I had an odd January and February. Ever since we returned from our Christmas vacation, I’ve had very little interest in working in the garden, and I’ve been fascinated by the cold and snow back home in Washington, D.C.
The weather here in Kigali has been its usual just-about-perfect, but except for a couple of nice trips out of town, I haven’t wanted to be out in it that much.
I know those of you who live in North America and Europe will probably not have any sympathy for me, but gardening in a climate where it’s constantly late spring is relentless. . . and I think I was tired. So I did the same thing all of you are doing (although not by choice): I curled up inside with T.V., books, and the internet.
But now it’s March, and I’m determined to shake off my “winter” doldrums.
I won’t be posting anything this week. I’ve decided to take an electronic media break and work everyday at a number of overdue gardening tasks, as well as some domestic organization (my desk area is too messy to find anything).
I’ll be back next Sunday. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite photos from a walk I did take around the garden on February 24th, during a very light rain.
The lower, even light allowed me to capture both the long front hedge and the hills in our view. (Usually, I get either very dark hedge or whited-out view.)
You can pause the slideshow by hovering the cursor over it.
Please do leave comments, if you like. I’ll probably cheat and check back a few times.
You can scroll through larger versions of the images by clicking on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on any thumbnail in the gallery.
enclos*ure 
Looks so nice! We can’t even have a window box here in Moscow 😦
Oh, that’s sad. Are there at least nice parks nearby? Are there any signs of spring yet?
My first reaction to your not wanting to be out in “near-perfect” weather was rather unsympathetic. As you well know, we in Washington-DC-area have been yearning for signs of Spring and today we’re getting some — finally. It’s nearly 60. But, on second though,t it would be strange and maybe unsettling to live in a climate that remains the same much of the time…. You are below the equator I see, but when I looked up Rwandan weather I learned that the altitude keeps the climate temperate. Interesting…
I’m curious how long you had this Kigali garden? Have you changed it much during the time you’ve lived there? What was it like when you arrived?. It’s so lush.
We have lived here 2 1/2 years and have about 6 months more to go. Here’s a post on what the garden looked like when we arrived: https://enclosuretakerefuge.com/2012/07/03/our-garden-site-analysis/
For someone like me from Virginia and D.C., it used to be very strange in Latin American and Africa when the seasons didn’t change as I was used to. (Although in Africa, there are seasons; they’re called dry and rainy.) Over 28 years, I’ve gotten used to it. But this year, after a year and a half of serious gardening, I think I needed a break. And the winter back home has been so dramatic.
Our garden is lush right now. Instead of a short dry season in January and February, we have had rain every few days. In July and August, at the height of the long dry season, the grass will be brown, although we (minimally) water the planting beds.
only 6 months? Any idea where the next posting will be?
Yellow Chinese winter jasmine? Arches over like a fountain?
We will probably leave late summer/early fall. No confirmation yet on the next post, but I hope I’ll be able to say soon.
I think that is winter jasmine. It looks like it, but, of course, since we don’t really have the winter, it doesn’t bloom in one big flush in late winter. So I need to keep looking for a name; it may be a close cousin. It’s very pretty there next to the steps, although I have to cut it frequently to keep it from being a tripping hazard.
Enjoy your break; even though you will be busy it is relaxing to get offline periodically. When my sister lived in LA, she loved the rain. Not for the rain itself but as a break in the relentlessly sunny weather. So I am sympathetic and we are having a warm break which helps.
I find here that by the end of the long rainy season everyone is so ready for the dry, and vice versa. Rwandans look forward to the dry season as a time to be able work on their houses and other outside projects all day long.
Even though I’m answering this, I’m really trying to stay off the internet this week. I’ve really got to “finish” my garden this spring.
I’m so glad you are getting a break from the cold in Wisconsin. For you — and for my daughter, who can now walk her poor fat-free greyhound for more than 2 minutes without possible frostbite.
[…] Our front garden is a rather formal arrangement of two long lawns that run parallel to each other and to the length of the house and its terrace. The narrow upper one is separated from the much wider lower one by two sets of 3′ retaining walls, which are joined in the center by a flight of steps. Irregularly curving planting beds border both sides of the lower lawn and one side of the upper. […]