The Last Day - Early Winter

And so the year in Craignish is done. I first began visiting the garden in late Autumn and here we are in early Winter the next year.

My visits here have most often been solitary, my walks around the garden accompanied by the song of a blackbird or the sound of a coal train in the distance.

I have delighted in the tiny daffodils and the roses and the hydrangeas. I have often stroked the clipped topiary as I wandered by or looked up and up into the branches of the dogwood.

Clematis and camellias have bloomed profusely for me, each in their appropriate season.

The trees have shaded me in summer and cast their intricate shadows before me in winter.

This wonderful garden.

This gift to me and all who have enjoyed it...

Thank you David and Peter ..

Late Autumn

A whip bird is calling in an adjacent garden. Somewhere nearby a tree is being sawn down - a banksia tree which fell victim to wild winds last week.

The automatic sprinklers are on and I dodge them as I walk around the garden. The autumn colours are well and truly here and some trees are already bare for winter.

A shy hellebore blooms, nestled in its protective greenery.

The rain guage remains full of water and a gold red leaf floats in it silently.

Pink roses bloom against the blue sky.

Early Autumn

The day before had been grey and misty. This day though dawned as beautifully as an autumn day in the mountains can.

Roses and hydrangeas and green leaves were spangled with drops of water which caught the sun and turned into tiny rainbows. There were signs of pruning and mulching and careful clipping of trees.

There were also subtle signs that autumn is coming. The first dark russet reds of leaves on the turn on the trees. The faded beauty of hydrangeas past their prime. A scattering of mushrooms in the sun dappled grass.

And so, quietly, the new season enters the garden.

The next day the mists descended once more.

Mid Summer

The weather has been most peculiar in the mountains this summer. Old hands may say that it is quite normal, but to me the days of high temperatures, late afternoon thunderstorms and vicious hail are not what I recall of mountains summers. These sub tropical like days may then be followed by a day or two of cooler temperatures and drifting mists.

It was on a day of humidity and heat that I visited Craignish. The sky was stormy, with the sun appearing intermittently to light the garden. The hydrangeas and roses, whilst still beautiful, were showing signs of the stresses the weather has subjected them to.

What such a day does though is render greens more intense, leaves are deeper in colour and form, drops of water glow. When the sun did appear it caused the most delicate of shadow leaf patterns to appear.

The rain guage was full almost to overflowing.