my learning curve in gardening

The weather has blooming times jumbled at my house. This camellia--named 'Frodo the Rhodo who's really a camellia' by my LOTR fan bestie (don't ask!)--isn't suppose to bloom until October some time. 

Like lots of other plants in the garden, the warm weather after a slight dip of temperature has, apparently, convinced it that it's spring already.

As I have mentioned before, I'm quite a literal person. So when I bought some hyacinth bulbs, I planted them according to the directions 'in autumn'. Well, the calendar said autumn, but I have since learned that bulbs can't read.

It wasn't cold enough for them to know winter was still on the way and they poked their little heads up soon after planting. *sigh* I do hope they will be willing to bloom again next spring.

taranaki countryside

I have lived in some rural places in my life. A couple of them were on dirt roads, which is understandable when there are just a few houses in the area. There was even a dirt road that was a shortcut to work (it probably had a name, but I never knew it) when I lived in Kansas, so I'm used to dirt roads.

The thing that I'm not used to--and that still makes me giggle on occasion--is the fact that the paved roads in the outlying areas sometimes just turn into dirt and gravel. I imagine the crew paving the road using up all the asphalt and just saying, 'She'll be right,' and going home.

We went down one of those today when I left the directions at the house and we were just winging it, looking around the countryside. [I do have to add that Hubby remembered most of the directions he had written down. Thank you, Hubby!]

We started and ended with a street sign naming the road we were on, but in the middle--as we went up and over a saddle (NZ word for a mountain pass)--the pavement turned to gravel and dirt. It was obviously the 'road less taken' because the sheep ran away from the car as we rode by. After we started down the other side, the asphalt reappeared like magic.

I really enjoy these rides that have no particular objective except to see the countryside around us. The hills are amazing to me and I never tire of seeing sights like this:

I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore