It's nearly the end of the year

A long week in December

Mel Adams

Dec 15, 2022

It’s Saturday morning, and we have slept late. The extra hour or so of sleep is welcomed. We had plans to bee keep but the day suggested other things. The beekeeping is abandoned and instead we embrace the day. It is warm. It feels like summer. Clothes are changed, sandels are found. We walk the dogs and return to the garden to sit and read. We (dogs included) all find different corners of the garden to sit in. Some in sun. Some in shade. I just sit for a moment and watch around and remember that theses are the moments that I spend the gardening year working towards. The garden moves with activity as honey and bumble bees forage. Birds flit about. I am nestled in a chair under the slanting olive tree. It’s brances are almost touching the apple forming a little cave of branches which is providing welcome shade. I like it when you can sit in the garden and the garden forgets that you are there. You become part of it.

It’s Sunday. I’m sitting at the table in the garden writing. It feels such a treat to be able to do this, especially as I am in a sundress and sunhat. Could summer finally be here? As I write, I watch a tui chasing a sparrow. There is a war under way in the garden. The rata is starting to flower and the tui has returned to claim their territory. It has been their tree for a number of years. While I love waking to the sound of the tui singing their song I can do without the chasing of other birds in the garden. It is fast and furious action and I suspect there might be a few tactics in play. I am sure I watched a sparrow being chased only to see a thrush say “look at me” and provide distraction so the Tui would leave the sparrow alone. At least the bees seem to not be involved and I love that they will soon be benefiting from the rata nectar flow. The tree will then be humming with their activity not just a cranky Tui’s song.

I haven’t been working in the garden much with one thing or another as a result I see a mass of growth in the garden. It seems to have exploded. The days I have missed being in the garden means it has galloped a head of me and I will be racing to catch up. The bishops flower that has self seeded in the bed in front of the greenhouse is so tall the green house is hidden. This is no bad thing as most of the greenhouse is missing panels which have broken with age. I must to do something about it but now that the greenhouse is hidden by garden growth I can forget about fixing it for a bit longer. The currents are starting to turn and the bushes stand so tall. Fox gloves have another week with the tips only having flowers now. I am itching to chop them back. I want the garden to settle like I do myself into the Christmas break.

It is that time of year where ones thoughts turn to Christmas. I hope you have wonderful plans. I feel like we need to celebrate what feels like an exceptional long year. When my mind casts back to January 2022 it feels like a life time ago and I must admit that I am happy to see a new year on the horizon, not that I wish to wish my life away more I am ready for a change. I do know that this time of year is often acompanied with more than a little bit of stress and I read this the other day and thought I would share it.

“Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath” - Natalie Goldberg

Ain’t that the truth. So I hope that if you are finding this time of year a bit stressful that you can find a moment to reconnect with nature and take much deserve breath.

I hope you like the photos. They are all of roses that reside in the Dunedin Botanical Gardens.