Day: December 13, 2009

These hardy pot plants seem to grow wherever you want them to

Break a piece off and pot it up

and very soon you’ll have a new plant

My plants have have all been started as cuttings

taken from friends or neighbours plants

They are growing in containers that hang over the railing of the deck

and are happy there most of the year

but I do put them in the shade

if the sun gets too hot

If the timing is right and they all bloom together

it looks like a ribbon of pink all the way along

Up in the Northern Hemisphere they are often called Christmas Cactus

‘cose thats when they seem to flower

Not so down here – these photos were taken in October

right at the end of Winter, beginning of Spring

At first the plants seem to be a jumble of gnarly stems with a flower at the end

but if you really look

you will see they have the most delicate of blooms growing there

beautiful flowers that look lovely when in a massed display

For more Flowers from around the world

I think we all love the ‘funny little Christmasy things’

the children make either at school or at home

How many of you have made these snowmen before?

Using the inside of a toilet roll, wadding, felt, ribbon and paper

Oh and a piece of pipecleaner

I vaguely remember making something like this when I was small

but don’t think we used the same materials

(post WW2 it was a case of make do and mend)

I think white crepe paper was involved

Anyway I helped my children with them

(and Santas as well using red crepe paper)

but this is one I made with grandchildren a few years ago now

Not sure what has happened to the ones they took home

to show their Mums that day

but mine gets put away each year

to come out again about this time

Here he is on the kitchen windowsill with some others for company

Totally out of place in our summer sunshine

Putting these bits and pieces round the house

is sort of a tradition that migrants from the Northern Hemisphere

clung to when they resettled Down Under

when it could be 40c/104f lol