I am not finished with this magic place where I played as a child, but I am still working my way through the woodpile, and together with other things, there is not much time at the PC left when I have the strength to sit down and write. There will be more.
Between the garage and the house is a big mahonia bush and it was right in bloom, all green and gold.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Two huge ericas add different colors to the garden elsewhere.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Various rhododendrons and azaleas are not blossoming yet, so they are unfortunately still just indistinct green blobs in the background somewhere. I think there will be more than one color here in due time.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
I do not know what this is, but it is taller than me.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Hugging the south wall is this miniature almond. I have tried to grow it as a bonsai, but it did not prosper very much in the much colder climate where I live and after several years of barely surviving and not growing very much it unfortunately died. Maybe it would fare better now, the last five years were markedly and measurably warmer than normal.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Nearby is also frost-hardy rosemary. I did not have any luck with that either. Last year I got three clippings, all died before Christmas and I have no idea why. It was not even planted outside yet, I was wintering it with my laurels and citruses.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
When I was very small I thought mahonia flowers were fairy gold.
I think you are going to have to go back when the big bush is in flower ;-) Or you know ask your auntie.
I’ve found with rosemary that it can be hard to get going, and that even when you have got it established it sometimes just dies; it did that twice in the twenty years we were in Sheffield. So far we haven’t lost either of our two bushes here, but I have made sure they are extremely well drained -- they are in pots on top of gravel. The thing I have problems growing is mint, particularly embarrasing as it is quite wet here and the mint ought to love it.
Those Ericas, wow!
Also, I like the close-up of the expressive-looking Mahonia.