My favourite colour is rainbow. It’s also apparently in favour with our home at Taylors Arm, the house of many colours. That the G.O. selected the hues, and painted the walls before I ever thought of setting foot in it gives me a wonderful sense of meant to be. Indeed walking into that house for the first time felt like coming home. I wonder if other people’s homes have favourite colours?
It’s also evident in the garden, which began its existence back in the 1930’s with Ollie & Vin, tended by ensuing caretakers, evolving into hardy but colourful surrounds. At night if I can’t sleep instead of counting sheep, I wander its circuit in my mind.
A walk through the garden last weekend…
Being absentee householders & gardeners can be challenging but we’re approaching our goal and ticking off projects. Over our summer break as well as the G.O. gifting me & the house for Christmas the set of wall ducks he’d been wanting! we hung yet another retro flower picture and Sheila’s calendar on the kitchen walls, did the usual maintenance and gardening, erected awnings over the west side windows, signed the contract for the shed & carport to be built, and installed a gas stove.
We’re not looking at our house and future full-time life in the country through rose-tinted glasses, we’re fully aware of the realities of our polychromatic plans.
“Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true…” The Wizard of Oz
daleleelife101.blog 
Love, love those ducks. How is the pussy cat?
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Thank you 🙂 Soossie-Cat is fine, she spent some time with us -as you can see- and gave our neighbour a break!
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Glad to hear.
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What a fantastic array of plants in the garden. Enough to keep you busy for ages just soaking up the beauty- even the weeds. Love the ducks, Shades of the character Hilda Ogden in our longest running soap Coronation Street. Now you just need a ‘muriel’ on the wall.
I hope the goal is getting closer. It will be idyllic living there and I shall do so vicariously through you.
xxx Gigantic Hugs xxx
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The ducks suit the era of our house but we’ll do without a mural, I think! Weeds are just plants in the wrong place! I love a short evening stroll around the yard, glass of wine in hand 🙂
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There’s nothing like a garden that’s had time to settle into itself. I’m hoping I’ll get that here, because I find it hard to make something and then move on, move on, move on. Yours is lovely, and I’m suffering flower envy… I too look out of plane windows to see if I can spot my home. No luck so far, although before, we lived under the flight path to the airport! As for the walls, I’ve had bright red and green, hot pink and tropical turquoise (just not all at the same time…), so your rainbow sounds quite comfortable to me!
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Old house and old garden was always on my wish-list. I was surprised by how many flowers there were as I walked around this time. The garden does very well considering how much TLC it doesn’t get. That we’d had recent rain helped, as it was looking very dry when we were there early last December.
I once rented a house where each room was painted a different colour but shortly thereafter it was painted in a single neutral. All other of my residences have had neutral palettes, but the colours mix suits and gives the old house life.
On our return trip, we flew right above our Sydney apartment, could see the washing hanging on the balcony!
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Gosh your garden is stunning.. what a gift – such beauty.. it is snowing here this morning.. everything white as white.. so your colourful tour was wonderful.. c
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Thank you 🙂 What we inherited has stood the test of time, we’ve had a some successes adding to it, and some failures… a dozen pink kangaroo paws that were a good idea at the time! One of the great aspects of blogging is the ability to escape, momentarily at least, to the other side of the world.
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It’s a beautiful place. The sunset photo is stunning. And it’s nice to see flowers, leaves and the promise of a green world–while we’re in the grip of winter.
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I love that worldwide we all see beautiful sunsets (and sunrises). That one was reflected light in the east, over the coast.
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Stunning! Colors and layout, and the love that went into this post…well all your posts, really. You have a way with making lovely things gorgeous and factual things like a fireside chat. It’s just my spotty visits that have me coming from the monochrome, so this is a bright respite : )
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Thank you 🙂 I enjoyed the garden and the photos myself, particularly because we’d had such dry weather it was looking a bit sad up until Christmas. Each visit, the first thing I do is check out the garden!
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What a luscious and beautiful garden you created. It must get a lot of water, something we don’t have here in California.
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Thank you 🙂 I can’t take much credit, I’ve added a few things but much of it was already there. The garden is reliant on water from the sky! The area is sub-tropical hinterland but with dry spells. Occasionally if we plant or move something we may give it water for a few days but as we rely on rainwater tanks for the house, and we’re not there for months at a time, it is necessarily self-sufficient. We were fortunate to get rain around Christmas which gave the garden a much needed boost.
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I loved walking through your garden with you, seeing the little plants that peek out as well as the big show offs. Easy to see why you love the place so much and long to be there permanently.
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I too delight in the small hidden gems 🙂 The layers of gardens fascinate me: big, small, colourful, fragrant, edible, weeds, cultivated, wild, compact… all there for the looking.
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I absolutely love that your favourite colour is rainbow. Mine too! I still can’t quite figure out where your house is. Whatever, you have a beautiful garden!
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Thank you. The December-January rain helped the garden considerably. We’ll catch up one day! I never could choose a single favourite colour…
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Thank you for taking us on a walk through your garden. Very nice and peaceful.
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I enjoy my virtual walks around your neighborhood of many stories… global travel made possible via the blog world 🙂
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Ha. So true.
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What a gorgeous looking garden, EllaDee. I’m very envious. We just had seven trees felled – our garden looks like the Somme at the moment.
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Thank you 🙂 I hate it on the occasion we have to take something out or do extensive pruning. My preference is abundant & untidy, and the summer garden.
Great description of the current state of your garden… I can imagine.
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Looks like one happy garden. (My dracaena never blooms! Must have a little consoling chat with it. Surprised we have so many flowers in common.) And the view east just begs you to wander. This is over the rainbow wonderful
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What a lovely description 🙂 It is indeed a happy garden, especially if it’s had some water and a little tending.
I have never seen a flower spike on that or any other dracaena… a quirk of the season perhaps.
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Am woefully slow in reading blog posts this week. There is ‘our’ Cherry Ripe!!! Your garden is beautiful and shows the love with which it is regarded. After reading your various posts of time spent there I can see why you and the GO are looking forward to living there… over the rainbow. 🙂
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Same for me, there seems to be a time & energy lag effect…
‘Our Cherry Ripe’ perhaps gave me the most gratification after the rain. I had cut it back in winter at the request of the wife of the neighbor who mows our lawn, so he doesn’t have to duck (they are kind and generous people… but anyway) and because we’d had little pre-December rain it didn’t revive, looked terrible.
Thank you. It’s nice to know the garden is waiting for us, we get a lot of pleasure from it 🙂
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You may be interested to know that I have to cut back our Cherry Ripe at the end of every winter for it to regenerate with abundance. Tried leaving it one year and it was pitiful. It sounds like yours depends on rain, which might make some difference too. Ours has to be on a dripper as we get so little rain… present summer excepted!! Thanks Dale!
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Thank you 🙂 Ours was neglected for a few years before I came to TA, but I’ve trimmed annually it since… I agree. It just annoys me to have to do it on demand… difficult woman that I am!
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Loved wandering through your garden, what an amazing selection of lush vegetation and flowers. Perfect. Oxalis does get its little toes dug in though …
Your house looks equally lovely too. Warm, inviting, friendly and personal.
Whay a beautiful spot to live in.
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Thank you 🙂 I love virtually basking in the Spanish or Gib sun on your terraces, checking out what you’ve got growing in pots as future inspiration for my own, and the peeks inside your home. It’s not such a big world 🙂
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