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Jack Holloway
Passionate Gardener
SEQUOIA FARM Haenertsburg South Africa
School's out24 Jun '07 6:41 pm
Hi all!
I leave in an hour on my holiday. School's out and all my work done, but what a rush - I worked through the night last Sunday and again on Friday in order to be ready to leave now instead of Tuesday morning when everyone else does. Net result: I'm already a week behind with what is happening on the forum!
Anyway, I share a goodbye pic, one off the camera I've just emptied in preparation for taking it along. There were also puppy pics, but no time for that now...
I'll have plenty to post when I get back on the 13th!
Bye for now -Jack
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Mark
Home gardener & plant fetishist
Berkeley, California, USA
Bon voyage ..25 Jun '07 1:43 am
.. or perhaps, welcome back. Thanks for the parting shot. A different corner of the lake you've shown us here. I don't recall seeing these tables before. The frosty mist and the white bark on the trees above frame a nice fall landscape.
I'll look forward to seeing whatever horticultural finds you make on your journey.
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Liza
gardening consultant
Waterloo, Belgium
26 Jun '07 7:02 am
Yes, Bon Voyage!! And a little voice inside tells me, that you are going to have a great time!! By the way, your wintery photo is a great capture, Jack!! Love it!!
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Jack Holloway
Passionate Gardener
SEQUOIA FARM Haenertsburg South Africa
Hello, I'm home!15 Jul '07 7:17 pm
Hi all!
My first morning home, a glorious winter morning, adoring dogs, life is great. I'm posting a pic, and I also took my summer avatar this morning, a crystal clear naturally sepia-toned view of the bridge...
I have SO much to share,and SO much to catch up on your writing, but it is all going to have to happen in installments for I now go into the busiest period of my year: the school production. By rights I should do NOTHING else till we open end August. (That is, besides pruning over 300 roses.) But you know me!
I start at the end, because it is top of my mind: on the garden tours forum I will now post an Irish story...
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Jack Holloway
Passionate Gardener
SEQUOIA FARM Haenertsburg South Africa
A wintery winter's day23 Jul '07 5:07 am
In winter doing nothing in the garden is depressing. In other seasons one can get lost in the beauty. In winter you are aware of all that should be done... and I'm doing almost nothing at the moment because of work pressure. It has been a long (early) and a cold winter. General clearing, due to new, more advanced machinery (we have graduated to a brush cutter instead of slashers)is more advanced and more thorough than before. So everything is looking chopped - and dusty. The soil seems more sandy than I know it. The beds don't have their usual late winter tracery of dead sticks. I look at the pruning of trees and shrubs I would like to do and dare not delegate. One can't believe that life and beauty could return to this garden that seems to be crying out for TLC - but is ruthlessly mown down with a brush cutter...
What nonsense! Frans is taking winter cuttings. Everywhere the piles of grass and brush is (are?) being packed into compost heaps, layered with the eight tons of manure we have bought in. The staff are doing a splendid job. Without me.
Winter is an ambiguous season, because sometimes I claim it is my favourite in its clarity and - how do you translate this Afrikaans word: ongenaakbaarheid... unforgivingness, harshness, untouchability? An amazing word, as at its heart is the word 'naked'...
But Abbey has moved in with me (see 'Barbara's pups' on the pets forum) and she is a joy, treating life with me like the next step in her plan-of-action, rather than wondering why her mother and siblings are suddenly not around. We have been on walks, she has demanded to sleep on my lap as I work, she moves with me all the time... She even dutifully pees when I take her outside!
So here are a few pics to represent the day.
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Dixie
garden enthusiast
Waikato-New Zealand
Winter's List23 Jul '07 6:56 am
You have expressed it so well,Jack.I survey winter from the warmth of indoors and think of all that needs doing before the first signs of Spring.Outside looks so brown with Waikato mud and fog.Bare twigs are uninspiring.The wretched unloved monstrous Conifers completely shade the paths and lawn making them so slippery...O Me Miserum...
So to make it look as if I'm doing something I make a list as Moosey is wont to do.The list of 'things to do' is about 15 things long.
Dixie.
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Jack Holloway
Passionate Gardener
SEQUOIA FARM Haenertsburg South Africa
Winter winds30 Jul '07 6:31 am
Another week done. A dry late summer and constant winter frosts are now followed by heavy winds. A lethal recipe for fire, even if it does traditionally herald a wet summer...
Two of my friends lost most of their farms to fire this week. The one has only seasonal damage, the other extreme loss of capital investment. The fear of fire is a constant when these winds blow...
Whilst I photograph the beauty of the wind on the water...
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Jack Holloway
Passionate Gardener
SEQUOIA FARM Haenertsburg South Africa
Another gust30 Jul '07 6:57 am
Pics left off...
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Faith S
Perpetually learning gardener
Alabama, USA
Gusty subject31 Jul '07 7:29 am
Here's hoping that your winter winds bring you no fire. I did enjoy your gusty water photos, however. Water is such a wonderful thing in the garden in every season.
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moosey
head gardener
12 Aug '07 6:33 pm
Hope your spring things are shaking off the gloom now - any signs of colour, Jack?
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