Spring is just around the corner

Hi R
I heard that your Spring is slow in coming this year so I thought this might cheer you up.
C

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Will early spring blooms survive?

Early Spring in Wisconsin

R wrote

Hello from sunny Wisconsin. It's mid March and 70 degrees. I have trees in bloom and perennials popping up everywhere. The grass is green and Roberto will no doubt want to cut it soon. Only problem is, this can't last. Not here. We are due for a deep freeze yet to come. So who knows what will happen to my garden. I actually have the air conditioner running because without the shade of all our trees, this place is a hot house.

Clara - 70 degrees in March!!! The groundhog must have seen his shadow (or whatever he does). Poor little plants though - hope they survive. I remember how you shrouded your early spring garden one year when a big freeze was forecast.  You saved it!   I have searched for the post but couldn't find it.  Had lots of fun going back over the years  - brought back great memories, your amazing year of design.   Perhaps you can find the photo I was looking for.
I'm doing a 'Make your own book' course for two Saturdays - maybe you should publish highlights from a year of design. 

We are into Autumn and finally having sunny weather instead of deluges of rain with floods in many states.  Today we went to the fish markets -  a glorious day on the water so we had a little lunch there.

Early Autumn in Sydney

  

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Bloom where you are planted

Taking thyme to plant herbs is time well spent


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Sage is an attractive useful herb


Hi R
I loved your blog re the end of summer  -  changing of the seasons is a truly glorious time. We are coming out of our relatively mild winter compared to yours but we actually do it tough since we ignore the short sharp cold months and heat inadequately. I adore the warm soft sun during these magical days before the heat. Today was a glorious day which had to be spent pottering in the garden. 

My garden is quite Tuscan with rosemary now growing well and flowering; thyme as a ground cover, sage growing wild and lavender of course. Most flowers seem to be of lavender hue and this year I have let the violets grow wild, creating a significant ground cover. 

 Potted geraniums and pergonias flower constantly, gardenias struggle for some reason even though neighbours plants produce beautiful blooms. Reminds me of a saying that a friend and I had – “Bloom where you are planted,” we would quote then break into song on the way to The Rowers, where they had a band every Sunday evening. A well deserved break from the relentlessness of single parenting, dancing and socialising until the wee small hours of 9pm when we turned into pumpkins.

There is a growing community awareness here re the value of growing your own herbs and vegetables, with community gardens springing up on nature strips. In Italy, it is a very serious business to have a strip of land in a community garden and the family lives off the yield. Not quite sure if we have the same commitment yet, since when walking the neighbourhood, a few attempts seem to have ended with what looks like abandonment as weeds take over. One wonders whether the enthusiasm died or whether a few were expected to do the work of many – hopefully with spring in the air they will be revisited.
Clara of green fingers

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Small herb plot yields antiageing greens

Hi R and other lovers of leafy greens

Today was a beautiful day in Mosman following serious serial rain - Spring / Autumn to me are the ultimate seasons where the humidity is low, the breeze can be cool but the sun on one's back as you view the clear horizon, is divine.  But we are missing out on this; and soon it will be hot and humid. You have the opposite as I see some white precipitation in your photos.

As you know I am passionate about leafy greens and herbs, so today G and I sowed some seeds - flat leafed parsley, known for it's excellent flavour, spinach (perpetual leaf, easy to grow with continuous cropping - according to the packet), some shallots for salads which harvest in 8-12 weeks, to join the existing rocket which can be sown all year round - love the peppery flavour added to roasted veges, and wilted rocket is divine. Our basil crop is doing well - this part of the land has a few hazards re survival of the species - insects, possums (protected).

It was  a good day, as G & I worked our little plot which doesn't have quite enough sun and even though the yield isn't huge, I adore being able to pick a few leafy greens, knowing that they are such a powerhouse re antiageing qualities.

Clara
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Robin's Egg Blue...April 18th

R wrote - We went on a long walk today and found this wonderful empty bird nest.
 

Clara - I enlarged it - your beautiful pendant looks just like an egg - and are they what I think they are?  - GREEN LEAVES, bursting through with new, fresh life?  Yes!  Yeahhhh!  Almost time to bring out the Maypole and dance......  And you knew your words 'empty nest' would spur me into action.  Where are those tiny cute robins that bravely pecked their way out of an egg?  Do they miss their mom .... or dod? (why is it that you guys call Mum -  Mom, but Dad is still Dad? Why not Dod?)...     or did they never really know them?  Did their parents have to kick them out of the nest?  Did they feel that their birdparents didn't deliver? What about the 'braces' or the undelivered 'car'?  Will they be around to be a MOG or a FOB? (Father of the Bride). Will they elope or face the ultimate trauma?  Important unanswered questions. And you thought it was just an empty nest.