November….the month that marks the cusp of seasonal change. It’s the time we farewell the ‘prettiness’ of early spring. The blossom is long gone, fallen to the ground, baked in the hot sun, then thankfully, washed away by a welcome downpour of rain. The vision of old variety, spring-flowering roses like Albertine, scrambling over the potting shed roof, are all but vanished.
Petals of Souvenir de la Malmaison flutter to the ground on the breeze, after a long, hot day baking in the sun, and the scent of Philadelphus is replaced with Honeysuckle and late-spring Jasmine.
The paper white flowers of the Californian tree poppy, Romneya coulteri, dance atop long stems of cut-grey foliage…
And the semi-full, .cone-shaped flowers of the oak-leafed Hydrangea quercifolia nod their heavy heads in accompaniment to the drone of bees in the flowering pepper tree branches dangling overhead.
These are the ephemeral delights of seasonal change, as burgeoning growth for the next phase entices for what lies ahead.