
mooseyscountrygarden.com » Gardening Journals	« Garden Journal 2010 \| Garden Journal 2012 »

Garden Journal 2011

Forums

Newsletter

2011 continues my virtuous themes of being budget-minded and totally committed to garden maintenance. Aargh - sounds terribly sensible, and hopefully will not turn reader off from peeping at my 2011 Moosey Journal pages. I promise there'll be some small eruptions of serious fun...

2011 January Week 1... Sun 2nd Jan 2011: Happy New Year! And what do I want for 2011? This gets a bit scary, because I think my garden is possibly big enough. I'm going to stop expanding and to consolidate my assets. I really don't need any more roses, or daylilies, or new shrubs...
2011 January Week 1 - More... Thu 6th Jan 2011: Yippee! I've stuck to my New Years Resolution (I only have one) all year. So far, so good - three days of goodness. My NYR is quite simple - I must put on gardening clothes, immediately, if I'm planning to do any gardening that day.
2011 January Week 1 - Yet More... Fri 7th Jan 2011: I woke up this morning feeling a little alarmed that the Moosey Garden was too big for one woman. Eek! But don't worry - this is garden guilt, impure and complicated.
2011 January Week 2... Sun 9th Jan 2011: Welcome to the second week of January. My New Year's Resolution still holds fast - what a legend! But all is not well - I have some concerns about flower colour in the January mid-summer garden.
2011 January Week 2 - More... Wed 12th Jan 2011: I shiver as I write down that horribly down-to-earth phrase: 'Pride comes before a fall'. For, apart from one slightly moochy day (only two hours gardening), I am very proud of my January efforts. My garden seems so easy to clean up...
2011 January Week 3... Mon 17th Jan 2011: It's a new week already, and the summer garden is yet again being battered by big winds. The house lawns are covered in debris from the big gum tree. How I wish I'd remembered to stake the dahlias...
2011 January Week 3 - More... Thu 20th Jan 2011: Blast! Out of nowhere it's started raining, which means my gardening day is semi-abandoned. I've just asked Fluff-Fluff the cat what he thinks I should do first. Take more books out to Pond Cottage, whose hutch dresser arrives today?
2011 January Week 4... Mon 24th Jan 2011: Hmm... How do I know that January is charging to its conclusion? The use-by-date on my latest milk carton is now the 3rd of February. Aargh! What have I been doing all month?
2011 January Week 4 - More... Thu 27th Jan 2011: Good morning, January, or what's left of you. I promise to do serious garden maintenance on every remaining day of you. I am going to start this pledge today by raking all the paths near Pond Cottage (my latest obsession).
2011 End of January... Sun 30th Jan 2011: I've spent yet another night in Pond Cottage, this time cat-free. Early mornings are groovy - sitting up in bed with my cup of tea and gazing out at the pond and the trees. Wow. It's so simple, having a holiday cottage in the next paddock.
2011 Very End of January... Mon 31st Jan 2011: I've enjoyed January in my bright, flowery summer garden very much. I have new seats to sit on, clear and tidy paths, and even some new plants to look after. And I love Pond Cottage, where I've been sleeping semi-soundly for the last week...
2011 February Week 1... Thu 3rd Feb 2011: I'd like to welcome myself to February, a pleasantly symmetric month at exactly four weeks, through which I plan to float in spirit, while I physically continue my garden maintenance programme.
2011 February Week 1 - More... Sun 6th Feb 2011: Today would have been a wonderful gardening day - warm, no wind... But I'm in my Pond cottage obsession mood again, and I've been busy sewing the patchwork bed cover. All the different materials are in shades of garden green, hee hee.
2011 February Week 2... Sat 12th Feb 2011: Gardeners who 'ply their hobby' in Canterbury, New Zealand are absolutely, totally, fully, in all senses of the words, allowed to be random and changeable from day to day. Because that's exactly what our weather is like this summer.
2011 February Week 2 - More... Mon 14th Feb 2011: Right. No more drifting about - it's time to take my daylight hours firmly in hand. I need some discipline. I'll write down a personal list first, then move onto my garden plans.
2011 February Week 3... Fri 18th Feb 2011: To honour the new gardening week, I'm going to try being a responsible large country garden owner. I have paths to sort out and mulch to lay.
2011 February Week 3 - More... Sun 20th Feb 2011: Ah, the garden, the garden. How easy it is to clean up an area when it was already cleaned up last year. If I think I've discovered a deep gardening secret...
2011 February Week 4... Thu 24th Feb 2011: Yesterday a gardening friend and I finished the path behind the Shrubbery, moved an older park bench in by the fence to be the path's destination, weeded the gardens alongside, cleared out the rubbish, sawed down offending branches of pine trees...
2011 February Week 4 - More... Mon 28th Feb 2011: Quite cold rain is teeming down on my country house and garden. Meanwhile the TV bad-news of the earthquake in the city rumbles on. Well, today I'd like to cut down the large bronze-red Phormium by the house decking. But it's really too wet.
2011 March Week 1... Wed 2nd Mar 2011: First things first. I am not bidding for a second hand forest gnome with a pointy hat. Fifty dollars reserve - forget it! I am not even remotely tempted. Second thing - I want to make a brick path network in my garden somewhere, possibly to a koru design.
2011 March Week 1 - More... Fri 4th Mar 2011: I'm back in a writing mood - oh dear! Prepare for days of bottled-up, quietly fermenting sentences about life and the garden to gush out.
2011 March Week 1 - Yet More... Mon 7th Mar 2011: Is it still late summer? Perhaps I should officially declare the changing of the garden season to autumn. One never quite knows - choose an equinox or the beginning of a month, or the time when the beautiful deep pink rose John Clare blooms again...
2011 March Week 2... Thu 10th Mar 2011: Mice and cats! Last night in Pond Cottage little Minimus the grey was in serious hunting mode. Result - she brought me two mice in ten minutes, before I rudely shut the windows and door. But I am a big softie of a cat-mother, so then I worried...
2011 March Week 2 - More... Sat 12th Mar 2011: Aha! A Most Serious Plan for presenting the Moosey Garden is required - a choir will be singing here on (checks calendar) the 10th of April, with guests offered afternoon tea and a tour of the garden. That's four weeks away. So what do I need to do first?
2011 March Week 2 - Yet More... Mon 14th Mar 2011: Autumn life is suddenly so full. There's more burning on the bonfire, more Agapanthus arriving to be divided and planted, and on the personal front a new 2011 Reshape Up For Life campaign.
2011 March Week 3... Fri 18th Mar 2011: Oh my goodness - this is a landmark day in Moosey life. For I have finally joined the social networks Facebook and Twitter. As if a good gardener hasn't enough other 'stuff' to do! However, until I get my head around things, my social networking profile will be extremely low!
2011 March Week 3 - More... Sun 20th Mar 2011: There's nothing like a good night's sleep to refresh the gardening legs and mind. So early this morning, accompanied by young Minimus, Pond Cottage's most recent resident cat, I took a critical tour of the pond area, cup of tea in my hand, Agapanthus in my thoughts.
2011 March Week 4... Wed 23rd Mar 2011: Aargh! The choir is coming soon! Whenever I start feeling garden-proud, and just a tiny bit compacent, busloads of older-lady garden visitors wobble into my thoughts. Eek! So which paths should I clean up today? And the garden gnomes need a tidy up, too...
2011 March Week 4 - More... Fri 25th Mar 2011: Autumn in the garden and my new interests (Facebook and Twitter) in the house. Balancing the real gardening with the virtual is going to be interesting. There may come a day when I'll do all my garden work at the computer?
2011 March Week 4 - Yet More... Tue 29th Mar 2011: I've been cleaning up by the back door. I've found two pairs of spidery gumboots and eight pairs of gardening shoes. Eight! Eight different shoe needs, according to the changing status of the garden - wet, muddy, soggy, slightly soggy, slightly damp, frosty, neutral, sunny...
2011 End of March... Thu 31st Mar 2011: I have so much to say that I need yet another March journal page. There's nothing like imminent garden tour visitors to dust off the cobwebs (done that), clean the house windows (that too) and get the garden humming - well, the honey bees and the bumble bees should do that. No wasps please!
2011 April Week 1... Sun 3rd Apr 2011: Aha! A new month, A for April - A for Autumn. I've got two full gardening days before the garden visitors come to wander around my hopefully not-too-wet garden, wearing hopefully sensible shoes. I hope they enjoy themselves.
2011 April Week 1 - More... Wed 6th Apr 2011: The garden tour (such fun) has been and gone, and all my garden work has left me feeling very proud and oddly a bit garden-tired. I'm taking today off to go hiking over some hills to a beach. Sounds wonderfully mild and relaxing...
2011 April Week 1 - Yet More... Thu 7th Apr 2011: Hee hee. I find myself in that typical autumn garden mood - it's time to visit the local nursery sales and look for bargains. And I'm keeping a serious watch on the changing autumn leaf colours.
2011 April Week 2... Sat 9th Apr 2011: After having spent frenzied hours trying to put everything right for the garden tourists, I've moved away from the cosmetic superficial stuff back into serious, sensible autumn gardening. That means my bonfire!
2011 April Week 2 - More... Wed 13th Apr 2011: The silliest Monday morning music is playing on my serious radio station - two alternating styles, military martial orchestral and tinkling ballet piano. So this is supposed to start the busy gardening week off nicely - four goosesteps followed by a pirouette?
2011 April Week 2 - Yet More... Thu 14th Apr 2011: One whole journal page devoted to a day in the life of the autumn garden (and gardener) - my goodness, something special must be going on. It's Thursday 14th April, by the way. All day!
2011 April Week 3... Mon 18th Apr 2011: Right. It's drizzling and damp out there, and I'm feeling a tad dozy. What to do first? Take the dog for a cycle ride to shake off sleepiness, I think. Then hot coffee to warm up the damp gardener-cyclist. Then write a plan, maybe a list, think about bricks and roses...
2011 April Week 3 - More... Thu 21st Apr 2011: No way am I ready for winter. I haven't finished with autumn yet. But - crikey this wind is cold! And naturally heaps of my most beautifully coloured autumn leaves are fluttering down, down, down... I'm obsessed with brides and bricks, by the way...
2011 April Week 4... Sat 23rd Apr 2011: The big Easter plant sale at the local nursery gets top billing this week. What will I buy? And how much money (eek) will I spend? And how many times will I return, just in case the bargain bin has been restocked with more tempting plant treasures? Watch this space, Hee hee...
2011 April Week 4 - More... Tue 26th Apr 2011: Oops. I think I've just celebrated the wrong Earth Day. But to counter that I've found something called Earth Week. Phew - now I feel better. To be honest, I prefer the sound of Earth Year. And shouldn't every gardener's day be an Earth Day anyway? Mine is.
2011 End of April... Sat 30th Apr 2011: Yet another 'oops' to throw on the compost heap of my life (don't worry - compost heaps are good and useful things, and last for almost ever). I've finally purchased a complete set of Enid Blyton Famous Five books. I am not allowed to buy any garden gnomes for at least six months.
2011 May Week 1... Tue 3rd May 2011: Some words of praise are needed for my late autumn roses. Othello is blooming again - he does this every year, with solo blooms top-heavy on tall stems. John Clare does it in clusters, with new buds and much bravado. In the house borders The Fairy roses, tiny pink treasures, are flowering too.
2011 May Week 1 - More... Sat 7th May 2011: More days of what I'm calling late autumn spread out before me. The garden is full of beautiful leaf colours in the trees, and more late roses are blooming. OK - so when's winter?
2011 May Week 2... Tue 10th May 2011: Great weather excitement, for the sun - the sun! THE SUN! is almost visible again, though 'shining' might be an exaggeration. I really think I might be able to finish the brick courtyard now. Hmm... Even I can see the specks of doubt in that sentence.
2011 May Week 2 - More... Sat 14th May 2011: According to the newspaper's daily horoscope, 'Digging (up information about a favourite topic) should keep me out of trouble'. Well, I'm going to be digging up some squashed roses today, as part of my garden's pre-winter clean-up. This counts?
2011 May Week 3... Tue 17th May 2011: Let me say this really slowly. The... Brick... Spiral... Koru... Courtyard... is... Finished. Yippee! All the bricks fit in one continuous spiralling floor, level enough for me while relatively kind to the tree roots. It's beautiful.
2011 May Week 3 - More... Sat 21st May 2011: There's either a feast or a famine with respect to recycled garden gnomes. Weeks and weeks go by, gnomefree. And then suddenly I have three new chaps to name and put behind the pond, and three more in on-line auctions which I could bid on...
2011 May Week 4... Mon 23rd May 2011: Do I really need a new winter garden project? So my garden isn't already far too big for one woman (me) with ancient knees and absolutely no system of sensible seasonal management? Just because things slow down a bit after autumn...
2011 May Week 4 - More... Fri 27th May 2011: Aargh! And eek! All this month's money spent on new spectacles (and garden gnomes, but they don't really count) - and suddenly it's like I've awakened the wallet monster. Spend meeeeeeee! That's my Visa card shrieking, thinking about the nursery down the road.
2011 End of May... Tue 31st May 2011: Yet more garden gnomes pop up on the online auction site, and a brand new gardening plan pops into my head. I want to build a tree house on the willow stump, overlooking the water. Let's rephrase that. I want to encourage and help Non-Gardening Partner build me a tree house, hee hee...
2011 June Week 1... Sat 4th Jun 2011: June has started well. It's supposed to really be winter - no way, even if I do have a streaming head-cold. There's not a sniff (unfortunate word) of the winter gardener inside me yet, even if I'm thinking about pruning the roses soon. And buying some new ones!
2011 June Week 1 - More... Tue 7th Jun 2011: Still the mild non-winter gardening weather continues. Make every moment count! And talking about counting - I have two new shabby chic garden gnomes to pick up, and plans to buy x new roses, where x is an integer greater than or equal to 12. Hee hee.
2011 June Week 2... Fri 10th Jun 2011: The countdown towards the winter solstice stands at 15 days. Fifteen days is nothing! I can do heaps of gardening in fifteen days - well, at least I can spend lots of the housekeeping money on new roses and recycled garden gnomes, etc. Naughty!
2011 June Week 2 - More... Tue 14th Jun 2011: Aha! It's back to normality with my garden budget, where the 'gnome' word only applies to a variety of Canna lily, and I successfully resist the temptation to buy white Iceberg roses. I have spent far too much 'little money' these last weeks.
2011 June Week 3... Fri 17th Jun 2011: Another wonderful, winterful week has started. The sunsets are delightfully pink (thanks to a volcano erupting all the way over the sea in Chile) and the earth is (please) settling again after the 6.3 magnitude aftershock. I'm busy hiking as well as doing my winter gardening.
2011 June Week 3 - More... Tue 21st Jun 2011: Oh dear! I had such plans for major chain-sawing this weekend. Well - my plans were actually for Non-Gardening Partner. But it's raining gently on my garden. Maybe I should spend the afternoons with Miss Marple. She is, after all, an avid gardener...
2011 June Week 4... Sat 25th Jun 2011: The days are getting longer! Well, maybe by a few seconds a time, in this the first week after the winter solstice. But oh my, the garden is so damp and soggy to work in. That's why sensible winter gardeners wear gumboots - naturally, I don't.
2011 June Week 4 - More... Thu 30th Jun 2011: Mid-winter gardening is so satisfying, with the trimming and sawing down of overgrown shrubs and trees, the late afternoon bonfire, and warm illusions of garden improvement. Yes, my garden will look so much better this coming spring. And summer. Yes! It really will...
2011 July Week 1... Sat 2nd Jul 2011: My July is already full of contrasts. A hike in the frosty, wintry, snowy Canterbury foothills one day, then zoom! Off on a short plane ride to Rarotonga in the tropical Cook Islands for a short summer holiday.
2011 July Rarotonga Holiday 1... Sun 3rd Jul 2011: I am on summer holiday - a week in Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands. But I am not a typical tourist - well, hopefully not! I want to go hiking and exploring in the mountains, rather than flopping on the beach.
2011 July Rarotonga Holiday 2... Wed 6th Jul 2011: My lovely Rarotongan holiday continues. I've done more walking, plus some swimming. And I've driven round the island quite a few times - as one does! I'm still fascinated by the abundance of roosters and hens, which the locals call 'wild chickens'.
2011 July Rarotonga Holiday 3... Fri 8th Jul 2011: I'm enjoying myself in Rarotonga. I love the colourful plants and the glossy green trees - and the fact that there are no really nasty bugs or creatures. Nor are there any stinging nettles, just a little pink flowered weed in the lawn with tiny barbs to catch the barefooted...
2011 July Week 2 - Back Home... Mon 11th Jul 2011: After gliding across the international date line in the middle of the night we're back home. Yippee! And yawn... Good morning to the Moosey cats, and to the house which is toasty warm. I can hear the bellbirds, and dawn is just breaking. Wonder what my garden will look like? Cold, I guess...
2011 July Week 2 - More... Thu 14th Jul 2011: Oh dear. Rusty the desperate dog has taken up his morning feeding position underneath the bird feeder, where he can literally feast on the crumbs. I've been drinking a leisurely cup of tea, re-reading my journal, thinking about holidays and gardens...
2011 July Week 3... Mon 18th Jul 2011: It's going to be one of those days. I've just given Rusty the dog some grapes, and taken a bite out of his breakfast dog biscuit. Yuk! And Fluff-Fluff the cat has twice walked over my computer and twice prompted it to shut down. Aargh - cancel! How does he know how to do that?
2011 July Week 3 - More... Thu 21st Jul 2011: I am happily testing the theory that a rather random gardener, mature and keen, can have at least three amazing 'best-of-the-best' gardening days in a row, in the middle of winter. It's bound to be true!
2011 July Week 4... Sun 24th Jul 2011: Welcome to Moosey's Country Bed-n-Breakfast (new visitors are arriving), and a domestic chores morning, since the temperature is still only two degrees Celsius outside in the garden. Hmm. I'd much rather be gardening...
2011 July Week 4 - Snow!... Tue 26th Jul 2011: Good morning, snow. Welcome - but please don't think of staying too long. No offence intended, but I'm about to venture outside to knock you off my evergreens.
2011 End of July... Thu 28th Jul 2011: Here's what I think. As a deeply empathetic gardener I allow my weather to be as random as I am. But fiercely snowing one day, and a balmy nine degrees (Celcius) at 8:30 the next morning? This is surely a rather extreme variation!
2011 August Week 1... Fri 5th Aug 2011: My month of August is going to be well guided by the august presence of the Moosey Head Gardener (me). But August is exciting - it's nearly spring. I have room for some more roses, and it is the rose-planting season, hee hee...
2011 August Week 1 - More... Sun 7th Aug 2011: Here's something I love about my August (understanding that June 22nd is mid-winter's day) - the days have much more time in them. They are bigger and lighter, and the mornings are more welcoming.
2011 August Week 2... Wed 10th Aug 2011: Over the next weeks I need structure in my daily gardening life. A digging-a-new-garden plan would be useful. But all I can think of is felling some pine trees (not a suitable task for a lady gardener) and spending money at the rose nursery. Now that I can definitely manage!
2011 August Week 2 - More... Sun 14th Aug 2011: I need a decent winter garden project. Spreading compost (I'm onto my third trailer load) doesn't have the zing and pizzazz I require. Welcome to my gardening journal, where you can read about Moosey the Mundane shovelling, wheeling, tipping, raking, and yawning...
2011 August Week 3... Tue 16th Aug 2011: Hmm... Yesterday I implied the forecast for winter snow to sea level was a 'tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'. I would like to apologise, semi-humbly, to anyone whose expertise I insulted. Yes, it is snowing.
2011 August Week 3 - More... Thu 18th Aug 2011: I must stop being snow-gloomy in this journal. But it is snowing again, third day in a row. Blast! Oh yes, I can hear my North American friends giggling and clucking like chooks. How would I like three weeks? Or three months? OK - fluttering snow is pretty...
2011 August Week 3 - Yet More... Sun 21st Aug 2011: What a week! It started with a major snow-sulk, downgraded to a semi-sulk by Wednesday, and now the Moosey mood is back to normal - just because the Moosey body can go gardening again. A good mood for the simplest of reasons, hee hee...
2011 August Week 4... Wed 24th Aug 2011: My garden is really 'birdy'. The bellbirds flit above my head and whistle away madly to my gardening Ipod. They love Bartok's String Quartets. Blimey! This music isn't quite my idea of chiming birdsong. Rusty the dog's barking provides a rather unnecessary accompanying ostinato.
2011 August Week 4 - More... Sun 28th Aug 2011: Aargh! No time to waste. Non-Gardening Partner has promised me two whole days of his undivided attention. I'm talking chain-saws and shredders here, for a whole weekend. Two whole days! I am sooooooo excited.
2011 End of August... Wed 31st Aug 2011: I will need all week to recover from my brilliant weekend - brilliant because Non-Gardening Partner behaved superbly. He did all his chain-sawing, and wasn't overly critical that I required certain things (like a conifer) sawn down to the ground.
2011 September Week 1... Sat 3rd Sep 2011: Yippee! It's September, where S stands for Spring, and Sunshine, and Serenity. No Shaky Stuff (earthquakes), please, like last year. Sulking is banned during September this year. As is Snow (oops - they both start with the letter 'S' too).
2011 September Week 1 - More... Tue 6th Sep 2011: Dear Reader, this is my birthday week, and this year I am shamelessly celebrating. All I want (apart from birthday compost) is for goodness and peace to come to the fore, in everything that everybody in the world does. Too much to ask?
2011 September Birthday... Thu 8th Sep 2011: Aha! Older, but not wiser. Sillier, I reckon. This has been my best, busiest gardening birthday ever. And such wonderful presents - a trailer load of compost, garden gnomes, a paid visit to the dentist... Eek! New birthday teeth!
2011 September Week 2... Sat 10th Sep 2011: Non-Gardening Partner has suddenly become very compost-attentive. Am I enjoying my compost? Is it good compost? And when would I like him to get me a new trailer load of compost? Ha! I suspect he's planning a weekend of ski-ing...
2011 September Week 2 - More... Tue 13th Sep 2011: 9/11 - remembered sadly and quietly, with some gentle gardening, and hopeful thoughts about world peace. Ten years ago I planted the rose Golden Tribute, as my small tribute. It's a beautiful rose, and has lots of new spring growth right now.
2011 September Week 3... Sun 18th Sep 2011: Birthday socks, birthday gnomes (one chap, holding a little forest creature in his arms, is just gorgeous), and now birthday Agapanthus. When will it all end? Unfortunately it ends today - I am allowed one week for this shameless self-focus, and one week only. Blast!
2011 September Week 3 - More... Wed 21st Sep 2011: I wonder if this might be a good week to write down some gardening goals, since spring is progressing so quickly. For example, I could try to finish at least three important things. Hmm... Suspect that goals need to be a little more specific.
2011 September Week 4... Fri 23rd Sep 2011: It scares me how quickly September is passing, with scores of daffodils below and floating waves of cherry blossom above. Each day the new rose shoots seem to double in size. I don't want to miss anything!
2011 September Week 4 - More... Mon 26th Sep 2011: Reality blurs too easily for this dedicated web-gardener, when starting a new Moosey journal page is almost as exciting as digging a new garden. Oh dear! Shut the computer, grab the gardening gloves, ignore the drizzle and get real - at once!
2011 End of September... Fri 30th Sep 2011: Tra-la-la. I know where I'm gardening, and I know who's gardening with me (my dog). I know what I love... Except I will be shovelling compost all day, but that's OK. Change the last singing line to 'I know what my garden loves', perhaps...
2011 October Week 1... Mon 3rd Oct 2011: Yippee! October, you've arrived! That was quick. Welcome to the Moosey Garden, where the Head Gardener is ready to - do battle with your weedy side? Enjoy your flowery shrubby side? Whatever it takes to enjoy the garden...
2011 October Week 1 - More... Fri 7th Oct 2011: My garden and I do appreciate some fairly decent October spring rain. Honestly, we both do. And there are definite spin-offs - like lots of wet droopy daffodils to pick for the house vases. Not to mention some enforced, quality, in-house time... Eek! I could spring-clean the house...
2011 October Week 2... Sun 9th Oct 2011: I need to regroup (even though there's only one of me) after the rainy days earlier this week - my gardening tempo has gone molto adagio. Solution - get some general October garden goals? No, no - get a new blue gardening shirt. Much less scary...
2011 October Week 2 - More... Fri 14th Oct 2011: I'm getting an early Christmas present from Non-Gardening Partner. Aargh! It's another paid dentist visit to seriously repair another tooth. This just isn't fair. Why can't I just eat mush and enjoy a new rose garden? Or a huge new pond with a waterfall?
2011 October Week 3... Mon 17th Oct 2011: It's an exciting weekend. I'm going to be gardening surrounded by pink blossom. The big flowering cherry trees, the little Azaleas, apple and crab-apple trees are flowering. So it's pink, a touch of white, then more pink. Pale pink, bright pink...
2011 October in Rarotonga - 1... Thu 20th Oct 2011: We are on the island of Rarotonga, staying in Daughter of Moosey's cottage just up the road from the Turangi tip. It's nicely warm, nicely breezy, green and rooster-free...
2011 October in Rarotonga - 2... Sun 23rd Oct 2011: Further greetings from Rarotonga, which could easily get the nickname Rooster Island, or Isle of the Short-Legged Dog. Allow me to present my first palm-tree-on-the-beach photograph. This was artfully snapped (well, almost) from the front seat of a rattly topless island rental car...
2011 October Week 4... Wed 26th Oct 2011: 'Welcome home, Moosey' said the pink rhododendron in the driveway, and the Dogwood in the Island Bed, and the first rose Canary Bird. 'We survived the big wind, just for you' said the new frilly yellow tulips, and the Pond Paddock cherry blossom, and...
2011 October Week 4 - More... Sat 29th Oct 2011: Back home after my holiday, the garden needs me to transform into an uber-gardener, immoderate and extreme, a gardener with the energy of one thousand charging buffaloes...
2011 End of October... Mon 31st Oct 2011: I have another new gardening policy. Panicking (too much to do, days are flying by, not enough gardening time etc.) is banned. So this morning I am taking myself off on a local country garden tour. Yes, I can spare the time. There is no rush. Everything will fit...
2011 November Week 1... Thu 3rd Nov 2011: Good early morning to you, November. You feel like early summer. I promise to enjoy every day of you without panicking. I am going to be a calm, consistent gardener, and I won't forget to water anything - promise!
2011 November Week 1 - More... Sat 5th Nov 2011: I love the reality of flowering cherry trees. They're so beautiful, even when their blossom is finishing and falling. I pass underneath them on my way to Pond Cottage, and it's magical - particularly in the moonlight.
2011 November Week 1 - Yet More... Mon 7th Nov 2011: Two delightful signs of summer - the Wisteria racemes (is that the term?) are in transition. Top flowers are drying and dying, with just the bottom four or five buds left to open. And the first barbecue of the season - that's later this evening...
2011 November Week 2... Wed 9th Nov 2011: November - so far you've been good. I love your warm days, while your coolish nights allow a hard-working gardener (like me) to enjoy a comfortable sleep. And I love your roses! Well, I guess they're my roses. Tell you what - we can share them...
2011 November Week 2 - More... Fri 11th Nov 2011: Every day there are more roses in bloom in my garden. Now sultry Othello, the master of rose fragrance, is flowering by the patio. Sorry about the few bits of black spot on his leaves. But then he'd be too perfect, wouldn't he?
2011 November Week 2 - Yet More... Mon 14th Nov 2011: Three-day weekends are so groovy when it's still only Saturday. And there's been more overnight rain, which the pre-summer garden (and gardener) loves and needs. Better nature's rain than my piddly little hoses, I say.
2011 November Week 3... Thu 17th Nov 2011: Here's the plan. Photograph the latest roses and irises. Play chamber music with my flautist friend. Then con her into helping me dig out some more Agapanthus. This may be beyond the call of musical duty.
2011 November Week 3 - More... Sat 19th Nov 2011: The Head Gardener pats her dog, smiles, takes a coffee-slurp and shrugs her tired shoulders oh so gently. The proper me is back, after four days spent digging huge clumps of Agapanthus out of someone else's garden, a difficult, daunting task. Agapanthus - aargh!
2011 November Week 3 - Yet More... Mon 21st Nov 2011: The Head Gardener pats her dog, smiles, takes a coffee-slurp and shrugs her tired shoulders oh so gently. The proper me is back, after four days spent digging huge clumps of Agapanthus out of someone else's garden, a difficult, daunting task. Agapanthus - aargh!
2011 November Week 4... Wed 23rd Nov 2011: Eek! It's the last week of November - so soon! But what a month - full of huge surprises, little treats, and beautiful flowering roses. And lots of good gardening work, done by me, grump-free. And I haven't finished yet!
2011 November Week 4 - More... Fri 25th Nov 2011: The littlest things in a day can bring the greatest joy. Half an hour of robust Brahms piano practice, half an hour planting pink and white daisies, half an hour zooming around the local recycling store... And a choir concert to sing in tonight with an orchestra. Lucky me!
2011 November Week 4 - Even More... Sat 26th Nov 2011: Yippee! I'm up super early to enjoy the morning, before the wind starts up. Big bearded irises flopping on the ground is one thing, but my foxgloves and lupins had better not fail. C'mon all of you - whites, apricots, blues, and pinks - stand tall, be strong. What's a little wind?
2011 End of November... Wed 30th Nov 2011: Roses, roses, roses. I love you all, even if I know barely half of your names. And the warmest of welcomes to the 'new' recycled roses, flowering for the first time. You are all very beautiful. Enjoy the rest of your life in my garden...
2011 December Week 1... Sun 4th Dec 2011: Oops. Summery December has taken me a bit by surprise. The temperature has gone up a notch. The garden is gasping in this sudden heat, and my little hoses and water buckets provide little help. Time for the big irrigation to come out of winter recess, I reckon!
2011 December Week 1 - More... Wed 7th Dec 2011: It's the silly but lovely pre-Christmas singing season, with morning carols in the sunshine and serious warbling concerts held indoors in the heat of a summer afternoon. Would I possibly rather be gardening? Oops - naughty!
2011 December Week 2... Sat 10th Dec 2011: OK. I remember saying I wouldn't dig out any more roses from other people's gardens, because summer was well advanced, and I didn't need any more roses. Then I felt sorry for this pinky-salmon beauty, and it was only one dollar, and...
2011 December Week 2 - More... Tue 13th Dec 2011: I'm quite nervous. Today I'm creating the complete route for the new Wattle Woods stream and organising the little pond at the bottom of the slope. And it's not so much of a slope, so I'd better have a good eye for terrain...
2011 December Week 3... Sat 17th Dec 2011: It only takes a couple of rainy days and my plants are exceedingly happy - as are huge swathes of grateful weeds. So be it. The yin-yang of gardening life, methinks, and I wouldn't want it any other way. But wait a tiny moment - how about a garden without excessive weeds? Hmm...
2011 December Week 3 - More... Tue 20th Dec 2011: I've started seriously landscaping my new wriggling stream through the Wattle Woods. It's hugely exciting have gently running water (and a gently sloping garden) to play with. And a little pond. There will be much watery dribbling and gushing in the journal this week...
2011 December Christmas Week... Fri 23rd Dec 2011: I have some new gardening rules for myself. One concerns my car. When the car boot is full of plastic bags of horse manure, there is no such thing as the gardener (me) 'being too tired'.
2011 December Christmas... Mon 26th Dec 2011: Summer sunshine, bellbirds singing so beautifully, cats behaving oddly (Escher the bouncing brown puppy stayed overnight), and my house family-full - life is really good, if one can forgive the surface interruptions (i.e. the pesky, scary aftershocks). And it's Christmas!
2011 December Week 4... Sat 31st Dec 2011: Suddenly it's very summer-hot. Sun-block, hat, cricket radio, and gardening shorts become important accessories of the summertime gardener. My horribly big task is to finish cleaning up all the hedge trimmings - before next year!