Walking in the Garden

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Garden Walk

 

Let's continue our walk

through the new coastal garden

  

Old dwarf date palms

form a sentry line at the lawn's edge

Phoenix Rubellini

are elegant palms

  

with beautiful notched trunks

  

but wear, 

at the base of the leaves

a nasty armour

of spines

which prick and poison

with a vengeance

I have been told

 that they were used to line Booby traps

in the Viet Nam war

  

watch your footing here

see the pink ribbon

don't trip on that buried metal stake

  

under the palms 

I have planted native Gingers

  

In my clearing 

I found this glossy graceful palm

which appears to be a cycad

remember those ancient plants 

from dinosaur days...

but a different cycad 

to the one I am familiar with

this one -

which the moths are also very familiar with

they lay their eggs in the leaf nest

and the larvae munch through the leaves

I don't like to spray

so I have left them to it...

  

the many old gardenias

that I found

gangley and metres tall

are now leafing up again

after a harsh prune

  

when I removed 

a blanketing maze of vine

from the old trees

I found a row of frangipani trees

which are deciduous here

once cleared of vine and watered

they put on a show

  

White and pink flowering varieties

coloured the gardens 

and dropped their ornamental blossoms

on the road beneath

 

the insidious vine

seemingly pretty and green

that covers my garden floor

and latches on any woody surface

to begin

its heavenward climb

  

along the road edge 

I found one of my most loved flowers

the agapanthus

so I have been filling in spaces and corners

with more pots of blue agapanthus

and lined the driveway with white ones

  

Blechnum

is a new fern to me

a native, it will grow in semi shade

to about two foot tall

 

One variety of Blechnum
has new fronds emerging in a brown tint
Unfortunately the caterpillars
love the tender new fronds
and strip them
I am hoping
they will tire of their over indulgence
soon

 

The old palms

are patterned by lichens

  

and the glorious Australian tree fern

creates a lacy shade over the rockery

The tree fern produces millions of tiny spores 

which cover my tiled deck

with a carpet of fine dust...

A small price to pay...

I can hear the water 

lapping over the edge 

of the infinity pool

which suggests to me

that it is time we took a break

and had a dip to cool off...

Happy walking...

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Friendly Neighbours

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Our New Neighbours

When we first moved

into our new abode

we noticed an amiable old fellow

ambling up the road

at dusk one evening

a little wobbly

on his legs

the traffic stopped to allow him

to slowly mount the crest
taking numerous small stops

along the way.

We named him Grey Butt

This morning

while eating my muesli

in my nest

I noticed a movement

in the gum trees

across the road

and thought I recognised the neighbour

But if you look closely

at the markings

and colouration on his butt

you will see

that today's neighbour

is not Grey Butt

It's Speckled Butt

I think

I will just sit here a while

and enjoy the song of the ocean

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Time for a Walk

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Time for a Walk ...

It's high time we went for a walk

But as its 35C today

we'll make it an easy one

We'll go for a stroll

around my new home

If you walk up from the beach

I'll meet you at the entry gate

In the planter box,

below the screening

adjacent to the wall

I planted foxtail palms

with atrovirens,

a smaller feathery palm

 

 

as you came up the steps

you would have seen

the native lilly pillies

with colouful crotons

 

We could detour here

down the pavers

to the other apartment's pool area

but we won't

In the stair wells

we have a beautiful Solitaire Palm

surrounded by Raphis palms

beneath which I have yet

to fill in with Spathyphyllum

 

Here we are at our front entry

 

Where the friendly welcoming Buddha

has found his niche

 

Opposite the entry

is a terrace

where cool breezes blow

which cool us and also

dries laundry on my temporary lines

and the garden has spots for my

Bromeliad collection

 

which need to have their pups removed

and replanted

 

a good late summer job ahead

 

 Come down these steps

to my front garden

where I have been busy

with new plantings

and with some major pruning back

The previous home,

demolished for this building

was over 60 years old

and the tropical gardens

had become a jungle

fortunately the existing palms

have provided a wonderful skeleton

upon which to recreate gardens

Gardenia perfume wafts up to our living areas

from the many bushes and prostrate gardenias

I have planted in the rockery

and around the lawn edges

One of the many surprises

in the gardens

was to find this tree,

a crepe myrtle,

which flowered on Christmas day.

 I almost hacked it down

in my pruning frenzy

The blue behind the trees

is the waters of Laguna Bay

and the hinterland beyond

Let's take a break now,

have a cool fruit juice

and continue shortly

and I'll tell you more about the plants

in these tropical gardens...

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Basil

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Basil

Fresh

home grown basil

Bountiful

Beautiful

Tasty...

 

Basil Pods

 

Basil Boat

 

Basil

cherry tomato

and

fetta

stacks

drizzled

with olive oil,

speckled with

freshly ground

peppercorns

and

rocksalt

 

Basil betwixt

briny fetta

and

blessed

tomato

I am besotted

by

Basil

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Ma'at

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Ma'at
Partner of  Thoth,
whom I adopted as
God of Blogging

Ma'at
pronounced Ma aht
means Truth

Ma'at
the Egyptian Goddess
represented truth,
order, justice
and balance
It was Ma'at's task
to prevent the world
from falling into chaos

Ma'at also helped Ra,
the sun God,
steer his boat
across the sky each day
guiding his direction

Ma'at is depicted as a woman
with a white ostrich feather
on her head
She carries a sceptre
in one hand
and an ankh
in the other

In the Hall of Judgement
Ma' at weighs the hearts of the dead
against her feather
If the heart weighs heavier
it is thrown
to the crocodile headed Ammut
to devour
If the heart weighs lighter
than the feather
the soul may cross
into the kingdom of Osiris,
into paradise



Notice in the image above
Thoth
on the right
recording his observations



Illustrations such as this
were common
in the Egyptian
Books of the Dead

The Book of the Dead
such as that of the Scribe Ani
written in 1240 BC,
which is called the Papyrus of Ani,
was a document
written for a particular person,
composed to assist the newly deceased
to negotiate the afterlife


These books included hymns
spells and instructions


It was common to also
include a list behaviours,
a code of ethics,
or commandments


sometimes called
Going Forth by Day

42 Negative Confessions from the Papyrus of Ani

1. I have not committed sin.
2. I have not committed robbery with violence.
3. I have not stolen.
4. I have not slain men and women.
5. I have not stolen grain.
6. I have not purloined offerings.
7. I have not stolen the property of the god.
8. I have not uttered lies.
9. I have not carried away food.
10. I have not uttered curses.
11. I have not committed adultery, I have not lain with men.
12. I have made none to weep.
13. I have not eaten the heart [i.e I have not grieved uselessly, or felt remorse].
14. I have not attacked any man.
15. I am not a man of deceit.
16. I have not stolen cultivated land.
17. I have not been an eavesdropper.
18. I have slandered [no man].
19. I have not been angry without just cause
20. I have not debauched the wife of any man.
21. I have not debauched the wife of any man.
22. I have not polluted myself.
23. I have terrorised none.
24. I have not transgressed [the Law].
25. I have not been wroth.
26. I have not shut my ears to the words of truth.
27. I have not blasphemed.
28. I am not a man of violence.
29. I am not a stirrer up of strife (or a disturber of the peace).
30. I have not acted (or judged) with undue haste.
31. I have not pried into matters.
32. I have not multiplied my words in speaking.
33. I have wronged none, I have done no evil.
34. I have not worked witchcraft against the King (or blasphemed against the King).
35. I have never stopped [the flow of] water.
36. I have never raised my voice (spoken arrogantly, or in anger).
37. I have not cursed (or blasphemed) God.
38. I have not acted with arrogance
39. I have not stolen the bread of the gods.
40. I have not carried away the khenfu cakes from the Spirits of the dead.
41. I have not snatched away the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city.
42. I have not slayed the cattle belonging to the god.

It is interesting to read
this code of conduct
which precedes
the 12 Commandments
of Moses
by over a thousand years,
and to see which values
we maintain
as important guides
in our lives today...




I like # 26

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