Summer 2009:: Flowering Gum

I LOVE flowering gums.
They are so showy and exuberant and **HAPPY**.
We only planted this one as a baby last summer.
Look what it did for us this summer!


Photo: Pink Flowering Gum, western side of Ararat house - 25 Jan, 2009.

Summer 2009::Succulents

Learning to love succulents.
When I was growing up, my mother poo-pooed succulents.
I think she thought they were rather gauche.
In her defence, it WAS the seventies and they probably weren't used to their best advantage.
Being an impressionable child, I took on board my mother's off-hand attitude to the poor old succulent.
However, as I grew up, developed a mind of my own, I realized mother was NOT the oracle of everything - admittedly, she does have a rather large enormous head which houses a particularly big brain - but style and asthestics is a deeply personal thing.
Anyway, as the Australian summer withered pot after pot of petunias and pansies, I started experimenting with pots of succulents to pretty things up.
And what a revelation they were.
They change colour with the seasons, they produce spires of flowers, they come in a variety of shapes and sizes and textures and best of all - they don't have to be mollycoddled.
Go the succulent!!

Photo: Dish of succulents, on the table under the peach tree, Ararat - 7 Jan, 2009.