Winter in NZ

[vilakins]

I posted these photos to show_me_a_world for this week's topic on the season, and thought I'd put them on my journal too as people may be interested.

It's winter here, ho hum. It's often dark, grey, wet, and unrelieved by any bright spots unlike northern winters. It's not helped by all our native trees being evergreen, but at least there are some flowers out in our garden.

I took all of these over three days (wet, misty, and sunny respectively) in our garden or from a window.


Wet lower deck.


Ferns reflected on wet railing


Rainy view from bedroom window


Misty morning, which turned into quite a sunny day


White camellias. These always bloom in June, and seeing them come out a week ago reminded me of my cat Claudia who died on the 18th last year, a beautiful sunny winter's day on which I saw the first camellia.


The tree beside that one has deep pink camellias which bloom later, and the buds are starting to show colour.


Vireya (tropical rhododendron). This is on the deck in a pot and badly needs repotting or planting in the garden. I am not a good gardener.


European tree and neighbour's house. My sister is lucky enough to have all European trees around her house in the country, so she gets lots of light in winter.

Comments

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

I love your pictures. Winter in NZ sounds like winter on the east coast, here.
In California we tend to have dry winters with lots of sunshine and very little rain or clouds.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

That's odd, because it's our west coast that's wet and our east coast that has much better weather. Of course I'm on both here, being on a narrow isthmus, but it doesn't help.

[samantha-vimes.livejournal.com]

Southern California? In Northern California, rain and fog are winter things.

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

I know, it's like we live in two different states. I actually like the fog--I grew up in Central California where the fog lasts for weeks.

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

Beautiful pictures. You've got flowers at all, which I think means you're a pretty good gardener. Mine usually die long before they get to the blooming stage.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Haha, they just grow, and were growing here when we moved in except for the vireya which I bought and neglected badly. In August, we get lovely clivia like the one in the icon. Once things are in the garden they grow well, but I'm slack about looking after potted plants.

[samantha-vimes.livejournal.com]

Oh! Getting light through the trees is the issue. Having walked around amidst "dead" trees in winter, I couldn't see how evergreen wouldn't be preferable at first.

Mind you, looks marvellous to me. Fogs and rain bring out the green. Flowers blooming. I'd be jealous except Santa Cruz is just as good.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I used to live in Germany and loved the bare trees in winter: so much light and air and lovely views! Then in summer, leaves when I wanted shade.

These particular flowers bloom in winter. We're lucky that we have them; most gardens are just green at this time.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

beautiful pictures

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :-)

[luinielle.livejournal.com]

I love your photos. :o) The winter flowers are beautiful.
Winters here are similar, especially along the east coast. We usually have to go further north for snow and sunshine.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The only winters I've enjoyed are the snowy ones in Germany, and the one winter here were it was sunny each day and we had a draught (so nothing is free). The rain gets me down.

But the winter flowers in our garden do cheer me up a bit. The magnolias in the icon should be out in August.

[luinielle.livejournal.com]

I hate getting wet from rain - maybe I was a cat in a former life. :o)
I'm glad you have winter flowers. Those camellias are beautiful. It's much too cold in the winter here for flowers.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I hate it too. I'd rather be curled up in a chair inside. Yep, definitely cat-like!

Though the girls brave the rain a lot and come in wet telling us about it. :-)

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, your winter is different from our, and maybe that this season in NZ seems so dull to you. But no, not with all those flowers and ferns! Lovely Camelias, thank you very much, and I do remember Claudia and her departure.Through the white blossoms, she signals to you that she is still with you.
I think you see the bare branches in quite a different way than we Europeans. For us they are a reflections of short, sad days. Only covered with snow or fantastic crystals of frozen fog, they look beautiful.
Winter in NZ is something new for me, thank you!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ferns are common, but there aren't many flowers at all. We're lucky to have them in our garden. The pink camellias will be out next month, I hope, and then there will be clivias and magnolias in August. From then on, I'll start to see spring blossom in the streets.

And yes, those white camellias will always remind me of Claudia. Tessa too, since they both loved to chase the fallen buds which we threw for them. Jasmin and Ashley aren't that interested.

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

It's amazing comparing pets once the worst of the hurt has subsided, isn't it? Jasper has some habits that Rusty would never have considered. Including digging things in my parents' garden. Mum is a good gardener, but has lost her potted bean crop to Jasper's habit of carelessly snapping at any green thing within reach of his muzzle. (He does this to artificial green stuff too, silly thing.)

I particularly the views down the hill.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I sometimes think Jasmin is the naughtiest and most untrainable cat I've had, till I remember what Claudia was like for her first three years and how many plushies and shoes she destroyed. I think Jasmin is finally calming down.

[corvuscornix.livejournal.com]

This is interesting! The ferns are beautiful - and it looks like you have a very nice view from your window. I confess the combination of leaf-felling (if non-native) trees and the flowering plants at the same time looks a bit odd to me. What are your winter temperatures like? Is it a lot colder or is it the darkness and the rain that are the main factors?

I can understand that the rain gets you down. Winter is possibly my favourite season here in Scandinavia when it is cold and snowy - but when it's just dark and wet (as it usually is) it can be very depressing too. But at least we get the big change with the trees and the lack of green, even then.

(show_me_a_world looks like a great idea for a community btw! I may have to go and do some lurking.)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The winter temperatures are usually between 10 and 16C, lower at night. Frosts are fairly rare though. That's up here in the warmer north; right down south, on the mountains, and of course at higher altitudes like the Desert Road, there is snow in winter. When it's in the southern cities though, which are mostly at sea level, it only lasts a day or so.

I used to live in Germany and I loved the winters there: snow, bare trees, blue skies: wonderful! It's just too often grey and wet and dreary here. At the moment it alternates between rain and sun throughout the day. It's a pity we don't have a fun festival to liven it up but there's nothing. Some people have winter solstice dinners, but it's not at all common.

The flowers are winter-blooming, and there aren't that many around. We're lucky to have several in our garden.

It can be an interesting comm, and we have a Finn who posts there. :-) You're welcome to join him!

[corvuscornix.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've wondered about that, whether you have (winter) festivals of your own or maybe Maori ones. Yes, psychologically I think that Christmas and New Year's does help us to get through winter at these northern latitudes - and really that's what Christmas (or Yuletide more precisely) was for originally. I can see how having inherited traditions that were meant for an opposing set of seasons could make winter more oppressing for you.


Thanks! I might do that, if/when I'm feeling brave enough. :-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, everything's at the wrong time of year. It all happens in summer when people are just coming out of the stress of exams and planning holidays. All the agricultural-type festivals in the major religions are wrong too. We don't actually harvest in spring.

There is a Maori festival called Matariki (the stars called that are in my icon, but with European trees so it's not too puzzling for a northerner) but that's hard to adapt because it lasts for weeks and different ones at that for different tribes. We basically need a reason to have fun at the gloomiest time of the year (and a national holiday too that's more than a day off work and actually gives us a reason to be happy). Some people hold midwinter dinners, but it's not the same as everyone having a party with a big build-up.