All manner of good things.

Good things arrive by post. It’s true. They really do. Little could make me happier than seeing a parcel with stamps affixed. Parcels, boxes, envelopes and lumpy packages from dear ones I have met through blogging, it never fails to make me smile. Seems only fitting to share the spoils with you as we sit on the green lawn of the Carlton Gardens once more. These past few weeks have been littered with postal delights wedged in alongside bills and pizzeria restaurant flyers offering specials and garlic bread entrées.

Thank you, Eshu (abstract the day), for your hauntingly beautiful pola-diptych postcards and polaroids (one for me and one for l).

Thank you, Alyssa (movingarden), for sending a handsomely coloured Horace to Louise and I (glean further on Louise’s blog). He arrived today cushioned in his white package by a bed of Spanish moss that somehow made it through Australian Customs.

Thank you, Lisa (Lisa’s Musings), for sending to Louise and I two small vessels and two small moleskine notebooks reworked with your brilliant flair.

Thank you, Fliss (udder), for a sizable handful of postcards and a delightful handmade brooch (currently adorning my bag).

Thank you, Frips, for those Beste Wensen voor 2008 postcard wishes. And thank you, Vanessa, for your zine, I am a camera, and other paper ephemera.

Tomorrow I plan upon making a trip to the Post Office to send a few parcels of my own out into the world … a small thank-you for all I have received, a snail mail hello to keep it all circulating and bubbling. Check your letterbox… soon.

In addition, I have been tagged by Danica and Fliss… two different and enjoyable tags.

Here it is, friends, the contents of my bag (today).

What you cannot see in this photo is a scrap of paper used for jotting down random thoughts and lists (now that I have a notebook from Lisa you know just what will be jostling alongside these objects used daily), my keys, several sprigs of sage in flower plucked from the Heide kitchen garden (now in a small bud vase on the windowsill) and a recently used two-for-one movie flyer for 2 Days in Paris. Absent, also, my 2008 diary… it sits by the computer and begs me to use it, but still I refuse.

And, how does my garden grow, Fliss? In short, not like this.

Taken this morning at Heide. Post exploring the exhibitions I can always be found running my hands over the herbs in the nearby kitchen garden. A few neat rows of green tomatoes, corn growing wild and tall, roses long since bloomed alongside herbs I don’t know the names of. This is how I wish my garden grew… a source of nourishment growing wild and tamed just a little, just enough so as to yield a personal harvest.

My garden grows thanks to a great deal of grey water. It grows haywire and it is full of spearmint, common mint, chives, succulents in all shapes and all sizes, calla lilies and violets, and all overseen by a rangy white-flowering hibiscus, a crimson-flowering bottlebrush and an olive tree that is stripped nightly by ringtail possums and daily by birds. It is home to many neighbourhood cats, blackbirds, doves and pigeons, fast hopping sparrows and darting silvereyes, ringtail and brushtail possums, insect life, and sometimes, just sometimes, it is also a shady and ideal spot for Louise and I to loaf and loll about. Elbow room may be scarce, but it is all our very own.

{Want to play along? Please, reveal the contents of your bag and how your garden grows… I’m all aquiver with excitement to see. One or the other or both, it’s up to you.}

Comments

[louise]

I wish our garden was a little more like the one at Heide too. Maybe then even more silvereyes would visit, and a tiger snake or two as well. I've taken you up on the play along challenge, though I went with a pen and ink approach. xo lj

[jac]

All the things in your bag seem to complement so well... and the little striped stuffed is covetable!

[shari]

lots of treats have made their way to you. i have another lot to send your way. thanks for the peek inside your bag. so fun to see what's hiding away in there. xox

[risa]

i love the brooches on your bag! where is the squirrel one from?
i'll try and photo the contents of my bag tonight. but i don't think it will be nearly as exciting as yours!

[wendy]

I think my favorite things are that little brooch from udder & the sort of sad squirrel.
what a fun game to play.

[liz]

so glad they arrived safe and sound! xo

[karin]

You're so right. The best things arrive by post. Ordered a lot of delightful things too recently and it's always a pleasure to get these handmade goodies.

[comfies]

oh yay! it's catching on! your bag and garden are, unexpectedly, full of WONDERFUL sorts of things. that bear pendant! fliss's brooch! love it! xod.

[lisa s]

everything in your bad is so cute!!!

so glad you like your goodies

[sam]

Such cuteness! I love your glasses.

[cruststation]

So lovely to be visiting your blog and be splashed with rays of sunshine. Like somehow, I've been transported into a summer far away :) loving the contents of your bag (how cute are the brooches?) Super wonderful goodies in the post - happy days to you!

[julie]

Lovely presents from all over...
(i am also putting together some blog goodies)
And what a garden..our balcony comprises of one small bourgenvilla tree and a few herbs which are not enjoing the weather of late. I think some green love is in order xx

[fliss]

So happy you like your little brooch, it looks great on your bag!
Thanks for playing along with my question, your garden sounds like a little wilderness paradise, and your green photos are lovely.Wow!, how our climates are so different right now, you are more than welcome to take some of this rain from us at the moment.
I think i might empty my bag, it needs a sort out!!!

[amisha]

loved this peek into your bag... so many wonderful and surprising things!
right now my garden grows not at all, but in florida e tends flowers and the last of the herbs that survived the latest freeze. hurry up spring...
xo

[gracia]

The pen and ink approach, such a wonderful idea, lj.

He sure is, isn't he, Jac? That little striped fellow was handmade by Fliss, whose talents with a needle and thread I greatly admire. Her creations are marvellous, aren't they?

Yep, lots of treats keep landing in our letterbox or somewhere near to, Shari, and lj and I couldn't be happier. Hearing the postie's motorbike pause by our front door has to be a favourite frequent sound.

Ah, Risa, that fetching squirrel is from somewhere closer to where you live than I. He is from little paper planes. Laser cut from birch veneer plywood and painted with acrylic paint, there are still a few of these wooden animal pins by Emily Rae available... a brown deer and a blue goat. Here's the link for you: http://littlepaperplanes.com/citem.php?id=759

Yeah, he does look somewhat forlorn, doesn't he, Wendy? It was a hard choice, deciding between this white squirrel and a red goat but I am happy I went with the squirrel in the end and I wear him either on my bag or close to my heart.

Thanks again, Liz, for sending such a generous haul our way. It was very kind and very generous of you.

Postal goods arriving, what could be better when working largely from home? I hope some wonderful snail mail and your handmade goodies arrive at your door very soon.

Thanks for tagging me, Danica. I loved playing along with this one. Oh, and I found that bear pendent in Maryborough recently... he is wonderful, isn't he? On one side he smiles and on the reverse, he frowns. I wear the frown facing in or out according to mood.

Thanks again, Lisa, for all the beauty you sent by post. Louise and I still have grand January plans to get your artwork framed before the month is out. Much excitement!

Thanks, Sam. You know I really ought to wear my glasses more often but they slide off my nose whenever I bend or lean over. I always get quite a shock when I put them on and see the world in sharp focus.

Happy days to you too, Crust Station. More than happy to share a little warmth with you, and I hope to swing by your blog sometime soon... I'm dreadfully behind.

Ah, Julie, I have always, always longed for a flowering bourgonvilla in my garden. They are such a crazy riot of full-on colour that I can't resist them. I just don't know if I have the room to squeeze one in... hmm, maybe I do? Yes, there's always room.

Hi there Fliss. How I enjoyed playing along with both your tag and the request to see the contents of my bag; your handsome pin proved the perfect link between the two. You'll be pleased to hear that your brooch receives many compliments... a little too many for the neighbouring squirrels liking. Happy digging in the soil and stitching in the house.

Herbs surviving the latest freeze... ah, Amisha, your garden is and sounds so far away. Thanks for the herb reminder... my cuttings on the windowsill need a-watering.

take care, g
xo

[Beth]

My garden is far more interesting than my bag! My partner and I live in a bungalow in my parents backyard, and they've given us free reign to do _whatever_ we want with it. We're trying to get more natives planted. Recently we ripped out all of the African violets and also an African trumpet lily and replaced with some boronias, a few native peas, an asterolasia (star bush), chocolate lilies. Our Kangaroo paw and big prickly moses bush have been absolutely thriving. We've had so many more native birds and insects in our garden now too, it's great to see. Our front yard has a massive beautiful camphor tree. My mum loves her roses, and we've found that, much like a lemon tree, these roses thrive on being peed on - and it saves water (who'd have thought?). I'm propagating lots aloe vera at the moment, and our herb/veggie patch is giving us plenty of joy. All watered with rain or gray water. If you ever want more native plants and are in the Dandenong Ranges, go to Kuranga nursery (http://www.kuranga.com.au/). There's a fantastic cafe there too.

[bugheart]

you have
the most
interesting
things in
your bag!
xo