Well it is a bit late, but I've started the task of rampant pruning and other Winter tasks in the garden. This is mostly hedges, various shrubs, a large bougainvillea bush, a couple of fig trees and roses. Then endless organic trash -leaves, berries, citrus detritus, stuff from palm trees blown off in the recent storms, more leaves- needs to be swept up. Over the time I was on Walkabout, it seems that the skunks have battered two huge holes in the back fence, and there are signs of digging everywhere. I will have to rejoin the battle with them, starting first with repairing these holes.... This whole series of things will run over at least two days.
A certain wonderful yellow rose bush has been faithfully giving me roses, even long after the others have begun to just look tall and stringy and barren. I've got to prune everything back, so I harvested the last of the roses to put into a vase. Several of them are still full and perfect. And the scent is unbelievable, and indescribable! So it all started with a bunch of clippings, and then minutes later, gave me a nice indoor display for the living room. Notice that I've clipped the leaves away from hanging into the water... I've also added a tiny amount of bleach to the water.... all this will lengthen the life of the cut flowers. (Apparently the bleach -which is to control bacteria- is not universally agreed upon, but it seems to work for me.)
-cvj
