Winter is (finally) here. And I welcome it. I find it such a relief after the unremitting heat of summer and I admire the elegance of naked trees silhouetted against the sky. I can snuggle into bed at night, and don't become a sad and soggy mess within minutes of going outside.
We are lucky here and while (by Australian standards) we get cool weather, the skies are usually blue. Sunshine and frost go together beautifully. And I also love the softer foggy mornings. Which is lucky, because I can't change any of it.
That said, I am also looking forward to spring.
In my obsessional way I bought far too many spring bulbs. Again. Just as I did last year and the year before and as I almost certainly will next year.
As I have whinged, bitched, moaned often, I am as supple as a brick. I find getting to the ground difficult, and getting up again worse. I have crawled across the lawn before now to pull myself up using the front steps. Not only is it difficult, it is painful. Which makes gardening a challenge on the days I am feeling polite and multiple expletives difficult on the other and more common days.
However, I am as stubborn as stains. I love my garden. Playing in it eases my soul and there is always something to do. Usually a lot to do. So I have started rehabilitative physiotherapy. Whose sole aim is to give me some flexibility back and allow me to play in the garden. More safely and more easily.
I have some twenty exercises to do. I have indicated to the physiotherapist that she must take sadistic pills with her breakfast because I don't think that the malevolence she displayed in designing them comes naturally. She laughed - which supports my theory about sadistic pills. Many of the exercises make me sweat. Some make me swear. None of them are easy.
BUT THEY ARE WORKING!!!!
I have finally finished most (but not all) of the weeding, and have squeeeeezed the last of the bulbs into the ground. I have focussed on colour and on scent. And lots of the bulbs are starting (too early) to poke their way through the ground.
These are photos from earlier springs. I am hoping for bigger and better displays this year.
And today we have gentle, blissful, lifegiving rain. Which will help the bulbs in the ground. And will make it easier to put in the 120 liliums which the smaller portion (not me this time) succumbed to, and which arrived yesterday. Next week perhaps...
We are lucky here and while (by Australian standards) we get cool weather, the skies are usually blue. Sunshine and frost go together beautifully. And I also love the softer foggy mornings. Which is lucky, because I can't change any of it.
That said, I am also looking forward to spring.
In my obsessional way I bought far too many spring bulbs. Again. Just as I did last year and the year before and as I almost certainly will next year.
As I have whinged, bitched, moaned often, I am as supple as a brick. I find getting to the ground difficult, and getting up again worse. I have crawled across the lawn before now to pull myself up using the front steps. Not only is it difficult, it is painful. Which makes gardening a challenge on the days I am feeling polite and multiple expletives difficult on the other and more common days.
However, I am as stubborn as stains. I love my garden. Playing in it eases my soul and there is always something to do. Usually a lot to do. So I have started rehabilitative physiotherapy. Whose sole aim is to give me some flexibility back and allow me to play in the garden. More safely and more easily.
I have some twenty exercises to do. I have indicated to the physiotherapist that she must take sadistic pills with her breakfast because I don't think that the malevolence she displayed in designing them comes naturally. She laughed - which supports my theory about sadistic pills. Many of the exercises make me sweat. Some make me swear. None of them are easy.
BUT THEY ARE WORKING!!!!
I have finally finished most (but not all) of the weeding, and have squeeeeezed the last of the bulbs into the ground. I have focussed on colour and on scent. And lots of the bulbs are starting (too early) to poke their way through the ground.
These are photos from earlier springs. I am hoping for bigger and better displays this year.
And today we have gentle, blissful, lifegiving rain. Which will help the bulbs in the ground. And will make it easier to put in the 120 liliums which the smaller portion (not me this time) succumbed to, and which arrived yesterday. Next week perhaps...
