End of October Flowers

I realise that in my last few posts I have shown mainly foliage and grasses; but that isn’t all that is flowering.  So today on the last day of October here are some of the flowers that are beguiling me with their beauty.

The Slope on Thursday – A sunny October day

With wind from the NNE (Grecale) the temperatures dropped significantly this week with the high being about 17° C.  The clocks changed on Saturday night meaning that the mornings are slightly lighter but seem cold and each evening it becomes darker earlier.  Yesterday was cloudy so it was almost dark at 5.30pm; I think today the light will last longer, it has been a warmer sunnier day, but the wind is still blowing.  Still the house is warm enough not to need any heating; with walls of approx. 60 cm they absorb the heat during the summer and release the heat in winter like giant storage radiators.  But the floors are cold in the morning, I mentioned a while ago that I was going to look for my slippers, but then it warmed up for a while and I didn’t need them, this week I have gratefully put them on.

Back lit grasses, seed-heads and berries

Here are some more of the images I took on Monday evening, the garden felt magical to me.

Late October evening view

The temperatures have dropped, the sky is a pale blue another sign it is cold.

In a Vase on Monday and cuttings garden update

We have reached the last Monday in October so time to join with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden where she asks us to fill a vase with flowers from our own gardens or surrounding countryside.  This might be the last vase from the cuttings garden too; I’m a bit disappointed that it is almost all over but it is my fault for not staking the Dahlias properly and not cutting back everything to encourage more flowers.  However, I’m sure this will be a lesson well learned and won’t happen again next year.

The Slope on Thursday 23rd October and Olive oil update

Firstly I’d like to thank you for making my 500^th post such a special event.  More people than ever before joined in with a post about the foliage in their garden, or a particular plant or foliage seen on a visit to an arboretum or a nursery.  If you haven’t read them all you can find the links in yesterday’s post.

Garden Bloggers Foliage Day – a celebration

I began writing this blog in March 2010, with an image of snow from our apartment window.  That was 500 posts ago!

When I began I had no idea of the pleasure meeting like-minded gardening bloggers would give me.  I think people blog for various reasons.  To keep a virtual notebook, to have an easy reference back to previous seasons, to get ideas of good varieties of plants; I could go on.  I blog for all those reasons but much more importantly for me living in a different country, without my gardening friends to chat to; I blog to have contact with others whose passion in life is plants and gardens!  I feel I know you, that you are my friends, that I can ask your advice, can give you mine without causing offence and enjoy your joys as I hope you enjoy mine.  Thank you.

In a Vase on Monday – sunset!

Monday is here again and time to fill a vase with flowers from the garden and link with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden’s meme.

Saturday and Sunday were glorious days with the addition of wonderful sunsets which became the inspiration for today’s vase.

This year’s olive harvest

The mild winter meant that the olives flowered early this spring.  I thought very early on that we would need to harvest much earlier than usual; however the mills are slow to respond to variations in the people’s needs.  Rain during summer isn’t what olives want, the trees have put on a huge amount of foliage; the vast majority of which will need to be pruned to allow light and air into the trees next year.  Fortunately our olives have always been unaffected by damage from the olive fly (Bactrocera oleae); I’m not entirely sure why as I never treat the trees nor hang pheromone traps.  This year however, due possibly to the damp conditions and maybe compounded by the congested foliage a lot of the olives showed the tell-tale exit hole of the larvae, feeling hopeful that at least some of the crop was unaffected we harvested this weekend.

The Slope on Thursday – a definite autumnal feel to the day

The weather changed significantly this week; not that it was cold, at 10.30 pm on Monday evening the temperature was registering 20° C.  These warm nights are one reason (the main reason) why we don’t have very much autumn colour in my area.  It is the shock of the fluctuating temperatures that causes most leaves to change to the red, oranges, purples and yellows that we associate with autumn; here the difference between day and night doesn’t change so much until January or February by which time the leaves have just turned a boring crispy brown and fallen.