Grandma's Lockdown

Yucca 'Bright Star' at sunrise

Whenever I get restless to go somewhere in this time of Covid-19, I think of my maternal grandmother, who experienced a "lock down" for four years, from just after her 15th birthday to after her 19th, from the late summer of 1914 to mid autumn 1918. In her case it was not a pandemic.  It was an invading and occupying German army.  A squadron of soldiers took over her family's home as a local headquarters and ordered the family into the barn, where they lived for four years. 

I think of that, and the restless goes away.  My granny never grew very tall, because the occupation coincided with what might have been an adolescent growth spurt; constant hunger for four years meant she never got more than 5' tall.  A reminder, again and again, that we have it so easy. 


I did carefully venture out recently, to a big box store for irrigation parts for the front slope, and to a garden buddy's house in the neighborhood, to visit with her outdoors on her breezy patio, masked and properly distanced.  
Garden-Buddy has some gorgeous Encephalartos...
E. lehmannii, maybe...   

 ...and she and one of her sons have blooming-sized Boophones grown from seed (!), of which these are the dried flowers:

 It was a fun visit.  

Going to the big-box store wasn't so fun, even though everyone was masked, I went early, and there were few people.   The irrigation parts aisle was a mess and it was a struggle to find the right bits and pieces required.  But I did it, and indulged myself by buying a little Pentas plant as well. 

Back at home, Beloved graciously and kindly got the parts assembled, glued and installed for me.
With a live-long-and-prosper salute:

 This is the intent:  the pink lines are the water's desired direction.

 Small Pentas plants grow quickly in warm summer weather.  These have been great short-lived perennial bloom machines. 

In other garden activity, one of the late arriving 'Sunbelt Savannah' rose has a flower!  Much more peachy than pink, not what I expected, but pleasing. The other 'Sunbelt Savannah' may or may not be alive under a mass of Geranium 'Rozanne'.  I have not been able to locate it. 

 The lone surviving Banksia, B. prionotes, is thriving.  B. marginata and B. victoriae died, while B. ericifolia is on the edge and teetering.
But Banksia prionotes is thriving. Such cool foliage!

Bright light and dark shadow in the gully:

 Lagerstroemia 'Dynamite' summer show begins:

 Volunteer tomato plant has...tomatoes:

 Light and shadow on one of the bromeliad stumps:

 Just light on the daylily

Thanks to summer, the big pile of Salvia 'Amistand' is reduced to a bit of litter.  Salvias are great that way.  Meantime 'Amistad' is resprouting with abandon.  

Once upon a time ten years ago, Kumara (Aloe) plicatilis was a little thing in a 6" pot.

 Once upon a time the Opuntia microdaysis was in a 4" pot.  I cut away a big chunk of it this past week because it was pressing so hard on a white-flowered Aloe ferox. 

 There is blue and there is blue--some 'Blue Glow' plantlets gaining size, but they are outblued by a little Lobelia seedling.

 Has been warm, but not unbearably so.  A better summer so far than the past several.

I remember Granny's lockdown, and remind myself, however hard it seems, we're very fortunate.  Granny did four years in a barn, cold, hungry, and afraid.  After that experience, she never got upset about minor matters, and lived to be just shy of 102.