Tag: wind flowers

Last hurrah for summer

Japanese anemones/wind flowers make shadows on the path.

A woman at singing this morning reminded me that it’s the official last day of summer today. After several gloomy days, this afternoon is brilliant with sunshine. The crickets are chirping – always a sign that it’s nearly the end of summer. But the light is lovely, slanting in and casting shadows as the sun moves lower in the sky. The raspberries, apples and grapes are ripening. I felt a pang that the hens are all gone. They loved the grapes and would stand under the grapevine looking meaningfully upwards if I was near. I picked the first bunch today.

Blue sage towers over my head. The cranberries are plump and smell divine. The Japanese anemones flower in late summer and are at their best now. The roses are giving it their last shot. Bees are busy.

Blue sage
NZ Cranberry
The feijoa has grown tall and has fruit. The Cecile Brunner is still flowering above the Japanese anemones.
Busy bee in the roses
Strawberry Ice
Blueberry Hill

I found some new (to me) varieties of greens for the vertical garden. As ‘hardy greens’ they may prove to be good for winter salads. What great names they have!

Time to repair to the egg chair – with a slice of watermelon – to enjoy this glorious day. Perhaps we’ll have one of those lovely warm autumns…

Home sweet home

It has felt quite good to be retired (note the qualification). Being at home has always been something to look forward to, such as at the end of each working day and during holidays. Now that we have to stay home, home remains a sanctuary for me.

There was a southerly blast last night and I’m pleased I photographed the roses before they were blown about. There’s a nice autumn second – or third – blooming happening.

The abundance of Japanese anemones or wind flowers brightens the whole garden (once you’ve got ’em, you’ve got ’em). At night, the flowers close up forming lovely nodding heads.

Loads of cranberries, framed by Japanese anemones – and parsley, chives, swan plants, Cecile Brunner, pittosporum, kowhai, and lilac which is turning to autumn colours.

There are white anemones too, with one of three rhubarb plants behind.

Herbs, fruit and vegetables are doing pretty well despite, in some cases, the ravages of chooks and caterpillars.

It’s rather nice to have hens to keep me company when I’m out in the garden. Yesterday, I picked the seventh bowl of raspberries, and a few blueberries. The chooks don’t like raspberries, but love to jump up and pick low-hanging grapes. Mostly, they prefer to scratch about for bugs.

I felt sorry for the hens when it rained the other day. They didn’t go into their little house for shelter. Instead they huddled under trees or scratched about in the rain getting quite wet and bedraggled. So I found an old umbrella and tied it up over their perch. There it sits quite fetchingly under the banksia rose and behind the abutilon and fairy rose. Even Popcorn, the white hen, matches the colour scheme as she turns pink under the umbrella!

Making a “home sweet home” for the hens is calming somehow in these days of uncertainty and anxiety. My WEA course on Sustainable Living has been cancelled (with two sessions to go) but now I can practise what I have learned at home.