Morning garden

 

Took these shots this morning while the light was gentle

 

 

Poppy from seed taken during a trip to the Cape Campbell walkway several years ago. On the last day we stayed in a beautiful old house called Freeth House, so these I've named (unofficially) "Freeth House".  

 

This beautiful aquilegia just popped up in the vegetable garden.

 

Digitalis mertonensis

 

The lilies are starting to bloom. This is always the first one.

 

True to the forecast, today is going to be very hot and probably windy. The plan of attack is to do some gardening out the back this morning while it's shady, then move to the front, with a diversion to tidy the composting area at some stage. And tie up the tomatoes and the beans. Knowing me, I'll probably lie around all day with my nose in a book. (Reading a weird one at the moment - The White forest by Adam McOmber - sort of a Victorian fantasy/steampunky thing, not sure yet if I like it).

 

The Heathcote River bridge is closed today, so all the heavy traffic is being bypassed down Opawa Road. It's so noisy, all banging and clanging as the trucks go over the earthquake bumps in the road. Thank the Goddess that we don't have to put up with it all the time. I can hear Mr Machinery over the back fence throwing things around, so no doubt he's got a DIY project on the go, off course they've all got to be finished by Christmas so... goodbye peace and quiet. And with his horrible noisy kids there too, the overweight teenager bellowing like a bull calf and thumping his massive body into the (really quite small) swimming pool. What a waste of fresh water.  Ghastly people, why don't they buy a block in the "lifestyle" suburbs, then they could really go all out.  

 

So poor Nelson Mandela has died, and now we have the hypocritical right-wing pollies saying how wonderful he was and how well they knew him, the same people who would have been quite happy if he'd stayed in prison forever. Terrible to think that of his ninety-something years, TWENTY-SEVEN were spent in some of the world's worst prisons. I don't know how he was able to survive, physically or mentally; this fact alone makes him a remarkable human being.