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May Has Arrived - At Last

© John Bottomley

I was returning from my morning walk yesterday and as I turned the corner just before our house, a small wallaby hopped out in front of me. I thought we had left all the bush animals behind. As we live about 17 miles (27 km) from the city, it is always a surprise when something like that happens. Not withstanding the wallaby, as I neared the house, a couple of kookaburras sat in a tree and laughed their heads off. At me? I wouldn't be surprised. It is great to be back writing again. I have had some serious problems with my hard drive, but touch wood everything appears to be back to normal today. We have been expecting rain for the past three days and this morning May 10, it finally arrived. I don't expect there will be much out of this cold front, it promises to be wet for the next two or three days. Some of our roses are still showing some of their finest blooms. This year we are going to try and enhance the roses blooms by just tip pruning. If anyone has any other ideas please let us know. The flowers put on a pretty good show this year but there could have been more blooms on some of the older bushes. It seems that May is perhaps the best time to plant tulips and hyacinths. So, I will try and get a better show than I did last year. Not much success I am afraid, although the daffodils were absolutely fantastic. They have been there for years anyhow. As far as the rest of our garden is concerned I think it is time to start planning the northwest corner. This has been left pretty much alone for the past few years. The trees that surround the area, about 14 yards square (12.5 metres square) have formed a canopy and nothing much will grow that needs full sun. The present plan is to plant some small bushes and put down a few square yards of brick paving. This should ease the workload of scraping up the falling leaves, and make the area another one where we can sit and relax in the summer months. The types of bushes will depend on the outlook we finally decide is needed for that area. We fancy some more grevilleas and a few rhododendrons. The rhododendron we have there at present has done exceedingly well because of the good shade available. It is just about to come into flower. The percentage of indigenous trees we have planted and will continue to plant has increased over the years and we have certainly found that they certainly attract the birds.

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