops! I've been away for a while. I've been wine tasting.

All the Christmassy stuff caught up with me I'm afraid.
No - not Christmas shopping....haven't started that yet!
But all the Christmas markets and fairs.

Did you hear me say that I was going to be more organised this year?
Did you believe me?

Ah, well! I'll get there....

So last weekend I had one of the biggest fairs of the year....but I'll blog about that another day, and we usually stay in a nearby town which is well known for it's wineries.
Mainly these are small boutique wineries where you can go and taste their wines at the weekend and the trend seems to be here that the tasting "rooms" are in the actual houses of the winemakers.

This can be a little disconcerting at first and you feel like an intruder....or a bit naughty, but it is really quite lovely especially at a winery we visited for the first time on Saturday - Patina, fine wine...with layers of distinction.

As we drove in to the house yard I noticed a sign to the garden walk.
Ooooh, I was sold!

There were also spectacular views from the house...of Mount Canoblas which looks over Orange, and gorgeous pastoral vistas.

The garden has only been 8 years in the making.
It is amazing!

There are stone steps and winding paths.

Sweet little touches.

It's a real "English" country garden carved out of the harsh Australian countryside by a couple of Americans.
Which just goes to show what you can do!

There are also waterfalls!

and rambling roses.

I also should tell you that we loved the wine.

You can visit Patina at weekends or for more information here is their website.

In my garden with my new toy - blogtoberfest day 22

Wandering around my garden with my new smart phone and an app called retro camera.





Mountain Devil taken with the The Little Orange Box



Bottlebrush taken with Xolaroid



Geranium taken with Hipsteroku

















Drumsticks taken with The Barbl




Grevillea taken with The FudgeCan



Grevillea taken with The Pinhole

You can find my weekly giveaway here.

Please leave a comment and I'll add you to the draw next Tuesday.

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

In my garden

bower with blue things, a photo by planettreasures on Flickr.

This is the bower of a satin bower bird in our garden.
The bower is constructed from sticks and twigs - it's amazing.
It is always oriented north-south.
The male bower bird collects blue things to attract females to his bower!
The females go around visiting all the bowers in the area, checking them out for a suitable mate.

Since I'm having trouble uploading photos here, you can see more bower photos on my flickr .

Here is what the male satin bower bird looks like (not ours)
He is very glossy and bluey-black - lovely!

 photo from ozanimals.com

and here is a photo of a female -

photo from oztrek.com

Wildflowers and a Weekly giveaway

Today I thought I would share some lovely Australian native flowers, some from our garden and some from the bush roundabouts.

bush pea

pink spider flower

boronia

grevilliea

hardenbergia

And announce that from today I will be having a weekly giveaway.

All you have to do is leave a comment on any of my blog posts and every Thursday I will draw a winner at random.
The prize will be - a surprise!

You an have an extra entry if you tweet about my blog, or mention it on facebook, or mention it on your blog (one entry for each thing)

Happy blogging!

In my garden - blogtoberfest day 27

In my garden
Originally uploaded by planettreasures

Wishlist Wednesday - 12

Even though spring is a long way off, my thoughts are turning to the garden.

So I put on my gardening apron,

apron by bobbinalong

plant some herbs in pots,

herb markers by GoldenLightCeramics

and give them a little friend to keep them company.

worm plant water spike by LeaningOakCeramics

- when it stops raining!