It is Sunday night and it is still. The sky is a dull grey. It sits heavy as Sunday nights tend to do when the weekend is drawing to a close. Even though I work part time there is still not enought time to do everything I want. The thought of being in a office behind a computer is what is causing the heaviness, I would rather be in the garden. Birds return for the day. I often hear them at the start of the day, around 5am (yes I am entering the age of not sleeping late). The dawn chorus and then again at the end of the day. The return home. In the evenings when I hear them I imagine they are sharing their day with each other. I think the thing I am appreciating the most at this moment, is that the wind has dropped. It has been present for the last three days. The joys of living in a coastal town. The wind has danced around the garden wearing out my newly planted seedlings, shedding petals only recently bloomed. Some flowers have come and gone with the briefest hello. Until next year.
I’ve been trying to embrace the wind when it comes to taking photos. With so much starting to show in the garden the effort it requires to do my daily practice is minimal. I want to be in the garden with my camera. The wind however doesn’t make it hard. I try to embrace the blur. I secretly hope that the ranunculus hold for another couple of days. They have brought me so much joy this season. I want more of their frills and colours. The deep red is so solid and true while the pink starts a bold fushia and then fades to a pale flamingo. It is doing it’s own dance. I read an article about George Harrison and how he had seen flowers in the snow and commented on them shivering. I wonder too if the flowers like me gets a bit weary of the wind. How must it feel to spend a season growing only to have your moment in the sun blown away.
I think I spent 4 hours gardening on Saturday. My back tells me this before the clock does. I cleared out the long grass that was growing under the peach tree. There was a bed there last year where I threw a number of bee friendly seeds and they grew in a mass of beauty. I had hoped they would return this year but the grass was too dominate. It is tall, the grass, with seed heads forming. I want those seed heads gone. I’ve removed one from Atlas foot a number of years ago when it got stuck then infected. It was not pleasant and something I am keen to avoid. I clear the bed and then plant seedlings. Cosmos, Amni, Borage and cornflowers. I image a wave of blue and white. dancing with bees when fully grown. I have failed to factor in the wind. It is drying and trying. The seedlings when first planted are strong but as the day progresses they slump due to the bluster. I water them in the hopes it will help. I am not sure it will. Some perk up. Some I suspect are trampled by the birds that visit, hunting the ground hunting for worms which has appeared as I have cleaned up the bed. Hopefully things grow and what gaps appear I will fill with the other things and then like the rest of the garden the deisgn will evolve into what nature allows me to grow.
The week has progressed. It is Thursday. It is suppose to blow tomorrow. Little wind circles appear on the Metservice forecast. I make the most of today and get outside and garden. The weeding continues and I marvel how things are growing. The tapestry look that I so love is so visable. Raspberries are stacking claim in the bed. Salvias and sages are growing tall. It is a bed of height. I methodically work the bed, switching off, the repeative motion of weeding feels soothing. I finish up, head inside and order Chrysthanums. A new obsession along with gerinumums. I love how the latter forms a ground cover mass and I hope the former will inspire some photos in the Autumn.