THE GARDEN RULES!

The garden sits on top of my list of favourite places which is no surprise.  Coming in close is the kitchen which is a BIG surprise.  It relegates the bedroom to third position.

I am no Domestic Goddess but something about the kitchen just excites me these days for a simple reason that food yes food comes from there. 

Collecting seeds

I have enough seeds to start a farm and be a farmer but I am still collecting and saving seeds.  I feel guilty throwing away seeds even if they're from an orange which I know is unlikely to grow here.  However just saving the seeds and throwing them in the ground even if they don't germinate makes me happy.  I should say it's becoming a hobby or habit (depending on how you see it!) saving seeds and nothing makes me happier than sending someone seeds from my "seeds bank."  I feel like a million bucks if I learn that the seeds I sent germinated and grew successfully.  However don't pressurize yourself if they don't.  Didn't I say I have enough seeds to start a farm?  Seeds anyone?... just give me a buzz :)) 

Pickling & freezing garden produce 

As we're in a temperate region with no such luck of having seasonal changes in weather (spring, summer, fall, winter) apart from rainy season, we're just able to grow the same crops that suit our climate throughout the year.  You won't hear of such thing as picking summer produce to save for fall / winter.  However when you end up with many of a certain produce and can't eat them at one go, pickling & even freezing them are such wonderful ideas.  Seriously I'm more interested in seeing pretty bottles of floating pickles lining the kitchen countertop than eating them but they sure make wonderful gifts.  

Flowers for tea 

If you are a flower, beware.  There's a flower monster lurking something out there.  I take my flowers seriously; feeling, caressing and smelling them.  While I never imagine myself chomping on a bunch of flowers there's nothing I love more than sipping tea from flowers gathered in the garden.   

Concocting (new) recipes 

I never imagine myself making tempura from squash flowers but I did.  Have you tried omelette with squash flowers and cheese or even blue pea flowers tempura?  Enough said.  I am hungry.  Time I head to the kitchen.

Gardening is therapeutic  

Not too long ago, someone commented that my palms felt like sandpaper.  I never deny that.  Neither was I offended.  This just cemented the fact that I've been spending a lot of time in the garden. There's something nice about feeling the warm earth.  What? Gloves? 

From garden to kitchen it's all in a day's work.  Ok now time I seek comfort of the bedroom for some well deserved shut eye.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS...

It's funny that I used to love shopping for things like clothes, girly stuff (bags, shoes, etc) magazines and snacks.  Apart from buying them in the malls, I love going to the supermarkets and the first place I hit is usually the fruits and veggies aisles.

Well, I still shop and buy stuff but less bodycon dresses; instead outfits that take me easily into the garden.  I still can't resist a good bag if they're the size of a luggage that I could throw stuff that I need for the garden.  Gone are those gossipy mags.  In place are those filled with plants, flowers, fruits and veggies.  Sustainable living interests me.  Flipping through seed catalogues brings smile on my face.  What Hollywood tales?  

Everybody loves a good snack.  I still love my cookies, chips and chocolates.  I still head towards the fruits and veggies aisles when I am in the supermarkets.  Some things just don't change but some things do. 

These days I would rather visit the garden centre to buy a plant, a pot or a garden tool.  Shopping in malls is no longer a prime necessity.

See what makes me happy!

Loading up on plants even when I am thousands of miles away from home!

AULD LANG SYNE

In a few hours' time, 2014 will just be memories as we embark on another brand new year.     

There's never such a thing as a perfect life.  For every trials and tribulations there are also equal ups and downs.  The past 364 days have been the same for me.  There were laughter as well as tears; as much happiness I had, there were also sorrows but the best moment has got to be discovering my love for gardening and being here in @MSG.

It was the best decision I have made.  From just sitting lazily on the porch looking at passers-by; watching the boats come and go;  yawning ever so often as the sea breeze caress my skin and make a mess out of my hair to busy days getting dirt under the nails to a thousand and one things I do around the garden.

I don't recall inviting the bugs to help themselves to my first bittergourd

"Do a clean job" and he did.  On his way to finish the last of the curry leaves

My would-have-been french fries were gone in the rain

It has been a beautiful challenge and I've enjoyed every moment with doses of some disappointment sandwiched in between when bugs beat me to my first bittergourd or seedlings get drown in the rain because I was never there all the time to molly coddle them.  However disappointments never last long for there were always something to smile about like when I stepped into the garden and the perfume from the flowers literally blew me way!

Take time to smell the roses... something I do frequently

Flowers are really a girl's best friend!

There is no tinge of regret just excitement and great anticipation for a fun and fulling year ahead in MSG.

 

Have a fabulous New Year everyone!  Stay safe and be blessed and keep gardening.

For the umpteenth time, I give thanks to Mother Nature for she's simply amazing! 

WHERE ONIONS AND SHALLOTS ARE THE SAME

 

The thing about being on an island with a small population is the closed camaraderie.

I heard a voice and parted the laundry on the clothes line to see someone standing near the garden fence.

“Do you have an onion to spare?”

“Wait… let me see” as I left the other basket of unhung laundry and skipped into the kitchen.

So I didn’t have an onion but he was happy to leave with 2 shallots instead.

MEET OUR FRIENDS

Being in the country side / garden is the best introduction to nature that anyone can get especially for city dwellers who are confined to the walls around them. 

Friends are never lacking in the garden; here they come and go.

 

Taking a break from the heat

Feeling on top of the world

Home is a flower pot

  

Keeping my balance is easy when they happen to be my favourite food

Lots more of other creatures / insects that probably cannot be counted even with your fingers and toes. 

The insects can be such a pest gnawing on their favourite leaves or flowers but they too need to eat in order to survive.  As long as the destruction is minimal I learn to shut an eye and be forgiving.   

SHARING A PINCH OF JOY!

Here's a little story...

These are not paintings but a series of real flower shots which are very special to me.  

I was given this cluster of a rare stunning orange bloom (was told there's only one tree on this island) recently by an islander in the compound of a temple.  I just had to take some shots there and then!  There was a red table nearby and as much as I love colours.... well, red and orange don't seem like the best combination.  So I found myself emptying my nylon bag and using that as a backdrop for these shots, much to the amusement of the islander who must have thought I was a little craycray.  Let's pretend you didn't see the creases in the background ;)

The beautiful shade  of orange flowers speckled with those black seeds were so mesmerizing.  I was so fascinated by them and completely blown!  

I like to think that these are my lucky charm because today I received an email to advise that this print has been included in the Society6 Shop (http://society6.com/products/STUNNING-ORANGE-BLOOMS_Print where these pictures will be reproduced as art or framed art prints and also printed onto other merchandises.  

Just in case you're wondering what's on Society6 Shop... 

"The artwork on Society6 is created by hundreds of thousands of artists from around the world."

When you buy a product from Society6, we produce it using only the highest quality materials, and ship it to you on behalf of the artist.
  

Gosh! So am I an artist?  No because I can't draw.  Many years ago during a charade game (I've given up playing them, they only embarrass me...), I picked up a card with the word goldfish on it but you just imagine how I drew the fish because my team mates screamed in unison "guppy!... guppy!" to my horror.  If given a choice by the nice people behind Society6, I would consider myself more of a photographer because what I basically do is upload photos I take onto various products. (No, I don't use photoshop.  You get what you see) However what I like about this is although my products are available in my shop on Society6, in reality I do not own a brick and mortar shop where rental can be so exorbitant.  Apart from uploading photos and promoting my products which I am lagging far far behind, there is nothing else that I have to do as everything else is taken care off by Society6 (just in case anyone else out there wants to be an artist too).  Basically I get 10% of the sale price off all merchandise (except for art prints) which barely is enough for me to buy a packet of seeds but hey I am enjoying what I do ie. taking pretty pictures and that is what matters most.

Coming back to where I stopped, so after some detective work, I found out the common and botanical name for these flowers.  They're the flowers from the Black Pearl Tree, also known as Majidea Zanguebarica.  What a pretty mouthful!

SHHHH.... I HAVE A SECRET GARDEN!

Coming from a land-scarce city where it is common to be surrounded by tall skyscrapers, being able to spend time in MSG and potter around is truly a blessing.  

Home is actually an apartment on the highest level where the balcony because of its awkward shell shaped window does not offer much benefit to any plants, so it has been turned into a cosy corner which is actually one of my favourite space.  Flowering plants are housed in a row or rather two rows outside the corridor overlooking the main entrance but limited to the "most cherished, most important" ones.  Hence tomato or chillie plants should give up the idea of ever getting a space here.

I count myself lucky to have this opportunity to have a little secret garden that I fondly call MSG for short although I'm not too fond of people using monosodium glutamate in their cooking. 

MSG overlooks the sea and is right in the heart of this charming island where you can watch every arriving or departing boat.  The island is home to less than 50 people as most of the population have moved out to stay in the city due to family or work commitments.

However it's not all quiet.  On weekends hundreds and sometimes thousands of people throng the island for picnic, cycling or even fishing.  There is even a resort that lets out rooms and it is also home to many bike rentals shops; seafood restaurants and grocery stores.  

I would love to be at MSG, all day long every day but commitment in the city does not give me the privileges.  So on days that I am in MSG, I maximize my time there.  In order to take advantage of every single minute that I am there, I even take to preparing a "things to do" list before my every visit.   

Like a working parent, sometimes you miss your child's milestone like his / her first crawl, first steps, etc.   I am no exception.  Sometimes I missed out on the first bloom of a flowering plant or I get there just to witness the caterpillar about to finish off the last leaf of a presumably tasty plant, no kidding!

I gladly accept with much gratitude when people say I am lucky to have a garden to grow stuff because I truly am lucky for this great opportunity.

 

IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN...

I can't be more grateful for this opportunity ie. a place which is a stone throw from the jetty that overlooks the sea and beyond.  Did I mention there's a reasonably sized garden too and I'm a huge fan of gardening?

Would you not like a garden with a view like this?

You can say I fell head over heels in love the first time I saw it and my knees went weak with excitement.  Being a city girl and totally deprived of a proper garden, here was an opportunity that literally swam right before my very eyes! It was just too good to be true but YES... I now have my own little garden!

Even flowers love seaview

Not sure how long this place will remain but as long as it's still standing here I will live my dream of turning it into a fairy garden on borrowed land and borrowed time.

Butterfly loves it here too

LIFE IS A JOURNEY

At some point in our lives we come to a crossroad.  That's when we take a step back and ask ourselves what we really want.

For me, what I really want is a place where I can just be myself.  I yearn for a simple life away from the hustle and bustle of the city, bright lights and congested lifestyle.  

The irony is that for most part of my life I've always been a city girl; growing up, living and working in the concrete jungle.

I have never imagined in my wildest dream the one day that I boarded a wooden boat was the day my adventure was destined to start.  The ride was just a little less than 10 minutes but it was enough to leave a lasting impression on me.  

On some days when the waves are a little unhappy, water splashes over you and you may even taste a tinge of saltiness on your lips.  At the same time, the wind creates havoc and whips your hair to a dishevel mess.  However.... that is the beauty of it all!

I have found my calling on this little island and it is here that my heart belongs to although home is still in the city.

Every trip is an adventure in itself whilst every adventure begins with a journey.  When the boat comes to a standstill, that's where the magic literally begins for me.

This is just the beginning.  Welcome to My Secret Garden, a home away from home on an island... 

Where I can just be myself... working in the garden with painted nails, streaks in my hair, perspiration dripping on my brows, holes in my pants and no one bats an eyelid.  Where dogs roam freely and birds chirp happily.  Where there are more bicycles than cars and flowers grow abundantly in the wild.  Where islanders bother to stop for a little chat and I am accepted as one.  This is the kind of life that I want in place of those bright billboards and neon coloured lights where people are simply too busy to even say a little "hi."  

MY SECRET GARDEN @ MSP

I've started a few blogs (3 to be exact) in the past but they never lived beyond their maturity.

I love writing (if you include all the junk that I write) and I used to fantasize being on the bestsellers' list (don't laugh please and don't ever ask if I still harbour that hope) and selling a million copies of a book.  It's probably hard for me to decide what genre of a book as I have a stack of incomplete writing (manuscripts sound too professional) and an equal stack of "already lost interest" work idling somewhere.  

Right now nothing can take away my love for nature and gardening.  Inspite of my painted nails and stilettoes that I love to supplement my height or rather lack of height, I am perfectly okay with dirt under my nails or soot on my forehead from a quick wipe of perspiration from my smudged palms. 

I would give anything to make a living out of gardening / growing produce but unfortunately land is scarce where I am.  There will never be a chance of me relying on whatever little that I plant, grow and harvest to pay the bills unless by some miracle I find truffles growing overnight in the grounds.  I still have to shop at supermarkets for fruits and veggies but I am trying to minimise that as much as I can by growing a mix of every little thing even if on some days I get to harvest only 2 tomatoes or a handful of chillies.  Well, there's always chips to go with that salsa! 

So with all determination, I am giving it another shot of keeping a blog again and this time being a "garden blogger."  I love exchanging ideas and definitely happy to share snippets of my fun, funny and often silly encounters whilst out here.

If you expect advices or tutorials, sorry to disappoint as I'm no gardening guru.  However I sure love to share my little adventures with you here in my lil' Secret Garden.  Come join me....!

Happy gardening with much love,

Annie @ MSG