Changing Seasons : June 2020

It has been a month of mishaps and medical appointments. A constant round of Doctor’s appointments, physio, MRI, scans and specialists. With not much time to work in the garden or on the computer. But nature, being quite capable of surviving, continues to do its seasonal thing.

The annuals planted last month are starting to flower. The pansies cheerful, little faces smile up at me as I walk by.

Seeds saved from the prolific marigolds have been scattered around (and protected by the cat deterrent forks) are appearing in a carpet of potential, golden display.

It was June last year when we cut down the palms from the centre bed (see here). Now the vision I had of a bed bathed in light and overflowing with annuals and perennials is slowly evolving.

 

Though I have not done much work in the garden this month I still find time, every day, to walk around and find moments of tranquility when I can appreciate the quiet, slow growth of winter still continuing, as the garden prepares for the exuberant growth of spring.

The star of the show this month is the Zygo cactus

But many others are still giving me pleasure. The Busy Lizzies are a riot of colour in a shady corner. The Banksia candles shine. The Wattle is now 2 years old and has produced its first flower stem. The “Peaches and Cream” Grevillea is also 2 years old and I love the unusual, delicate colours of the flower.

In this last photo the Nasturtiums have started their rampant takeover, it will soon be a sea of orange.

The tomatoes have been a tragedy. After carefully nursing them along and watching the trusses of tomatoes developing. Imagining the harvest of deliciousness to come. Something else was also watching them. Overnight it/they ate over half of them while they were still small and green. I put material bags over the remaining few. But next morning the bags had been nibbled through and the rest of the tomatoes had gone…. So far I have not been able to catch or kill the culprit. So I have sacrificed the plants to the compost. Oh well, win some, lose some….

Another shock was the water bill when it came in last week. The amount owing had doubled with an alert notice to check for leaks.

Sure enough look what the plumber found. Fixed now but still waiting for the bill…

But to finish on a happy note my weekly art group and the monthly Calligraphy group start again in July.

The calligraphy group had given us a project to work on during stay at home time. Our mission, if we accept it, was to create 12 bookmarks and incorporate calligraphy or lettering on them. I finished number 12 yesterday and we will be meeting July 12th to “show and tell” and exchange bookmarks with each other.

These are one side of my 12 creations…

And this is the calligraphy/lettering on the other side.

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I’m so pleased Su of “Zimmerbitch” runs this challenge. Check out her June “changing season”  post. She has an interesting recipe for squash, fennel and orange soup and some background into Maori words. This monthly challenge prompts me to try and keep a record of each month. I can go back two years and see what was happening in June 2018   and June 2019