Sunday, March 1, 2009

New Season, New Look...and a giveaway...

To celebrate the changing of the seasons I thought I'd give my blog a fresh look...I liked the Autumnal tones of this background. Will leave it up for a while and see how I feel about it,
have had a play with fonts & colours and feel more at home with it now. What do you think..??

The seasonal changes in the subtropics are more subtle than in the southern states. I have noticed mornings this last week have been a few degrees cooler than they have been over Summer...there has also been a heavy dew on the grass. I have always welcomed Autumn...cool days, trees changing and the beginning of the apple season.

Having said that, it's 36 degrees here today (that's about 97F)...very hot, it seems Summer isn't content to slip away gently...

There's not a lot happening in our garden at the moment...the passionfruit have become prolific, it looks like we will be picking upwards of 50, not bad for a first season's fruiting. The next crop of lettuces and salad greens are ready for picking. The last rain we had around 10 days ago has resulted in rapid growth of the macadamia, olive and paw paw trees, they are now close to two metres tall.

There's number of things I really miss about living in Victoria...the changing seasons is certainly one of them. The town, Castlemaine, we used to live in had an amazingly diverse population with a community that encouraged & embraced difference. Autumn was just glorious...the Botanic Gardens were a beautiful place to walk, reflect and collect your thoughts. Matilda & I lived there for over 11 years, the longest I have ever lived anywhere.

We will live there again one day, I'm quite certain of that. I can't imagine living anywhere else in Victoria.

Now for my very first bloggy giveaway...

To celebrate Autumn I'd like to bestow one reader with a jar of my very own home made Apricot Jam...(sorry Kel...). All you have to do is leave a comment letting me know your favourite season and something that is dear to your heart about the area you live.

The giveaway will be open until next Friday 6th March...and yes, I will post internationally. I'd especially love to hear from those of you who read but have yet to comment. Don't be shy, say hello, I don't bite...(unless asked nicely).

Looking forward to reading your responses.

8 comments:

Lissy said...

My goodness, I opened your Blog today & nearly fell off my chair...it's certainly a different look...WOW! I was looking for the dark green & thought I was in the wrong place.

Am I allowed to go in your giveaway? Apricot Jam...YUMMY!!! My favourite season is Spring of course. It's when I started dating David so I have great memories of waking up & the day just "smelt" great. It was like I could breath in the expectation of the day in the mornings. Then I used to toddle off to Uni, do my study & keep my eye out for D. My heart used to skip a beat to catch a glimse of him across a hallway...the flowers were coming out, the weather was warming up & I still love Spring even now. I can never quite capture the excitement of those days, but the smell & feel of Spring in the garden & around my suburb is so wonderful!

Hooray for Autumn though!

Much love to you & all yours!
XXxx

P.S. I didn't quite kill that mouse. I think I win the record for buying the most pathetic mouse trap ever! It managed to mame the poor little thing without killing it so Bonnie & I had to go for a walk & let it go...

watercolordaisy said...

My favorite season is early spring when the daffodils are in bloom and the Japanese Magnolias are in bloom and the trees are swelling and starting to look like they are going to burst into leaves at any moment. Right now!!!!

Something I love about Jackson, Mississippi is how sweet the people are when tragedy strikes - either personal or community. I love how quickly word gets out to rally around friends and strangers who have something happen. A young family has a fire and people start showing up with things to help them rebuild. A hurricane wipes out the entire gulf coast of the state and people give up their vacation time for years to go down and help strangers rebuild their lives. "What do you need" rolls so easily off of people's tongues and they mean it. If they have it to give, they will. And they'll always add you to their prayer list and give you a hug if they can do nothing else. For a city, it is such a small town in spirit. :)

watercolordaisy said...

LOVE the new background!!! So pretty!! And apricots are my favorite. I'd PAY you for some homemade jam, lol!!!

Lynda said...

What a beautiful new layout! I love it :-)

My favorite season is fall. I love when the heat of summer starts to abate and those first cool days arrive - when you can shorts and a sweatshirt.

What do I love about Texas... well, first of all, it's Texas for goodness sake... it doesn't get any better :-) The people are friendly, have manners, and love where they live. And we Houstonians are pretty darn nice. Just ask the Katrina victims... they know :-)

Kelly said...

bummer, and even the kids dont like apricot jam, so i REALLY cant enter, but have fun and i do like the new background, much more uplifting! word veri ; slobber

Kori said...

I love the look-and I am still reeling from your email of this morning so that's all I got. :)

Tracy, mom2many said...

I like the new look, fun colors!

I like hmmmm, I guess fall, but spring is nice too, ooooo and summer. Anything but winter. Hate winter.

What do I like about Texas? The weather, the people, the geography...but especially the thunderstorms. I love the raging winds and rain, the way the sky lights up so suddenly and you can see the outlines of the clouds and then before you really see it, it's gone again followed by that huge clap of thunder. I like how still it gets before hand and how green and new it is after. I even like how you never know what's gonna happen and it might be a tornado, but it might just be another bad storm. It's getting to be that time of year again, I'm so glad about that!

Mouthy Girl said...

In the US, my favorite season is fall. There is nothing like a crisp autumn day in Virginia when you can open the windows in the afternoon to let in the warm breezes but then close them soon after sundown to keep the chill out of the house. The leaves here in the Blue Ridge Mountains are amazing to behold.

We usually take drives on the Blue Ridge Parkway, hike on trails, and comb the Jefferson National Forest for leaves in gem-like tones. Buddha loves it!

I think the only thing better is late summer when we can pick boysenberries and blackberries in the national forest, stowe them in a cooler in the car, and spend the rest of the day sliding down rock waterfalls.