Old blossom, new blossom...
Blossom
Old blossom is fluttering down, new blossom buds are flowering. Gunnera leaves are unfurling, seedlings are growing, there's even a speckling of early rose flowers. Spring is gaining in confidence, and everything looks so green.
Saturday 28th September
I'm not spending any time in the house today. I'm living and breathing my spring garden.
Between bursts of chain-sawing I can listen to the gleeful whistling of the birds. I will not plod back and forth to the bonfire like a sheep, head down, following nothing for no reason. I will look at all the beautiful spring things en route. I'll peep at the Trilliums, see if I can find the Dutch crocuses, and nod at the purple Honesty.
And whenever I feel my spirits flagging I'll walk around the Herb Spiral, admire the generous orange Calendulas, and marvel at my ragged brickwork (hee hee).
Cherry Blossom Falling
It's now much later, and I've not a bad day at all. No, let me rephrase that - it's been a jolly good day, with lots of wonderful spring things to admire. But what a crazy, obsessed month it's been. And it's not finished yet! Tomorrow another of my friends is coming to help, and we are going to start up the big bonfire in the front paddock (where one of our trees, a huge Eucalyptus, came down). The pine mess from the ram paddock is going thereon.
Calendulas in the Herb Spiral
My plodding tempo to and from bonfires is getting slower and slower, though. Then when I see the modest ash heap and think of the mountains of tangled tree mess it's been made from, I marvel. It's the same with a small pile of shreddings, barely enough to mulch a square metre, which originates from the hugest heap of tree branches. Compacting all of nature's stored sunshine...
Gunnera, Phormiums, Cordylines, and Crab-Apple Blossom
Things that have come from trees falling apart have dominated my gardening life for over two weeks. So it seems most peculiar that my new jigsaw, a 2000 piece beauty, consists of one huge, ragged tree and very little else. But it is a Swiss tree! I can relax inside after a hard day's work and piece together its tangled branches, constructing that which in the garden I've been deconstructing. Very apt, very apt...
+10I've seen a lot of Lilli-Puss since the big mess. She now 'plays' next door in the fallen forest, and rests up by the Stables. So for now that's where I'm feeding her. Cat Lounge has been temporarily shut up for the summer.
The hybrid Bergenias are now flowering. I grow a number of patches of them near different garden edges. They're Bressingham hybrids, too - very stylish! The blue Ajuga looks gorgeous in the Wattle Woods, and I love, love, love all the Forget-Me-Nots, which have drifted into almost all the garden borders. There's a word for that...
Bergenias - Clivia and Bressingham
Now I await with baited breath (silly phrase, that) the emergence of the survivor rhododendrons in the Willow Tree garden. C'mon, you lot - you can do it! Remember your budget roots. Oops - that's not quite what I mean...