Delightful signs of summer...

Two delightful signs of summer - the Wisteria racemes (is that the term?) are in transition. Top flowers are drying and dying, with just the bottom four or five buds left to open.

And the first barbecue of the season - that's later this evening, to be eaten on the outdoor dining table by the pond. Yum!

And I've forgotten a third summer sign - the most obvious. Goodbye to the Wisteria, hello to all the roses.

 My namesake rose.
Mary Rose

Sunday 6th November

Yippee! It's a crisp morning, to be followed by a warm day, with no wind. This is early-summer magic, and I love my garden in this kind and caring weather-mood. Nothing looks too dry, but I'm still putting the hoses on. I'm really trying to give all the recently planted roses a decent start to their first flowering season. Many are recycled and I don't know their names or colours. Any that my hoses can't reach get buckets of water. Aren't I good? And how exciting, to watch the buds and wonder what will unfurl.

No Lists Allowed

Then I just might (possibly, if I should feel like it) start planting out the annuals in spaces left vacant by forget-me-nots. House garden borders only, though, for now. Please note passive tense and cardinality of items inherent in this sentence. It is not a list of things to do (lists having been banned from this journal until further notice).

 What on earth are they staring at?
Ginger Cats

Much, Much Later...

It's such a nice day that I went apres-gardening a bit early (about 2:30pm), so I could sit in the garden and read. I did lots of good gardening work, though, with my two ginger boy-cats for company.

Planting, Potting, Watering...

I've planted pink daisies and some Korean Angelica by the house, weeded, dug out large chunks of that silly Alkanet forget-me-not, and potted up Cosmos seedlings which had self-sown in the middle of the paving path. I've been watering two specific areas - underneath the Camellias in the Wattle Woods, and in the house borders.

 A huge rugosa rose.
Agnes Rose

Then I tidied the small garden by Car Bridge. The Forget-me-nots were totally spent, and the Pittosporums needed buckets of water. The mass plantings of Agapanthus are fine - they have no problem with this area at all (permanently dry, with pine trees overhead).

 Cistus.
PInk Rock Roses

Now I am making Non-Gardening Partner sight-read through the third Brahms violin sonata. Why is he sight-reading? Because, unlike myself, he hasn't practiced a single note.

Dear reader, please don't think that I boss NGP mercilessly through each weekend, like a high-achieving son's mother. He loves being organised! That's my theory anyway. What else are weekends for? Hmm...

Monday 7th November

What do real gardeners do? Dressed in clean jeans and a flowing white cotton top, they don't hesitate to stop and woman-handle five heavy, super-squishy plastic bags of fresh horse manure into their car. And, being superwomen, they don't even get a drop of muck onto their clothes. The boot of their car, on the other hand...

I Love Being 'Listless'

I've been gardening for over four hours, and I've even burnt my bonfire rubbish, without moaning. I love the new, 'listless' me. Today I cleared a wee garden that would have never made one of my B-lists.

 Gurgling away in the late afternoon sun.
My Bonfire

It's just a tiny area, behind Pond Cottage alongside the Wattle Woods path. Out came two straggly, overgrown Hebes and masses of Alkanet, and the viburnum tinus shrubs got a trim. Immediately the garden has shape and space, horse manure, mulch, and water, and some new plants - a Cream Delight Phormium, and a cute little edge row of variegated Pelargoniums. Species flaxes in the back were badly broken by the winter snow storm - I've trimmed them as best I can.

 These are the old-rose pink flowers I like.
Sunny Aquilegias

Celebrating Flowers

To celebrate the end of another wonderful day I've taken a host of flowery photographs. The Aquilegias are jolly difficult, since the prettiest ones droop their flower-heads. My favourites are the mixtures of indigo blues and old-rose pinks. Pretty things!

Exciting News

And some exciting news. Well - I hope it is! Something is arriving soon which is a present for me - so far just the customs documentation has turned up. The thing is coming by ship from somewhere secret, another country (since we live on an island). Goodness me - I'm thinking something really large, maybe from the USA. A kitset water-wheel, maybe? NGP won't tell me.