Turns out I might have a green thumb

One of the ironies of my life is that here, on the edge of a desert, I seem able to grow things. Plants, that is.
When I lived on the fertile plains of central NSW they would slowly wither and perish. In the lush tropics of Queensland anything I attempted to grow didn't even seem to try. It just upped and died. Within days of coming into my possession.
But here, in dry, dusty south-east WA? Every (well, almost) plant in my care is not just surviving but growing.

It's third summer and my water lily is finally flowering!

It didn't even get yanked off and spat out by the dog, which is what usually
happens to any flowers within her reach.

   

Looks like I might actually get some tomatoes this year.

And some strawberries.

I thought these paper daisy things would just sit there and cope the best
they could, but they, incredibly, have new growth and new flowers.

A flower on the 'what-ya-call-it?' plant.

This is what normally happens to my plants. I thought I'd cooked this cyclamen when I left it on the front porch one hot day. It is now the first plant in my history of plant-killing to have bounced back from near death.

Of course their condition has nothing on that of the pampered plants in my husband's part of the garden. They're going bananas over there.

Update: I took these photos a while ago and can report that everything pictured is continuing to grow. I just couldn't be bothered taking more photos.

Do you have a green thumb? Or do you only have to look at a plant for it to keel over?

Wordless Wednesday: Our new-old house

Linking up with Trish from My Little Drummer Boys for another Wordless Wednesday post. Thanks Trish!

We are very excited to be in the midst of buying a house.

Sold! To the blogging lady and her handy husband.

This house:

A tad overgrown at the moment. And don't get me started on the purple trim.

Clearly, it needs some attention. And that's just on the outside. 

But, in my head, it will look something like this once we're done with it:

Cute cottage.
Image source: www.blueprintbliss.blogspot.com

Ideal for Nowheresville, Western Australia, don't you think?

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Plants: The pretty, the deadly and the simply dead

Originally posted on Feb 17, 2011 at http://www.blog.emmamayalldesigns.com.au/

I have been a bit busy this week and therefore written zip for this blog (not a good start, I admit). So for now I will do what editors/publishers/bloggers the world over do when they are short on words: fill the space with photos! Genius!
The reason for my lack of writing time is because I have been disciplined and made myself dedicate my free hours to a different project, which really should take priority. Specifically, building a website for a man who crafts some of the most beautiful bows you’re ever likely to see. He makes them by hand, out of timber.
Of course you can actually kill things with these bows. But I like to ignore that from time to time and just appreciate their beauty. They are surely works of art:
 

Bow and bow riser (below): Pretty, expensive things
for boys. Well, mainly boys.

As for other pictures, here is one of the lovely frangipani in our front yard:


The frangipani. At least I hope it’s a frangipani, or
I’m even worse at this gardening business
than I thought.



I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know this was a frangipani until it flowered. You’d think spending several years in the tropics would mean I’d know a frangipani when I saw one. But plants and gardeny stuff is not my strong point. As evidenced by the sad remains of this carnation, also in the front yard, which I seem to have succeeded in killing:

RIP pink carnation

It’s health wasn’t the best when we moved in in December but a bit of attention (i.e regular watering, in the form of rinsing out my coffee plunger on it each day) secured it’s revival. And then I sort of forgot to keep doing that when I stopped using the plunger. Oops.