Orange you glad . . . ?

Hot, dry weather here, day after remarkable day. Hot enough that I don’t like to leave home, where the breeze off the water keeps the heat tolerable, and where we can cool off once the tide brings our swimming water back to us. “Going to town,” as we islanders say of heading across the water for groceries or banking or picking up a DVD, has little appeal. I’d rather stick around here and aim my camera ’round the garden, in between bouts of playing with my little Nola.

As I mentioned the other day, there’s not many colourful blooms in my garden right now, although it’s still very green (I water very little, but I’ve chosen plants carefully and toughened them up enough that most either have roots that dig for their own water or can manage without much). Against the green backdrop, the earthy, sandy tones of the rocks and driftwood and beach are beautifully revealed by the bright noonday sun and softened attractively in the early morning and late evening. Above, some beachside rockwork stages a weed whose cheeky cheeriness won it a reprieve from my trowel.

Soon, though, another wave of colour will fill the garden. Above is a shot of the year’s first crocosmia blooms here. By August these will be quite a presence in my yard — many clumps are scattered throughout, all descendants of a few plants that were on the property when we arrived. I’m not sure I would ever have chosen these on my own, and I get impatient with them regularly for the space they take up and the amount of culling they require, but I love their healthy green strappy leaves, and their blooms, besides being a charming shape and colour, also establish a very pleasing rhythm on the stem. The particular shade of these crocosmia is an orange that blends beautifully with the purples that dominate my August garden as well as with the blues that show up soon.

Tomorrow, I’ll have another orange surprise for you, from the garden, and later this week, I’ll show you an orange addition to my closet — and that’s a surprise since I can rarely find an orange that I can wear.

Any orange popping in your life right now?

5 Comments

  1. girlcook
    22 July 2009 / 5:42 pm

    I know what tomorrow's post will be , I have been waiting for it all week!!!

  2. La Belette Rouge
    23 July 2009 / 12:12 am

    Orange is my new colour obsession. I am not sure how it happened but I am mad for orange. And, OMG, Mater, these photos are gorgeous. Did you photoshop them or are you just that good?

  3. materfamilias
    23 July 2009 / 12:36 am

    Girlcook: I know what you're thinking, but you're not thinking what I'm thinking . . .
    LBR: How does your new obsession manifest itself?
    And thanks re the photo compliments — and for assuming I could figure out how to photoshop!! Not a chance . . .

  4. La Belette Rouge
    23 July 2009 / 12:41 am

    1) I wear my Jo Malone orange blossom cream and perfume daily. I can't stop sniffing myself.
    2)I am trying other orange based fragrances to see if there is another scent I could love as much or more than
    3) I am shopping for an orange handbag.
    4) I considered getting orange nail polish last night.
    5) We bought a Parisian cake to take to a dinner party. Because it was Parisian? No. I picked it because there was grand marnier in it, and chocolate.

    The photos( especially the first one) are so good that they look they are enhanced.

  5. Jules
    23 July 2009 / 6:04 am

    That little cute is so pretty. =D Thanks for sharing us such gorgeous photos, every time you do a post. =D

    Summer
    A Writers Den
    The Brown Mestizo

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