Beauty

Beauty persists over time; it metamorphoses with age rather than fades. Youthful beauty is a given. But to retain beauty over time requires restrained elegance. The sepia tinged leaf cannot destroy the glorious perfume of the gardenia. Flowering bushes from an age passed crowd my gardens: gardenia, daphne, lavender, orange jasmine ... the jostled memory lingers.

Succulents

Somewhere between 15 and 20 of these little fellas sprouted from the mother plant: umbilicalled over the planter edge like a lost platoon. Being an asiduous little green thumb, I unceremoniously transplanted a dozen: whoosh "you can try that finger-hole for size" type of transplant. You know what's coming, don't you. What do I do with a dozen of 'em?


And the one next to (as well as in the centre of) the "the little blighters" is no better. My guess is the mother plant split into 6 of these prehistoric beauties. Mother lode, I guess it is called.

Hold the presses

My hopes and dreams are being realised. Isn't this one of the most delicate things you have ever seen? Here are 3 images of the same spray; in the pot given to me by my little brudder, there are three shoots but no buds as yet.


I cast my mind back to August last year when my dear dear friend Gail gifted me this for my 60th. It just keeps on giving. What a gift!

Suburban olive grove

As I mentioned before, when I was in Italy in September 2006, I stayed on a working olive grove outside Assisi. Upon my return, I bought two olive plants about a foot high in small pots. Two and a half years later, those bushes are about 6' tall and I have high hopes for fruit come Spring.

Could this be a flower spike

For my 60th last year, I was given two cymbidium orchids - in bloom. To my intense delight, I discovered these shoots yesterday morning. Having googled, I am unable to find images of the life cycle of an orchid.

I wonder ... oooh I do hope so!