My Bright Field

We saw this pretty purple field on our drive to Mudgee this week. The ABC ran an article recently saying that the warm wet Spring has been particularly favourable for its growth so there are plenty of photographers out taking snaps, that is the good news. The bad news is that it's Patersons Curse, a farmer's headache. It is highly competitive in pastures and is toxic to livestock, particularly horses, though sheep can graze on it a little bit.  Now back at home.  This Spring my Kandos garden has lovely green terraces. That's the good news.  The bad news is it is nearly all a clover like weed called Burr Medic. The whole town is covered in it!  The locals say the seeds blew in with the dust storm towards the end of the drought. It is a lovely green so I would not much care but as the weather gets warmer it will go brown and is already starting to do this. And a final piece of weedy good news, the council inspectors at our Blue Mountains garden have given Burnbrae the ...

I have read newspaper articles where people say Coronavirus restrictions slowed down their busy lives and now they are enjoying the little things more.  In my case I think it was photography that helped me to notice the little things. Here are some of the little things that caught my attention this week.   The serendipity of this sign at Wentworth Falls after I had already decided today's topic.  A newborn foal next door at Whistlers Rest  The cherries beginning to grow at Rose Orchard Haus. A blue tongued lizard sunning at Burnbrae garden. The floral carpet below the snowball bushes at Burnbrae. The clean swept paths at Burnbrae. This is also for Shirley who wanted to see my rhododendron in flower. I hope you also found lots of little things to delight you this week.

This is yet another post about one of my gardens but with the world being quite upside down at the moment the gardens are where I am spending most of my time - such a delight in spring.  The garden at Rose Orchard Haus with its neat grassy terraces is the antithesis of Burnbrae garden where I was pathfinding last week. But I love a touch of the wild to which even this garden must bend.  Come take a walk with me. The sweet peas are climbing the fence with gay abandon. When I mowed the lawn I dodged poppies growing among the grass so they can delight me with their flowers. There is no trouble finding paths here but I love the way the calendulas appear in every nook and cranny. Daisies spill out of the rose garden beds. And even the vege beds get into the act and flower. Just so long as things don't get too wild, long may it continue.

As our political leaders work to find the best pathway through the impacts of the virus I have been finding pathways this week too. I think gardening is much harder than housework.  After all, leave a house unattended for a while and you find nothing more than dust and a few spider webs to clean up.  Leave a garden unattended and you have a jungle to contend with. Plants are too undisciplined to stay within the borders marked out for them.  They reach over or escape their boundaries. So this week I have been hacking away rediscovering pathways in Burnbrae garden.   Today during Church at Home I joined others in praying that God would "give all leaders wisdom and insight in dealing with the challenges we are facing, particularly in relation to the pandemic and the resulting economic and social pressures it is creating."