Christmas is coming

I took time off today to take a few images of happenings in the garden. We've had wonderfully sunny days lately after some good warm rain and the plants are responding with a good show.

There's a hollyhock flowering now and shows great loss of colour over tha past few generations. Starting out as a deep pink several years ago successive seedlings have become paler.










Our hydrangeas are approaching full bloom and this one looks happy draped with a Kowhai (sophera) hybrid










Hostas are also about to bloom.










Although the longest day has passed already we're still planting native trees as I've managed to extend a hose some 250 metres from the pump shed into the valley beneath our house. The view from our dining room window is now almost filled with trees whereas when we arrived some 10 years ago the area was mostly grass. Must look up some comparative shots!

Janice, Sarah, Aimee and I are all tired tonight and waiting for Chris (son in law) and Jessica (grandchild) to return from the hospital where Jessics went for tests after a particularly bad nose bleed that turned several serviettes at the Rutland Arms Hotel (where we went for "Wedges on Wednesday") bright red - quite a show it was but I'll spare you a photo of it.

More later

Cheers

Terry

Bird feeders

The highlight of today was the making of bird seed cones that our grandchildren had seen on a tv programme and asked me to help them make.


Aimee and Jessica organised the whole thing getting us to buy the peanut butter and birdseed and collecting the pine cones which were nicely open after a spell of dry weather.


I tied the string to the cones, with the girl's help and they coated them with peanut butter. They got their hands very sticky and of course had to lick the peanut butter off.


They then rolled the cones in the bird seed.




















After this we hung them up on our trees and from the eaves of the garage.

Our daughters Emma, Sarah and her husband Chris and their children (our lovely grandkids) arrived Friday and today. Emma stays until tomorrow and the rest until Boxing Day. Christmas has started! I should be relaxing! However, I have to get up early tomorroy (Sunday) to talk to Mike Darcy of KXL radio, Portland, Oregon (kxl.com). This is what Mike says about the show, their time 11am Saturday.

Delphinium Seed Promotion
Last summer at the Farwest Trade Show in Portland, I met Terry Dowdeswell who is a delphinium breeder from New Zealand. His company, Dowdeswell’s Delphiniums has produced a strain of delphiniums called New Millennium, which are from hand crossed seed. I attended a presentation by Terry where he showed photos of these magnificent plants in bloom. Later that week, Terry was a guest on my KXL show.

As I talked about delphiniums with other gardeners, I learned that Portland gardener and Timber Press Editor-in-Chief, Tom Fischer has successfully grown Dowdeswell Delphiniums from seed. I talked with Tom and he told me how easy they were to grow from seed, the high germination he had, the healthy plants and spectacular flowers. Tom’s experience has been that if you sow under lights in January or February and plant the seedlings out in April or May (bait for slugs), you will probably get flowers that first summer.

Hearing the accolades about these delphiniums, I thought it would make for a nice promotion to be able to offer seeds to listeners at a special price and without the hassle of paying shipping costs from New Zealand. I found Terry Dowdeswell very willing to work with me on such a promotion and Tom Fisher was willing to be a guest and talk about his success with growing them from seed.

After talking with Tom Fischer, I knew I had to have some of these delphiniums in my garden and while I am not one to usually grow plants from seeds, I am going to try this and will report my progress. The photo shown is a sampling of the flowers you can expect.

So, as mentioned on my show, I purchased a quantity of these seeds to offer to listeners. Packets contain 50 seeds of mixed colors. The cost is $7.00. Send a check in this amount to Mike Darcy, KXL In the Garden, 0234 SW Bancroft, Portland, OR 97239. You also need to send me a self addressed stamped envelope and I will send you a packet of these seeds along with instructions. I must have your request for seed by January 4, 2010. "

Cheers

Terry

No Time for Christmas

I protest! The closer it gets to Christmas the faster the days go. This is an interesting phenomenon that most people assume has been around since time immemorial - not so!

Think carefully and you will realise this is so. Do you not remember waiting for Christmas as a child? Did it not seem to take just ages to come? And what about Christmas Eve, the hours just crawled by lying in bed waiting for the eyelids to become tired enough for sleep, or crafty and resolute enough to see dad creeping in with the stocking. No, this is a new phenomenon. Further more it is attached to Global Warming! Yes, it's true.

It's not so noticeable in the northern hemisphere where the winter days are cold but here in summery, warm New Zealand it is obvious that the warmer than usual days around Christmas are actually speeding time up, so any one point in time lasts for less time. A second of warm time actually lasts for less time than a second of cold time. This is because warm time molecules are more active and so get their job done in less time.
From our point of view we therefore seem to have less time the get the Christmas shopping and other arrrangements completed. From our children's point of view they will also have less time to wait for Santa.

I really don't have time for this. Here are a few images from the last couple of days. First Miles Bockett doing some Pirate Ship painting (a Rotary project)












Next, Jason sawing up a tree we had just felled.

Mondayitis

We had a relaxing weekend.
Saturday included some gardening (hanging hanging baskets) visiting mum and dad, playing Catan, Christmas cards writing, exercises, yellow house cafe and crib and simply dropping out.
On Sunday I visited mum and dad again walked around our hills where trees had been planted two days before, more gardening etc. Cooking for Sunday nights has now become a really must do something special occasion so that took a couple of hours. Janice made some really beautiful cup cakes and I managed a fancy lamb chop with finely chopped bacon, crushed potatoes and ratatouille.
Today, Monday, has been one of those low energy days where the work got done despite everything and what a great time 5pm is.

A few Pics

Here are three images. One of our delphiniums at the Bason Botanic Gardens in Wanganui, another of a really lovely day lily from Nan Ripley's seed and another of a dwarf runner (?) bean we are growing for Mark Christenson who is collecting and experimenting with "Heritage Plants".

I'll leave you to guess which is which.

More tomorrow when I intend to have some R&R

Cheers

Terry

Application for time to slow down

Wednesday passed in a flash. Tractor tyre puncture fixed, seed order to mail order seed company in Russia went out. Checked on trials growing at Bristol's and found oxalis rampant, but the delphiniums that are above the oxalis are doing well. Delphiniums flowering at the Bason Botanic Gardens look great. Will add images when I get a chance. Thinking of putting in an application to God, the Prime Minister, Oprah, Tiger Woods or some other authority to request a slow down of the rate that time flows. I'll keep you posted about progress

Thursday. We have an Internet slow down. I hope that is not a result of my "time" application. No - it appears that our carte blanche to our visitors for Internet use has sent us above our limit. Back to normal at lunch time .... hopefully. Only wasted an hour sorting this out.

Off to spread slug pellets at Bristol's after lunch, still have some spraying and pollinating to do first. more email to attend to too. Christmas is certainly coming.

Note for proof reader...Bason is correct, after Mr Bason. Full stops missed through laziness.

Cheers

Terry

Terry