Snow!
Let Me Back In!
Oops. I must not insult the weather experts, belittling their years of study and their use of the mathematics of statistical modelling. They said it would snow - and they were right.
Later, Saturday 7th June
Aargh! Snow! I've been wandering around outside knocking snow off flaxes, Hebes and Pittosporums. It's the first wet-and-white experience for my new cats Percy, Histeria and Lilli-Puss (hiding underneath the decking, but now happily scoffing dried food upstairs). The futility of it all - Rusty the dog has been desperately concentrating, chasing snowballs. He has no reaction whatsoever to the cold and the wet.
Sorry, Tiger!
Meanwhile, back in the Moosey-cave, Mugsy is too scared (of wet feet), Stumpy is as usual asleep, and Tiger the tortoiseshell, fascinated by the floating white things, keeps wanting to go outside. They might be edible!
Crab Apples in the Snow
I brought this nasty weather on by dismissing the weather forecast as a load of rubbish. Snow to nearly sea level? No way - not on this garden. Actually, we are about one hundred meters above...
Fetch the Snowball!
Next Day, Sunday 8th June
Hmm... Right. It did snow - for about four hours, enough to settle on the Pittosporums and bend all their branches (creak, groan), and semi-flatten some large flaxes. This morning, snug in the house, the lawns are white, and the sun is peeping through the Shrubbery. Yippee for thermals! Layers of merino - lovely!
Fluff-Fluff Shows His Tummy
Good morning to Percy, a purring lap-cat who knows to lean in (a very important cat-body position) and not to sit on the computer keyboard (vital PC cat-etiquette). And good morning to Fluff-Fluff, posing shamelessly in front of the log-burner. What a scruffy cat-tummy...
Unsubtle White Blobs...
Yesterday I pranced around taking flashlight photographs - as a predominantly snowless gardener one just has to capture such moments, if only for ones personal records. Allow me to share some of these, and please forgive any unsubtle white blobs in the foreground.
Snow in the Garden
As for today - I'm off outside to get Rusty the dog out of his kennel. Hope that his Lavender garden hasn't been shocked into premature decline. I'll check the hens, and throw them some extra wheat. Not enough snow has settled to need to feed out the sheep. All will be quickly back to normal.
There will probably be no real gardening done today. But I'm enjoying the crazy garden colours in snow and sunshine, and looking forward to a swift, painless thaw. All my snowed-under plants will bounce back. There will be minimal damage!