APAD：Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.

Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.
― Alfred Austin (1835 – 1913)

This is probably the Nth time I talked about gardens ;-).  Felt funny as it is very similar to "show me your friends and I will tell you who you are".  BTW, normally "what you are" means the way you present yourself and the things you do; "who you are" is the person underneath all that: your feelings, attitudes and values. Subtle but vast difference, isn't it?

Summer has arrived on our island the past week, with high close to 30C finally.  Due to pseudo-Mediterranean climate, summer here can be very very dry, with no rain for many weeks.  The lawns are all yellow everywhere, a big contrast to very green ones in the winter.  Since it's very tricky to set irrigation systems in our yards, I have to spend more than half of my mornings and evenings in a week to water the garden: using sprinklers in the back and side yards, and hand watering in the front. It would be a tedious task if I don't take the chance to talk to my friends - the trees and plants, the leaves and the flowers.  

I say good morning and good evening to them, and I tell them how lucky I am, since half of the plants were not planted, but came by themselves.  I don't know how, but somehow when I see plants (eg. foxglove, blue bell, yellow poppy, etc) or a special tree (eg. arbutus tree which is native here but hard to grow by planting) and wish to have some, they come to my garden. ;-)

So here is the important part: Do any of you konw what an alive "money tree（摇钱树）" looks like?  Especially the one which produces large denomination bills ($100 or $50 will do)?  As I could try to wish for it to come to my garden too.

Although we live simply and don't need any more funds, I would love to give the produce to you guys to lighten up your lives, if I had the money tree.  

Some of my garden photos below (sorry for the quality, again ;-) for you to enjoy this beautiful Sunday.

 

1. Arbutus tree in front garden ( there are 4 of them, from 3 to 11yrs old, all came by self)

2. left path to back garden

3. suite patio (designed and built by house stone mason and her helper, with recycled concrete floor from an old house)