Winter

August in Melbourne. This year's beginning to August has been a warm one. We had one of the warmest mornings ever recorded the other day. Its been a while since we have had the heaters on (more than a few days in Melbourne in the middle of Winter, is a long time!) Of course, these warm days/nights are happening through the weeks and then when the weekends come to us, we're back to the wintry Melbourne days. I saw a beautiful Magnolia tree full in bloom this morning, so I thought I would share a photograph with you. Its amazing this flower. I love the colouring and size of the flowers.

Winter is nearing to the end. And I would have spoken more about it, but I have been having some publishing difficulties of late. I do not know why. So hopefully this will publish.

Winter in the gardening world is fun. One could see that as sarcasm, however, for once, I am not! ;) From the beginning, in June where we're still battling with the rest of the falling leaves, to unpredictable rainfalls and icy dark mornings. There is so much to do, but there is hardly enough time in the day for it all. It should be a time to relax a little. But because of all the rain we've been having, most plants seem to be confused on what they should be doing. Winter, we should be slowing down mowing. However, it did not seem to slow down until early July, way into the middle of the season. We are also inundated with weeds, which is a never ending job. Oxalis (Oxalis sp), winter grass, Common sow thistle(Sonchus oleraceus), fat hen (Chenopodium album) are just a few of the weed species we have to deal with. Winter is also the time for winter pruning. I enjoy rose pruning. They seem to respond well to my kind of torture. A sadistic type pleasure envelopes me as I hack into the old wood of a very old rose. Two-thirds come off spectacularly. Large spindling roses which may not have been pruned for a few seasons and still seem to produce one or two flowers are cut down in size and some of them into a mere stick, yet they still survive and thrive. Pruning fruit trees can be dramatic and very therapeutic also. Especially to trees who may have never been pruned and then are injected with a new lease on life for years to come. So winter is about to leave us and we're about to leap into Spring...bring it on!

Menopausal Mother Earth

Its only March and we have seen a lifetimes worth of natural disasters. In our country alone, we had floods and cyclones. In New Zealand, our not-to-distant cousins, Christchurch was hit by a 6.3 earthquake which was actually an aftershock from its 2010 earthquake. Over 100 people had died and there are still bodies being recovered, a month after the fact. Now, in Japan, an 8.9 quake and tsunami has hit and has devastated the country. An estimated 10,000 people will die. More than 1000 are already dead and 1000s are still being recovered. Not only this devastation. Its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was hit enabling radiation levels high. Today, there is risk of contamination in food and water. Will this be another Chernobyl? Hopefully mother earth will give the world a break after Japan and so we can process the death and destruction that has hit our human shores thus far. 2011 already has its highest death toll and we're only into the third month. We can't mentally cope with any more.

Even more flowers!

I thought it had been some time since I did a flowers blog, so here we are in the beginning of Autumn and I am thinking flowers. Its a fab time of year, leaves turning colours and falling everywhere. So enjoy Autumn this year. Enjoy the colour.

Mother Earth is P'ed off!

Its official, Mother earth is certainly pissed off with us minions called the human race. Floods, cyclones and earthquakes! What's next? Pestilence? In a way, we're having that too - with locusts and of course there's always cockroaches which are everywhere. So let's have no more Mother nature, please. On behalf of the human race, I, Dani King, am sorry! Please give us a break here in Australia and our neighbours New Zealand.

Mother Earth

Its interesting to me that the authorities are saying that Australia will have more catastrophic natural disasters due to global warming and we still have sceptics out there. In our country, alone, we have fires in one part of the country and cyclones and ridiculous rain patterns in the other parts. A few months ago, southern Queensland flooded. Brisbane was pretty much all under water. The death toll was one too many, with thirty-five perishing, which will probably rise as seventy-two are missing. Countless houses and businesses destroyed with Brisbane at a stand-still. It will take months to get back on track. At the same time, northern Victoria was flooded, bearing down on farms which had just been through the droughts and now flooded. Thankfully, there were no deaths in Victoria. In Perth around the same time, there were fires which took houses.

Then last week saw Cyclone Yasi hit northern Queensland which has left them powerless and without drinking water. Their water treatment plant was hit pretty bad which means they may be off power and no water for a week. The water they do have is coming straight from the dams, which needs to be boiled twice to drink. Which is hard to fathom. Rooves were blown off; trees were at 90 degree angles; windows smashed in; houses and businesses destroyed with the impact of a very pissed off mother earth. Unfortunately, one man has perished, with three people missing. Banana plantations which were hit five years ago with cyclone Larry have been hit again with Yasi.

Now, in Melbourne, we see the aftermath of cyclone Yasi as its still on its path downwards. For the past twelve hours, we have seen continuous rain. Its been heavy. Flash flooding has hit the CBD and parts of it are under water. St Kilda has been without power.

The wonderful part is that there has been a wonderful human spirit through these times; people volunteering their time and skills across the country. People giving money. That's patronism. That's Australia. The Victorian fires in 2009 saw comradery in many forms. People are still digging deep for them, and this will continue with the victims in Queensland and elsewhere. Its what Australians do.