Changing Seasons : March 2021

It has been a very wet month. In the middle of the month we had 335mm of rain over 4 days, and a total of 457mm for the month. It was torrential, causing flash flooding in many areas of the state. But our corner of the Gold Coast escaped the worst of the downpours with no flooding, and our garden soaked it all up like a sponge and just thrived. Everywhere glowed in all shades of green, and I was able to take time out from the constant watering.

Not many flowers around at this time of the year, but look at all the shades of green. I think these will qualify for Jude’s monthly “Life in Colour” challenge.

An exception to the rule is this prolifically flowering Salvia. The bees love it.

Now the weather is cooling down we have started redesigning a few areas. Gardens are constantly growing and this year has been an amazing growth time with many areas going rampant. So time to take back control. In spring I tried an experiment with a wild flower corner, but it just became a wild weed corner. So now it has been cleaned out , layered with compost, manure dug in and covered in mulch. I plan to put a native shrub in, but still have to decide what it will be…

before

I don’t often show you the feral parts of the garden, tending to showcase the beauty.

This is going to be another shady seating area. Blue ginger is already thriving and a clump of Peace Lilies will go behind the seat. It is covered in plastic at the moment to protect it from rain before it is given a coat of paint. 

This corner was very overgrown, but thinking I might put some more perennials in here 

This area was thick with 20 years of Dietes and very overgrown. What a job Jack had getting them cleared. But now it is another sitting area and I will plant with Bromeliads.

We have had two outings this month. One very special one was a belated birthday present for us. We both share the same day and I like to try and find something special to celebrate with each March. Last year it was lunch on Sydney Harbour. (Check here to see it again.) This year I booked an evening at a secret classical, candlelight concert. It certainly was a secret because when I booked in February I didn’t even know where the venue was to be. It was all booked through Facebook!!! and the tickets didn’t arrive into my mailbox. It wasn’t until just a week before the concert that the venue was revealed, still the tickets had not arrived.

I was getting worried.

The venue was way over on the Northern end of the Gold Coast at Sanctuary Cove, almost an hours drive away, and I can’t drive at night now. So I thought let’s treat ourselves and I booked us into the Intercontinental Hotel as the concert was to be held in one of their conference rooms.

I still didn’t have the tickets…

The day of the concert we drove over to Sanctuary Cove. We had a delicious lunch at “Georges” famous seafood restaurant. Then settled in to the 5 star luxury hotel. First time we had ever stayed 5 star as we have always been most definitely budget travelers. At 8-15pm we joined the queue to be scanned in via the QR reader and digital tickets…

We still hadn’t received the tickets. I had been emailing daily over to the company in Madrid with urgent requests for them to send the tickets…

But all’s well that ends well, the delightful manager a 6 foot tall, statuesque woman, with a figure like a model and a sumptuous off one shoulder, black evening gown, was brought over to help us. She was all apologetic and said there had been a few hiccoughs as it was a new venture on the Gold Coast, and she took us to our seat. What an evening, the professional string quartet played Vivaldi’s 4 seasons and I closed my eyes and was transported into Vivaldi’s world.

Next morning we woke to another brilliant, sunshine day.Gaze out from the sunlit balcony across to the marina and all the million dollar boats lined up and spotted wallabies grazing on the lawn below our unit. How lucky we were as these were the only consecutive sunny days in between days of torrential rain.

Then it was down to breakfast and spent the rest of the day wandering around and taking time to do some sketching before heading back home.

Last Sunday the weather turned fine again, so on the spur of the moment we went on another outing and took a drive to the Gold Coast Botanic Garden.

Jack has recently been fascinated with all things Japanese, the culture, the lifestyle and the art and when he came across the word “komorabi” He shared it with me and we became fascinated with this concept and when we walked around the Botanic Gardens I tried to capture the essence of this word in the photos I took that day. The light was reflecting through the trees creating a magical effect of “komorebi”

Translation of Komorebi

Komorebi is an untranslatable word, which eloquently captures the effect of sunlight streaming through the leaves of the trees. The shadow created on the ground, or even in our curtains, describes this everyday beauty.

It is the interplay of the aesthetics between the shadows and the leaves, and the shape of nature’s wisest earthly existence –  trees.

To equate the powerful beauty projected by this word with “sunbeam” or “sunshine” would be an injustice to nature’s landscape – our magnificent perpetual muse.

The etymology of the word komorebi is a quite logical and obvious one. Komorebi is a compound of four characters – three kanji and the hiragana particle れ.

The first kanji 木 means ‘tree’ (or ‘trees‘), the second one 漏 refers to ‘escape’ and the last one 日 is ‘light‘ or ‘sun‘ and there we come to the literal, yet very poetic meaning of the term komorebi – the sunshine filtering through the leaves of trees.

The closest English equivalent is probably the phrase: dappled sunlight.”

So it has been a busy and satisfying month and I have not been around the blogging community very often. Just occasionally dropping in to keep in touch. But I do enjoy joining in with Su’s “changing season” challenge. A great way for me to keep track of my monthly happenings.