Tree Dahlia - probably its last days of flowering.

I love my Tree Dahlia. It is the most optimistic plant I know of. (I am embarrassed to see that I have used that line over many years). Oh well.

Tree Dahlia flowering up and over other shrubs.
It needs some protection from winds,
otherwise, it gets flattened.
Several stems on left and right have fallen over
but the flowers will still open.

Every winter, it gets cut back to the ground (or under it, technically). Then in mid-spring it starts all over again, growing fast (imagine Jack's Beanstalk plant). Then in April, it starts to open its first flowers. Today it was in something approaching full flower. In old money, these flowers are over 10 feet off the ground.

Tree Dahlia stems holding many flowers
as seen from my Back Deck.

But late this afternoon, it started to rain. If the rain comes on heavily, the flowers will bow to the ground under the weight of the water it has to carry on its 3 metre plus stems.
Normally its enemy is frost. But we have not had any here, yet, because the long dry autumn mild spell. I will know more tomorrow, or the day after.

Tree Dahlia flower

That is a shot of a single flower (as best I could manage, by holding one stem over). The flowers are simple (open) whereas most Dahlia flowers are "double". But as far as I know Tree Dahlias are always delicate flowers, like this. Some are white. A heavy flower, such as the "Exhibition" Dahlias, which the Dahlia people rave about, would surely be too heavy for the stems to carry more than three metres above ground, and catching the wind.

I have a fairly dull Japanese Maple
But today it was looking charming
in the grey light of this afternoon.

Winter has arrived in Nova Scotia

Nature obviously loves to keep things in balance. So, She has matched our burst of hot weather with the first snow fall of winter, in Leo's place in Nova Scotia, Canada.

You may recall that Leo sent me some Autumn scenes a few weeks back. I was particularly taken with this calming scene - a very morning photo, with two big chairs in which to relax. After Leo sent me that photo, I asked him to send me a matching photo, with some snow. Well, Leo has reason to curse me, for jinxing him, for he has now had a relatively heavy "dump" of snow. Well, heavy for the first snow of the season.You can see a wheelbarrow (probably full of leaves) covered in snow. To the left of the barrow, the mounds of snow are small shrubs which are covered in snow. It is a lovely scene, and I am pleased that Leo remembered my request for a matching photo. Observant readers will note that the chairs have been used, (turned around) between photos. So Leo does take time out to use the "easy chairs". Good thing too.

Leo could not resist sending another "colour" image (from 30 October). Obviously this is the last colour shot of Leo's Autumn - "Fall" as they name this season in Canada. The red tree is a Japanese Maple "Bloodgood". The yellow tree on the right is a Sugar Maple. The deeper yellow/bronze coloured small tree (in the middle) is a Beech. There are various conifers (obviously one big one, over the top), but the distant small conifers are Balsam Fir and Spruce (apparently). The large "silvery-green" leaves in the foreground are Tree Peony leaves showing their under side - perhaps it had been windy, to blow the leaves around.

And just to remind us of the potentially damaging power of a good snow fall, here is a shot of a "wild Apple Tree" split and broken under the weight of the snow. That required Leo to do some work to clear his driveway out to the highway. You can see where his van is parked - clearly blocked by the fallen tree.So, back to my theme, the balance of Nature is well and truly in evidence here, as we have switched, in a few hours, from an early summer burst here in Australia to an early winter "dump" in Canada.

Views from the other side of the world

My friend Leo, a fellow Peony enthusiast, lives in Nova Scotia, Canada. While we are in full-flight into Spring here in Oz, Leo is drifting into Winter. Canadians do winter pretty seriously, although the rest of Canada regards Nova Scotia (a peninsula hanging off the far eastern tip of Canada) as "temperate", because of the influence of the Gulf Stream, keeping the real effects of a serious winter moderated. That's their view of it, anyway.

The trees in Nova Scotia are colouring up, and Leo's Peonies will be shutting down, with the Peony leaves dying off, and the tubers going into dormancy. Soon they will be covered by their first fall of snow, and then they will have a near-permanent cover of snow (for a few months at least). So, the world in which Leo and his plants live is a world of extremes.

But seasonal changes bring about such wonderful colours. This was obviously a late afternoon shot (as Leo was returning home, after a long bike ride). You can see the oncoming car has its headlights on. I have warned Leo that the cars there drive on the wrong side of the road!!!
Leo told me that in this photo (below) of trees, with a field in the foreground, the field had been ploughed recently. The field was full of birds, ranging from crows to finches. When he pulled his bike back onto the road, he "flushed a couple of irate pheasants from the roughage beside the road". Its nice to learn that the birds are doing well in Nova Scotia. There is some hope for the world, if the birds are healthy.
Leo described the various trees as follows: "Unfortunately a rain storm on Saturday came with a lot of wind as well, which stripped most of the area's red maples of their leaves. Other maples still had theirs, but moose maple is yellow and sugar maple is orange to yellow (and the orange comes a bit later). Poplars and birch, yellow. Sky, blue. (Thanks Leo, we can work that one out!) Conifers green (larch [locally known as hackmatack, also as tamarac] will go yellow in a while, but not yet)"
DJW states: Australian readers may find the names of some North American trees unfamiliar. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary gives the etymology of "hackmatack" as: earlier hakmantak, probably from Western Abenaki (Algonquian language of New Hampshire and Vermont). Date: 1792

This is a field of wild Blueberries (Vaccinium sp). According to Leo, the field gets mowed (slashed), but the plants themselves are wild, it seems. One assumes the locals harvest the delicious berries to turn into vitamin-rich drinks, or (my favourite) eaten with double cream. It seems Blueberries are very much a Nova Scotian specialty product. Judging by the tilt on several of the trees on the horizon, it might be a windy area, so I am sure it is not always as idyllic as it seems in this autumn photo.Leo followed up his autumn-colour photos with some morning light photos, taken several days later. Here is an early morning shot, taken at 7:33am. (Leo was rung by a fellow cycling enthusiast to get him up and on the road, for a long bike ride - he would have been barely awake, otherwise, I am sure).The second photo is taken about 2 minutes later.
And then the third photo is taken at 7:37am. Already the "first light" effect is passing, and it is starting to pass into a soft morning light. There is now enough light for you to see that the two chairs are very romantically sited, in Leo's front yard, amongst the deciduous trees - hence the carpet of leaves.

It looks lovely Leo.
Please send me the same scene, after the first fall of snow - in a few weeks.

Sunset glows

A few evenings ago, the wind dropped, just around Sunset, leaving a perfectly clear sky.

There is nothing like the clarity of vision one gets after rain. Dust particles, and gases emitted by the Eucalypt forest, have all been washed out of the air - leaving it prism-clear.

Even at Sunset, the far distant ranges, south of the Shoalhaven Valley, form the far-distant southern horizon. This is the view from my back deck - a clear view of some 60 Kms distance. (On other days, the same view is reduced to 60 metres - on other days it looks like this)

Forgive the Power Pole. I have planted a young Hoop Pine directly in line with the stanchion, but it might take 30 years till it blocks that part of the view. I live here, and I totally ignore the electrical services, but whenever I publish a photo, I realise quite how visible it is. I could "Photoshop" it out, but that would be creating a false impression.

I love my view, no matter what.

















Here is another clear, bright vision. One of my neighbours has this small Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) which gives such a lovely autumn colour. This photo was taken on 10 June - just about a month ago.

















Just part of the Nature of Robertson - occasional clear skies, and bright colours. Makes a change from grey skies, rain and wind. We do have bright moments too.