I loved the pics! It's wonderful to be able to picture going with you on your trek to the lottie. I can almost smell the air. (I wonder if I would have ventured out had I actually been there....)
sjoerd, thanks for the link about wax jackets. i'm surprized they haven't caught on! just a simple solution, and much nicer than plastics! and Clematis "Freckles, i have seen that before. lovely!
Hey Sjoerd, Am all there with you. All summer was hot and bone-dry, no rain for months... wanted to give up gardening as I could not provide enough water to my flowers. Now... THIS weather: cold, rainy for 10 days now. Getting dark at 5 pm. Exactly the time I am off work. So no point for me to visit the garden. I still got so much to do there. BUT I can't. Mud sticking to my shoes, my hands, my tools. I can only hope spring is near. and early. have a q: what plant/flower is in your GOOD picture? a climber? hardy? will it withstand cold freezing Romania weather?
DAISY-- I'm glad that you liked the posting too. That was a nice little philosophical piece that you wrote too. I liked THAT. JEWELL-- Yes the beauty of a misty morning (especially with a hint od sunray) can be particularly moving to see. I sincerely hope that you can manage to take a snap or two of your misty morning There-it's something that I would like to see. Ahhhh...thanks GLENDA--you so often say the sweetest things. Well, KKNg, I can tell you that I would have been quite pleased tpo be back in Malacca, if only for a couple of hours. I can recall when I was there, It was very, very hot and at one point I braced my outstretched arm against a stone wall, and stopped to fan my face with my straw hat. My bride asked me waht I was doing---she said, "Your face is as red as a beet and with that tongue hanging out of your mouth, you look like some sort of Hereford Bull. A bull fanning himself with a straw hat--it doesn't get any crazier than that". I told her that I was having a "Heat Wave". We both broke out in laughter at how dumb that sounded. We went across the street and sat in the shade and ordered our absolute favourite drin im Malaysa--ice-lemon tea. It didn't come a moment too soon. Thank you for your nice comment, DEBBIE. I'll bet you would have come out on the bike that day. Just imagine a cuppa tea once you got to the lottie, with all those little birdies. Oké then BUNKIE--Wasn't that interesting about ther wax coats. It's one of those things that have been around so long that one just doesn't think twice about them anymore. But I guess that they are not know everywhere in the world. I must say, they are ideal for being outdoors. Thank you CALIN-- Yes, you know that sticky-0mud is something that I just cannot abide. It is pointledss to try and work with the soil or walk ion it when it's like that. it's a nightmare. Now-- that "Good" plant/flower-- it id the Clematis cirrhosa 'freckles'. It is billed as "evergreen", and here it is indeed evergreen (but just), often blooming in januari or february. If there is a strong, freezing wind blowing for several days in a row the leaves turn sort of bronze-coloured, but in the spring new lwaves re-appear. I honestly do not know if it will survive your winters. I have no idea how harsh your winters are there, but if you can find one to buy, why not give it a try. Two things to remember: They like free-draining soil...and they like that soil to be a bit chalky. I mixed compost, aged manure and compost togetjer in the deep hole that I planted it in. The clematis plantlet should be planted well below the soil line in the pot that it comes in. Good luck.
Sjoerd...before I forget I have a question...how do you string peanuts or what do you mean when you say that? You are such a great writer and photographer. Is that what you do for a living? or are you retired? Here we call the heat wave, Power Surges... Just answer what you feel comfortable doing, sorry I am so snoopy.
Hiyah Sherry, The way I string peanuts is to take thin wire or sometimes a thick thread with a big needle and I pass the wire or thread through the middle of the peanut shell. I just put 20 or 30 peanuts on a string. Then I simply tie the string to a branch and let the titmice come and peck holes in the peanut hulls and get the peanut out. I do not have to deal with squirrels, but jay-type birds eventually find the strings and then I have to stop putting them out and only use feeders or put the peanuts in little wire containers/cages that the little birds can reach, but not the big ones. I am not retired, and I do not write or take fotos for a living. I wondered if I should have written that "heat wave" thing, because it was one of those situations that you had to be there to appreciate it all. hahaha. The heat wave remark referred to the heat and the way that I was fanning myself--it looked sort of like waving. When I tell it like this it doesn't seem humerous at all.
All phases look wonderful, you take nice photos Sjoerd. No blooms left here, although I still have a lot of green out in the garden on my perennial leaves. We've had a few frosts, but nothing too severe yet. All trees are bare now, except for the evergreens. Time to hunker down, I guess, and dream of next spring. Thanks for taking us along.
