So much to do...
There's so much to do in the winter garden. For example, bonfiring. Blast. All those hedge trimmings, lying around on the grass. Don't really want to think about them, write about them, or do anything with them. But they have to be cleared up. And that's that!
Burning the Hedge Trimmings
Later - success! Non-Gardening Partner helped me all afternoon. Took the opportunity to cut dead leaves off the beautiful striped Phormium Tricolor in Middle Garden. Collected up gum and Cordyline leaves to layer the green Leyland trimmings. It all went rather well, considering. Very smoky, though.
Winter Mirror Flower
Monday 21st June
It's raining again. We've had five months without any reasonable rain for the garden and paddocks. And now nature is catching up, redressing the balance. The garden is again happily saturated, the bell-birds are whistling joyously (they get super-noisy in the rain). Flocks of squeaky little birds (wax-eyes) are back, feeding on their bird feeder.
Yesterday NGP and I did a really retro rainy-day thing - we went for a drive. Shameful, in these days of eco-consciousness! I took the chance to tell him all the things I needed chain-sawed down. Did he listen? Probably not, hee hee.
There's not much, garden-wise, that I could have done today. Aha! I could have cleaned out my glass-house, but funny - one never feels like doing this in winter. And this is exactly when it should be done. OK. I knew that! I did lots of singing practice instead. Took ages. Mozart's Vespers K339 is coming up in a concert in a couple of weeks. Eek! Squillions of latin words that I've never seen before.
Tuesday 22nd June
Winnie is 'doing well' (physically, at least) but showing some bad dog-manners - barking, whining, making assorted let-me-out-of-my-crate noises. Time to get out the wobbly Kong, into which dog kibble can be inserted, to exercise that bored collie brain. At least she is allowed to go for longer walks. Yeay!
Lilli-Puss :- Shut in my sewing room, back home after six years missing in the feline wilderness...
Have had my morning cup of tea with Lilli-Puss. Explained more details of the cat-person connection : as well as purring and smooching, being good cat-company requires some sitting on laps. So far all that Lilli does is a sort of flop. But hey! This is progress. She is 'doing well' too (such a bland comment, that).
Winter Phormium Colours
Now the sun is shining, so I could easily be tempted back into the garden. Many things to do - for example, finish trimming the Gunnera and start trimming the ferns, which have all turned brown. I've put on my gardening jeans just in case. Hee hee. Found a rogue packet of chocolate blocks in the car. Breakfast! Naughty...
Much Later...
Nope. It went grey, it drizzled, it got cold, I went grocery shopping, bought apples and bananas for the birdies.
Winter Astelias
Isn't it the winter solstice? The year's half-way point? Onward to summer, I say! And while I remember...
A Solstice Chain-Sawing List for NGP
- Willow stump sprouts.Dead plum tree in Pond Paddock.
- Leaning Wattle behind glasshouse.
- Assorted branches overhanging driveway
- Sprouting gum trees in the Hump Garden.