a small trumpet

Today another mystery bloom came out. I should know what it is, but I just don't ... Very pretty all the same. I remember when it arrived about two years ago as a bit of green strappy stuff bundled with a plant gift from someone else's garden, but I can't remember its name. As Juliet remarked - what's in a name?

some pink ladies

Some double pink frilly hibiscus girls very kindly made their way over to our fence border from next door and were nodding in the sun splashes that came through the Chinese maples. Hello, ladies! Looking good this year.

The Deloitte and Touche rose is blooming wildly in its confined nursery bag. Blooms going all the way from orange to pale pink. Will have to be set free in the garden on the weekend.

a go away chick

This morning a privileged sight. As I was walking among the trees, I saw a Grey Go Away bird on a low branch of the Stinkwood, looking at me and clucking and bowing and coyly swaying its head. I said the usual hellos and how are yous etc as these have just come back into the garden and I saw them race in yesterday, looking quite flustered. Now I know why.

I saw something struggling through the network of thorny branches in one of the lemon trees. A strange little sputnik head appeared, bumps on each side, kinda baldish and making the cutest gobbling sound. A first baby Grey Go Away of the season! Battling to do the complex movements along branches the parents find so easy, going "woop, wop" as it tried to stay upright. :-D

The parent wasn't at all worried about me and I was being given a privileged first look at junior in its travail. I went to fetch the camera, after getting the dogs inside. They weren't very pleased at having their usual scrap at the corner of the fence with the neighbouring Staffordshire Terrier cut short.

By the time I got back out there the Grey Folk were gone. But I heard struggling and rustling now among the thick ivy on the ground under the lemon trees, so I made the sound of the adult (I have become a bird sound parrot over the years and am reasonably good at most). The chick excitedly answered and I located it peeping out of the ivy leaves. What a cute little pie. I didn't want to go too close as Mom and Dad had appeared right above me and were clucking and guarding and so I clicked at junior and hoped for the best.

I got a little beak and a little eye peeping and a parent above on a branch against the bright white sky on a  day of semi sun and big excitement and anxiety and pride. I was allowed to share. I've been accepted as a creature of Gardena and new babies are allowed to be looked at provided I behave according to strict no touch, no intrude rules.

I'll give little Sputnik a few hours to get acquainted with climbing back into the trees and no one will be allowed to walk in the north garden till it's safe.

elephant ear scented blooms

Today that familiar scent was in the air and I traced it to one of the potted elephant ears with its first fragrant bloom of summer. A green lily shaped flower that is easy to miss visually but draws you with its perfume.

African Iris

Today she who had been peeping from under the agapanthus leaves a few days ago rose up after a shower of rain and presented her lovely self. I eventually found her kind and she is an African Iris, also known as  Fortnight Lily, Wild Iris, or Cape Iris.

I have no idea how she got into our garden, but she's beautiful and she's doing well.

patio rose

Today another birthday gift of a rose, this time a patio rose in white with golden/champagne like colouring from the tight bud stage to slow unfolding in pastel to final fully blown white. It went into a pot in the south garden and we'll have to see how it fares. Hopefully it'll be happy there.

a rose and a surprise

The weather has been cloudy with intermittent rain for days. Everything has gone brilliant green and new shoots are everywhere. The weeds have gone off their heads and all that's missing is summer mushrooms, which haven't appeared as yet, but I expect some soon.

Meantime, I received a rose gift. A beautiful Deloitte and Touche in peach tones and slightly scented. Last night the first bloom closed up for the night and was gloriously fully opened this morning. A sister bud has begun to gain prominence and there are clusters of child buds waiting to unfold.

The climbing roses on either side of the brick pillars on the west side of the house have struggled against aphids and mould for many seasons but this year, suddenly, they have bloomed in abundance and are scented with a lovely softly sweet fragrance. And they are medium purple to dark pinkish purple, to light, depending on the mood of the clusters, it seems.

A self-seeded fig tree has risen up nearby where the parrot's aviary used to stand and this must be a gift from a fig given to the parrots a few years ago. It has shot up and is bearing its first figs.

Then, as I was looking around the western bed that we have decided to redesign as a rose garden, I saw something, almost like someone, peeping through the strappy leaves of the thickly growing agapanthus. Another gift from who knows where. I certainly didn't plant this lovely creature, but there it was, shyly showing its virginal face and a sister bloom nearby with more coming up. She will be saved and placed somewhere safe and protected when we dig out the agapanthus and wild fern growth for the rose garden. The agas will go nicely along the northern wall and the ferns can go as mad as they like under the protection of the privets and flowering plum.