There were times this morning when I thought I may have to forego my contribution to Cathy’s In A Vase On Monday this week. We have had several days of rain, and I know from past experience that with the amount of rain we’ve had, flowers need time to dry out. They look rather droopy and frazzled otherwise.
This is the scene I was met with when I reached the pink Gerberas. With heads laden with raindrops and drooping towards the ground, they otherwise looked okay … ish! I thought I’d pick them all, and see how they faired when taken inside the house and left to dry out for the day.
A very lovely Jude the Obscure rose tempted me; however, with that amount of water on her petals, I know that Jude would not be any happier indoors.
Likewise, Desdemona appears fresh and beautiful now the weather has cooled slightly, but she needs to dry before she can visit a vase indoors.
By later this afternoon, the Gerberas were beginning to dry off. Their petals are not as perfect as I have seen them in the past, but given their appearance this morning, they look much happier now.
Even the back off the Gerbera flowers are rather attractive!
Today, I gained a new appreciation for IAVOM contributors who manage to arrange a single species of flowers in a vase successfully. Who knew how difficult it would be!
When the pink Gerberas flopped to the side of the “vases” I knew I needed more flowers to hold them in place, so dashed outside again to grab a few red flowers.
A great advantage of Gerberas, however, is how photogenic these beauties are, when photographed individually. ❤
So my contribution this week to In a Vase on Monday, albeit late in the day – and using imperfect flowers – was once again an enjoyable challenge! 🙂
The colour of roses conveys a message to the recipient, so today I wish to send my “gratitude and appreciation” to my blogging friends, by sending you all a pink rose for St. Valentine’s Day.
As those who read my post yesterday are aware, I had major issues when commenting on my friends’ posts, but with the help of everyone who replied to my call for help, I am now able to comment again. ❤
I also wanted to share today a meme I saw on Facebook this morning ~~ The Real Luxuries ~~
There is so much to love about every one of these luxuries, minus one for me, that being day naps. I have never been a daytime napper, although I realise that there are some who are appreciative of the luxury of a siesta, cat nap, or nanna nap – call it what you may. Regardless, it is a gentle meme for a loving day, which I wanted to share with you all.
Wishing everyone a wonderful day in which you can indulge in a few luxuries of your own choosing. ❤
Since installing my new computer last week, some things have changed – and not for the better –
I no longer receive notifications when blogging friends, who I follow, add a new post.
When a new comment is left on my blog, I no longer receive notifications.
Since yesterday, I can write a comment, submit a comment, but it doesn’t appear on the page.
The only thing WordPress is allowing me to do is to leave a “like” on my friend’s pages.
To make this post less techie, even though I am asking for help, I am adding some photos along the way. The last photo in my In A Vase On Monday post yesterday showed a “through the window” shot of what’s going on in my front garden, just outside the front door. I took a few photos of the area last month, taken outside, so I will add them for interest sake. 🙂
So back to my dilemma – up to this morning, I wasn’t sure whether my issue is email or WordPress related. Today, however, I went directly to WordPress reader, tried leaving a comment, and yet again, it hasn’t published! My “likes” however, seem to be still working.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what could be happening?
Going back to my garden, the first photo shows the Tibouchina tree. The second photo shows the bird bath, which is often used, and an assortment of mostly potted plants, waiting for the heat to diminish so they can be planted in the ground. Some plants live here permanently, such as a Hydrangea, Dianthus, Gardenia, Daisies, and two potted Spathiphyllum, or Peace Lilies. The Spathiphyllum are happy enough indoors, but I find they flower nearly all year ’round when they live outdoors in the dappled shade under the Tibouchina tree.
The Spanish Moss – Grandfather’s Whiskers – also prefers a shady area. My mother gave me some Grandfather’s Whiskers over thirty years ago when we moved back north after living in Sydney for fifteen years, (she’s been gone now for thirty years,) and this piece is one I separated from the original “bunch” just last year. Already, it looks happy and healthy, strung over a branch of the Tibouchina.
This last photo shows my front veranda, which also shows how close the Tibouchina tree is to the house. Since taking this photo, we have trimmed the top off the tree, which we have to do regularly, to keep leaves out of the gutters – it drops leaves often, but new foliage grows back again just as fast! If you look towards the end of the veranda you will notice my bits and bobs of gardening tools, pots, etc. which I always have on standby. 🙂
So going back to my WordPress issue, does anyone have any suggestions? I am having no problem when leaving comments on Blogspot, so it has to be WordPress acting up for me. I am considering re-following blogs, to see if that helps. However, I noticed that I was able to leave a comment on one blog – Eliza’s – where the comment box looked as it usually does, just a plain box for a comment to be added. On all the other pages, where comments will not publish, the comment box has a bar along the top, as if to edit the comment as I write. It looks the same as when adding a new post on my own site. That isn’t normal – but how do I change it? I have searched Google for answers, without success.
Now I am hoping my people have more WordPress knowledge than I do! Help!
When Karma suggested a photo hunt for her blogging friends to join in on, I immediately knew which photos I needed to search for!
Last year, as I have mentioned before, I spent a lot of time revamping several of my garden beds. The hill directly opposite the front of my house was the largest project, a garden running almost the full length of the house. Plus, it’s on a sharp slope. We had tried to make the hill manageable previously, without a great deal of success – what I didn’t realise was that our first attempt at constructing a manageable and attractive garden was in 2010!
Here’s the first photo I found during the hunt –
15th April 2010, before the first Hill Project began.
As the photo shows, the hill was steep! So anything we constructed there would be a challenge to maintain. You will notice growing on the far right of the photo is a small pine cone tree. I decided this tree would be beautiful when fully grown, and would shade the front of the house.
19th October 2020 – the tree had grown!
The next photo I found during the hunt was taken in 2020. I had even convinced husband to extend the retaining wall out in front of the pine cone tree at some stage, to accomodate the tree’s roots. The original plan had been to cover the whole hill with drought tolerent ground cover plants, which may have worked well if most of the plants hadn’t struggled to get a root-hold on the slope!
By this time, husband had lost interest in helping me with the garden. Weed mat and mesh wire to hold mulch in place simply wasn’t successful on the sharp slope. I slipped down the slope when trying to pull out weeds. Also, by this time we had brought home potted plants galore from my inlaws house when we had cleaned out their property, ready for sale. It was a trying time, putting my inlaws into aged care facilities and dealing with my father-in-law’s declining health. I think it fair to say we had both lost our gardening mojo completely.
The day my seventeen year old daughter brought home a boy “she thought she might like” – nearly nineteen years ago – little did I know what an inspiration he would be to me in the years to come! I wrote a post about him several years ago, I think I called it A Man of Ideas or some such thing, as I had discovered he has a unique knack of getting into my brain, seeing the vision I have, then improving upon my ideas. He’s wonderful! So when we spoke about a possible solution to the most challenging part of my garden and threw around a few ideas, we came up with a solution that he was prepared to help me bring to fruition …
Winter 2023 ~ the Hill Project 2.0 begins!
First, the pine cone tree had to go. Next, the retaining wall needed to travel along a straight line once the roots of the tree were removed. What was I thinking when I insisted the tree stayed? Those tree roots were gynormous!!!
Three little people, along with the dogs, enjoyed watching Daddy – to the two little ones on the right – and Uncle – to the little one on the far left – hack away at the hill, essentially restructuring the land to accomodate our vision for a new, attractive, easy care, easy to access, garden.
The dry creek bed under construction.
During times of heavy rain, the far corner of the garden washes away in a stream of water which cascades down the hill. My man of Ideas suggested we construct a dry creek bed in that corner. This area of the garden is still under construction, but I think this photo, taken around October last year, shows the basic formation of what we have in mind.
And here’s the constructed garden –
The construction and planting is complete!
The height of the lower section of the retaining wall has been raised, another small block wall has been contructed and a wooden sleeper wall at the top runs along a hedge of Sacred Bamboo, Nandina Nana. It had to be a rockery garden to compliment the natural surroundings, so my son-in-law lifted the larger bush rocks into place with the mini-excavator and left several smaller rocks for me to play around with, to create the garden I had in mind.
It was a long process, but we did it! I hope my son-in-law realises how much I appreciate his contribution to everything he helps me with around the garden. Maybe the thousand times I have said thank you may have been a clue. 😉
So there are my before shots, before-before shots, during and after shots, Karma – you did say the rules of the photo hunt are loosey-goosey – right? 😉
There’s still time to join in, so why not follow the link to Karma’s Photo Hunt!
The second part of the challenge is to take a photo, one for each season of the same place, which I will join in also! I am eager to watch my new garden plants grow and change as the seasons progress. 🙂
That much I know I have right – it’s New Year’s Day, 2021. But what day of the week is it again?
Never mind, it’s holiday time, so I won’t concern myself too much with remembering what day it is right now. When the usual rhythm of everyday life begins again, I’m sure the days of the week will all fall back into place as well. 😉
We have had more rain today, along with long spells of, well, not sunshine, but it hasn’t rained all day either. The valley cleared to some extent, although Mount Warning decided to hide for the day. I’m sure there are plenty of people, regardless of Covid rstrictions, who may have over-indulged last night and wanted to hide away for the day, just as Mount Warning did.
Little Hoppy, my Butcher Bird friend with the gammy leg, visited today with one of the babies. I’m never sure who the actual parents of these baby birds are, but this little one seemed to follow Hoppy everywhere.
Later, I had a baby Butcher Bird perched on the top of the trampolene, singing at the top of its voice. They sing such a pretty song, filled with an extensive range of vocal notes, once they get into their song.
Not to be outdone, later in the day I had Baby Magpie in the front garden, extending his vocal chords to full extent as well. 🙂
While I was in the front garden with my camera, I had a look at a few plants. Some of them have taken a battering this summer, what with all the rain and gusty wind. These lovely white Mandevilla flowers broke into bloom only a few days ago though, and so far haven’t succumbed to the blustering wind. It’s a fairly new plant, I only planted it last summer, but it seems happy in the place I chose for it.
The only place I can grow Fuchsias is in a large pot on my front veranda, where the plant is protected from the harsh sun and wind. This plant is three years old now, and this flowering season it has already been in bloom for several months. I have to water the plant every day as it is quite a thirsty plant, and stresses quickly in the heat if the soil is left to dry out.
How did everyone celebrate New Year? I imagine quietly, like I did. Husband and I stayed up to watch the televised fireworks display on Sydney Harbour, welcomed the New Year in with a glass of sparkling wine, then off to bed (which is where I’m heading now!) 🙂
In My World 