Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth...

... but before & after this picture was taken, Lucky was chewing on my beautiful roses & pulling off the petals.

She looks the picture of innocence, doesn't she? Well, I know better! I'd call her the phantom Rose Nibbler but she doesn't even try to hide her evil tendencies.

What I did on Melbourne Cup Day

It's safe to say that, for me, Melbourne Cup Day had no horses in it. It's lovely to have a day off but I spent it gardening, walking, cooking, reading & taking photos. My roses are looking beautiful this year, and as it was going to be a hot, windy day, I was out early to pick some roses for the house. The beautiful deep pink ones at the top are Best Friend, a rose that the RSPCA sells to remember our pets. My friend J bought it for me when Abby died & there are more flowers on it this year than ever before. My other roses are all David Austins. The jug on the bottom left has Eglantine, Pretty Jessica & The Squire. Lucky decided to come in for a lunchtime nap on my reading chair & stayed still long enough for me to get a photo.

I got out into the gardening first thing to do some weeding & water the veggies. The veggies have had a great start again this year thanks to my friend M who gave me the seedlings she grows from seed. My zucchini already has several flowers as do the tomatoes. I have a red & a pink geranium in pots as red flowers are meant to be attractive to bees. After a walk, I made some biscuits for morning tea at work today. These are from the recipe for peanut butter biscuits I've made a few times but I adapted it a little. I made some chocolate almond butter the other day so replaced the peanut butter in the original recipe with that. The mixture was looser than the original so the biscuits spread quite a bit more.

Just a few more photos of the garden - & a second photo of Lucky in one day! My lemon tree is flowering & I love to smell the scent every time I walk past. I have two strawberry plants in a rectangular pot & they're covered in flowers. I need to rig up some netting as last year I got no strawberries at all - the birds had a feast instead. Lucky followed me outside & rolled around on the ground while I tried to get her to stay still long enough for a good photo. This was the best I could do.

Books & roses

First, the roses. These are the first roses of the summer, picked on Sunday morning. The pink ones are Eglantine & the red, The Squire. My roses are looking beautiful this year, covered in buds so I'm hoping to be able to pick lots of them for the house & to take to work so I have something lovely to look at & to smell when it all gets too much. Of course, ten minutes after I put the flowers on the kitchen bench, Lucky was nibbling away at them. Why does she do this? I often wake up to find that she's very delicately flipped a rose out of the vase or jug & has nibbled all around the edges.

The books are a few new books & preorders I wanted to mention. I thought of Monica Baldwin the other day when a friend said that she once lent a copy of The Letters of Rachel Henning & it was never returned. This reminded me that I once lent a copy of Monica Baldwin's memoir, I Leap Over The Wall, & never saw it again. So, I was pleased to discover that it's being reprinted in January. I'm not sure I like the cover though... Anyway, Monica was the daughter of Stanley Baldwin, & entered a convent when she was 21 in 1914. Twenty-eight years later, she leaves, & this is the story of her life in the convent & what she experiences when she leaves.

Charlotte Riddell is an author I've read about rather than read. I've been reading her Weird Stories this week, reprinted by Victorian Secrets, & another of her novels, A Struggle for Fame, is being reprinted this month by Tramp Press, a new Irish publisher. This is the first in their Recovered Voices series & I can't wait to read it.

The Ghost and Mrs Muir is one of my favourite movies - I watched it again last weekend - & Vintage have reprinted the novel by R A Dick as part of their Movie Classics series which also includes Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington & Show Boat by Edna Ferber.

Persephone in the UK & Sourcebooks in the US have both been reprinting D E Stevenson in recent years. It's a shame that they began by reprinting the same titles (the Miss Buncle series) but Sourcebooks have kept their reprint list going with The Four Graces, The Young Clementina &, in January, The Listening Valley. I listened to this on audio a couple of years ago but will probably need a copy for rereading in the future. I also feel compelled to buy copies of authors like Stevenson & Angela Thirkell when they're reprinted in case they go out of print again, which they probably will.

The British Library Crime Classics series has been very successful in alerting fans of Christie, Sayers & Allingham to other Golden Age mystery writers we'd never heard of. It doesn't hurt that the covers are just gorgeous, often based on railway posters of the period. Mystery in White by J Jefferson Farjeon (brother of Eleanor) (great review by Desperate Reader here) & A Scream in Soho by John G Brandon have just been published & The Sussex Downs Murder by John Bude & Murder in Piccadilly by Charles Kingston will be published in January. I enjoyed The Santa Klaus Murder & Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay & I'm looking forward to reading more in the series.

I've also preordered Mark Bostridge's new book, Vera Brittain and the First World War : the story of Testament of Youth. Published to coincide with the new film, I'm hoping it's not just a rehash of his 1995 biography of Vera. I know I'll feel compelled to see this new movie version of Testament of Youth but I don't imagine it will be as affecting as the TV series with Cheryl Campbell.

You can watch the trailer here but it looks too pretty, too clean. I feel a reread of the book & rewatch of the series coming on.

Finally, two books by favourite authors on favourite subjects published next year. The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards published in May & The Lives of Richard III by Chris Skidmore published in August. A history of mystery fiction by one of my favourite contemporary crime writers (who has written Introductions for many of the British Library series) is unmissable & a new biography of Richard III incorporating all the new information since the discovery of his remains in Leicester is a very exciting prospect. I really enjoyed Skidmore's book on Bosworth so I'm looking forward to this one. Two books that will definitely not find their way to the ever-increasing tbr shelves. I will read them as soon as they hit the doormat. Absolutely, I promise.

Cake, roses & Phoebe

I haven't posted about a cake for a while but I quite often bake on Sunday & take something in for morning tea at work on Monday morning. This time, my freezer was full & I'd just bought extra frozen food (peas, spinach & raspberries) to take advantage of a special deal for frequent flyer points. So, I decided to do something with the raspberries as I couldn't immediately think of a cake that needed peas or spinach. I found this recipe for a Raspberry Bakewell cake & it looks & smells lovely. Almonds are another favourite ingredient & there's almond meal in the cake as well as the flaked almonds on top. The mixture was more like a shortbread dough than a cake batter. Half the mixture was patted down in the tin, then the frozen raspberries scattered on top then the rest of the mixture finishing with the almonds.

It's early Spring here so I've also been preparing the veggie patch for summer planting & feeding the roses. The nursery where I bought the roses recommended feeding three times - Grand Final, Christmas & Valentine's Day - which is easy to remember. Well, Saturday was Grand Final Day so I was out yesterday morning flinging around the blood & bone. There's lots of growth already & dozens of buds so I'm looking forward to the blossoms.

And here's Phoebe on her way out the back door. She wasn't in the mood to pose so it's the best shot I could get. Lucky was asleep under her blanket so there's no photo of her at all. We're all enjoying these early Spring days & we've had plenty of rain for the garden lately. It's a lovely time of year.

Holiday plans

I'm on holidays for the next two weeks & I'm looking forward to some pottering, a little gardening, some organisation of recipes & photos, a little walking & lots of reading.

I finally joined Library Thing last week & I'm addicted. I've known about LT for ages but didn't think I had time to start cataloguing my books when I should be reading, reading about books, reading blogs about books & blogging about books! I've taken the plunge because I have this fortnight off & I'd like to get my tbr shelves on LT so I have an idea of what's there. Also, handling all the books may prompt me to read a few of them. So far I have all my Persephones & about 350 other books on there & I haven't even scratched the surface. I also know I won't be able to stop until all my books are on LT. I'd like to know exactly how many books I have.

I also have several books sent to me for review that I'm very much looking forward to. One of them is a novel about Edith Cavell called Fatal Decision by Terri Arthur. Terri contacted me after reading my review of Diana Souhami's biography of Cavell & has kindly sent me an ePub copy for review.

I'll also be reading some Muriel Spark in anticipation of Muriel Spark Reading Week which is coming up in just a fortnight. I've chosen her book on Emily Brontё. I read it many years ago but I'll be interested to see what Spark has to say.

I'm enjoying the autumn flowering of my roses after a disappointing display in the summer. I have a very large tree in the front garden & I didn't realise how much it would overshadow the rose garden. The tree has never been as lush & beautiful as it has this last year after all those years of drought & I'm afraid the rose garden didn't get enough light. Now that the sun is lower in the sky & the tree is losing its leaves, the roses have had a growth spurt & all of them, including Abby's Best Friend rose are full of buds & blossoms. I'll have to have the tree pretty severely pruned in a few months to give the roses a better chance next summer.

Remember the saga of the cat beds? Well, I bought Lucky a cat futon on Saturday, rubbed it on her blanket to get her scent (& cat hairs as you can see if you look closely) & waited to see what would happen. You can see how special this futon is. It does everything & it's environmentally friendly as well.

I saw Lucky on the futon several times over the weekend but couldn't get a photo until this morning. I was very happy until I saw Phoebe on the futon not long after! I just hope her scent doesn't put Lucky off & why didn't Lucky's scent put Phoebe off? I've never seen either of them resting or sleeping in a place where the other has been until now. How many beds does one cat need? The back porch could be littered with cat beds, futons, hammocks, chaise longues etc if this goes on much longer. I'll keep you posted on developments.

Roses in bloom

The first roses from Abby's rose garden are sitting in a honey jar next to me on the desk so I thought I'd share a few photos. The photos are a little blurry & they don't really capture the gorgeous colours & unfortunately you can't smell the glorious scent but I have successfully grown roses & I'm thrilled. These are Sophy's Rose & Noble Antony. They're covered in raindrops because it's been a showery morning. I took a chance & went out for a walk about an hour ago  - it was just as well I took my umbrella. I wanted to get these few roses inside before the wind blew them away altogether. The first of many honey jars full of roses this summer, I hope.

Cats, roses, spring etc

We've had very changeable spring weather over the last week. It was almost summery midweek then a cool change with rain swept through. Saturday was cool with a thunderstorm in the afternoon. Phoebe slept through the whole thing, Lucky burrowed under her blanket until long after it was all over. Abby was frightened of thunder too, she used to hide under my bed. Yesterday morning we woke up to fog but that cleared & it was a warm, humid day with more storms late in the day. Very tropical. So, as we were out early enjoying the sunshine before it got too hot, I thought a few pictures of the girls & an update on the roses was in order. There's no reason for this picture of Phoebe in the (thankfully) empty laundry basket except that she looks gorgeous.

I can't believe that it was only a month ago that the big tree in the front garden looked like this. Here's Phoebe in almost the same spot. Even a week ago there were only a few leaves & a little blossom. It always seems that overnight it shakes out its green glory.

Lucky always finds a sunny spot to start the day. In the garden...

or on the back porch.

And here's a picture of the girls together, one of the few I have as they're still happier in their own space. Actually, I think Phoebe has just invaded Lucky's space here...

Now, enough of this cat worship. The roses are looking wonderful & here are a couple of pictures of Sophy's Rose, buds just about ready to blossom, still sparkling with raindrops from Saturday night's storm. I can't wait!

Rose garden update

The roses in Abby's rose garden are coming along beautifully so I thought it was time for an update. The weather has been perfect lately. We've had a mixture of warm & cold days & last week we had over 60mm of rain which was just what the garden needed after a dry August.

This is the special Best Friend rose that a good friend gave me after Abby died. It's looking gorgeous & I can't wait to see the first rose bloom.

The football Grand Final was played last weekend so it's the traditional time to feed roses. It was too cold & wet to think about it then so that's a job for next weekend.

Here is the first bud, on one of the Noble Antony roses. Very exciting! If you'd like a reminder of the roses I chose, all the links are here & the beginning of the garden, just three months ago, is here.

Sunday afternoon in the garden

It's been a while since I posted some pictures of the garden. I haven't spent much time in the garden lately. It's been cold & wet for one thing but it's also a bit lonely without Abby here to supervise my very amateur attempts at gardening. It rained all morning yesterday so when the sun finally broke through at about 3 o'clock, I went for a walk to get some air & when I came home, decided to take a few photos of some of the late winter beauties of the garden. You can see my preference for white flowers! Earlicheer daffodils have a lovely creamy colour & the white geranium is always reliable. I don't think I've ever killed a geranium. There used to be a white daphne next to the geranium but it was in one of Abby's favourite spots for digging & it didn't survive her attentions.

Then, there are the single white daffodils & snowdrops. I wanted to take some photos of the pink striped camellia but the rain had ruined all the flowers.

The most exciting thing is that the rose garden is going well. We've had some high winds & quite a lot of rain but the roses are all still standing &, as you can see, one of the Squire roses has started sprouting. I can't wait for the first roses to bloom.

Abby's rose garden - the beginning

Here are the first pictures of Abby's rose garden which I wrote about here. My friend P & I finished planting the roses yesterday. P did most of the hard work of digging up the old plants, I did lots of pointing & deciding which colours would look right where. Perfect division of labour, I thought!

There's not much to see at the moment except lots of twiggy plants but I'll keep you all updated on the garden's progress. The details of the roses I chose are in my previous post on the garden at the link above. I left the spring bulbs in place & I think they'll look lovely in a couple of months. They're white & cream jonquils & daffodils so they'll contrast beautifully with the green foliage & then, in summer, the red & pink roses will bloom.

My friend J at work bought me a lovely gift when Abby died. It's a Best Friend rose, sold by the RSPCA especially for people who have lost a pet so I've planted it in a very special place in the front corner of the garden.
I picked up Abby's ashes from the vet yesterday as well & I'll be scattering them among her roses in the spring when the plants are looking a little more like roses & a little less like twigs.

Abby's rose garden

I went out last Friday & bought the plants for my rose garden.  Even though I'd planned the rose garden before Abby died, I keep thinking of it as Abby's garden because that's where I'm going to scatter her ashes. There's a specialist rose nursery at Healesville, Magic Garden Roses, about 30 mins away from me, (there are some gorgeous photos of the nursery in summer on their website if you click on Gallery from the home page) & it was a gorgeous early winter day - cold, but sunny - so my friend, P, & I went for a drive. P is helping me with the preparation & planting. He's always grown roses & is full of advice - some of which I completely ignored!

I was armed with a list of about 25 David Austin varieties that I wanted. I've had a lovely time looking through books on old-fashioned roses from work. Choosing the roses was difficult. Should I choose the ones with literary or historical names like William Shakespeare, the Mayor of Casterbridge, Brother Cadfael or Sir Edward Elgar? I knew I wanted old-fashioned roses with heavenly scent in pinks & reds so I could eliminate the yellow, orange & white varieties straight away. In the end, I decided that the name wasn't as important as the colour, perfume & hardiness of the rose & also, more practically, what the nursery had in stock.

The garden bed is at the front of the house sheltered from wind but it gets lots of morning sun. I chose 5 standard roses for the back of the plot. Three Squires & two Pretty Jessicas. Then, I wanted some shrub roses in groups of three in front of the standards. So I chose three each of Noble Antony (there isn't a picture on the website but it's a lovely dark magenta pink), Sophy's Rose & Eglantyne. I also have another special rose. A dear friend at work bought me a Best Friend rose when Abby died. This is a rose sold by the RSPCA especially for someone who has lost a pet. I didn't know it existed & I was very touched to receive such a lovely gift. Best Friend will have a special spot on the corner of the garden.

I have lots of bulbs planted along the front border & I'll leave those because they're lovely & mostly white & cream jonquils & daffodils. This is Abby in front of her garden with Earlicheer daffs in the background.

I'll be posting photos as the garden progresses & hopefully in early summer, I'll be able to enjoy vases of lovely roses in the house & thriving rose bushes in Abby's garden.