Mowing Bulbs

Daffodil bulbs - in all their variety...

This place is blessed with so many: in drifts that pre-date my family's presence here; in swathes that represent my mother's yearly raising of seed from existing bulbs, and my own landscaping efforts. Apart from the garden bed above most of them are naturalised in both lawn and woodland areas.  There comes a time, especially as long grass here in North Canterbury can quickly become a fire risk, that bulbs in grass must be mown down.

Ideally they should be left to yellow, like the kingcup leaves, but the clement cool and wet weather we have been having, is keeping them green and I have made a ruthless decision.

The daffodils and their companion snowflakes have had at least six weeks of good growing since they flowered in the spring and now hopefully this will set them up for flowering next year.  

If the may has finished flowering, if you are planting tomatoes outside, if plums and apples are plumping on the trees, then it is time to at least think about mowing naturalised bulbs.

Remembering Elwin

Remember, Remember
the Fifth of NovemberThe Gunpowder Treason 
and Plot,

But that was yesterday, 
and today 
- 6 November - 
I remember that Elwin has been gone two years now.

Remember

How we danced together;

Remember 

Working-late for Carters Steam Fair;

Remember 

Life on Narrowboat 'Ben'
And those Towpath parties;

Remember how you sewed lace on our wedding morning ...

Remember our weddings;

And our anniversaries

Remember how you would make music anywhere

... and on anything, even dandelion stems!

Remember birthdays in exotic places;

Remember patient Mary and our Irish caravan holiday.

Remember making babies

and watching over them through their growing years.

Remember those last precious weeks with you ...

The Neglected Garden in Flower

There are daisies and irises.

There is pink may,

and Mexican hawthorn.

There are velvety clematis buds,

and old world honeysuckle twining with New Zealand's forest bridal veil.

There's heady-scented mock orange blossom,

and lingering longer this year, with regular rainfall, 
are the forget-me-nots by my doorstep.

Daisy, common lawn daisy  Bellis perennis
Iris  Iris sp
Double pink may  Crataegus laevigata 'Rosea Flore Pleno'
Tejocote, Mexican hawthorn  Crataegus mexicana 
Clematis  Clematis 'Niobe'
Honeysuckle  Lonicera caprifolium
Puawhananga, Native (NZ) clematis, Bridal veil  Clematis paniculata 'Bridal Veil'
Mock orange blossom  Philadelphus var