Spring is coming (or so I thought)
09 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Garden Tags: garden, home, Spring
Last week we had unseasonally warm weather – beautiful days above 20 degrees and I was at work. On the weekend, the day when I spend a lot of time standing at soccer fields, it rained – heavily and it was cold. The top temperature was around 8 degrees at 8.30am, and then it just got colder.
But in the hope that spring was coming we started to get the garden ready. I feel very blessed by the garden that has been left to me by the previous owner of this house. While the front yard is a blank canvas, that I am currently trying to ignore, the backyard is well established. There are a couple of large decidous trees and the neighbour’s peppercorn tree towers over all my yard, providing some frost protection.
So far there has been something in flower constantly, so while the trees are bare, there are flowers popping up. At the moment I have flowering in the garden camellias (which have been going since autumn, each tree after the other), daphne ( though a little bit beaten up by the frost), violets both purple & white, daffodils, and azalea, and hiding in a sheltered spot is an iris. Other shrubs are looking pregnant with buds – they are just ready to burst.
This is the camellia I view as I sit in the sunroom. It is full of blossoms and they are the most soft pink.
The daphne that isn’t looking too crash hot. It has the most gorgeous flowers, and its smelling so sweetly, but the middle of the bush is shrivelled & brown. It amazes me that the same bush can be so very ugly and so very beautiful.
Violets tumbling over the rocks. There are violets all through the garden – maybe too many.
One of the more than 30 rose bushes we pruned into submission. There are roses with the most amazing thorns in this garden – definitely not friendly roses at all. Once they flower I will be able to determine whether some of the old thornys really deserve their spot in the garden.
There is lots of cleaning up & weeding to do, but they are jobs they make my heart fill with joy as the beauty of this old garden, and the hidden gems, become apparent.
A little bit of daylight
06 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: 12WBT, autumn, Daylight Savings, fall, Spring
There have been many many letters in our local paper this week about the commencement of daylight savings. For the last few years daylight savings has run from the first weekend in October through to the first weekend in April – 6 long months! Quite a number of people are complaining about having daylight savings at all.
I like daylight savings in Summer. I enjoy the long days and having lovely sunny evenings to get things done and to enjoy time with the boys and friends. What I don’t like is daylight savings in early Spring and Autumn. This may work well if you live on the coast, but in the Nations Capital it is just too early.
I have really been enjoying the mornings. Waking up early to exercise, seeing the sun finish rising over the mountains behind my house and hearing the birds waking up. But this week…….
Tuesday was tough – it was just daybreak when I took off for my warmup walk. This morning was nearly impossible – 5.30am and it was pitch black. Yep, the birds were starting to wake up, but I couldn’t see the magpies eyeing me off to swoop. It was difficult to be motivated to get out of bed in the dark, after the lovely mornings from last week. And it was still dark when I arrived home. I really didn’t get the same enjoyment this morning as I did last week.
Daylight savings at this time of year is great for those people who do things in the evenings, and an evening walk is a beautiful way to end the day. But for those of us who are morning people – it is just tough going. I feel like I am being penalised by a government decision to align us with Tasmania – why couldn’t they change to align with us???
I know in a few weeks it will be fine again – but why couldn’t daylight savings start then????
Spring has sprung!!
22 Sep 2010 1 Comment
in Garden Tags: 12WBT, garden, home, Spring, Weight Loss
One of the things I love most about living in the nations capital is the way we can enjoy all four seasons. And we are now moving into one of my favourite times of the year. The frosts are becoming lighter and less common, the darkness is closing in later and the daytime temps are slowly warming – they are predicting 22 for Monday!!!
My garden is springing back to life so I thought I would share a couple of pics.
The daffodils have been blooming for a few weeks now and so I think their time will soon be ending. Does anything scream out spring more than a heap of daffs? I always think of William Wordsworth poem when I look at them -
I WANDER’D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
- A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
It makes me feel happy!
And then there us the rosemary – it smells amazing. And it is full of buzzing bees.
Finally the grape hyacinths. They make me smile everytime I go to the front door. I think these will also soon be fading fast.
The weather and the flowers have inspired me to do more in the garden – I have forked some grass, thrown around some grass seed in desperate hope that we will continue to get enough rain for it to grow, fertilised, weeded and pruned. I feel so inspired that this weekend I am even going to paint some outdoors bits on the house.
What do you love about spring?
Kelli
PS first 12wbt weigh in today – after only 2 days on the program I achieved a 1.1kg loss. Very happy with that, though a bit sore from the exercising.
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