Mulch day

 Today we spent the morning laying mulch over some recently liberated beds that had been overtaken by weeds. We both did a lot of hands and knees weeding and the My Little Hercules (above) put down the landscape cloth, a job I don't like and don't do well. Then I go get mulch from our recent delivery of 5 yards of it, and spread it around. All of these beds were a mess two weeks ago.

 This is my oldest herb, a gnarled old rosemary that I got 25 years ago and put into this container, which is metal. When I went to move it, the rusted out bottom gave away. So I had to dig out a hole and plant the whole thing. It is wonderful rosemary.

And this is how the ground under the mulch looked before we went after it.

Stuart, 1979

My best and oldest friend from 41 years ago.

Japanese maple trunk, garden, Roscoe

In Florida, if you have bark, you will have some sort of lichen. My Japanese maple is sort of an interesting story. I bought a beautiful red-leafed Japanese at a nursery. Put it in a big pot and watered and fed it. A year later there was a new branch starting, below the graft. Maples are often grafted onto sturdier varieties to ensure good health. So, I cut off the shoot, and stuck it in another container, not expecting anything but a dead stick a month later. Well, it leafed out and grew like a weed. After a year of upgrading pots, I put it in the ground, where it continued to thrive, to this day. It must be 20ft/6meters tall and is very graceful and the centerpiece of my little asian patch, which includes a ginkgo tree and a bottlebrush tree. The original red leafed tree is very happy in another part of the garden.

Lemon grass, garden, Roscoe oe

My tiny little lemongrass plant of years ago is now over 6 feet/2 meters tall.

Sage leaves, garden, Roscoe

This sage looked so good that I wanted to get a closeup. When I did I noticed that the leaves are covered with a very fine layer of hairs. Lovely.

Clyde's amaryllis, Roscoe

Just before we went into lockdown, my neighbor, Clyde, said that he had a specular amaryllis blooming. I grabbed a camera and went over to see it. He was right.

Sweet gum trunk, Roscoe

Sweetgum get worked over pretty much all summer by woodpeckers. Does not seem to do them much harm.

Lichen on pomegranate, dock, Roscoe

Our little pomegranate tree, that produces one fruit a year, has this lovely light green lichen on its trunk and older branches. It seems to do no harm and is lovely in closeup.

ICW by our dock, Roscoe

Monstera leaves, Roscoe

Bonnieux Bike path.

 Besides the colors, there are wonderful shapes and patterns on this walk.

Harvesting turnips, Bonnieux bike path.

Along the bike path in Bonnieux.

 I love the Autumn/Winter colors in the Luberon. The bike path from Port Julien lets you see them up close.

Clematis, on our dock.

Two days of solid rain made this old vine very happy.

Bunnies, garden

 We have been here for 27 years and I have seen very few rabbits in that time. This year, come Spring, we have them. For a month I have been seeing an adult, who runs under our guest house when startled. Two weeks ago, I noticed a different, darker rabbit in our neighbor's yard. Well, rabbits being rabbits, today I was sitting out in perfect 78f/26c temperatures and noticed the mother munching on my least favorite weeds. She loves them and clears them out! Then I saw a smaller one nearby when the baby ventured too far out in the open (we have a resident red-tailed hawk, who keeps our squirrel population reasonable) the mother chased it back to safer places. The bottom picture is one such chase.

Old friends

 Two old friends came by our dock on their way north from Miami to Vermont. They stopped just off our dock and we got all caught up on kids, grandkids and our lives. They look great.

I couldn't get over the remote in Donnie's hand. He used it to control thrusters to move the boat sideways. He kept the boat in position for 15 minutes.

A walk around our garden yesterday

 I got finished with some pruning and weeding yesterday and walked around looking and fairly content. One of the great truths is that a garden is never finished, but there are satisfying levels along the way.

 Future Meyer lemons.

 Lilies that flower repeatedly and then disappear for a while.

 My Japanese maple is always the last plant to leaf out and scares me every year, when it shows no sign of repeating.

 First tomato flowers!

 The kumquat looked dead and now is covered with new growth.

 Spanish moss

 Datura flowers

 More lilies

 The individual flowers are so delicate and complex.

 Fallen collards.

 A datil pepper that I was about to pull out is back for a third year, one of the joys of a no-frost winter.

My poor overworked secateurs.