Blue days...

Spring is a delight this year. After living with an ordered, green, hedged garden in Auckland I'm so enjoying the daily surprises in our new patch of Melbourne. We have a sea of blue irises that have grown from mere shoots in just two months. I'm busily deadheading forty spent flowers a day to keep them blooming as long as possible.

I'm also drinking in the colourful gardens of our suburb. Not the green on green, slightly austere gardens so favoured by designers and property developers. These are proper gardens grown over years and years with a wonderful array of plants all very happy the drought has broken for now.

Spring blossom in pinks and whites (the crabtree's my favourite). Billowing creamy roses in soft pastels that you simply have to cross the road to smell, wisteria, lime green hellebores in the shady spots, delicate seaside daisies springing from cracks in the pathways and a backdrop of rich fresh spring green.

You can almost taste it, it smells so good.  To hell with the hayfever.