Love In A Mist

Winter in the tropics

It's winter in Rarotonga but not like any winter I've experienced.

I heard a newcomer to the island saying that the rain and wind that's characterised our weather on and off for the last few weeks is not what they expected for the tropics.

A local answered "well, it is our winter you know".

Today is about 24 degrees, with a wind rattling through the trees and this, apparently, is chilly.

When the temperature drops below 20 degrees, it's very cold indeed. I must be acclimatising, because I was considering pulling the duvet out of the wardrobe the other night, when the temperature dipped into the teens. (I didn't need it, but I did think about it).

If you're planning a holiday here, bring an umbrella. The downpours are often brief and violent.

Today, Stuff's homepage tells me it's six degrees in Wellington. I know Wellington winters very well indeed. We're intimately acquainted. It's only June, so it might not be that bad yet, but there's the horizontal freezing rain that the southerly drives straight into your face as you hurry down the street. Walking along Lambton Quay, I would have to fight a desire to linger in the pools of warmth spilling out of shop doorways.

Wellington winters include crisp, blue sky days that are beautiful, but also involve day after day of grey skies, hail, and wind that roared straight off Cook Strait.  A wool coat is more survival necessity than fashion statement, worn on overheated buses full of damp, grumpy commuters.

Usually, around the end of May, or beginning of June, when the cold sets in, I get a bout of the flu or a bad cold, regular as clockwork, every year that I've lived in Wellington.

I've missed that by fleeing to the tropics. Today, I'm wearing a t-shirt, a skirt and my favourite new green and blue jandals. (You can still indulge a shoe obsession even when your footwear is not technically shoes, I've discovered). In concession to the office air conditioning, which keeps things at a balmy 24 degrees (except my feet, which seem colder), I've added three-quarter tights.

And yet, despite it all, I do miss Wellington. I miss the library, and my ballet classes and most of all, my friends. I miss affordable broadband, walking Percy up in the hills and well stocked supermarket shelves full of options.

I'm not sorry to be here, rather than Wellington. I needed a change and if I didn't do it now, I might have found my rut was just too big to climb out from. But that doesn't mean I will find everything uniformly perfect.

Flowers to Share: Love-in-a-Mist « Plain and Simple Me

Looking for inspiration

I’m reading a book called, “The Happiness Project”.   In one of the chapters, the author, Gretchen Rubin, suggests that we should look to the things that we do in our spare time as inspiration.

One of my favorite things to do is, garden.  But even more fun than that is sharing flowers from my garden.

In past neighborhoods, I’ve arranged flower exchanges to swap flowers with friends and neighbors.  They are super easy to plan, and I usually end up with some pretty great new finds.  This year, I tried to plan one, and only one of my friends showed up.

Hey, that’s okay.  More great plants for me!

My friend Julie brought over bronze fennel, a rose, oregano, and walking onions.

I then took Julie around my house and we dug up anything that I had enough to share, and that struck her fancy.

A couple of days ago, my friend Rachel came over, and again we strolled around the flowers, digging up flowers to spice up her beds.

Since I can’t possibly share all of my flowers with my readers, I thought I might share the what, why, and where to plant of some of my favorites.

First up…

a.k.a. Nigella damascena, Devil-in-the-bush

I got my first start of this plant about eight years ago from a neighbor with a wild backyard full of cottage garden flowers.  She was moving, and wanted to make sure that starts of her plants got to those of us in the neighborhood that would treasure them.

I planted the start in a partially shaded area underneath a rose bush by a shed.

The plants grew well, and each year reseeded themselves.  The variety that I got was all periwinkle blue.

Last summer, I purchased a couple of starts from Prairie Trail farm in Goshen.  I believe I got a Miss Jekyl and a Persian Jewels.  The starts were tiny at the beginning of the summer, but by mid-summer, the starts were about a foot in diameter (the whole plant, not the stem!).  They flowered beautifully, and reseeded themselves in my flowerbed.  I did save seeds too, to share and plant in other places.

My former neighbor, and flower mentor Jeanette, taught me to delight in the gift of flowers coming up in unexpected places.  Because of her, I dead-head (cut off the old flowers) much less than I used to, so the seeds can feed the birds and the flowers can decide where they would like to grow next year.

Love in a mist

Love in a mist

Love-in-a-mist, a comedy in three acts

Love in a Mist, A Romantic Drama, in Familiar Blank Verse (1882)

Love in a Mist. a Farce. as It Is Was [Sic] Acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane, with Great Applause.