Autumn Began Today

Summer has ended! We had the first real rains in a long time here over the past couple of days but today the air has turned warm and muggy again. Not complaining though because the garden is lush and green. The weeds are growing at their usual fast pace and I can drag the loaded laundry racks out of the musty tool shed where I pushed them as the first drops fell and put them in their rightful place on the back lawn.

Just before it rained I took photos of the brugmansia in the front garden. I'm always tempted to run out with the camera and see if their upturned edges can be viewed from a new angle. Well I guess not this time but I'm happy to capture their clusters of pristine trumpets as long as they hang so gracefully in our front garden.

You see what happens when you have your sprinkler turned on for a morning.
It will bring on the rain for sure a few hours later!



Thanks for dropping by. Have a good weekend and hasta la vista!

68 ~ Autumn Garden

Just a few more photos from today. It was overcast all morning, but when the sun came out sporadically in the afternoon I was out with Bibi wandering around the garden in search of colour.

Acalypha Wilkesiana


Rosa Gold Medal


We don't have those splendid displays of autumn leaves seen in higher latitudes but we do have a year long show of bright and exotic flowers, with roses blooming throughout the winter until we prune them anywhere from end of December to beginning of March.

Rosa La Minuette

Epiphyllum

And I have to add in my favourite little bush of which I never tire....the Dama de Noche, Cestrum Nocturnum, whose evening scent is the sweetest and most exotic perfume I have ever encountered, so I wrote a poem and dedicated a post to her, the Lady of the Night.

In the next days we'll go on a short drive down the island to a black sand beach where we'll have a fish lunch with papas arrugadas (Canary Island wrinkled salt potatoes) with mojo sauce, and I'll write down both recipes for you.

¡Hasta la Vista!

60 ~ Summer is Ending

Here it is nearly autumn. The sun sits a little lower in the sky but the days are still warm and golden.

We're waiting for some much needed rain which has arrived in torrential fashion to the Spanish mainland, where there is serious flooding.

But here in Canaries, we look at the sky, ask our old gardener if he can interpret any signs from the cloud formations, as most local people who have worked the land here are able to do, but with a glance skyward and a shrug of the shoulders he shakes his head. No, hoy no va llover. Quizás mañana. Not today, perhaps tomorrow.

So we put the sprinkler again on the lawn and hose the dust from the car, then take a little walk around the garden with the camera and Bibi, our new Siamese cat.

The warm weather has caused her to moult, losing much of the dark brown hair on her back, exposing some of the lighter hair underneath, and in places looking almost like pale stripes.

The mandevilla blooms well at this time.

We even have some dried leaves, but miss the autumn chill in the air that goes with raking them into a pile for the composter. The Madagascar Palm (Pachypodium Lamerei) is still putting forth white flowers on that one stem I photographed earlier.

Is this perhaps the last red rose of summer? In a few days it will be autumn, but the rose bushes are all putting forth new growth and many flower buds. It's not yet time for them to have a rest.





Hibiscus blooms most of the year; this one has just had a watering from the hose.





The hedges are growing rapidly now we have cooler evenings. There is always something to prune or trim.

A blackbird sits outside my window, waiting for the doves to vacate the bird feeder. They seem to find it a convenient place to dine, much to the dismay of the smaller birds.

Yes I see you watching me. Now move out of the food tray and let the smaller birds have a chance please!

Well I guess I'd better go now and make our dinner. Hasta la vista!