We did this loop on Sunday. 17ºC in the middle of winter lol. No, that's not normal but what the hell is these days?
Do you have a garden? I've never been without one, except for a period of upstairs flatting in central Christchurch. It's been dry and mild for a week or so now and we've had our arses in the air developing one of the feral sections of our current garden, basically a small wilderness of blackberry, broome and elephant weed. It's the last place left on our land that's sunny enough for roses, below and to the west of the section in the pic below.
The sun's just starting to get back into the top of our hillside now after reaching its nadir. ^ This is my favourite Cabbage Tree Cordyline australis specimen; it's a very truffula-esque guy with a great beard of dead leaves. To the right is a Cordyline Green Goddess with its broader, more upright leaves and slightly different habit. It's a difficult cultivar that likes to shit itself and die at the slightest provocation even here in its native New Zealand, so don't feel too bad if you've killed a few. In the mid ground you can see a Magnolia x Shiraz budding up and some Arrow Bamboo Pseudosasa japonica. This is one of my personal favourites due to its quick growth and elegant leafage. It doesn't really run here, even though we're Zone 9 and well-watered, happier to clump and just expand in a polite manner, usually toward the sun.
I'm probably boring you stupid with this reportage so let me spice shit up in here. Stagger Lee: those degenerate go go boys put hearts in my eyes. Every damn time.
I'll try and get to finishing the second part of the West Coast trip series this week.