To the West

Our house is on the valley wall and set such that the ridge of the roof is a few feet below the level of the flat land above the valley. The view to the west is therefore uphill. Looking west from the house you see the garage, behind this a rough driveway for garden vehicle access, and then gardens, orchard and a few Pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa - or New Zealand Christmas tree).

 Below is the view from just to the west of the garage.

Then from the bottom of the drive behind the garage looking towards the native garden.

To the left (south) of the garden vehicle access is a small garden of native plants.

 On the top flat is what can loosely be described as lawn. It could also be described as paddock, wasteland or untended fairway. The lawn is a playground for hares.

The garden doubles as their larder. They especially love day lilies and tender new shoots of almost anything. Beyond the lawn a pine tree hedge reaches almost as high as God. Beyond the pines is a road. Sometimes the hares play on the road, but not often enough!

Our main driveway is to the north of the house and offers access as well as an opportunity for strenuous exercise should we feel the mail needs collecting.

When we arrived some 10 years ago the area between the garage and the Pohutukawa  was all pine trees and lawn. There were no retaining walls.No, I do not have a photo!

You may notice some radical pruning of the fruit trees. This was necessary as they grow extremely quickly in our climate and I've been ignoring them for the past few years.

Right now the first of the plums are about to flower, the tulips are well up and almost awake, the nasturtiums are wasted by the frosts, azaleas close to flowering and dahlias, delphiniums and other summer flowering plants are asleep.

It all looks rather damp and dull right now but it will change..soon...really!

Stay tuned.