November 2003

At long last, we finally get around to putting up some pictures. There isn't a lot of outdoor activity this time of year, just the usual cleaning of leaves off the patio, sidewalk and lawn, but a quick glance doesn't really show a lot in the yard. You have to become the careful observer if you wish to see anything and when you do look carefully you mostly hints of things to some in the early spring. Take this Clematis "Duchess of Edinburgh" for example, it's already showing new shoots! And it's only November 1st! Admittedly this one is in a bit of sheltered area, but the one in the Mountain Ash has fresh sprouts as well.

Not far from these buds we have two Camellias, one has more buds than the other -they're on either side of the gate into the backyard- and these buds here will make quite the show in spring, provided of course we don't get too much rain:)

It's interesting to see how different these Camellias are in size and bud count, one's needs obviously are being met much better than the others.

Other signs of blooms to come in spring can be witnessed by these Dutch Iris shoots popping up all over the place. These ones here are in the frontyard flowerbeds and are poking their heads through the fallen Birch leaves but there is a plethora of them in the beds in the back, which may be even taller yet than what these are.

The clusters of green in the background are Grape Hyacinths.

You may recall the picture of this Nerine Bowdenii from late October; here it is on November 10th 2003. We have had a number of nights of frost and even this poor thing cannot tolerate that for too many nights in a row.

The first October picture showed a single bloom on an erect stem, while the stem here shows obvious signs of stress from the frost and is almost horizontal here.

November in our house sees the gradual transformation of the interior in preparation for the festive season. Waita LOVES to put up the Christmas tree and decorate it. Here's an example of how even the Xmas tree cannot escape Rotties!

Seeing as the intent of this grouping of pages is to focus primarily on the outdoors, we'll save the other Christmas tree pictures for a page of it's own elsewhere.