Lots has happened garden and activity wise at Bilpin! In August I really enjoyed giving a presentation to the Leura Garden Club about how travelling in Italy and France had influenced me. I now use more bright colours, especially red.

The Cottage Garden club visited over 2 days, in August as well and I ended up with a long ‘wish list’ to propagate for interested gardeners.

September’s highlight was attending the biennial Australian Landscape Conference in Melbourne. It’s always inspiring. My favourite presenters were landscape architects Ken Smith from New York and Juan Grimm from South America. It was also great to say hello to the well known garden writer and speaker Louisa Jones whom I’d met previously in Provence.

October started very dry, but with the garden holding up well (lots of watering). At the Bilpin Flower Show I was proud to win a ribbon for the Champion Bloom with an Arisaema sikkokianum. The month finished of course with the huge ‘State Mine’ fire that began near Lithgow on the 17th and ended up threatening Bilpin and ‘Woodgreen’. Thanks to the wonderful back burning effort by the Rural Fire Service it did not reach us. I was sorry to miss exhibiting at Mickey Robertson’s 25^th Anniversary at Glenmore House on October 19/20 and thank her for inviting me, I simply could not leave our property during the fire threat.

November should be fun! The Killara Garden Club is visiting ‘Woodgreen’ on the 14^th and I have a little stall at the Cottage Garden Club on the 16^th to deliver my orders and take some extra plants as well.

And as I write this we’ve just had 41mm of rain, the best since June.