High Summer

We are getting some very hot weather, but up until now we’ve have been able to water the garden enough to keep everything green. The roses are flowering of course, but not as well as last year. I don’t think I can have pruned them very well last winter. The old agapanthus look quite spectacular, I especially like the white ones, and the hydrangeas are in flower too. We have a few different sorts in the garden and I have had some success in striking cuttings from them. The rabbits don’t eat them so I love them very much. They act as ‘mine canaries’ and tell me when the garden around them needs water when they begin to look very droopy and thirsty. The other flower that has naturalized around the place is the very exotic tiger lily. The bright orange spotty curly flowers appear in lots of odd spots. I have collected lots of bulbils from their stems to plant for next year. They make great blooms to bring inside and go so well in the vase with the dark burgundy gladiolus from the maple bed.

Our echnida has been making his rounds again. This time he ventured up 5 steps onto our deck, nosed around for a while, squashed under the gate and went off on his way down the other steps.

We think that a pair of harriers are nesting in the big gums outside the garden. You can hear their distinctive call frequently. In the gums on the other side of the garden you can hear the distinctive hooping call of a white crane who roosts there at night.