"Makes Me Happy Monday."

Hello,

Happy Monday, apologies for no post last week, was worn out from being out and about.

So what has been making me happy for the past weeks. Garden visiting for a start. After the demise of the Australian Open Garden Scheme a group of West Australian gardeners decided to open a new scheme called West Coast gardens. It officially opened this month and we went to two gardens on the weekend of the opening. The first one was in Kalamunda. My goodness this garden was nothing short of amazing. It was very hard to take photo's as there were so many visitors. Apologies to anyone who is in the photo's, it was impossible not to have people in them. It was just like visiting France with a touch of Italy thrown in for good measure.

Just part of the back yard.

The owner got in a well known garden designer/gardener to do this part of the garden. From my understanding the owner did the front yard herself, sorry no photo's of this but it was equally amazing.

The back yard is right next to the national park with views across Perth. It doesn't really show in this photo but there is quite a drop here at the edge. How it was done with the gravel rocks suited the style of garden perfectly matching the bush and the garden.

More of the back yard from the upstairs section of the home.There was garden everywhere!

I had serious Clivea envy with many pots of these in full bloom on the verandah's.

Now how much mulch does a garden like this need? plenty.

After this it was onto the next garden in Mount Lawley.

This garden belonged to one of the organisers and was lovely. The garden belongs to a home that is 100 years old. A more cottage style garden at the front.

Parts of the backyard had been recently re-done and I loved this raised bed of succulents. Once again it was standing room only.

Two very different gardens but the main thing to come from it was we have to plant plants according to our climate and mulch mulch and more mulch.

Then during the week we took the opportunity to watch several hours of sheepdog trials.

The Australian Supreme Sheepdog trials  were held at the local Rec Centre. There were dogs from across Australia and New Zealand competing.

It was interesting to see the way the dogs responded to the commands of the owner. The ones who used a whistle instead of talking to the dogs seemed to do better or maybe it was just the ones we watched.

Last week was all about getting a few things done in the kitchen. Lots of soap making over a couple of days and making up batches of Kombucha and Kefir Water. I also made up a batch of Fermented Salsa, from the Quirky Cooking blog. I followed the recipe but didn't really want to add 100 grams of Chillie as the ones I grow are very hot so added 20 grams of my chillie and 80 grams of Capsicum.This is so yummy I could just eat it by itself.

I am so happy that the garden scheme is up and running. We visited another garden on Saturday but will share those photo's later in the week.

What has been making you happy lately?

Happy days.
Bev C