In a different light

With the onset of winter and the subdued autumn light, the garden is turning colder. The shadows lengthen with the sun daily migrating even further north. The sunlight on the garden is fragmented by the tall blue-gums across the road. Only the highest roses get tinted with the pale sunlight.

The summer vegetables are producing less but the tomatoes are still beautiful. I believe it must be the Epsom salt spray that I have started using on the plants.

The peas have reached the first rung on the trellis and I will soon have to give them support to the second rung. With the promise of a healthy pea harvest, I cannot wait to start experimenting with fresh peas in our meals.

White-breasted canaries in the rosemary bush

On Sunday morning there were seven White-breasted canaries eating the seeds of the rosemary bush in the vegetable garden. I stood there for a moment watching the spectacle of them trying to cling to the long branches while eating the fragrant seeds.

Dewy onion seedlings

When I walked out on Monday morning to unlock the shed for Fungai, there were six Olive thrushes ‘going wild’ in the herbaceous border behind the cottage. They were wildly scratching the dried leaves out of the flower bed onto the pathway. In doing so, they were effectively undoing Fungai’s earlier work of having swept the pathway.

A laughing dove on the pillar in the vegetable garden

The birds in the garden are a festival of song and feathered activity interspersed with intermittent drama between the different bird species.

The winter has brought different birds to the garden in their search for food. I am happy that so many find refuge in the garden. In this cold season I am sure that even the birds see the place in a different light.