It’s Sunday morning and we sleep late. With having a number of days off work this past month due to public holidays, we seem to have slipped into a routine of taking a good couple of hours to get up in the weekend, dogs included. There is an initial moment of activity as dogs are feed and tea is made and then we all slump back to bed, reading and snoozing. It feels very lazy but also very much needed. Life seems to be busy and tiring at the moment. When we finally get up and embrace the day, the curtains are pulled back to reveals an array of snail trail patterns across the outside windows. The weather might be rather warm for this time of year but the snail trails on the windows and cold toes I have when I get out of bed remind me that summer is well and truly past and we are in autumn.
Autumn brings with it falling leaves, gentle light and tones of orange, red and gold. All things of beauty. It also brings with it a lot of dirt. The house in autumn is never clean or if it is, it is for a brief moment. The hallway from the front door seems to have a continuous stream of leaves, twigs and dirt that trail into the house. The bathroom sink is constantly splattered with what appears to be splashes of dirt, a ring forming around the basin. I naturally hunt around for the culprit and while the dogs bring in their fair share of bits and bobs from the garden, in the end I realise the main culprit is actually me. The state of the front door is created by me, sneaking back into the house to grab that packet of seeds, or tool I need whilst gardening with my gumboots on. The sink is from washing my hands after a session in the garden where my hands have been covered the nurturing soil. Splashes going unnoticed as I wash hands and then move on to whatever else I need to do that day. I feel I should correct my ways but I know it is if for a moment. Soon it will be too cold to garden and the obvious wetness and mud that comes with winter will mean I won’t just sneak inside in my gumboots. The changes in the garden, the falling leaves and drying seed heads creates a messy feel to the garden and it appears that I am replicating inside.
Side note - I am also the house cleaner or atmosphere coordinator, so I am really only making work for myself.
I have a spot in the garden were we removed a tree. I say we, it was actually the other half and it came down with a startling thud, changing the nature of the garden. It is a spot by the clothes line and hidden from view, except for the neighbours dog who delights in startling me by putting his ever so big frame on the fence to say hello. Atlas does not approve of this behaviour and is very vocal about it. I’ve let this part of the garden go since the tree was cut down and after moaning about lack of space in the garden (the lawn is under threat next season, which isn’t a bad thing) I remembered this space. At the moment it is filled with self seeders that tend to pop up when a space has been cleared and the gardener has turned their mind to other things. It will require a tidy up (hopefully without the neighbours dog watching) and some planning. I’ve decided to make a little winter project to plan the space and see if I can create a little bee friendly area encompassing all I have learnt this season and the seasons of past. So stay tuned as I plan and share my thoughts.
Just a few things to celebrate:
Give away - Wellington Apothecary are one my favourites for oils and hand lotion. This year they are celebrating mums with a give away of art and goodies, including one of my prints. To enter the draw head over to the Wellington Apothecary’s Instagram page. The draw opens from late Friday 5th of May and closes Sunday 7th of May.
Marina De Wit is a fabulous NZ fine art photographer whose floral photo art work I adore. Marina is having fund raiser for Breast Cancer where she is offering one of her gorgeous prints in a raffle. Tickets are $2 and can be purchased here.
Amy of Villaleigh Plants who was profiled here a few weeks back asked me some questions about my beekeeping and gardening journey. Sign up to her newsletter to read about what I had to share. Her newsletter will be out next week.