Vine Watch April and May

For the first year ever we've decided to experiment and attempt to grow our own grapes.  We planted this moscatel vine late last summer so we've been watching it's quick growth this year with great anticipation.

Anyway, I thought I'd record its progress in photos.  Here's what it looked like in April

As you can see the grapes are already forming.  Here's what it looks like today:

As you can see not a lot of difference, although there is certainly more foliage and plenty of bunches of mini grapes.

What a difference a few months makes

May and June are my favourite months out here, the weather is usually fairly predictable and we can banish our winter wardrobes and bare our limbs, but it's still cool enough to go about your daily business.

In the garden everything is coming to bloom, in a couple of months the heat will have killed most of the flowers off but for now we can watch as each day brings more and more colour.

Here's one view of our terrace taken a couple of months ago:

As you can see, it's all pretty bare, but this is how it looks today:

The colour of the bougainnvilla is stunning and the campsis foliage has all come back sadly we'll have to wait a couple of months before the flowers appear.  The citrus trees have all got lots of flowers on so we should have plenty of lemons and lime for our gin & tonics next winter.

You can't really see in the photo but our clematis has interwoven itself into everything and its delicate purple flowers are coming out.  Shame we never went for a better clematis like the one with the big white flowers, as I always think this one is too subtle and understated.

Elsewhere on the terrace, our bottle brush plant has come into flower.  These look stunning in May, sadly ours got battered by the wind last year so is looking a bit sad and sorry for itself.