Wind and Flowers. (Vent et fleurs)

Windy day today, our view from the front of the old post office.

Wind rushed and shushed and made shrubs go ratta tat on the window as black night gave way to gray dawn. The cat flap rattled, and the roof creaked. It was hot, we were restless, Ginger wanted breakfast, so we got up. The temperature climbed to 22 degrees Centigrade by mid morning (71.6 F), but plunged to something much lower in the afternoon as a wind change brought cooler air.

Oamaru Victorian Fete, 2007

The thought was that we would go to Oamaru for the day, see mum and dad, and visit the historic area of the town. There is a Victorian Fete in Oamaru this weekend, and all sorts of entertainment and amusement is planned. Penny Farthing races, traditional crafts, street performers, all manner of affordable fun. The good folk that organize the event do a terrific job. We got packed to go, but, in spite of my best attempts to ignore it, a migraine developed and I was not well enough to travel. This was most frustrating, as I was greatly looking forward to a proper day off today and a change of scene. I have been a slave to work for far too long.

A lovely Iris, and some lupins too.

Near the middle of the day, the pills and a sleep had helped, and I determined to at least walk around the garden with the camera.

A young lupin flower, growing like a candle.

We have a fairly wild garden here. Birds, insects, young children, and people who still believe in magic and good faeries, enjoy it. Those who manicure their lawns three times a week, spray everything for disease prevention, and remove daisies and buttercups, and trim all their shrubs to tight round balls, click their teeth and look uncomfortable.

Lupins bending, waving, moving with wind and with sun.

The flowers around the old post office are Laura's great achievement. When we bought this place 20 years ago, there was a car park behind the old post office building that consisted of compacted gravel about a foot thick. Under it was sour solid clay. On each side of the building were two strips of grass. The exciting thing was an area behind the car park where the ground rose up towards our boundary. This area was covered with wild plum trees that looked truly beautiful when covered in blossom.

Where once there was car park, now flowers do grow!

We had almost no money when we came here, so we didn't put in raised beds and buy in topsoil. Laura just set to work with a little hand trowel. She loosened the stones around the car park. When ever we emptied the teapot, the tea leaves went on the garden, and our vegetable peelings too. In between the stones, Laura planted her flowers.

Fragile and purple and dancing in the light!

Many struggled. Some died. Some grew and became beautiful. Few were like the flowers on the seed packets, or the huge well fed ones in the gardens with lots of good soil, but they grew anyway, and gave us pleasure.

Doves-round-a-dish, grannies bonnets, Aquilegia. What lovely names the old flowers have.

A year or two after we bought the place, we had a phone call from a lady who had discovered that she owned a piece of land next door to us. It was a scruffy unimproved half acre of poorly drained boggy ground, with a bit of dry hillside. The lady offered the land to us very cheaply as she had no use for it. I will always appreciate her kindness.

Elderberry flowers.

I wanted to plant New Zealand native trees on the land. I tried, but frost and poor drainage turned most of them to compost.

In pools of sun and damp there are buttercups.

After realizing the folly of my purist approach, we found a nursery where we could buy year old trees by the hundred. In the boggy parts I planted Alders. I had to put down wooden planks to wheel the wheelbarrow out over the saturated land. I slowly dug a shallow drainage ditch, scooping up heavy clods of the clay soil into little islands, and planted the alders into the squishy clay.

Alders. I planted 7 varieties, Grey and Black Alders were the most successful.

The alders took. Most survived, but the frosts hit even them quite badly in those early years. I added many other varieties of deciduous trees too. It was hard to know what would grow and what would sulk. Oak trees have actually done well here, most of them obtained from acorns that my nephew Anthony grew by mistake. He had collected some and put them in his school lunchbox, which he then lost for a while. When it was found, the acorns were discovered to have sprouted. So Uncle Peter gave them a home here. Now, many years on, those oaks have young ones of their own!

The double trunk of a willow. Once a twig picked up on a walk, now a large tree.

Sometimes, when we were out walking, we picked up twigs from willows and poplars, brought them home, and pushed them into the ground. Most of these are big trees now.

Hemlock, farmers don't like it as it is poisonous to livestock, but it is a thing of delicate beauty with its ferny leaves and tiny white flowers.

We planted hundreds of trees in the half acre. It took about six years for the "forest" to grow taller than the long grass and docks and actually look like it might be something intended.

Cordyline australis, cabbage tree. The world's tallest lily.

I have managed to get some Native trees to grow now. It is wonderful what the deciduous trees have done with their leaves and with their roots. We have a layer of rich dark soil now, and the tree roots have helped break up the clay pan and improve the drainage. The trees have brought many more birds to our garden. We also occasionally find huge stick insects too. Wonderful prehistoric looking things.

Kiln chimneys. I rather like the industrial revolution look in the garden!

From time to time we need to take out some of the trees when they die or blow over. I have been able to use them to supplement my firewood that I have to buy to fire my kilns.

It has been a different day than what I had hoped for here, but it was good to walk around the garden. We are very fortunate to have it. It cost us very little in terms of money to plant what we have. It is a friendly place for those who have eyes to see it, and beautiful too.

We can enjoy what is simple.
A little flower.
A young tree.
A windy day.
Sunshine.
These gladden the heart.
These are life.

Nous pouvons apprécier ce qui est simple.
Une petite fleur.
Un jeune arbre.
Un jour venteux.
Soleil.
Ceux-ci réjouissent le coeur.
Ce sont la vie.