Mental Meanderings

"A Rose By Any Other Name"

Autumn in Perth is a beautiful time of year. The summers tend to get very hot and while I love the rainy weather of winter it can get a little monotonous. Autumn is a balance of the two extremes. The weather is cooling down and the bright, sunny days are interspursed with cloud and rain. It's just warm enough to enjoy a few hours in the sun down at the park but cold enough to take a jumper (sweater? sweat-shirt? windsheeter? Um... What do American's call the extra layer of clothing that goes over their shirts?)

My garden starts to flourish as the weather turns cooler. The glare of the summer sun overpowers many of the introduced flowers and only the native plants are hardy enough to withstand the clay, waterless earth they're forced to grow in. I have a little flower bed in my front window, leading up to the porch at the front of my house. The week before Christmas and New Year's my daughter and I planted some flowers she had been given as a gift in there with my three rose plants.

One rose didn't survive the unpotting. The soil is hard to cultivate because the original sand was barren of good earth. It's had mulch and various mixtures dug into it since but sometimes it's still hard to get something fragile (like that species of rose) to take off after digging it in. The second rose is still recovering from being transplanted. It's growing well and has definately taken to it's new home but the flowers can sometimes be slow to come in.

The first rose that took pride of place in that garden bed was my georgious "Invalid Item" .Today the first blossom of the year finally opened and I clipped it quickly to sit in a small vase on my desk. This rose is actually a very pale, gentle, feminine flower. It's not the vibrant, deep, whiskey orange that you can see in that photo of the first rose of last year.

*grrr* I just tried to upload my latest batch of photos from my digital camera but the cord is damaged. I think it got run over by the wheels of my chair a few weeks ago and now it's refusing to work. *grimaces* Will have to get a new one or perhaps install my multi-card-reader into the old computer so I can get them from the SD card instead.

Off the point, sorry, just had to rant a little. Anyway, the rose has a really nice scent that just fills the room. It's only one little rose but the soft flavoursome smell fills my nostrils. I wish it cleared my head but so far it's not having that kind of soothing effect on my senses.

I'm looking forward to developing my rose garden. I hope the miniture whites flourish and flower soon and I'm going to buy a new Candystriper to replace the one that didn't make it. I'll buy a mature one that's already in bloom so that I can have flowers this year.

The flowers my daughter planted are coming along sweetly too. They are filler flowers, nasturtians and um... somethin else. *chuckles* They offer a riot of color and I'm told butterflies really love them So far the flowers have been sporadic but consistant and I only wish we could pack them closer together in the flowerbed. It would look fantastic to see a sea of green dotted with bright oranges, reds, and yellows.

Well, there you go, that's actually about the extent of my garden. I tend to avoid having too many flowering plants around my home because of my serious bee allergy. I am still planning to dig in a vegetable patch in the back yard. In fact, perhaps I'll snug up warm tomorrow morning and focus my Hour of Power there. Work up a good sweat digging out a decent patch so I can fill it with rich, earthy, nutrition-filled soil so we can finally get those seeds in. It would be fantastic to have fresh lettuce and tomato on hand frequently. Not to mention all the other things we can grow.

I'm not a huge gardener. I don't really like the creepy crawly things that make their homes in the dirt but I love the products of a fantastic garden. Still, in Australia with our dry, arid weather not a lot grows. Keeping to the natives is always a great idea and if I'm lucky I can maintain an expanse of grass (in various degrees of green and brown) year round.

Some years all plant-life is touch and go. I'm very conscious of the importance of conserving water. There just isn't enough rain and there isn't enough to waste. Having a pretty garden is far less important to me then allowing the farmers to harvest a full crop and the ranchers to bring in a full head for us to eat. It's touch and go some years (this one for example) but no matter how bad the summer has been it always comes good again in the autumn and winter, eventually.