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Posted on by Debbie

Going Gaga in the Garden for #SundayStills

The difference in a year

Isn’t it funny the difference a year makes? This weekend a year ago we had a delightful fall of snow, but this year it is a glorious (almost) spring day.

snow day
snow day in August 2020

The garden is waking up with buds budding, bees buzzing, birds nesting, daffodils flowering and a certain degree of warmth in the air (think low C teen temps).

Now I’ll admit that I’m not known as the gardener in the family, (did you hear the guffaw from the Mathematician?) but I do appreciate the garden and I love wandering around taking note, and the odd photo, of what’s happening out there.

I tend to think of myself as the bee who buzzes around the garden rather than be the worker bee. Or maybe I am the Queen Bee who bosses everyone around – yes that’s more like it!

Bee in a flower
Bee in a flower

The difference in an hour’s drive

The difference an hour’s drive makes also hit me this week. We had to go to Wagga Wagga 110kms drive away for a medical appointment. Please note the whole of our state, NSW, is in lockdown and and we can only leave the house for a few reasons – medical appointments, to get vaccinated or tested for COVID, essential shopping, exercise and work if we are an essential worker. I believe I am essential but as I’m not working outside the home then I can’t leave my home.

So we drove to Wagga, and you’ll be pleased to know I dressed up. I put on a real dress, with a matching scarf, opaque stocking and knee high boots. I looked pretty swish if I do say so myself. The Mathematician took one look at me, raised his eyebrow and said, you do know you won’t be leaving the car don’t you? to which I replied, yes but I wanted to make an effort and change out of my usual uniform of leggings, jumpers and ugg boots. It was his medical appointment and I was the designated driver – he couldn’t be trusted to drive home after having drops in his eyes. I stayed in the car throughout his appointment and then got to drive home, what a lovely day out we had!

But the point of this rambling story is to tell you that all the trees in Wagga were blossoming, I kept exclaiming – look at that magnolia tree, it’s fully out and those trees are full of pink and white blossoms. It was such a different state of affairs to our garden just an hour up the road! We are at an altitude of over 700mt and Wagga is much lower at 180mt, so that has something to do with it. We have massive frosts and periodically get snow up here, harking back to this time last year and so yes it’s a different world at times!

Going Gaga in the Garden

So in true style I wandered around the garden soaking up the almost spring sunshine, and took a few photos for this post for #SundayStills. Without further ado here are a selection of my favourites:

  • blossom buds
  • pink blossoms

Click on this slideshow for more snowdrops:

  • snowdrops 2
    snowdrops 2
  • snowdrops in the garden
    snowdrops in the garden
  • snowdrops
    snowdrops

The daffodils are slowly opening up and I have managed to pick a few to bring inside for a pop of colour.

  • daffodils make me smile
    daffodils make me smile
  • daffodil
    daffodil about to open

Talking of colour did you see my recent Sunday Stills post where I shared some more flowers in the garden photos in my Cover Me in Sunshine post? I included the inside of a daffodil just for a different perspective.

inside a daffodil
inside a daffodil

So there you have it, I am officially starting to get excited about spring’s arrival but I also don’t rule out that we could have another cold snap before long, complete with snow. The world has gone a tad crazy lately so anything is possible.

I still have my magnificent magnolia to open up. At the moment it’s still tightly furled up, but any day now the buds will start to unfurl and I’ll go even more gaga! (I admit I had to check that ‘furl’ was even a word).

magnolia and raindrop
furled magnolia and raindrop from 2020

I do hope you’ve enjoyed my garden post for this week’s #SundayStills. I’m now off outside to enjoy the fabulous sunny day and my garden.

Terri is having a break from #SundayStills this week, and Natalie has kindly taken over hosting duties. Make sure you visit Natalie to see her post and her wonderful photos. It’s always interesting to see what others are posting for the prompts too.

Next week Sunday Stills is Afloat, hosted by Natalie the Explorer.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoying my garden with me. Take care!

Debbie 🙂

I’m also linking up with Denyse for Share Your Snaps for #lifethisweek

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Debbie - mother of a 40 year old

Deb is a young-at-heart & active 60+ blogger/retiree, after being made redundant from her 22-year career managing education programs in a men’s correctional centre (jail). She now spends her time reading, blogging, riding her ebike and travelling. Deb was awarded a Bravery Award from the Queen when she was 17 after a tragic accident – a definite life changing moment! She is married with 3 grown-up daughters & has 4 grandchildren. You can read more of Deb’s story here

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44 Replies to “Going Gaga in the Garden for #SundayStills”

  1. Pingback: This week’s small pleasures #249 – Thistles and Kiwis

  2. I have to admit I’m not much of an outdoors or nature person Deb. It’s funny that as I wrote that I felt a sense of acceptance. I guess I always feel guilty that I’m not out ‘enjoying’ nature as others seem to, but maybe that’s actually okay after all?! Hmmm….

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  3. Beautiful pics Deb, I especially love the one of the closed snowdrop. Here in Sydney I think spring has sprung and it’s looking absolutely glorious! I had to have a bit of a chuckle about you getting dressed up for your drive, these days I’ll use any excuse to wear something other than activewear and have been known to dress up and even put make up on for zoom drinks with friends!

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    1. Thanks Sammie, I love taking shots of the garden as I don’t actually do any of the gardening! Any excuse to get dresses up and I can relate to your Zoom preparations as I’ve done the same for some meetings.

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  5. Pingback: This week’s small pleasures #248 – Thistles and Kiwis

    1. Thanks Sue, I wanted to show the colour and vibrancy of spring being on the way. It’s great living here with four distinct seasons, so you know exactly where we’re going!! I’m happy my photos brought you some joy today x

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  7. I loved visiting your garden Deb. Your photos as usual are all gorgeous, but I do love the photo inside the Daffodil. It’s such a relief that spring is almost with us. Like you we do have a little more cold and probably frosts to suffer yet. But spring is on the way!

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    1. Thanks for your visit Jen, the colour and life is coming back more and more each day isn’t it? We’re supposed to hit 20 degrees tomorrow so the garden will definitely be waking up now!!

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  8. Beautiful garden photo’s Deb – just glorious! I’m glad you enjoyed your outing even if you didn’t get out of the car. I totally get the dressing up thing and a change of scenery can do wonders! Hope you have a great week ahead! xo

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    1. Thanks very much Min, I’m glad you also ‘got’ the idea of dressing up with nowhere to go! My garden is definitely waking up more and more each day and I’m very happy with that 🙂

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  10. Pingback: Afloat On Water #SundayStills – Natalie the Explorer

  12. Nice colorful spring flowers and I’m glad your dressed up too! I do the same every couple of weeks. That way we can also be brighter like the spring flowers we admire.

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  13. What lovely almost springtime flowers you have there! Beautiful snowdrops! Gorgeous daffodils! Here in the Pacific NW summer is waning and fall is in the air. Sorry to hear you’re in lockdown again. We’re not quite there yet but more precautions are being taken as the Delta variant is running rampant. I’m thankful that even under restrictions the great outdoors is still safe and therapeutic.

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    1. I know Susanne, they are now starting to open up, even the magnolia! Take care with the Delta strain, it’s not good at all. Yes I’m so pleased we can get outside too, today we went for a 35km bike ride which was invigorating with the coolish temps, although the sun was out.

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  15. Pingback: What’s In The Garden? #SundayStills – Natalie the Explorer

  16. Hi Debbie, Your spring flowers are beautiful and they hold great promises for more beauty to come. Kudos to you to make an effort to dress up. Clothing and our beauty care do affect our mood and confidence level. Have a great week ahead! Thank you for linking up with #SundayStills.

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  17. I absolutely LOVE the you dressed up for your trip out, Debbie — even if you never left the car. It’s that positive, can-do attitude that I love most about you (and it’s a long list of things that I adore). Wishing you an end to lockdown soon!

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  19. Spring is the best time isn’t it. All that hope budding up. Hope you guys sort out the covidy thing soon. It feels weird that you’re getting a few hundred cases and are in lockdown as tight as any and we here have 30k cases and are as free as we’ve been since the start.

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  20. Pingback: This week’s small pleasures #247 – Thistles and Kiwis

  21. I so get that…going somewhere different and getting dressed up. I too am the admirer of the garden here and admit I can plant in pots. How much different that year is…tells me, I hope not actually, we are in for a hot summer. Of course, “that” brings its own issues. Hope your Mr is OK, and that you get to revel in your own patch of nature right where you are now. Denyse

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    1. Thanks Denyse, I was hoping someone else would get the dressing up part! All good with the Mathematician he just had a routine eye checkup, it was a good excuse for a drive! The garden is delightful at the moment and the warm sunshine is very welcome but hopefully summer won’t be too hot for us this year. We’re lucky here as the temperatures always cool down at night even after a stifling hot day. I’m trying to enjoy our solitude as best I can and blogging helps 🙂

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    1. Thanks Ali, I was in a bit of a mood as I was writing it, so am glad it came across OK! My sense of humour hasn’t diminished, despite the world issues, I love making fun of myself at any opportunity and sometimes feel I have to share that quirky side. The garden is a great place to spend time and I do enjoy the seasons moving on in their own determined way.

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