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It’s been a while since I’ve had a moment to stop, chill and really relax like I now am, and I’m loving the luxury of sloth.

I usually wake up around 4am and go to the gym before I begin with my first appointment or I begin my working day in the studio. This morning I went to the gym early but I woke at first light rather than in the dark, and when I got home I turned on the sprinkler in the nursery, made an espresso and went back to bed to swipe my way through my daily Instagram feed, and then I slipped gently back to sleep. This summer I’m behaving as I would if we were away on holidays – but at my own home, and it’s not too bad at all. When I got out of bed somewhere close to 10am the biggest decision was what herb to use on the eggs and pan-fried left over Christmas ham.

I’ve taken to walking about the garden in contemplation, asking myself things such as `shall I move the lilies to a sunnier place next year’ and `I really should plant more grasses – but where would I put them? My mobile phone has been particularly quiet as it failed to re-boot from an update, and I’ll get it looked at before work begins on the 9^th January.

What wine will I open tonight?

I may wash the car, spray the weeds on the drive – but then again I could jump in the swimming pool and contemplate these tasks again tomorrow…

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We’re ridiculously busy designing gardens in the studio, which is another reason why my urge to write has been quelled, and it’s spring so the telephone never stops ringing!

We have Cathy’s sister and my brother in law from South Africa arriving in  a few weeks and our good friends from France as well, and Cathy and I have been gardening, getting things ready for lazy afternoons, and new faux wicker chairs on the deck under the camphor laurel are tempting us to sit on them for long lazy lunches, games or petanque’ and glasses of rose’. Without rain the paddocks are parched and when you walk over them you hear the brittle leaf blades and stolons snapping. Trees freshly planted throughout winter need buckets of water carried out to them or they’ll soon perish and this is what we do – we show them the love now and they’ll reward us in years to come with welcome shade.

The familiarity of my garden is comforting and I like the repetition of seasonal jobs. Each year the lilies appear from the bare earth and this week I staked the, tied a stem to each cane and sat one of my treasured antique terracotta pots on top. Each week I will revisit the lilies and if they have grown sufficiently I’ll add another twist-tie.

Cercis Forest pansy and newly staked lilium

Zucchini have been planted in the vegetable garden and rocket seeds for summer salads – I just hope the possums don’t eat them before I do.

Hippeastrum are one of those old fashioned plants that appear in old gardens and these are just another plant I find hard to resist when I find one I don’t have. Usually I’m fanatical about nomenclature and want the correct latin name on every plant I have but with hippies I know a few, others are known as Gail’s hippie because that’s who gave me the bulbs and then there’s the cream and red stroppy one that reminds me of a big girl wearing a dress that’s too tight and bright on race day…take a look you can guess what one I mean.

parrot amaryllis – Hippeastrum psittacinum

Hippeastrum papilio

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