Summer Senses

Summer season when our senses are assaulted to the full in the nicest possible way. Although I don’t miss the work entailed in its upkeep, I do miss the garden in our former home. So now I compensate with potted plants on the terrace.

The other night we had friends for supper there. After preparation and serving up was done, it was a joy to sit and relax, listening to people eating, drinking, laughing, generally enjoying each other’s company, with the glorious scent of jasmine wafting over to the table.

I help maintain the colourful rose bushes on the property – a pleasing and rewarding pastime.

 Here we see the vines bearing copious cones of fruit. We hope for as good a wine as last year’s.

In Z’s veggie patch, the cucumbers grow large and succulent, while the tomatoes start to ripen.

The cherry tomatoes, freshly plucked from the vine, are like a mini-explosion to the taste-buds!

If you look to the right in the picture below, you can see the lime tree in full bloom. In the morning cool it exudes a pungent aroma – attractive to many insects – but lots of leaves and petals drop into the pool, a salve for our heat-parched bodies. The Boss decided it needed some protection and erected this Arab-style canopy which both keeps the water cleaner and protects my sensitive skin from harmful UV rays - all good. It does look like an exotic Bedouin desert encampment!

The oleander is poisonous - sap, leaves, flowers, all highly toxic, containing cardiac glycosides which directly attack the heart. But it is a beautiful tree.

In the evening I often sit at the piano admiring it and enjoying the final chirruping, droning chorus of the cicadas before they end their shift as the summer sun goes down.