What's in a name?
Cat in the Orchard Roses
I'm sorry about getting all steamed up about rose names. OK, OK, it's probably a good time for that Shakespeare quote:
'What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.'
Monday 29th November
And so I've filled a vase with fragrant Compassion roses, and I've been out taking more photographs of the orchard roses. Percy my ginger cat has insisted on posing in all my pictures. Dear Percy - no gardener could possibly get het up about 'rose bloomers' with you skipping and bouncing so beautifully at her side.
I'm about to go outside to do some more weeding. And I don't care any more about the rose names, right? I'm dead-heading, and weeding, and trimming Aquilegias, and enjoying the sights and sounds of the summer garden.
Where Are You, Lilli-Puss?
Hopefully I will find Lilli-Puss (who is having one of her AWOL weeks), not get too hot, and certainly not get too bothered. I am lucky to be able to grow roses, and to have enough room to purchase more - and more - and more...
Pond Cottage
Later, Lunchtime...
I've seen Lilli the grey cat and sneakily fed her heaps of pet-meat rabbit, I've cleared two barrowfuls from the Willow Tree Garden (mainly forget-me-nots), and trimmed the edges.
And I've enjoyed a proper gardener's lunch - water, salad roll, strawberries and yoghurt, and coffee - on the white wire seat behind the pond. Then I stayed there and read my book in the shade, with my trusty dog flopped at my feet. Pond Cottage looks gorgeous across the water. Lucky me.
My next gardening session will be so hot - first I have to reapply some sun screen and water my patio pots. The tomatoes in the grow bags are huge - I thought I'd put the smaller cherry tomato plants therein, but I may have got the seedlings mixed up. Oh well...
Recycled Rose
Even Later...
One of the new recycled roses is flowering in the orchard - it's a luscious salmon red beauty, and this is its first proper summer. Nice. The Delphiniums by the pergola are looking good this year (they've self-seeded somewhat), and those purple Alliums are still flowering. They've outlasted the Aquilegias.
Cats Percy and Minimus
Thanks, Summer
I feel great - thank you, summer, for being providing such a gardener-friendly day. I've had yet another big weeding session, followed by a long swim in the Moosey pond. I floated on my back and looked up at the huge gum trees, and dog-paddled around and around - past the garden gnomes, past the white Calla lilies, past Pond cottage... My dog wandered around the pond path looking puzzled, while Minimus the little grey cat watched from the greenery.
I resisted the temptation to weed while floating. And now I'm clean and happy, and I love my summer garden.
Tuesday 30th November
I've had a genteel wandering sort of day in the garden. I've taken heaps of photographs of Rusty my dog - his sitting pose is always the same, and his white nose always gets over-exposed, photographically speaking.
And I've shifted hoses, bent lazily down to pick out a weed or two - nothing too strenuous (I've already swum a kilometre at the pool this morning). And now I need to shift the hoses again. Oh well - such a busy day!
Rusty the Dog By the Pond
Some exciting news - there's a three day trip in the Awatere (in Marlborough) on the high country station Glen Orkney. It's one of those gorgeous 'gourmet hiking' experiences, where bags and food can be carried to the hut. The owners have invited me to give it a go - and I'm really keen. It's a big-country tussock-land hike with some covenanted areas of native bush to enjoy, and the views look amazing.
Later...
Eek! November only has thirty days - this is the very last of those days, and I am totally wasting it. It's not even too hot or too sunny. Right. I'm off to shift the hoses yet again (there must be something else I should be doing).