APRIL SHOWERS AND MAY FLOWERS

 

Hello, Dear Readers..

April showers have passed, and suddenly it is May.

Autumn is in the air, and with the passing of the stifling heat, flowers find it easier to bloom in the new Red Cardinal garden..

We are delighted with the five Camellia bushes which were here when we bought the house.  They are covered in buds, and more flowers bloom every day:

Unfortunately we both caught a seasonal virus over the past few weeks, which made us very tired, as well as ill.  Many planned events were cancelled, and I missed my work at the gallery.

However, all is now well, and we are back into the swing of life in our new suburb.  I love singing in not one, but two choirs, every week.

These little mini roses do well, and we have planted four of them now.

On Saturday we attended a garden Open House a short distance down our road.  It was absolutely lovely, a very well maintained cottage style garden, with lots of rustic sculptures, bird houses, chickens, a large vegetable and fruit garden, as well as roses, lavender and so on.

There were plants for sale (we bought a fern we lost when we moved), and home made Rosella jam.  Rosellas are considered an Australian plant, having made its way here from Africa some thousands of years ago.  There was a Rosella bush in the garden:

The home owner made the jam, which we enjoyed with scones and cream in her pretty garden, as well as buying a jar to bring home.  I remember my mother grew this bush and made Rosella jam a few times when I was a little girl.

The roses and lavender reminded me that we had to leave our lavender plants behind when we moved.  Yesterday we went to the plant nursery and bought another lavender to add to our place, as well as a few more much-missed old favourites.  We will squeeze them in somewhere...

I know I am running a bit late, but had to mention I enjoyed the fashions during the visit to the United States of King Charles and Queen Camilla last week.  

I really liked Camilla's Dior coat dress on arrival.  Because, pink!

Also thought this double act was incredibly chic.

Camilla's pale minty green hat and coat, and the First Lady's white suit and very stylish boater hat were just lovely.

The main event, the State Dinner, brought out the glamour.  

Both gowns were just so beautiful, and, yes, Pink again...

Camilla's antique amethyst heirloom necklace was a fabulous piece dating back to Queen Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, about 200 years ago.  Melania's pale pink gown was perfection.

Here is a little peek at our new house.  I was returning from my walk last week and a rainbow appeared to come right down onto our roof!

Could there be a pot of gold up there?

Our little retirement house is very different from our previous style.  It is of modest proportions, with a handy car port under that sloping roof at the front.  There is also a garage which is now a storage space.  While I was not looking for a walled garden, it does make it much safer for us elderly folk, with electronic gates and security cameras.  The roses and camellias are inside the front courtyard.

The back garden is bigger, with the pool, more gardens, the Magnolia tree plus an Olive and lime and lemon trees.

We have tied the orchids we brought with us onto the street trees (we have four of them).  We hope they do well and brighten up the street.  Lots of people go walking past on our footpath.

As the Autumn temperatures begin, I have been reorganising my wardrobe.  A new dress is half made, a shirt dress with a leaf design in Autumn tones which will go under my white Winter coat.  I also bought some Plum coloured warm pants for the cold Winter mornings I imagine will be here in a few weeks.  

In August we are off to Canada again, and my mind is firmly on what to take and what needs to be done.  We have our ETA forms done for Canada, but are working on the ones for the USA as we hope to go across the border to Vermont on this trip.

Well, that sums up my month.  I'd love to hear about yours.

Be safe and well

XXXX

THE RISEN CHRIST: Tintoretto

 

Tintoretto: 'Cristo risorgente (The risen Christ) c.1555

Easter Blessings to all readers of the Red Cardinal Blog.

Have a beautiful day.

XXXXX

PURPLE

 

Our purple Violas and Pansies have bloomed this week, just in time for Passion Week on the Christian calendar...

At last we have a hint of Autumn in the air, and I think the flowers appreciate it too, after our record-hot Summer..

Today is Holy Thursday, and we had a gathering of friends from our Garden Club, who came for a morning tea.

Everyone was interested to see our new house, admire the garden and make suggestions.  

I was very excited when our first Camellia of the season burst forth on one of the trees in our front Courtyard.  There are five Camellia bushes and all are covered in buds.  

I wonder if they will all be pink, or whether some white might appear on some of the trees.  This is the fun part of buying a house with an existing garden...

Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy and Holy Easter

From the Red Cardinal

Cristo crucificado by Diego Velázquez, 1632

THE OSCARS AND UPDATE ON THE CARDINAL NEST

 

Hello

I don't know where I've been lately, but perhaps moving house in my dotage has been rather more taxing than I had anticipated.

We are working hard at integrating into our new community, doing unexpected house repairs, and keeping up our usual commitments.

We have introduced five new roses into our flowerless garden, and I love them all.  The soil here is completely different although we only moved 8km, and it seems the roses love it as long as they get Lots of Water..

We have been to a couple of Queensland Symphony concerts, last night to hear/see Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor and Mahler Symphony No. 5....Wonderful!

And I have joined a local choir.  Long-term readers of the blog might remember that I sang with a choir of Ladies of a Certain Age (in fact, two choirs back then).  These all disbanded in the Covid era and I am happy to report a new mixed choir has begun rehearsing just a five minute walk from our house.  While I have continued to sing with my church choir, my voice has become very rusty but I am doing vocalising exercises whenever I remember and things are improving.  We have a few local 'gigs' coming up soon.

I have found a new doctor at a local Medical Centre, and we are catching up on a lot of routine checks which did not happen last year during the relocation time.

It was a relief that all my blood tests came up fine.  Not so nice was I have had a low grade cancer burnt off my leg.  All those daily walks wearing shorts make this a real hazard in this climate.  I am now trying to accustom myself to wearing long pants to walk.

In other news, I finally sold my two enormous chandeliers which I brought from our previous high-ceilinged heritage house, only to find they were too big for the downsize house.

We then found a pretty new (smaller) one for our entrance hall:

The electrician said there were 78 strands of crystal glory!

It has considerable sparkle power, and I love it...

This little love seat lost a leg during the move, but it has now been fixed by a generous friend.  Now it will be recovered some time soon.

You all know I love a pink rose, and guess my favourite Oscar dress:

Anne Hathaway, looking wonderful...

and a close second, our own Rose Byrne.  Both ladies are incredibly chic..

Because pink, naturally...

Our own Nicole Kidman never fails to wear something stylish and new..

Pink with red can be stunning...

Excellent drama here..

Another beautiful green gown...

I like the green, but is it a pair of sleeves, a coat, a wrap, whatever.

Nice fabric and worn with panache..

A fairytale finish.  Every little girls want a dress like this, including my tiny granddaughter (who is about to turn Four!).

Hope you are all well, and I hope to be back soon.

XXXX

RED HOT

 Hello

We finally have a few more flowers in our new garden, despite three months of record-breaking hot weather conditions.

We water nearly every day, and on days of 34c plus temperatures, I water the roses twice - a litre in the morning to see them through the heat, and another hosing in the evening.

They have rewarded us with some beautiful blooms:

I continue to love our Mini Magnolia.  This giant flower was on the top of the tree.

The leaves look nice in a vase, which is handy because most of our pot plants have died in the heat!

With some of my stitchery friends, I have started an online challenge:

to make little fabric collage/embroidered booklets inspired by our favourite books.  It goes for six months, one book per month.

I decided to do something Gothic, and rummaged through my collection of precious fabric scraps.  These survived the downsizing and came with me in small plastic tubs.

Reader, I chose 'Jane Eyre'...

and this is my cover.  The embroidered lady is cut from an old doily, and hand-stitched onto the background of collaged fabrics.

My personal rule is not to buy any new fabrics or trims, just use my stash of scraps, recycled items, and a few hoarded buttons, keys, and other bits.

My friend J painted this gorgeous floral bunch, and gifted it to me as a house-warming gift.

It is quite large, and fits our house very well.

Speaking of Gothic, did you see Margot Robbie at the World Premiere of 'Wuthering Heights' in Los Angeles this week?  She stars as Catherine with Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff.

And both of them come from Queensland.  We are very smitten by this!

What an incredible dress.  She looks amazing.

And wait, here is another dramatic look today, in Chanel at the Paris premiere:

Next week, Margot will be in Sydney for the Australian premiere, and I look forward to seeing the next amazing look...

I would also like to go and see the movie.....

The Red Cardinals watched Jacob Elordi as Frankenstein on Netflex on Saturday night, and enjoyed this re-telling of a novel we studied back in the day.

Vale to Valentino, the master of a dramatic red gown.

I put out my catalogue from the exhibition we had here in Brisbane at GoMA in 2010.  It was one of my first assignments to conduct the guided tours and I loved it so much.  There were about 100 of his most famous outfits, including the little lace mini worn by Jackie when she married Onassis.  The red gowns were spectacular.  He would have loved to dress Margot Robbie - she is fearless with fashion...

This is where we cool off when the temperature approaches 40c as it did on Sunday.  

and when it is cool enough I am sitting here...

I made a simple Summer dress recently, and am sewing some cool rayon pants and loose top.  My sewing diary says I have not made anything since last April, the longest time in my life that I have not sewn clothing for myself...

Life is returning to normal.

Have a good week

XXXXX