The Garden at Summer's End



The Garden at Summer’s End

 

Jasmine Hedge. a second blooming



 

 

Summer Heat - Water with Care

The Castor Oil Plant (Ricinus) has poisonous seeds.
It nees some water but is startling beautiful as this time of year.

 

We have just arrived in September. Our well is dry, has been for nearly a month. And though storms and rain have been experienced in other parts of Greece they have all managed to just miss our island.

 

The Pampas Grass has just burst out in bloom. This plant needs no water.





Our Yucca has just burst into bloom, its second blooming this year
Another plant that does not need watering.



Dry Summer

by Jim Gustafson

My pomegranate is not fruiting yet, this one is next door. Great is the sun, and wide he goes Through empty heaven with repose; And in the blue and glowing days More thick than rain he showers his rays. Though closer still the blinds we pull To keep the shady parlour cool, Yet he will find a chink or two To slip his golden fingers through. The dusty attic spider-clad He, through the keyhole, maketh glad; And through the broken edge of tiles Into the laddered hay-loft smiles. Meantime his golden face around He bares to all the garden ground, And sheds a warm and glittering look Among the ivy’s inmost nook. Above the hills, along the blue, Round the bright air with footing true, To please the child, to paint the rose, The gardener of the World, he goes.

 Summer Light – Big and Bright

 

Our usual August guest have left to go back to their own island or Australia.
We are dressed conservatively compared to Lemnians! But are now nicely tanned.



Summer clothes on the island often pick up the bright zinnia's colours

The people have gone but I remember the bright colours. Greeks turn a smooth milk coffee brown or a dark and shiny espresso brown. So much bare skin, but what they wear with that brown skin will be brightly coloured, probably florescent. Orange is a favoured colour in Lemnos, but in summer so is florescent green and blue. Sunglasses nowadays are also fluorescent. At least the colour can compete with the sun!

 



More zinnias

Summer Sun

from A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (1885)

Great is the sun, and wide he goes Through empty heaven with repose; And in the blue and glowing days More thick than rain he showers his rays. Though closer still the blinds we pull To keep the shady parlour cool, Yet he will find a chink or two To slip his golden fingers through. The dusty attic spider-clad He, through the keyhole, maketh glad; And through the broken edge of tiles Into the laddered hay-loft smiles. Meantime his golden face around He bares to all the garden ground, And sheds a warm and glittering look Among the ivy’s inmost nook. Above the hills, along the blue, Round the bright air with footing true, To please the child, to paint the rose, The gardener of the World, he goes.

 

The dry garden, now that other plants have dried, is spectacular with it Fan Palm and Yuccas.