Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Is it here yet????

Is it here yet?

It’s like the kid in the back seat on the advert on TV.

Is it here yet?

Maybe it is whistful thinking, but I reckon I can feel autumn in the air. The Tulip Tree (always my first messenger) is getting its first yellow leaves. If the grapevine along the verandah follows, it will be confirmed.

Is it here yet?

This garden was deliberately planted as an autumn garden – I grew up with Mrs McDonald’s garden up the road, which was a stunning autumn garden. It took me years to work out one of the features was the huge, old smoke bush. I have three now (one large, one medium, one baby), all different. We love autumn.

Is it here yet?

4 Comments:

Blogger Alice said...

Oh, you are a funny girl! Yes, I think there is a touch of autumn in the air. In fact my husband mentioned same two days ago. I reminded him that it is still summer time but he said these were the sort of mornings he remembers when he used to walk to work when we first came to Canberra.

Aren't Smoke Bushes just a delight? We have one quite large one with very purple leaves and two smaller ones with leaves which are anything from green to navy blue, depending on the angle from which you look.

Is your grapevine fruiting or ornamental?

10:23 AM  
Blogger Linda said...

Of my three smoke bushes, the largest is the green one - and this year the "smoke" part was almost thick enough on the ground to be mulch. I have the darker one, but it is in a shady spot, and much younger. The smallest one is the yellow/lime green one that has just appeared in nurseries - I am waiting to see what it does in autumn, although there are not many leaves yet to play with.

The grape vine is ornamental - I share a fruiting one on the fence with the neighbours, but the birds never share the grapes. My ornamental one goes right along the whole house, and would happily go further, but I don't have anything to support it. It cools all along the front verandah in summer, where we sit and look at the mountains, and turns a vivid red in autumn. And produces lots of lovely leaves for the compost.

5:52 AM  
Blogger Sharon said...

Yes I too think the autumn is slowly making her way in... For me it was the sound of the crickets that marked the change - they somehow just sounded different the other evening... And the light has subtle changes too... It is almost as if the colour has moved just slightly on the colour wheel... A different quality and hue... I 'see' it has taken on a more rich golden rather than the stark yellow/white of summer...

We can see a HUGE liquid amber from our backyard and it is lovely to watch the gradual change from summer green through to autumn reds and then to the bare branches of winter... We all watch eagerly for the first signs of life that mark the Spring...

7:08 AM  
Blogger Linda said...

Is it here yet?

(Sorry, couldn't resist that!)

I am finding it much harder to pick this year because of the rain. If it is dry, it is much easier to pick for me, as I "feel" rather than "see: autumn, then the tulip tree confirms it, and the grape vine backs it up.

But right now I am not sure. Is what I am "feeling" the rain?

Sharee, that Liquidambar sounds wonderful - mine is always after the tulip tree.

And I always know when we will have the first frost. It is as soon as the first flowers come out on the purple tree dahlia! Maybe even the first petal. That never fails.

Is it here yet?

10:43 AM  

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