There and Back

I have been missing from my garden for too long.  But it just couldn’t be helped.  The school holidays took us to sunny Fiji for a wonderful week away with the kids.  It was completely the wrong time of year for a keen gardener to be separated from the garden, with it being spring and all.  But family time is important, and the boys are growing up so fast that it seems important to capture as many memories as we can.   And Fiji was fabulous.

I had the garden fully taken care of by a lovely house sitter who sent reassuring photo updates each day.  It helped me to relax and enjoy the break knowing things were well looked after.  Besides spring is one of those forgiving seasons.  It is easy to forget that as we rush to get our seeds sown on the first opportunity, however the first opportunity is not the only one and so waiting a week or two won’t do any harm.  And in some situations, the enforced delay will result in plants that will grow quicker in the slightly warmer conditions and flourish better long term.   Having oversized seedlings lurking in pots waiting to go out into conditions that aren’t ready yet is less than ideal.  And these are the phrases I’m repeating to myself to free myself from the worry of going away on holiday in the middle of spring!

But it wasn’t just Fiji.  Our flight home, that should have had us arrive safely at home at 1am was delayed for departure until 1am, meaning we didn’t get home until 6:30am.  Ordinarily this wouldn’t have been a problem, and nothing a bit of a sleep in wouldn’t fix.  However, I needed to leave for the airport once again the following 3am.  I was heading off to Australia to help the lovely people at the Benalla Garden Club celebrate their 65^th birthday.  It was great to see such a flourishing garden club in a wonderful vibrant community.  It was well worth the travel drama to join in the celebrations.

Eventually I found myself back on home soil, but I was too exhausted to even check on the garden, and spent a couple of days resting.  It was just as well as there was another stormy cold snap and it blew about the garden in a way I didn’t want to observe.  There was nothing to be done until it stopped and in the clear light of a blue sky day the harm done was insignificant which was a huge relief.

With no major activities and events ahead of me for many weeks, I can now focus on the garden.  There is still plenty to be done, but it is all the fun stuff.  At this point I am happy to call digging and weeding fun; the novelty may wear off by the end of the week.

So, as I set about prioritising my to do list, sit back and watch my latest video, with a before holiday and after holiday tour so you can see just how much things have grown.

Come again soon – it is uninterrupted garden time!

Sarah the Gardener  : o)