More Pruning

Still sunny today but much colder and more of a breeze about. Nowhere near as much fun being in the garden today as it was yesterday! We went next door and completed a job started several weeks ago. Helping our neighbour cut down some eucalypts that were much too close to the house for comfort. We live in a bushfire zone and after Black Saturday we are all much more aware of the dangers of seemingly innocent trees in our gardens. Non flammable, drought tolerant trees are on the menu as replacements.
Coming back to our garden I got out the secateurs and loppers and finished pruning the roses. Not a big task as I can just about count the number of roses I have on one hand. Consequently I am now taking the rose thorns out of my hands with a pair of tweezers. It doesn't matter how much care I take or how thick the gloves are I still manage to get stuck a few times! I also cut the dead flowers off the Jerusalem sage (third photo), an agapanthus and last years stems off Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii. Speaking of euphorbias, I noticed the acid yellow flowers of Euphorbia rigida were just starting to show. Its amazing what you see when you are down on your hands and knees replanting bluebell bulbs dug up by the blackbirds! I love this euphorbia's rigid grey leaves, the way the flower buds start off a dusky pink (second photo) and then turn a startling lime green and then the classic acid yellow (first photo). Its such a tough and undemanding plant.
By 4.30 my nose was beginning to drip incessantly, the sun had gone behind the hills, the wind was slicing through my clothes and I could detect the unmistakable smell of someone's wood fire being lit for the evening. Time to go inside!