Back in October I went away for 8 days for a family holiday in Brisbane. For lots of those days we all ran (or ran-walked in my case) along the Enoggera Creek near my brother-in-laws house.

It was an exotic world compared to what I was used to. It was hot and humid and the birds never stopped chattering. There were always wild turkeys scratching around in the dirt and lots of unknown birds swooping down onto the grass or into the tops of trees. All the cyclists on the shared path had spikes or cable ties on their helmets agains the bombing raids by magpies. The absolute stars of the run-walk were the jacaranda trees in full royal flower.

This was our first family holiday in over a year. And anyone whose child has grown up and left home will understand how good it feels to have them back again for a brief glorious time. It never crossed my mind, just over 22 years ago, when my baby boy was in my arms, that my real job was to bring him up to leave me as a man. Life is full of surprises.

I came home to this (the photo above). The very last of the early spring flowers and a very big gap.

The hardy annuals are a long way off and I don’t have anything in between. I have a big flower gap. I’d forgotten all about the October - November gap that flower friends had talked of, and I hadn’t planned for it. I can, at least, plan for next year. And here it is. The October - November plan.

Sow hundreds more ranunculus seeds in winter (don’t worry about the anemone seeds they’re a waste of time) - and while I’m at it, sow just as many large Icelandic Poppy seeds.
Have honesty of all colours planted in every spare space.
Buy lots and lots of Nanus Gladioli corms.
Buy lots and lots of that euphorbia with the red on the leaves, and any others that take my fancy. They grow really well in the front garden (where only the tough survive). Actually buy lots of shrubs with lovely spring green leaves.
Buy some very late flowering daffodils.
Buy a lot more Dutch irises.
Buy more bearded irises (they also grow really well in the front garden), especially in the orange colour range.
Sow lots of Sweet Willimas (the tall ones).

There are challenges when I can only make arrangements with my own grown flowers. I have to work with what I have and the way its grown. My flowers have character. They have to fight against pests that want to eat them. Luckily the pests have pests, and hopefully my cottage garden is a good home for all those good predators. I figure if I can create a great habitat (really lots of different habitats) then everyone can fight it out and the flowers will win.

The flower stand is doing ok. I run it from Thursday to Sunday. As soon as my hardy annuals start flowering I’ll run it every day.

Here’s how it looks with the new roof. The whole thing is very ‘rustic’. I’m in love with Resene’s ‘Bondi Blue’.

Something else I love are roses. I have a lot of roses and last week I bought 15 more and planted them. I ordered 5 from Waiere Nursery ( all climbers) and 10 from Bunnings in Petone where they had a rose sale. A cottage garden without roses isn’t a cottage garden.

There was a week in October when there were two big storms a few days apart. A man died when a branch from a tree fell on him in the town belt. I went for dog walk on the coastal path once the wind had calmed down. The sea was brown and full of logs and branches. The waves were big and messy. The wind was strong but not deadly.

I saw a black swan swimming out to sea. I don’t know where it could’ve come from. There aren’t any swans in Paekākāriki. Seeing this beautiful lake bird battling the waves was all wrong. I would’ve gone down to the beach to check on it but I had my dog. I didn’t want the bird to be scared into swimming out deeper. So I posted a photo of it on the local Facebook page. I guess it was a cry for help.

On my walk home I decided to walk back on the beach to check on the swan. I was scared I’d find it washed up dead like a pile of seaweed. I couldn’t see it in the waves and I couldn’t see I on the beach.

My friend and neighbour replied to my Facebook post, along the lines of, ‘The swan can always fly away if it wants’. I hadn’t considered that. I guess it could. I hope it did.