transition: "a change from one place or state or subject or stage to another"
Walking into town on Saturday, I spotted these ferns and daisies by the riverside - a kind of "last reminder" of the summer and autumn gone by...
The blazing colours of October are over. In November, it feels like nature as well as people are sort of in a transition period between seasons - waiting for winter / Christmas.
In the main square downtown, they had started decorating the Christmas tree, but had left the job half-finished for the weekend. Hopefully it will soon look a bit more festive!
Myself, I don't have a lot of presents to buy, but I've bought some Christmas cards and stamps. Time to get started with the "overseas" cards soon... It's still really hard to tell with those how long they'll take to travel! (I received one letter today from the US which had been on its way 3½ weeks.)
Christmas decorations in my own home won't come up until just before 1st Advent (that's less than two weeks away now, though). But when visiting the supermarket the other day, I could not resist their offer of two Amaryllis for the price of one:
16 comments:
I don't have any amaryllis this year...and am thinking to let go of some of the plants from summer that I brought inside. Soon. But I do hope the three little orchids make flowers again. The mails are supposed to be terrible this year.
Amaryllis are so showy and beautiful, but I would not know anything about how to treat bulbs. Seems you are good with plants. The big tree is so pretty. But my favorite is the beautiful fern, what an awesome find! We have awful shortages now, as ships are all out in the sea and are not able to unload. So I haven't seen christmas cards yet! But I sure need to get some soon.
the Amaryllis will be beautiful, and come when you need flowers. the ferns are my favortie of the transitions, like they are entering the fall of their lives. I have not seen them do this, here they stay green year round.
I love amaryllis but have not had one in many, many years - I usually manage to kill off everything that tries to grow in my home!
Like you, I shall only put up Christmas deco in time for the 1st Advent Sunday which is indeed less than 2 weeks away. All over town, of course, lights etc. have been put up; the big angels already spreading their wings over the market square. I do wonder whether the Christmas market will actually go ahead this year; Covid numbers are shooting up at an alarming rate here.
PS: Love your transition photos! I thought along the same lines during my Sunday afternoon walk with O.K.; there were still a few green-leaved trees in the orchards along the way, but the allover impression was of muted, soft browns and beiges, with a hint of orange and gold left over from beautiful October.
Barbara, I took in my geraniums from the balcony a month ago or more; whether those will survive the winter indoors remains to be seen, as usual. Living in a flat, I have no really good place for plants to go into winter "hibernation", waiting for spring.
Ginny, living in a flat, I've never managed to save bulbs from one year to another (and have given up trying). I buy new ones every year. They last as long as they last, and then I say bye-bye. I have nowhere to keep them when they're not in bloom.
Sandra, here the ferns always wither in the autumn, but then we also have the joy of seeing new ones grow and unfurl in the spring :)
Meike, I buy new Amaryllis every year (or perhaps not every year, but most years). I don't make any attempts these days to try to get them to survive past the Christmas season!
Love those ferns, we have them just about everywhere here in NZ
I, too, love the ferns, something I haven't seen here in the wild - not locally anyway. There are plenty of cultivated ones in garden centres but no matter how hard I try, I can't keep them alive for long. What I buy as a stunning plant with glossy green leaves always ends up as a poor dried up specimen!
Many years ago, in the UK, it was an autumn tradition to plant several Hyacinth bulbs in a ceramic pot and put it in a cool dark place - often under a bed in a spare room. Once the bulbs had begun to shoot up and shown signs of flowering it was taken out and proudly displayed, where the strong scent of the flowers filled the room. Not sure if anyone does this now - it used to be a Christmas gift for Grandma or an Auntie!
At the moment Bougainvillea and Hibiscus, along with many other garden plants, are still flowering profusely in gardens here, so there is very little change between the seasons.
CG, Hyacinths are common here for Christmas as well. I never buy those though, as I avoid having scented flowers indoors.
The ferns are beautiful, as are the reflections off the water!
Thanks, SPP :)
Those fern pictures are perfect. They show of the ferns at their very best. My ferns always seem to die of in a very 'untidy' fashion. It's a shame because I love them.
Graham, I agree that these particular ferns by the river seemed unusually determined to fade away gracefully :)
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