Springing nicely into shape...
Bergenia Flowers
The garden is springing nicely into shape. Sunshine streams into the house until late afternoon, and the patios are calm, warm places to sit with a cup of tea and a good book.
Saturday 15th September
Great news - a book and CD of assorted plans for alternative technology projects has arrived in the post. Herein lies my potential waterwheel, to power the little stream which winds its way down the Wattle Woods. These are at their best in spring, too, when the Honesty is flowering. This year the variegated mallows, self sown, look magnificent, standing up in a sea of purple and white. The stream will make this area even more beautiful.
Once on a Garden Club trip I visited a garden whose owner had installed a waterwheel. She kept talking on and on about it - describing this and that in tremendous detail, and how difficult the project had been. I wandered over to have a look and was - oops - quite uninspired. But I know better now. I can appreciate, in a roundabout way, why she was so obsessive. Once you get it into your mind to want a waterwheel, well you just have to have one! It must be something to do with the circle of life...
My Vegetable Garden is Ready
As the spring garden sprouts and grows I'm spending more and more time outside. The Moosey cats are enjoying the warmer days. Today I thought I was alone, weeding and spreading compost on the vegetable garden, until I packed up the wheelbarrow to move on. Five sleepy cats appeared out of the Olearia hedge and faithfully followed me over the bridge.
Cerinthe :- Cerinthe is a beautiful annual which looks great when massed in a dappled shady place. The flower and leaf colours are very subtle.
I started the day in the glass-house pricking out blue Linum plants and lettuces and potting up more lupin cuttings. The benches are completely filled with ornamental (and edible) promises in pottles, though a cat has been digging up some of the Cerinthe seedlings. Oddly no others have been touched.
Sheep News
We still only have three lambs. One ewe has the fattest tummy - she must be due any day. I've relaxed my lamb-watch now that the weather has improved. Three wonderful factors of spring - cherry blossom, daffodils, and bouncing, wrinkly, merino lambs.
Sunday 16th September
To affirm and to celebrate the spring season I am zooming off into the Botanic Gardens to take some photographs of their blossom and their daffodils - they've got more than I have. However, I have the lambs - and this morning they will also be photographed.
Creamy White Camellia
When I write my journal in the mornings I feel full of energy and good sense - and maybe nonsense? There seems to be more to write about than time will permit. When I write in the afternoons I am always deeply, happily, tired, and my writing sounds like I'm grumping - it's not meant to. Oops. Sorry about that.
Oops - Sorry Son - Oops - Huge Apologies
And I have a huge apology to make to London son regarding my birthday present, or supposed lack of it. When I was in London in June he presented me with a velvet display case of solid silver spoons, inscribed by the Royal Horticultural Society, with flowers on each spoon head. It is proudly on view in the Moosey upstairs office. Now I remember - he said it was a birthday present. Oh dear, dear, dear me. How forgetful. A thousand oopses.
Beautiful B-Puss
Right. Today in the garden I will concentrate on doing one thing well. I will divide the hostas - a clump of species variegated ones in the Apple Tree Garden, hidden underneath a flax, and a clump in the Dog-Path garden which get fried in the full sun. I will then replant the quarters in sensible, semi-shady places.
Hostas
At this time of year I have mixed feelings about hostas - they are so slow to sprout, where other less elegant perennials, like foxgloves and scrophularia, are showing beautifully formed rosettes of green. Hostas are not so generous - not yet! I hope I haven't offended any hostaholics...
Mid-Afternoon...
Done - all done, just as I planned. All finished! I also dug out a couple of loads of home-made compost, spread them on the new Glass-House Garden, pricked out some viola seedlings, watered all the glass-house hopefuls - and weeded the small garden near the Pump House. Now we are off to the Botanic Gardens, where I will take photographs of cherry blossom (please would the wind stop blowing) and carpets of yellow daffodils - Phase One of Spring.
The Water Race
It is difficult to write about spring things without gushing - oh well, gushing is better than grumping. Jack on the Moosey forum has just published pictures of flowering Wisteria and leafy red Maples - that's Spring Phase Two, something to look forward to here.
Wonderful Waterwheel News
NGP (Non-Gardening Partner) was spotted poking around by the water near Rooster Bridge, carrying a tape measure. Ha! When questioned, he admitted that he's started planning the waterwheel - the diameter is to be about 1.5 meters. Wonderful news!
Monday 17th September
Aargh! September has passed the halfway point. What a rushing month - so many new things happening, so many little changes to keep up with. This morning I've been planting hebes, and shifting flaxes, and weeding the Driveway Garden. I have the hoses on the rhododendrons, and the sun is streaming through the tops of the gum trees. Those tops are going to be cut down in a few weeks, so I won't tidy the Pittosporum forest underneath yet. But I haven't forgotten about it...
My Big Blossom Tree
Am still embarrassed about forgetting that my silver spoons set was a London-son birthday present. It makes me wonder what else I've forgotten... Have I absent-mindedly offended or slighted anyone? Oops. Perhaps I just need to get out more...
Spring Twins!
Twin lambs (a boy and a girl) were born successfully this morning - our neighbour came down just in case. I'd take this ewe for a mother any day - she is totally attentive, and won't move off unless she has both little lambs beside her. Her maternal instincts are unshakeable - even when the neighbour and I wedged her in the yards to check her rear end. Both lambs are feeding, and the sun is shining down to well and truly dry their coats. Dear little things - up on their feet so quickly.
Now I'm going to return to the garden, though I don't feel very springy. Still, I have been swimming, and I've single-handedly fended off yet another visiting tree trimmer. There are truckloads of cowboy arborists doing the rounds of the neighbourhood, looking for business, preying on old blonde gardeners. A thought - I've planted all my new plants - so by my self-imposed house-and-garden rules I'm allowed to buy some more. There's room for a couple of flaxes in the Driveway Garden, hee hee...
Later...
Having lost almost all my oomph, I decided to do some semi-sedentary glass-house work - pricking out more viola seedlings, and dividing and potting some lime green Stachys. Now I'm really, really tired again and my brain has gone to sleep. I have to go out to choir, when all I really want to do is to go to bed. Oh dear! Coffee! Wake up!