Psychedelic Dawn

I was out early hoping to catch the moon setting, but as usual at the time of the full moon the sky was overcast. Instead I found this lurid cloud hanging over Ben More. I cropped an ugly rooftop from the bottom of the photo, but didn't mess with contrast or colours. That blue-looking sky was a higher layer of grey cloud.

The first day of spring. There are a few daffodils, snowflakes and grape hyacinths out, and some blossoms. The grass is growing rapidly.

While heartening, it is now that I can appreciate the damage done by the record cold spell in early June. My once beautiful lacebarks that I brought as seedlings from my Christchurch garden have lost all but a few leaves at their tops. There is no sign of regrowth. They are evergreens and they had dense foliage from the ground up about five metres. Other native evergreens are also damaged and several are obviously dead. The stonefruit trees have few blossoms, or none at all.

It's not just my garden. Everywhere in the countryside I see dead-looking trees and hedges.

I took advantage of the dry, mild conditions to saw a lot of logs and to trim dead branches.