bees in the city

 

If you live in Auckland and go past Victoria Park you may have noticed what looks like a mini wilderness near the skate park. It's actually a conceptual artwork called The park. It's a hexagonal garden planted with calendula, nasturtiums, borage etc with six horizontal beehives (the strange boxes in the top photo) at the centre. The idea is to inspire people to plant their own "pollen hotels" to encourage bees in the city. If you want to participate you can add your bee-friendly garden to a map here. At the end of the project you get to share the honey.

Today is Labour Day in New Zealand - a public holiday - so it's been a three-day weekend. Hoorah! I did my bit for the bees and worked in the garden for the first time in ages.

Reading: Birdman by Mo Hayder (page-turner crime)

1 to 20

Children's picture books have become a regular item on my library (and credit) card now that I'm a grandma. These lovely illustrations are from 1 to 20, animals aplenty by Katie Viggers. I love that she's included one of my favourite animals - the capybara.

And today, for the first time, I saw Peppa Pig on TV. Isn't it great? I love Daddy Pig's voice. And all that giggling from Peppa and George.

hanami 2014

Today we celebrated hanami - a glass of pink champagne under the cherry trees in the front garden then inside for brunch. We finished up with coffee and Rose pound cake. I found Trine Hahnemann's recipe on The guardian here. Unfortunately I couldn't get the essential rosy ingredients - the rose jelly and pink rose petals - so we had Pound cake with pink icing and a few pink sprinkles instead. And it tasted great.

Reading: That uncertain feeling by Kingsley Amis  
Watching: Project runway season 13

tropicana

I made these cushions for the new sofa over the weekend using fabric that I bought at fabric-a-brac two years ago. I only had enough for one side per cushion so I backed them with bright red linen - which I think looks great - plus it gave me an excuse to go the the fabric store. I love it when unexpected things/mistakes turn out better than the original plan.

quilts

Look at these amazing quilts. They're from this book - Unconventional & unexpected : American quilts below the radar 1950-2000 by Roderick Kiracofe.
My favourite is the spotted quilt. It's actually covered in tiny pompoms used to tie all the layers of the quilt together.
There are so many quilts in this book - 150 or so - and they are all wonderful.