Thanks for the new group Vlada

Yes I thought after our talks it was necessary,cos we didn't have one in here..I'll share my garden and things I've done in it so far..Just I'm on vacation at present and heading out to a beautiful garden,created from a old closed & abandoned quary, I will share images of it soon..and yesterday I headed up the Coromandel Peninsula to Barry Brickells Pottery Driving creek Railway,woah what a day it was beautiful,will do a post on it all also..

I'm glad you're enjoying time off, a good adventure, hope that sunshine keeps shining, it makes a big difference to how we all feel.  Especially good to have more gardening days.  A bit of rose pruning yesterday and weeding.

Blooming Tibetan Bell Flowers,

I'd love some of these in my garden..

Thank you for the invitation Vlada.

At the moment the pink bush is coming into bud, particularly the top branches....another few weeks it looks like the above.  The black cat in the video was called Vinegar, a lovely cat, really the neighbours cat but he spent most of his time in my garden.  He was a three legged cat with no tail, he got about the garden, jumped fences and throughly enjoyed his life.  Video taken 13 years ago in my garden

beautiful bush Julie, I have never seen one like this before. Thank you for sharing .

Thanks Ametrine, good to see you back on site.   The bush comes in red too but without variegated foliage

Thank you Julie, I came back from France Yesterday, I do not know about you, but it's was freezing cold. Very cold April.  

This is a very beautiful Bush :o)

Very cold April here too, there's been loads of country lanes with giant puddles that turn into flooding, lots of cold winds and storms.  The birds are busy though nest building.  Ive just been sitting in the conservatory watching the birds.  Little robin came and sat nearby, he's a lovely bird.  The dunnocks are nest building, they're all pretty busy so it must be spring.  

The iris are all in bud in the front garden, they'll be fully flowering soon.

Looks a lot like a 'pink variegated Weigela' bush to me,its a very old fashioned plant,small trumpet shaped flowers with outer flower stamens it comes in purple too.

it can be confused with a variegated Azalea which is a species of Rhododendron.. but the flower is different & much larger in the Azalea with inner stamens..that also comes in red..

The Weigela comes in many varieties some variegated some not..dwarfs & bushes too..

Ahhh yes that's what the bush is Vlada, it was planted as a cutting, I have one in the front garden too but some of the variegation has left the leaves at the back of the bush.  I love the deep pink variety you posted.  The bees love this bush.  When I first had a garden of my own I planted varieties of plants that attract the bees and butterflies

variety of plant ~ medicinal for the roots ~ elecampane....the bees love this plant too....this plant spreads like crazy, the seedlings ending up everywhere and the root tubers grow outwards and form really big clumps.  This one lives in my garden at the bottom end where it's quite damp...sloping garden down to the back fence

Thank you Vlada, and thank you Julie. 

Yes I had one also in my garden down south,hense I knew it instantly as a older plant species..it is a beautiful bush,mine looked like this one below..

the other is this pinnacle hydrangea see it below which had these huge pyramid shaped flower heads in a soft pale green shade its perfect as a vase flower or in a florist bunch..

I had them dried in bunches hanging from a drying rack in my garage which I'd made myself from Kauri plants with manuka branches in between hanging from chains, I still have it and intend to bring it into my kitchen when its finished to hang pots from..and believe it or not I still have 5 bunches of that exact bush flower dried,they have slightly changed colour over the years but I still hold on to the memories of the bush looking at them..this is it below with my fabric poppies in a vase..and growing in someones garden as a hedge its so beautiful..

then the other bush I loved big time was this Viburnum opulus its a shrub or small tree known as the guelder-rose or snowball tree. Similar to the hydrangea but much smaller flower bunches and its unrelated...

I also tried drying these ones, but they dont dry well sadly & just went brown & shriveled..maybe they hold too much water in them IDK??? but it was a total fail on me..

 Only one self seeded pumpkin this season for me but its a big one at least,last season I got 9 so had to give them away before they went rotten..its not ready to pick as yet the vine is still green,but its gonna make some wonderful pumpkin soup for winter...

my Tree Dalias are about to flower any day now, when they do the monarch butterflies will be here in abundance like last year..

love the bumble bee pic Julie, I took one last year entering my ' Bears breeches - Acanthus plant' it visited every flower on the stem,he was a busy old bugger like a avenger on each flower.. he had hardly any colour on him but he was huge...

Yes I've left the hydrangea flowers to dry, also the lavender and roses.

I've noticed that when the roses are in a vase they seem to dry themselves so I either save the petals for a while or the complete rose and stem.

I've placed crystals in a wooden box with dried lavender and or rose petals.

It's good to dry sage and make a sage bundle too, I've used a home made bundle to cleanse before medicine wheel

Thanks about the bee picture Vlada

maybe you'll like this video I made

Ahh well that is not a bee on your rose, but instead a Hoverfly (Syrphidae) it mimics a bee..I used to freak my nanny out as a kid, I used to get them and put them in my mouth and hold them then go running into my nannys and motion with my hands something was in my mouth,  lol naturally shed open my mouth and flip out big time as they flew out, see they dont sting..hhahahha I was a rat bag alright..how I knew they didn't sting I have no idea..I used to do it with Drone flies also..

Yes, they're real pretty and their bodies are flat, I love watching them on the wild roses.  I think your nanny must have had a fright Vlada. 

Ahhh had to look up done flies they're different colours with the male and female, I've seen these in the garden

Yes those are drone flies on those leaves,often confused with Horse-flies and deer flies that lay those tiny wee white eggs on horses legs,...Fright you say,geepers I must have almost given her a heart attack many times over,l assure you, lol I was a wee toad and just a whirl wind ball of life & fun when I was young & always out in nature,running with no restrictions,often taking my cloths off & running naked with not a care or fear in the world,...but yet bring me inside the house it was a different story however, I was overly sensitive frightful and suffered major over stimulative anxiety attacks as sensory overloads raced through my body it was horrible..the only way she could calm me down was to put me in the bath as the water talked to me...hense even these days I spend a lot of time in the shower even at work luckily..I can handle it to some degree these days though being I know and understand when I feel it coming on,so I can block it in its tracks..but as a kid I had no idea what was happening to me..

Flowers remind me of the beauty and brevity of life. They teach patience as you await some to bloom, enhancing their beauty. And then they're gone.
Moral of this story: Enjoy every single second of this life. Embrace the beautiful parts, don't stress the areas awaiting to bloom...enjoy the process. We are but a breath, so treasure each one.'
~ Sanjo Jendayi

Sounds like you had so much freedom, but then lots of things to overcome, so you became You Vlada.  I used to dream I was trying to escape from a fire when I was little, often wondered if this was a past life recall.  I had battles with tigers as I grew older.  All these things teach us and form us to discover the entireness of our being

Yes they thought I had autism,then it was asbergers,then ADHD,but I have none of them,just a high IQ and Synesthesia..not including my given PSI gifts though,my anxiety issues were to do with my body adjusting to this planets atmospheric conditions as a walk-in...you need to read Michael Newtons books in it he speaks of dreams & visions,fears,& body markings that all stem back to past life traumas..I'll add in the the reincarnation group for you..

I love this group . Blessings be

Yes Tara, the group is quite a sanctuary it's good having you here

One of my roses, I have two peachy rambler roses, one is called Bridge of Sighs...I may add a discussion with my flower pictures