Super September
Spring Pink Camellia
It's the very last day of springy, super September - what a brilliant month! Birthdays, weddings, blossom, daffodils, new garden expansions and make-overs, the spring equinox... September 2008 has had everything, including the kitchen sink!
What a Month!
Sorry to gush. Sorry to repeat myself for the millionth time. What a month! The daffodils have been drop-dead gorgeous. The blossom and the blue spring bulbs have been both bounteous and beautiful. The early rhododeondrons have been rapturous, the Camellias charming. I've said it all before, with and without alliteration.
Weird Weather
Spring weather is weird - the statistics have involved large standard deviations, and there's been random craziness in the days. Twenty-two degrees (Celsius) one day, five the next. We've had raging hot winds, even a few southerly snow flurries. And daylight saving... Yippee! That's more time for gardening - isn't it?
This September I've been super-productive - I think I'm ahead of schedule! I've even started pricking out my annual flower seeds. I've worked on not one, not two, but three brand new garden expansions. I've shifted rhododendrons, hebes and grasses. I've bought new maples, magnolias and pansies.
Spring in the Border
My best buy - a new pruning saw with a bright purple handle. My most loyal gardening cat (actually, my only gardening cat with any stamina) - Fluff-Fluff. And my loveliest garden lunch spot? Impossible to choose, though sitting on the white cafe seats over the water race, gazing at 180 degrees of beautiful expansive gardens (while munching ciabatta filled with smoked salmon) scores fairly highly!
Trillium
The hens are laying again. Stumpy the old grey cat is frail but hanging on, purring and lap-sitting whenever she can. The tree frogs have been ridiculously noisy by the water race in the evenings.
Doomed to be Duckless
Rusty the dog has been a good gardening companion, apart from scaring a pair of ducks off my pond. I guess I am doomed to be duckless. But the blackbirds and fantails have ignored his barking, and my bellbird is still here, high in the gum trees.
Red Camellia
Even Non-Gardening Partner has had a good September, chain-sawing unwanted trees down on demand, shredding the branches, helping barrow wet ash from the burning pile, and mowing my lawns. He has promised to fix the waterwheel (steel screws have been mentioned). He's taking a real interest in my new gardens - I think he likes the Wilderness the best...
Spring in the Wattle Woods
Website Fun
I've has the best fun ever on the website this September. I've learnt how to create curved thumbnail pictures, and how to optimise the Moosey images for the web.
Image Recycling
And lots of my garden and pets pictures have being recycled all around the world this month - Moosey roses for posters and paintings, cats (and dear old Taj-Dog) for vet brochures, pictures of Canna lilies and sunsets - even Charles the merino ram. I love recycling the Moosey images.
Thanks for Everything
So, September, you've been a great spring month. I've worked hard, mind you, but I've had rather a lot of natural help. Sunshine, rain, daylight, fresh new green growth, flower colour... Thanks for everything. Those snow flurries were a wee bit excessive, though, and sometimes the wind was just a little strong - blossom is fragile, you know...
Finally...
Having thought he was a little - tacky - President Roosevelt finally gets my vote (though I may be a lot of decades too late). He's put on his best ever spring rhododendron performance. Nice work, Sir!