Bay Pride Festival Rotorua last weekend.

I decided to go along to this event at All Seasons Holiday Park in Hannahs Bay with my camera.

  it certainly was a fun family day out with heaps of entertainment, fantastic costumes and peaceful vibes.  

It only cost a gold coin donation. 

The sun was blazing, there was a crowd of around 600

Below  is the advertisement for the event,

Get it On! is proud to sponsor and take part in Bay Pride Festival 2012, celebrating the diverse community in the Bay of Plenty. This is an opportunity to celebrate families, friends, and those people important to us, as well as ourselves.
Bay Pride Festival 2012 is not only a festival for the gay community, but celebrates the diverse nature of our wider community. Anyone is welcome to attend, so invite your mum, dad, brother, sister, friends… anyone important to you, that you would like to share this day with. Bay Pride Festival 2012 is a family day out with friends.
Don’t be frightened by our Drag Queens, they are all kind hearted. The Queens will be there to host, entertain plus look “fabulous”. Many a costume change throughout the day. We plan to have the day filled with performance on stage, competitions, and activities to keep the young one’s entertained. Face painting, best dressed fairies  princesses and a best dressed pet competition

These are some of the photos I captured

I mostly stayed on the VIP tent out of the sun so that my photos wouldn't be over exposed.

 

Everyone just seemed to come towards me. 

Buffy and Bimbo


And they were so willing to pose.
I loved the colour and the amazing makeup. All of the "girls" looked absolutely fabulous.

Everyone was happy and friendly 

                                 It was a dog friendly event and they were really cute. At one stage there were more small dogs on the VIP tent than people.
The food on the VIP tent was fantastic, 

 

Many people had shoes like sky scrapers. .

 It was a shoe fanciers paradise. 

Look at these lovely dresses, so summery.

The hats and head adornments were sizzling

 False eyelashes and Bling were everywhere.

 I even managed to shoot myself shooting in this pair of mirror glasses.

Love that leather numberand the nmirror glasses

Perfectly captured.

Mesmerising detail, this guy went to a lot of trouble

                  Nice little area to let everything breathe at the front

Lovely bright orange and pink together.

Champers anyone?

                                                                  Rainbow

                                Very sophisticated , she could have been at the races
                                    Cute dog show with lovely organiser , how did  she get a matching parasol?

Family day for all, fun for the kids to see who would win best behaved dog prize.

Paraplegic dog still makes friends

                                Green eyes, I shot this person at the Zombie walk a few weeks ago

Don't they look divine?

                                               Glowing and almost angelic

                  Love the smiles, we really had such a lot of fun in the tent. I sat there listening to their conversation with each other and I was enchanted,  I  am now  thinking about getting some false eyelashes. I love the look of them but I'll not be into any of the sky scraper high heels.

                                         Knock out in black

Stunning ring.

                                          Mother and daughter, all the families were having a cool time.

                                     There's that head dress again

                       Winsome

Hopefully it will happen next year and I can go take some more shots and more people will turn up.
Just remember you don't have to be gay to go, it's open to everyone who wants to have a light -hearted time and be  entertained.
 Everyone will make you feel welcome. 

Creative Quotes of the day
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
Dr. Seuss

“Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?” ~ Ernest Gaines

“I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.”
― Paul Newman


More information about the event incase you are interested

Bay of Plenty PRIDE Festival 2012

The PRIDE festival is not only a festival for the gay community, but celebrates the diverse nature of our wider community. Anyone is welcome to attend, so invite your mum, dad, brother, sister, friends… anyone important to you, that you would like to share this day with. The PRIDE festival is a family day out with friends.
The PRIDE festival is first and foremost all about having fun, our community being able to laugh at itself, sharing, being more open minded and a wee bit educational in a light hearted way.
Although there is a lot of fun to be had on the day, there is also a serious side to our festival.
As a community we would like to raise awareness of two serious issues facing our community:

• Youth suicide
• Safe sex message

Unfortunately, the Bay of Plenty region features high in the statistics for both issues. As a community, we can work towards reducing this statistics in an effective way.
Don’t be frightened by our Drag Queens, they are all kind hearted. The Queens will be there to host, entertain plus look “fabulous”. Many a costume change throughout the day.
We plan to have the day filled with performance on stage, competitions, and activities to keep the young one’s entertained. Face painting, best dressed fairies / princesses and a best dressed pet competition / fashion show.
The New Zealand AIDS Foundation are supporting the event with their “get it on” campaign promoting safe sex. The PRIDE festival is based loosely on the “Big Gay Out” event held in Auckland each February.
The day festival will end around 6.00pm. However, the celebrations will continue into the early hours of the following morning with a Dance Party in town, DJ and drag show performances. For those “young at heart”, a second venue will provide a quieter space.
The Bay Pride Festival Charitable Trust are organizing the event, and are inviting expressions of interest from stall holders, food stands, entertainers, buskers and other community organisations.

In support of teaching classes that could be viewed as Art Therapy.

At the moment I am teaching a group of nine clients from the Te Aratu Trust and their delightful and artistically talented tutor, Lorraine Willoughby.

This is the second you I have taken the group for lessons and the payment for the lessons has been helped by grants  from the Civic  Arts Trust.
The Civic Arts Trust has been very supportive towards my mosaic and painting projects over the years.

They have provided money for  Mosaic Projects for the ADHD Society, Stroke Survivors Arts Group, Seventh Day Adventist School, St Michael's School, John Paul College, St Mary's School, Kaitoa Intermediate, Fibromaylgia Group and others.

  I am really interested in doing  more community mosaic and painting projects  in 2013 and I am looking for collaborations with community groups. 

I am preparing my 2013  year in advance now in between trips to China and Italy so if  anyone reading this is interested, call me for a Civic Arts Trust form and we can see whether we can work something out. 

Phone 07 3463435
email jkeen@clear.net.nz 

Attraction of the wonderful things I want in life, spiritually, physically. mentally and emotionally. .

  I have been listening to a tape on manifestation. 
Here are some of the important things the person has said. 


If you could do a single most immediate thing to increase your abundance it would be to change the words you use on a habitual basis. 

Words are your open sesame
Change the words you speak to reflect abundance, happiness power and fortune.
Don't talk of lack.

Words have tremendous power, believe in the power of your words. 

How many times today have you said or thought I can't afford? 
If you say you have no clients and that times are hard your reality will reflect this. 
You will have your self- fulfilled prophecies. 

Watch your casual conversations. 

Change your reality. 
Don't focus on what you haven't got.
If you don't want something, don't talk about it.


In order to make changes, we must overcome negative thought patterns from the past.
We need to give our subconscious a new dominant thought.

 Till the soil of the subconscious so it can receive the seeds that you sow.

My new dominant thoughts are  that I am abundant and I am grateful for what I have and I  am lucky.
I am full of wonderful things.
Everything is good, everything is excellent  now and I have  everything I need right now.


  I  believe in a new reality and am acting as if I am in it now.
 I am acting as if it's already happened so that it creates a compulsion.


So if I want to be a good photographer and award winner I believe I am one in the now. 
 I am not trying to be a good photographer. 
  I already am one. 
I am an award winning, well paid photographer. 


In reality  I already have the 24 to 105 lens that I  want and I have the money for it now.  
I  am buying it within this week.

  In reality I  am going to Italy and I am going to research the way to go.
 I am there in 2013. 
I've made the poster. 
 I'm viewing it daily and I'm pulling in the prosperity to pay for it.
It  is here already and the universe is reflecting this.

 I refuse to focus on lack.
 Forget about the future think about the now
 Thinking of present prosperity.

Look and act prosperous.
Sometimes you need to jump off a cliff and go grow your wings on the way down.

 I like this saying..I am going to illustrate it with a bird and an angel.


The subconscious mind doesn't like change, it will form resistance. Just keep on going.
We need to lull the subconscious into submission by changing our dominant thought.
When we do this we open our pipeline to the influence of the creative power of the universe.
 Nurture the soil with good seeds and fertile thoughts and you will grow wonderful flowers of joy.


Align ourselves correctly and we won't have mishaps.
It will all be effortless. 
Connect with the creative power of the subconscious mind through our thoughts and feelings.
The subconscious is really powerful.
We are seeing that what we want will manifest in two weeks.

 It is like putting the universe on  speed dial.


My husband has just come back from overseas.
He has given me a 10 out of 10.
He loves the garden. 
He  thinks New Zealand and I are both beautiful.  
This gives me the motivation to be more beautiful inside and out, He said the me he thought I was a lovely person. it's pretty cool that he is still saying this after thirteen years of marriage. 
I feel blessed.  
 I love it when people use the word beautiful around me.
It fills me with light and love. 
 You could almost say the key to my heart is talking  to me about beauty. 
If you say that something I have made is beautiful, it is like I am in heaven.


 I have suggested a new campaign  to my husband who is willing to be a part of it. 
The campaign is called How can we lift our game? 

We have finished the garden, which is such an abundant source of income, and joy in the now.
 The phone rings hot with garden clubs wanting to make paying visits and to see the mosaic demonstrations.
It is now time to renovate the house. 
I am going through it systematically to upgrade every area so that I  can have it featured in a Home and Garden magazine. 
And win a prize from Resene.

This is exciting. 
I can already feel my energy and vitality lifting. 

 I am making a list of all that needs to be done.
 There is a lot but we will be achieving it all step by step. 
  
Next year is a year of travel and adventure for me. 
My husband  is being sent to China on a business trip for his company early next year. 
Based in Shanghai.
He has asked me if I  want to go and am going because the buildings in Shanghai are great to photograph and apparently there is a lot of good art and parks over there.
I love Chinese food so that will beamazing 
I look forward to eating a banquet.
The only thing that puts me off is the long plane flight but I  have decided that I  will take my i-pad and write travelling articles that will be published.

Don't use the word trying.  
Using the word trying will things  take longer to manifest.  
Everything is manifested in the now moment.

Anyway these are the dominant thoughts. It's all at my fingertips.
 I  just have to press the right buttons.

I have taken a raffle ticket outside my supermarket from a Rotary Club and I am winning the trailer and food plus a barbeque.
I  will be giving the barbeque away and some of the food to the Church  if they want it for the poor as I  won't be able to eat it all and it is nice to give to others less fortunate during Christmas.
I will keep the trailer and give it to my husband for Christmas.
Perhaps the church would like the barbeque to raise funds or maybe to have church barbeques. 
 Let's see what happens in the future. 

Life is good. 
I am waiting with quiet expectation for the winning of the raffle ticket. 

Creative Quote of the day
The spirit or life spark which animates this manifestation could be called God.
Arthur Young

 

Fantastic graphic Look at this. So empowering.

via.

"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."

~ George Bernard Shaw

National Novel Writing Month November.

I'm only four days behind on this because I have been otherwise engaged. 

My husband, Graham, went away on a business trip for Hayes International to Brisbane,  Australia for three days. 
I couldn't go as I was teaching art classes from my home studio. 

I am hardly ever without him. 
We are almost joined at the hip. 
I was dreading it because I thought I would be lonely and wouldn't be able to sleep. 

On the first day I sat at my desk in the studio after tidying it, waiting for my clients to arrive, who were paying for a large mosaic cross. 
I felt weird and disorientated.
 It was like looking onto the future of being husbandless and it wasn't a  nice feeling. 

 I had the urge to fill the space with people and I started thumbing through my phone book working out who I could phone to spend some time with. 
But then I stopped myself and thought;  no just remain centred and have some time by yourself.
Be strong you don't need other people.
 It will be character building and make you a braver  person.



I made some muffins for my clients they weren't that successful but the blueberries in them were fine. 
It was great to be with them, they are lovely spiritual women. 
I  really value their friendship and the way they view the world. 
They are so genuinely giving and also just totally saturated  with faith. 
 I think I'll invite them around for another morning tea, sometime in the future and try to make the muffins better.
 
 After they left I did some writing and planning. 
Instead of working flat out, I did two guided meditations and read part of a book on developing a positive mental attitude. 

Because Graham works so diligently I always like to make sure I cook creative meals for him every night from different countries so that he has something to look forward to.
They are usually healthy and adventurous. We usually go for a walk around the block into this special council walkway beside a stream that hardly anyone knows about.
 
At the moment I'm having a bit of an obsession with lamb and beef salads. 
He cooks all the meals on the weekends. 

I thought well, I can just go down to the Indian Star and buy some take aways and that can last me two nights and I can  relax  and write and draw. 

As soon as I walked into the Indian Star, the owner said,
 "Janet I have missed you for so long;  you never come in anymore. It is always Graham that turns up for the takeaways". (He knew my order off by heart). 
 I  am so happy to see you, have a wine on the house. 
I said  thanks so much, but  I don't drink alcohol.
 He said, have a soft drink then, I said  I don't drink anthing with added sugar, how about a free water?
 He laughed and shook his head, not believing that I wouldn't have a glass of wine. 

He certainly knows how to make  regulars who come to his restaurant  feel special.
He has his workers all beautifully decked out in blue shirts and black jackets and bow ties.
The new wall paper he has put in is fab, burgundy and gold.
The place was buzzing.

I recommend anyone who likes Indian to go there.
It's really well made and reasonably priced.
Perfect for families
He gets a triple A for customer service and the food is divine. 

We usually have the Lamb Saghost and aloo gobi, mild.
I haven't had an alcoholic drop for around fourteen years because I find  it makes my stomach ache, my skin itchy and I feel fuzzy in the head.

 Peoplesometimes question me as to why I  don't drink alcohol, the answer is I  really don't like it, I don't like the feeling of hangovers and it's full of sugar. 

But I don't have anything against other people drinking as long as they don't drink to excess and become obnoxious in my company.

When Graham came back he was so pleased to see me.
He said he missed me.

We often play a game called, how high am I rating today? Actually it's my game, he just goes along with it. 
 I usually give him a nine and a half or 10 out of 10. 
 The cat is included and he always gets a ten from both of us.

Graham usually gives me a 9, but this time he gave me a9 and a half to ten.

This leads me to believe in the adage, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
 

Creative quote of the month

Solitude is essentially the discovery and acceptance of our uniqueness.

Lawrence Freeman 

 

 

What have I been up to creatively and otherwise over the past couple of days?

Everyday seems bursting with things to do.
The sun is out, yay and so are my roses.
I need to tidy my studio as tomorrow I'm having a couple of clients in for morning tea.

  I had a busy day yesterday teaching and I have a big mess from all the collage.
I have such lovely, incredibly gifted and special  pupils, it makes everything so rewarding.
I am loving seeing how they are developing.

One of my clients said to me, your garden is really big and there are so many flowers in it.
Do you do all that yourself?
I said no I have someone who comes in for a couple of hours once a week during the peak weed growing season, but even so I do spend quite a number of hours in it.
At the moment it's time for me to take some cuttings of daisies I want to propagate. I am envisaging a sea of white everywhere.


I will be planting a lot of perennials this weekend and doing a spring/summer clean of my studio.
The whole place needs the windows cleaned and I will  to take some junk to the dump.
 We will finish off the Japanese garden by putting down weedmat and topsoil and planting some grass seed.

There are a couple of areas in the garden that  will receive more compost, planting and barking.
I am barking every garden to cut down on all the weeding.
 I will be able  to design and commission a new wheel cover  for my car and put it through the car wash.
 I will  clean it out.

I will get rid of some junk in my office, clean the fridge, the kitchen cupboards and so it goes on. There is a ton of work to do around here and that doesn't even include all the artwork, marketing, walking, meditiating, going on adventures, catching up with friends, reading,  writing and illustrating that will be occuring.
 Keeping away from overwelm is a good idea.


De-cluttering
I went through my wardrobe and threw out two rubbish bags full of clothes that will be used as rags  and over shirts.

 I went for a walk to Hamarana Springs today with my artist friend April.
We have an artist walk once a week on a Wednesday.
 I took a lot of shots of the wildlife and the beautiful clear water along with weed and sand formations.
The Redwoods out there are magestic.
It's all a little overgown and sort of relaxed.
 I loved being out there because of the peace.
I wish I could have gotten closer to the  ducks as there were a number of them with ducklings.But to do so would have meant i would have fallen in.
 I wouldn't have minded that much because it was hot. hot, hot.


I went to camera club fun night after cooking my husband a lamb salad.
We went on a treasure hunt where we took our cameras outside with  a buddy and had a list of things we had to take.
I helped a new member to work her camera. She is from China. I'm pretty sure we are going to be friends. I like people from Asican countries. they have a perspective on life that is different and refreshing to me.

It was fun  time and I took some interesting shots that I will post up here at a later date.

So things have been pretty full on for the past three days.
 I am looking forward to a break maybe in the afternoon  tomorrow.
 I might sneak off to the movies if I get time, but if it's another beautiful day maybe I would be best to stay home and do some painting and gardening.
 Thursday is supposed to be my day off but at the moment I am reducing it to half a day off.



 Creative Quote of the day

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time”

John Lubbock quotes

This is my new camera lens.

Look at this beautiful lens. 

It is the nicest one I  have ever tried. 

It is an all round great lens to go travelling with and I will take it to Italy when I go next year. 

 

It is mine, I just love it. 

Canon 24 to 105 

Features

• 24-105mm standard zoom lens with f/4 maximum aperture for Canon EOS SLR cameras
• 1 Super UD glass element and 3 aspherical lenses minimize chromatic aberration and distortion
• Ring-type USM system delivers silent but quick autofocus (AF); full-time manual focus
• Image Stabilizer technology steadies camera shake at up to 3 stops; weighs 23.6 ounces
• Dust- and moisture-resistant; measures 3.3 inches in diameter and 4.2 inches long; 1-year warranty

Technical Details

• Focal length: 24-105mm
• Maximum aperture: f4
• Lens construction: 18 elements in 13 groups
• Diagonal angle of view: 84 to 23 degrees 20 seconds (with full-frame camera)
• Focus adjustment: Inner focusing system with focusing cam
• Closest focusing distance: 1.48 feet/0.45 meters
• Zoom system: 5-group helical zoom (front group moves: 32.5mm)
• Filter size: 77mm
• Maximum diameter x length: 3.3 x 4.2 inches/83.5mm x 107mm (lens only)
• Weight: 23.6 ounces/670 grams (lens only)

It costs $1,219.00

Great value for money. 

Creative Quote of the day 

“We must look at the lens through we see the world, as well as the world we see, and that the lens itself shapes how we interpret the world.”
― Stephen R. Covey

We see the world, not as it is, but as we are──or, as we are conditioned to see it.”
― Stephen R. Covey 

What have I been up to creatively lately

 I am writing the equivalent of a blog post every day for the month of  November in order to celebrate National Novel Writing month.
 It's a lot easier than writing 1666 words per day.  
I did this two years ago and it was a marathon and I was totally exhausted.

I produced a pile of unpublishable words, but it was thereupeutic. 


The posts all of this month will be made to achieve the goal of making a blog post for the equivalent of every day. 

If  I think that it's a good idea, I  may carry on with it, but I'm not promising anything. 
 

Please keep on reading and if my words help you, drop me a line. 

If you read my posts and think it's all a pile of garbage, it's a free country. 
  I don't hold grudges but I'd rather not know about it. 

Creatively using books in a lecture or a public speaking engagement

If a speaker brings along a sample of books to illustrate a powerful message during their talk I think this is an effective and creative device.
Analagy is clever. Connecting two separate things forms a visual metaphors.

It is a way of showing not telling. 
The most powerful one for me lately has been the iPad and the mini iPad and a simple childhood piano duet being played on it.
What is the message? For me it is that the iPad is Creative and fun.
Another one for me was the gorilla playing the drums during a Cadbury chocolate advertisement,
  Same message, eating chocolate is creative and fun.

A picture tells a thousand  words.


You can tell a lot about a person's personality by the number of bookcases and types of books that are contained within them.
In my house there are seven book cases.
Graham my husband is a book collector and so am I.
Him and I had the same copy of a John Fowles book The Magus when I moved in with him.
 I thought this was a good omen.

He has read every single one of his books in his bookcases and so have I. 
When we go on holiday we often go into bookshops and he invariably buys books of short stories which I read after he has finished. 
If we go out of the country he often buys books from authors of that country. 
 
His choices are always deep and thoughtful and in this way I am exposed to books that I normally wouldn't read.

I don't read a lot of fiction, principally because I can hardly ever find any that engage me.
Fiction I find can be so full of padding.
  I don't like romances, chick lit or block buster best sellers.
 When I read I like to be informed and it's often about things that really interest me.
I like reading poetry because I love well written word pictures.
 I love reading books about art techniques that artists have written. I have an amazing collection of them. 

I like reading young adult fiction as well, authors often cut to the chase in them because they know their readers have short attention spans.

It occurs to me that I should probably be reading books about traveling in Italy right now since I'm dreaming of visiting the mosaics in the Vatican in 2013.
Maybe if I do this it will bring me one step closer.

I thought that I may set up a blog and take on a pretend personna and  write about my italian travels. 
This way I  would be living it and my brain would believe it and all sorts of positive things would fly towards me to make it happen. 
In particular large amounts of money. 

Creative quote of the day 
 “Italian cities have long been held up as ideals, not least by New Yorkers and Londoners enthralled by the ways their architecture gives beauty and meaning to everyday acts.”
― Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

The importance of using props creatively when public speaking in public.

I think the idea of using a suitcase  when delivering a sermon about baggage you carry around with you is a good device.
 A visual  prop is very powerful.
 You can tell people till the cows come home that it is a good idea not to hold grudges and it could easily just pass the listener goodbye.

Every time I look at suitcases I think about grudges  and travel, but I notice so far that it hasn't really shifted any deep ones that I have.
Fortunately I haven't very many.
Maybe it's a process and they will all melt away some day.
With the concept of forgiving, I think it is possible to do this but it is way harder to forget.
 People say that you shouldn't get angry about things and everything that happens to you happens for a reason and that the people that urk you the most, have something to teach you.

I am still in two minds about this.
This year and next year I have a few things to focus on.
These are about being honest.
I want to be around people who respect boundaries and who are well mannered and uplifting.
I want to be around people who are interested in celebrating my successes with me because I'm planning to have a lot of them.
 I am interested in celebrating their successes.
I am interested in them telling me about their successes and I am happy to oblige as well.
 This is not boasting.
If you let your light shine, you give others permission to shine. Flying free is the key.


A friend of mine said to me that she thinks most people in New Zealand aren't really happy to hear the good news that others are having.
I replied that I thought they were and that I wasn't really interested in socialising with anyone who wasn't.

 I'd rather be honest with people.
If I don't like certain attitudes I don't want to go around being false about it.
I will not be confrontational, I will move away, refuse to buy into it.
Think lets live and let live but above all I'm sticking to my guns.
 I see little point in waiting around to be annoyed.
 I can't afford to be in this state if I want lots of good things to happen to me in the coming year.


If it's a paying client it could possibly be different but luckily for me all my clients are really fantastic. I always attract fantastically talented people to my studio. 
It is a haven for creativity and joy. 
It is set is a gorgeous garden humming with life and love.

If anyone pays me to teach them, buys an art piece or a mosaic or commissions me to make something, they are already on my wavelength.They are in the sun wioth me. 
I always appreicate my clients and never take them for granted. 


So that's it. 
I want to sow nice healthy seeds and reap lovely, strong, happy plants in 2013.

Cheers Janet
Creative quote of the day

 Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds.
Norman Vincent Peale

Poetry, I'm having a break from gardening posts, but not for long so be warned.

About a Cockroach

 

A cockroach is climbing up the wall

into the kitchen after a night of thunder.

You call me in to see and I explain

that it would be sad to leave it there:

it might fall into the soup;

We must take care

that no-one eats it.

You pick it up in a handi towel

and carry it outside,

to hide it in the wood pile.

 

I see then that a kind of faith prevails:

your gentleness is moulded still by words

from me,

who has squashed small ants,

lied to your teacher and snapped at your  

mother

That is how things are,

I am your father

 and we are kind to cockroaches.  

 

By Janet Keen

 

 

 An adaptation of  another nz poet's famous poem.

Ladies from Tirau Garden Circle come for a garden tour and mosaic demonstration.

I don't have vast numbers of people trecking through my garden for tours.
 It is more like a gentle trickle.

It is enough to keep  me on my toes as far as the weeding and planting goes.
The admission I charge doesn't really cover the amount I pay out to the  person I employ  to help with the weeding on an adhoic basis.
But I figure it's worth it to have everything looking like it's  cooking with gas.

Weeds are so rampant it's really hard to keep on top of them all at this time of the year.


Here are some pictures of the group.
There were supposed to be twenty of them but only twelve came in the end because some of them had to go to a funeral.

They were nice ladies.
Mostly from the Waikato and from what I could tell and lot of them had  gardens of their own. 
 
They enjoyed the mosaic talk and asked lots of questions plus looked at my large collection of mosaic books.

It was fun. They all left smiling.
 I love public speaking to groups about organic gardening and mosaic making.


 

Gardening in Rotorua. This is supposed to represent a post every day on this blog in support of national Novel writing Month.

 My garden could be described as a rustic bird haven or sanctuary. 

 It's not perfect, there are weeds in the lawns. 
 There are gaps where there shouldn't be. 
 I don't plant in drifts of one type.
 I  have things poking in and out all over the show. 
If something pops up and it's not colour co-ordinated I don't worry too much. 
I honour its decision to be there.  

Every election I always ring up the Green Party and ask them to put a poster on the front of my fence. 
 I love their posters and I have voted green for the past nine years. 

To a perfectionist OCD (obsessive compulsive) person my garden is probably close to one of their worst nightmares. 

It's  verging on being out of control and a bit chaotic. 
And I love it that way. 


I have a live and let live approach to life.
Spiders and earwigs are welcome.  
Even aphids have their place because they provide food for ladybirds and praying mantises. 
 I love both of these insects. 

 
I found an enormous snail the other day on a hydranger and instead of squashing it, I let it live.
I have a lot of thrush and black bird visitors to my garden and they like to eat these.
 I know because I often hear them dropping the snail shells on top of my roof  in order to try to smash them. 


  
  I even feed the sparrows who come into the garden with bread.
 I buy native birdseed for the waxeyes, chaffinches, miners and starlings. 
I buy fat for the waxeyes and I hang it in onion bags for them to get to easily. 
I have lots of fantails around and there are plenty of bugs for them to feed off. 

Two fat wood pigeons always come to visit around this time to eat shoots from the willow treees that border the steam that runs at the edge of the property from the natural spring next door. 

  Tui and bellbirds  are always singing away.
They like hanging out in the sequoia that is at the bottom of my garden.

 Every year the Shiney Cuckoo's comes around to lay their  eggs in the Grey Warblers' nests. 
The Gery Warblers always arrive first. 
 They migrate away to other countries and always return to the same place at the same time each year. 
 It's a symbioic relationship. 

I hear the Kokarko call of the cock quail.
 There is a family of them that live nearby.
I saw one on top of my willow tree last year.  
It is my dream to have a family nest in the secret, sunken native garden. 

Ducks come down to the stream to nest with their quacking  and there are around five roosters nearby. The roosters are over the top but I'm not all that willing to ring the council over them and have them beheaded because I don't want any bird deaths on my conscience.
They can't help it that they have loud cock-a-doodle-doos that wake me up at 6 oclock in the morning.

Moreporks fly over from the native bush reserve across the road and land on top of the Sequoia and they sound like they are inside the house some nights.  I have dreams of taming one of these but I don't really think this is going to happen so I have to satisfyl myself with drawing pictures of this happening.
 

The whole place teams with the calls of birdsong. 
 At times it seems a bit deafening so I meditate  every morning and night so that I can remain calm and focused. 
 
 The only two birds who are not welcome are Kingfishers because they try to catch my goldfish.
 Herons are not welcome either because they have been known to clean out entire fishponds in one fowl scoop.  

Luckily my cat is on patrol.
 He doesn't catch native birds. His speciality is rats and that's another story that I won't go into here. 


Creative Quotes of the day

I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven. 

Emily Dickinson

  God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.

Jacques Deval,

 

More Flowers in my Organic Mosaic Cottage Garden

Angelica Flower

Don't know the name

Dont know the name

 Gaillardia

                                  Sedum

Roadside Daisy

Japanese Maple

Ponga frond

Water buttercup
( This is a plant in my fish pond)

                                  Lambs Ears

                                  Mallow

                                  
                    Penstemon

                               
                    Wisteria


Garden Dairy
Every year I have noticed that the harsh, frosty winters in Rotorua claim some of my plants and this means that I am always needing to propogate more from cuttings to replace them.
There is always work in a garden, it doesn't just look after itself year after year, even though I plant quite heavily.
There is a battle between plants and weeds.
If left, weeds would win.
I wonder why this is.
 The buttercup on this proerty is rampant and the convulvulous is ever creeping.
I am keeping a small area in relative weedy wilderness because it is a haven for bugs and lizards.

There are so many more honey bees now coming into the garden.
Sometimes the buzzing  is almost  deafening.
Three years ago I had hardly any honey bees and lots of bumble bees.
I love bumble bees and always welcome them when they bumble into my studio.
 Bumble bees are cute looking plus they are optimists.
Apparently because of their wing to body ratio they shouldn't be able to fly.
But they do.
What a  miracle.

A person has moved a group of hives into a paddock about three kilometers away from me on Paradice Valley Road.
 I am sure the bees are all coming from there.
I like to think that I am adding to the honey mans supply.

One year I had the priviledge of having a nest of bumblebees in my front garden.
Little baby bees were everywhere. 
It was cute.

Last year a nest of wasps took up residence in the bank leading down to the secret, sunken garden.
We had to poison it.
 I don't usually like to have poison of any type on the property because it is totally organic.
I often wonder though if a bee goes to an inorganic garden and leaves some pollen on one of my organic flowers does it strictly mean that my garden is organic?.
 You can't control where insects go, can you?


Creative quote of the day
Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces.
 Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.
Ashley Smith


My garden is available during the spring and summer for school groups, community groups, garden groups and groups of people wanting to see the mosaics and artwork.
An admission charge is applicable.
Contact me on jkeen@clear.net.nz or phone me at 07 3463435 to arrange a suitable time.


All photographs and images on this blog are for sale.

Email me at jkeen@clear.net.nz with your enquiry.

All photographs are copyrighted by Janet Keen and may not be used for any purpose without written permission