After several posts about fish, I get back to flowers, and the lotuses on the balcony. I showed them last on March 9th, shortly before I went to Canada, but I kept in touch and was happy to be told that there had been yet another blossom in the big pond. Janaki sent me a picture of the double-petalled lotus ...
The roof garden was not doing quite as well as the balcony, and certainly it presented nothing like the cornucopia of flowers that I have shown towards the end of last year. But there were several flowers there on the different rose plants in the different beds. There were also roses in the first basin, the one with the temple ...
Despite the losses described in the last few weeks, there have been some positive developments as far as the fish are concerned. On the balcony, the two tanks under the seats now present a host of colours and shapes. The one on the south had lots of tiger barbs put there some months back, but for a long time they ...
As I mentioned last week, more of the plants on the balcony have been in blossom since I got back a week and a half ago. The orange rose bush in the original bed had tiny buds then but they blossomed over the week, and I start with a picture of two very elegant buds there. That picture was taken ...
I fear my hopes last week were dashed, for when I got back from Canada it was to find only five fish in the upright tank. But it turned out that only one had died, for Kavi had rescued the other, the Silver Dollar, and put him in the waterfall pond. I have not however seen him since my return, ...
There were lots of roses on the balcony when I got back from Canada last week, to my surprise for I gathered there had been a drought, with blazing sunshine. But the day before I returned it had rained, and there has been intermittent rain since, while I suppose the plants were well watered while I was away. Most delightful ...
After the horrors of the period around Christmas, when so many fish died, I waited awhile before trying to build up the tanks again. And when I finally did so, there were more deaths, sometimes of the new fish, and in the case of the upright tank of three of the older ones. For a long time that had had ...
Back after six weeks to the roof garden, where the roses have not been in quite such fine fettle as they were at the beginning of the year. But they were still satisfying, though it was more a matter of single blossoms than the profusion I have shown recently. The exception was the pot on the north east corner which ...
From the lotuses up on the balcony I move to those down below, which have also done splendidly. Not those in the garden, where several plants I put in only displayed the flowers I had brought along, or at most produced a couple more blossoms; but the new pond by the garage. I suppose I should not be upset by ...
I showed last week three of the rose plants I acquired last month, one on the balcony and two in one of the new beds in the garden. The fourth plant was placed in the bed Ranji had created on his own when the workmen were tidying up after the new building was almost finished. It looked so good that ...
Back after three weeks to the lotuses on the balcony, this week those in the big pond, which began to blossom after there had been four, one after another in the little one. But the first, which had been a beautifully developing bud when I last wrote, was damaged, and the morning I expected it to blossom I went up ...
Finally last week I was able to get a few more roses for the new beds in the garden. Or rather for the one bed there, where I placed two plants, while one of the others I bought went into the bed by the pond beside the garage. The other went into the bed on the balcony where my first ...
The little tanks on the balcony also did well this year. The black mollies continued to flourish in the first one I had built, under the long flower bed on the east. They come in several sizes, indicative of their fecundity, and I think you can see in the second picture the littlest towards the bottom. There are also platies, ...
There are two other beds in the downstairs garden, in addition to the two I showed last week. One was there from November, in the corner between the downstairs bedroom and its bathroom, and I have tried roses there but they have failed to produce blooms, doubtless because not enough sun reaches the place. I have greater hopes of the ...
I return today to my fish, and though there have been losses recently, I thought I should show something positive given that there was so much about loss earlier this year. When disaster struck the pond by the dining room, I removed all the fish that were there except for the one white gourami that had survived. The four catfish, ...
After nearly two months I go down again to the main garden, though there is not much to show there in the way of flowers. However while I was away in January Somapala corrected the deficiencies I have noted previously with regard to the new little beds in the garden. He raised the level of the bed in the southwest ...
I failed to post here on Saturday since I was travelling, and we started earlier than I had thought we would and arrived later. But since on Mondays I do not post usually on either this or the literary blog, I thought I would make up for Saturday by talking today here about my ponds. I did not want to ...
I mentioned some weeks back the new red rose I had obtained for the bed next to the smaller pond on the balcony. There had been two blossoms on it when I put it in, but one had collapsed on the way to Colombo. But the other blossom looked splendid, and before I went away last month there were several ...
The bigger pond on the balcony also had, after the inroads of predators in December, to have protective netting placed all round it. This was easier than for the small pond, since much of the bigger one is under the main roof of the house. Still, Kithsiri put up netting all round the wall of the pond, to stop the ...
I showed last week the roses this month brought me on the east side of the roof garden. But there were lots elsewhere up there too. In the bed in the middle one of the earliest plants I had put there had a lovely pink to purple blossom, and I show it full on to begin with, and at the ...
