The bonfiring season begins...
I declare the season of the autumn bonfire open! Yeay! Yeay? Some things are 'awfully' necessary, as is burning all the dry rubbish in my garden. Perennial trimmings, debris from the huge gum trees, Cordyline leaves...
The First Autumn Bonfire
Yesterday I carted at least fifteen barrowfuls, plus one trailer-load, and burnt the lot. I dump the burnable rubbish collected over the spring and summer months underneath the hedges and on the fence-line, out of sight.
Stinky clothes and smoky hair!
March is the month of truth when the hedges are cleaned out. It's the month of stinky clothes and smoky hair. All the farmers are stubble-burning, and many of the country properties have large piles of tree trimming mess, sitting in mid-paddock, ready. Aargh! PS I do make compost, as well!
Cabbage Trees by the Gum Tree
Cordylines
Several of my oldest Cordylines (including the one in this photograph) have died - oddly, for no reason, with no evidence of a bug attack, and no serious drought to cause their demise. So Non-Gardening Partner has kindly chopped them into bits. The dead leaves make brilliant fire-starters. Except that I have enough to start the house log-burner fifty times a day, every day of the year.
Right. Today, again, is wind-free, so I am off outside. Another trailerful, maybe twenty more barrowfuls - I can't wait!
Three Hours later...
Grrrrr....ump! And naughty! I have just eaten two large spoonfuls of cream cheese and raspberry jam, a reward (?) after burning all morning. And I can't even listen to the cricket because we (New Zealand) were shamefully bundled out yesterday. OK, I've filled and burned another trailerful, and I've cleaned up the Leyland Hedge between Middle Bridge and the Car Bridge. This is definite progress, something to be proud of. Humph.
OK. Here's the plan. I pull my smoky head in. I drink my cup of tea. I con myself into burning for another two hours. Two hours is nothing in a lifetime of gardening, right? Another trailer load, and the rest of the hedge cleaned up. Then I gather up a complete set of clean clothes and my sweetest smelling shampoo and conditioner. I go for a swim, after which I emerge, fresh and pink, like a well-scrubbed butterfly (?)
The Dog-Path Garden
Do I really have to go back to that smelly bonfire? Oh alright.
Later...
I sort of cheated, and got NGP to help. But I have achieved my goal. The volcano of ash is smouldering. To balance the bonfire photography, here are some roses. The blooms are quite scruffy and messy, though.
I think I have identified a pink rose which I've enjoyed growing in my garden for ages. It came, bare-rooted and free, from a rose sale in the year 2000. I have the vaguest memory of the name 'Yesterdays'. Well, I've just checked with the Google Guru. Yes - I think my short little pink rose is in fact the Harkness bred 'Yesterday'. Looks like it. And I wonder if the pink shrub rose in the Wattle Woods could be Fantin Latour? That's a name I also remember. Wow. Two rose IDs in one paragraph!
Possible Roses ID - Yesterday and Fantin Latour
Now I am back from swimming. I haven't smelt this good all weekend. Gardenia, rose, apple, vanilla, and jasmine... Nice!