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Ailsa's Cross Stitch Designs in counted cross stitch from a Tasmanian country garden. |
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 Sweet violets self-sow profusely in our garden and we always look forward to seeing them in early spring. They love shady, moist and cool conditions and make a superb ground cover. The usual cultivar in Australia is called Queen Charlotte and the delicately scented flowers are held on long stalks. In Europe violets were the traditional gift of lovers on St. Valentine's Day. Shakespeare wrote in King John: To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. More information from the Violet Society at.... www.sweetviolets.com |
 I felt it was time to celebrate the Australian Eucalypt by creating a design showing the rich warm colours of its bark, the cool green hues of its leaves and the charm of its gum nuts. The Eucalypt tree is also know as the Blue Gum and Ironbark. It's widely cultivated for the medicinal oil in their leaves (eucalyptus oil), timber, flowers (for honey) and their beauty. There are many types of Eucalypt trees growing in Australia and some were introduced to the west coast of the USA in the late 19th. century. We have twelve acres of bush on our property along with eight acres of pasture. We've decided to leave this natural bush as it is and smile when people ask what are you going to do with it?. To some it may seem a waste not cultivate this land in some way but not to us. We are happy to leave it as a sanctuary for the native wildlife to provide them with a safe and natural home. Too much of our bush is cleared for commercial purposes and we enjoy regular walks in our woodlot to revel in it's peace and beauty. There are 44 colours in this design which helps to create a two dimensional effect with the bark in the background, leaves in the middle ground and gum nuts in the foreground. |
 Forget-me-Nots These delightful little flowers self-sow readily in our garden. Their clear blue flower and occasional mauve/pink ones are so cheerful and dainty. We are lucky in that they bloom for most of the year in our garden and we are encouraging drifts of them to grow in our garden beds. They have long been associated with love, constancy and rememberance. Coleridge includes them among the flowers listed in The Keepsake: .......Nor can I find, amid my lonely walk By rivulet, or spring, or wet road-side, That blue and bright-eyed floweret of the brook, Hope gentle gem, the sweet Forget-me-not! |
 English Daisies We grow these delightful little flowers as a border in our rose garden. They are extremely hardy in dry conditions and bloom for most of the year. The ruby flower is especially extraordinary due to the intensity of its colour but I love all their colour combinations. Chaucer loved them too and wrote in Legend of Good Women: Of all the flowers in the meade, Then love I most those floures white and redde, Such that men call daisies in our town; To them I have so great affection, As I said erst, when comen is the May, That in my bed there dawneth me no day That I n'am up and walking in the mede To see this flow'r against the sunne spread, When it upriseth early by the morrow; That blissful sight softeneth all my sorrow. |
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