Out of the woods

Aloe flower

I got Dad to snap this one too, like red hot poker except, less poky...the succulent leaves however do have spikes, so this ones under Dad's bedroom window.

Dad has been culling my trees. Manuka got the chop as it was 'spoiling my view'...of the sky. So now I have a pile of walking sticks, and firewood/bbq kindling.

I was naturally rather upset.

I don't deal that well with violence against trees. Weeds, ok, I can pull them out no problem. But trees which have been growing that I have personally planted? Not so much.

On the bright side, (now we have more sun on the deck) Cenny has gifted me two lemon trees in pots for my birthday. I have left them in the pots so far as digging a hole for them in clay is like digging a grave for them to drown in. I recruited mum to come down with me to Woodside to get some seaweed mulch for them.  While there I sneakily snuck in some rose cuttings by the fence from my birthday rose bunch sister Glennis gave me. It's not so bad having a birthday during lockdown, I decide. I got to stay at home and have peace and quiet.

I am drying these rosebuds to make potpourri. The big cake was carrot cake and the others blueberries, lemon, raspberries, viola and chocolate.

At virus level 2 I have not rushed to the garden centre as of yet since it is going into the barren period (in fact, shopping is sometimes more of an ordeal than before) and it is getting cooler...we just need to pray for more rain as our dams are now only 40%. There are hose restrictions but seeing as I never watered the garden with a hose anyway it won't matter. But installing a rainwater harvester on the garage roof is a good idea, but like all good ideas they don't always happen at the time of having the good idea. If I had my good ideas happen straight away I would now be sitting pretty and not wondering why the garage spouting is leaking and rusted still.

They say the best time to plant a tree is ten years ago...and the second best time is to plant them now.
Mum surprised me by saying she wanted the fig tree that Dad nearly killed planted in the ground to grow big (and lots of figs) but now there is no room left to plant them in the garden, unless Dad moves into the Sky Tower to have his unimpeded view of the universe.

Blogging it with flowers

Dad took some pics of the flowers in the garden yesterday --it seems red and purple is the current theme. The leaves on the deciduous trees are starting to turn...it's going to be a glorious autumn.

Begonia

Tomato...not a flower Dad.

Bromeliad

Mexican Sage

Streptocarpus

Tillandsia