A year down the track

My, doesn't time fly! This time a year ago, I was signing a contract for this apartment and trying to not have it cost me too much to break another lease. Now look at it! Like a rumble in the jungle ...

In the pink

Gardening in a courtyard does not afford vistas of annuals, or deeply fertile raised beds. It relies on ingenuity, nooks, and bric-a-brac. I have a range of plantings, but not multiples of the same variety. This week, I realised how many flowers there are in pink. Next week I will show you the difference a year makes.

Damn blast

I tried, I really did. I had this lined up for what seemed ages before she jumped. But I grabbed at the shutter, instead of depressing gently. I think most of the movement in the image came when I allowed my shutter finger to come up too early.

Drats! However, I just know she will do this again. She is that sort of little black duck.

My courtyard jungle

Interesting progress in the case of the purple Iris from the previous post. The flowers last about 24 hours and then seem to self-implode - closing in on themselves, a bit like melting glass. This then gives rise to the next flush of blooms, which I expect to see over the weekend.

My courtyard is a bit purple and yellow at the moment, as you can see. The spray of flowers in the final photograph is from one of my olive trees. When I left for Europe, the tiny blooms were opening. Now the trees are awash with the blooms at the end of their cycle. Next is the wait to see how many fruit set for 2010. From memory I had about 40 last year.

Prehistoric

A friend gave me a couple of cuttings of this last Christmas, and it has grown like the dickens ... mmm ... wonder where that expression comes from.


She thinks it to be an Iris. I have googled Tall Bearded Iris and it is not one of those. The TBI is like a double bloom, hose-in-hose and this looks like a totally different kettle of fish.


It is gorgeous though. And like a creature from another world. If I can tomorrow, between the rain, I will get a photograph of the entire plant. I put it up on my outside table so that the 'fronds' can gracefully dangle. It had its first flush of blooms whilst I was away. Yet about a dozen more graced me with their presence overnight.

Ready for La France

All is in readiness for my departure to La France this coming Saturday morning. My house-sitters arrive in the early morning, I introduce them to the cats, show them around, answer their queries, and then I am off.


I have weeded out the weeds and the underperformers. I have trimmed and fertilised. I have tracked the trajectory of the sun and moved the 'orchard' into the warm corner. All is ready ...

When I return, I will go for a few more annuals and maybe - maybe - have a try at a 'grosse lizzie' tomato. I am reading 'Hunters and Gatherers' whilst away. That old lady had a wonderful garden in the film. I hope they describe it in the book.

Tirrah ...

Now ... where was I?

This is a little treasure, which we are so lucky to have found. I say "we" because although I first found it online, it was my son-in-law who was convinced it was what I was after and who took me to check it out.

It is all on one level. The shower has space for a stool and is not over a bath. There are no internal stairs like at Glebe. It is about 5 minutes by car from Kirsten's place in Double Bay. It is about 100m from my father's nursing home and there is a bus stop right outside - important if the driving ban continues. It is the ground floor of three apartments and is entirely tiled - meaning very cool which I noted yesterday when the mercury topped 40C.

This first image is of the north facing sunroom directly inside the courtyard and exactly where I have set up my work space.


The other criteria were that I needed space for my cats and for my plants. So there is a large courtyard (which I now know to be common area but not used "much") which is tiled making it very easy to maintain - except maybe for the eucalypt droppings but the tree has such other delights that it can stay! The little "out" building across the courtyard houses the garage for apartment 3 and my laundry. In my head, this laundry is now my "shed" with all that connotes in the Australian psyche. These photos were all taken whilst waiting for the moving guys to bring my junk over from Glebe.

Tomorrow, I will start a leisurely tour showing how I have made the space my own in the last ten days.

The purple haze has begun

Jacarandas are filling the blue of the sky all along my way to work. I took these photographs about 5:30 this afternoon as I sauntered home, much to the delight of a snuffling doberman.

Accentuate the positive

The second fig had dropped off the perch when I returned from work today, but I knew that was going to happen. Just like many miscarriages indicate that the seed had not grown properly.

Here instead are two images full of potential: olives and limes.

Exterior a month along

I have not disposed of last season's crop of leaves, yet. Nor trimmed all the droopy branches. But everything is going along swimmingly. My daughter and I go out to the garden shop on Sunday. I have promised myself no more pots. But will get me some scarlet petunias. And some more basil - bloody slugs!

Which is which?

One of these is a lemon and the other a lime. I forget which!

The lemon - whichever it is - produced about 10 fruits last year. The lime nil.

Fruiting

Both trees are totally covered. Lst year I thought this was the olive itself. Now I know it to be but the flower. Last year none of the flowers opened.

Patience is a virtue.

Moving forward slowly

It did not take her long to find this spot. I am having trouble working out which plants to put in which thin slivers of sun. I am more buildinged in than I had thought I would be.