Abbie Jury 🌱
@tikorangi
Gardener and garden writer who takes photographs. Politically inclined, definitely leftist. Aotearoa New Zealand. 🌱
The previous four photos are all reject seedlings from the breeding programme. This one is Vulcan just opening and it is on the market.
That was a disturbed night between the earthquake and torrential rain. One of the strongest quakes I have been in and an overflowing barrow of rain.
And orchids were a luxury centrepiece with a single bloom in a posy bowl. An entire stem was extravagance beyond the means of anyone I knew. Now we have them growing freely in the garden.
Winter you say? What winter? In my Dunedin childhood, mandarins were a disappointing annual treat - a lb of semi-green mandarins bought from the fruiterer. The casual abundance here stunned me on my first visit to this place where I now live.
The light this morning, as I looked out the bedroom window, was pretty amazing. Not my choice of colour combo but the zoom brings them closer together than they are in reality.
And in a lesson on times gone by, look at the pricing of the silk screen posters of these pages as wall decoration (!). One single dollar plus free post. Presumably in cm by then.
We hated him with a passion but compared to what we have today, he seems positively benign.
I was cleaning the bookcases and found this, which only people of a certain age will remember.
A sad day. We are farewelling our Dudley at 4pm. He is an SPCA rescue, nearing 16 and we have had him for over 11 years. There is so much wrong with him now that we agreed his time has come. He has been such a good boi.
Utilitarian the church building may be, but look at what is happening on the sunnier side of the church grounds. A proper community garden where people are invited to take what they need. Some genuine Christianity going on there.
Churches don't come much plainer and more utilitarian than the Anglican church in my local town of Whaitara but look at how beautiful this Magnolia campbellii is in the church grounds.
All photos this morning. Mustn't complain when this is actually mid winter here.
There has been a silent murder beside me since I sat down to my muesli.
And Magnolia campbellii bravely opening more flowers in the depths of our winter.
On the topic of big things, the Doryanthes flowers are finally showing colour. Common name is Queensland spear lily. It only flowers once and that is after 8 to 10 years but the flowers can last a good five months and are full of nectar.
'I don't think I have ever seen a flower that is larger than my head,' said our gardener of the banana flower.
Podgy pidgie is barely letting the magnolia buds open before tucking in.
Te maunga today. The snow, it be a-meltin' fast, especially on the the western flanks.
This was it just six days ago when we were wondering if the snow would come at all this year.
It snowed on te maunga! It is melting already but at least I could get a start on my seasonal photos of te magnolia me te maunga.
Boiling the jug for a cuppa. Now relocating the car to the back door so we set up for the evening with no mains power. At least we can run a multi plug so up to 4 plug ins indoors.
When you phone the power company to report a power outage on your water pump and it turns out to rather more major than the usual pole fuse. We got a bit excited at getting traffic lights.
Te maunga June 21. 2026 - this very morning in fact. Same day in 2022 and 2018. It seems this winter so far has indeed been very mild.
Just to convey the genre of the 1970s men's fashion. pulptastic.com/70s-mens-fas...