You just know there’s trouble afoot when the sky is a deep, fathomless blue, the mercury is tipped to rise above 40ºC and the wind from the north grows hotter as the day wears on.

Before the sun rose too high this morning, I gathered up piles of leaves and bark in the wheel-barrow and transported them to the pile down beyond the big shed.

At the time it seemed like a good idea. But now I’m not so sure that displacing a few thousand loose leaves will help in the event of a canopy fire.

Still, raking leaves to marginally reduce the fuel load on the property makes me feel better than not doing anything at all and it is good exercise. My partner refers to this rather pointless activity as my ‘raking therapy’, as opposed to Reiki therapy.

I’ve also cut back some of the Watsonia but there are still a few more plants to do.

I know, I know… it’s a weed and at this point in Summer and so close to the house it’s a fire hazard, but it was here when we arrived and it provides good height in the garden where there otherwise would be none.  

(Apologies for my tetchiness, dear reader, but the heat is melting my brain.) 

During a heat wave such as this, the Watsonia also provides some much-needed shade for a Westringia and a couple of Fairy Fishing Rods that I planted last Spring. If the weather ever cools down, I’ll remove it and plant something else, probably a border of Heuchera.

A dear friend has informed me that’s the name of the plant whose identity had escaped me. Because the variety we already have has proved itself to be such a trooper under duress, how could I even contemplate not planting more?

For the rest of the day I plan to make like this cat we saw on a hot afternoon in Malmsbury and lie about doing nothing except, perhaps, watch tennis players rush around in a lather. 

I’ll reduce all other activities in the garden until the worst of the weather has passed… apart from sniffing the air for smoke from time to time.