Utako and I spent much of spring cutting, pruning, dead heading roses, mowing & weeding. After such a wet spring there is always something to do. The rose farm is endlessly beautiful, but at the same time there is a never ending amount of work to be done. Thats just how it is living on a farm though. Some months ago we had a visit from a wonderful friend of ours Fuyuko, she is a florist back in Melbourne. The girls dreamt up the idea of organising a christmas wreath making work shop. Utako worked on the advertising and the structure of the workshop, I did my best to keep the grass from growing to fast while fuyuko enlisted the help of another florist friend chiaki and they planed how best to teach our guests to create their own beautiful christmas wreaths. So the stage was set the weather was perfect Utako & another friend Takayo who is out helping us for 2 months this rose season had prepared locally sourced grazing platters, wine & deserts the florists had been harvesting all the leaves, branches, flowers and vines from all over the farm. Our guests arrived, we chatted for a time & then we all took a walk around the farm and collected flowers for a bonus boquet to take home. A highlight for myself, Utako and the florists was the smoke tree was in bloom. After the farm walk all the guests sat down and were shown how to make their very own christmas wreaths step by step. Thanks to the hard work of our florists and of course our amazingly capable guests everone created a really beatiful christmas wreaths to take home and enjoy this christmas season. We sat around after the workshop chatting, eating and taking some photos. All in all it was a perfect day. What I really enjoy most about having guests at the farm though is that it gives Utako & I a break from looking at the farm and trying to maintain or improve it. Instead we like our guests find ourselves much more present and simply enjoying the beauty of of our gardens and the many spring flowers.
