My Favourite Window

August 28, 2010

Just when I thought I'd grasped how to post photos, this tired computer of mine foils me. So the last few days in the garden must remain a visual mystery for now. That's a pity because we have been blessed with fine warm weather, which is breathing life into the early leafing and blossoming trees. Two big weeping willows are veiled in green and already scented with honey, though I can't see any catkins yet, and the early plum blossom is also adding its strong scent to my garden walks.

Today was a brutally productive day in the garden, as Elwin tried out our new chainsaw and felled overgrown coppiced gums for next year's firewood. This is the right time of year to promote new growth after cutting, but it's rather sad that the tips are thick with flower buds, and we have deprived the bellbirds of a rich source of nectar. Still there are more trees untouched for them to feed on.

August 22, 2010

Early Days

The sun came out today: welcome after so many drear days. With its light I can see the flush of green on the weeping willows and the first Iceland poppy bloom. The hazel catkins create rich texture and Lenten roses lavish attention on an abandoned space.

 Hazel Corylus avellana  The catkins are the male flowers which release pollen during winter.  By happy chance my little grove of four hazel trees, produce female and male flowers matched for pollination, and we get a good crop of nuts.

Lenten Rose Helleborus orientalis  I no longer have the variety name for these, but they thrive on neglect!

August 21, 2010

The perils of blogging from a secret garden at the leading edge of Time. My birthday Post is dated 19th August, but I wrote on my natal day, 20th August. Undoubtedly there will be some setting that enables me to adjust time to my own here in New Zealand, but I am still navigating...

After last night's party, which overflowed with Love and warmth and flowers, I have been too tired to think much of the garden, though I have been showing visitors around the old house. It is inspiring to feel their enthusiasm through all its shabbiness.

August 20, 2010

Happy Birthday

Today is my 50th birthday. The rain has cleared: a little more blossom is out, though well behind the same time last year; but the jonquils in the photo have been flowering for a month now, the first white star opening in the week that we purchased this land. To open up this house, the house of my childhood, after my mother's years of reclusivity, I held a birthday breakfast. Elwin cooked for me on the coal range, porridge, scrambled eggs, sausages and bacon. Family, friends and neighbours came and ideas flowed along with the coffee.

I'm still celebrating. Others came for a pot-luck lunch, and mid-afternoon I walked with friends around the village. Though the day is damp and grey and melancholy, it has been peopled with warmth and inspiration.

August 18, 2010

First Blossom

This plum blossom appeared a couple of days ago but it has barely touched these bleak days: grey, foggy, and today there is heavy rain keeping tentative blooms furled ... and me out of the garden.

August 17, 2010

Entrance

New steps for me. This garden, this Blog.


I am so pleased to have found the buds in this photo thrusting their way into Spring. Unlike the other daffodils these have stayed hidden during winter, and as there are so few bulbs, I thought there were finally lost. This cluster is all that remains of a great roadside swathe that always drew admiration from passers-by. The flowers are an old, fully double - what I would term a plena - bloom, rather like scrambled egg to my mind. I really must dig them up this year and re-plant them in the garden.