At the beginning of winter, on the weekend called Queen’s Birthday Weekend in Australia, we enjoyed the company of brothers and sisters and undertook a small bushwalk on the New South Wales central coast just north of Sydney. Twisted, gnarly Angophora costata trees are found in abundance in this area, rising above thick undergrowth, lifting…
Surviving. SOS March 18. 2023.
Here in the Central Tablelands of NSW, we don’t need the Bureau of Meteorology to tell us La Niña is over. This fact has been apparent for some time as we haven’t received decent rain since January 22. Our total for February was 7.4 mm and there has been no rain in March. At the…
SoS: January 21, 2023. Summer Garden.
It’s been three weeks since I last posted a Six and during that time the weather has been hot (over 30 degrees every day), and windy and the garden has dried out. It’s almost as though we never had all the rain which fell frequently for three years. The hoses have been working overtime but…
SoS: Last Post December 31 2022.
This, of course, is the last post for 2022. Probably the less said about the past year, the better. All we can hope for really is an improvement. In my garden, which was wet and soggy for most of the year, there has been a dramatic turnaround. Several weeks of not terribly hot , but…
A Change in the Weather, SoS December 10, 2022.
La Niña, it seems, has decided to leave. It isn’t official yet, but the weather we have been experiencing for the last three weeks indicates the departure of that famous lady. Although it hasn’t been hot, not at all, it has been dry and windy. Parts of the garden look sad. The lawn has lost…
SoS, 16 November 2022
It’s a quick six from me this week. Unexpected and most welcome visitors have claimed some time: a very enjoyable visit to the local growers’ market was a lovely way to spend the morning. Locally grown olives and bottles of olive oil, wine for which the town and its environs are famous, delicious baked goods,…
Time for Roses. SoS November 5 2022.
Altogether there is a baker’s dozen of roses in the back garden. Most of them are positioned amongst other plants as I prefer that to putting them in special rose beds with almost bare soli around them. The latter is probably good gardening practice and no doubt better in terms of rose health, but mine…
Happy Industry.
For the last few weeks photinias have been full of blossom. They’re very common around here and we have an inherited photinia hedge at the back of our garden. It is becoming a bit overgrown and there are two opinions about how it should be cut, and so it is not being cut at all….
Irises, SoS, October 22, 2022.
There used to be an Iris farm not far from us, but it closed down a couple of years ago. I liked going sometimes to choose an iris or two to plant in my garden. The proprietor would carefully write the name of the iris in black pen along one of the plant’s strappy leaves,…
Wet. 💦 SoS 8 October, 2022.
Early this morning, during a break from the rain, I stepped outside to take some photos. There’s a paddling pool in the back garden that wasn’t there before. And the rain has continued most of the day. Dams are full, rivers have almost broken their banks, swirling brown water rushes along every creek, people are…