We won’t talk about Covid when we recall 2020 but  show just a few pics from the year, starting off in February with this view of the driveway into the Watergarden, covered with a light dusting of snow.

The succulent section under the glazed section of the pergola wasn’t fazed at all by any snow and frost.

And the Flowering Cherries gave another brilliant show at the end of April but we fear that they are coming to the end of their natural life soon.

View of the canopies sheltering the Japanese Maples from the sun. (When we get any, that it. 🙂  )

Some of the circular troughs combing both woodland plants and Alpines.

The walk down by the Confetti Bush and Wedding Cake tree.

A drift of Thrift and a young Rapanea tree.

Water lilies in the Watergarden. Pink has come to dominate all the other colours.

One of the Rebutia Cactus in full flower. All the cactus put on a magnificent show of flowers this year.

This Trachycarpus fortuneii was only a tiddler of 12 inches a few years ago. It’s striding skywards magnificently now.

Looking forward to 2021.

Whilst Lock-down is going on, Coolwater is installing three new structures for visitors’ benefit. The one above is a Mirador encompassing views of Skule Hill, the Galtees and beyond. If you notice that there are no steps up to it yet, don’t worry, they’ll be going in in a week or two. 🙂

Near the Copper Pagoda, we’ve installed a new Kiosk for serving coffee and tea; maybe even a glass of port for visitors who are extra good. 🙂

And the pictures below show the Cabana, now with a new extension to give a greater seating area. The unusual seats have been made from a very hard, tropical wood.

This is Penelope, made from gearbox and engine parts with a pliers and a few spanners thrown in for good measure. She came from Devon and is quite an interesting sculpture. We’ll eventually move her to the front of the Floating Pagoda, after we take away all the reeds, that are there, first.

Water lilies are still flowering at the end of September in the Water Garden whilst Penelope is keeping an eye on them. 🙂

Beside the Water Garden we have an Xeric Bed, which doesn’t look in real life as incongruous as it may seem. Agaves, Yuccas and Cactus seem to meld in quite happily with their water companions alongside. This is a Bunny Ears Cactus, growing at a phenomenal rate: the copper pipes are an attempt to deter cats from pooing in the soft dry soil.

In our “knobbly” corner you can see plants growing without soil in the Tufa rock. Saxifrages and Azorellas seem to be most suited to this medium, although some recent arrivals have been Ferns, which have to volunteered to populate the rock.

Even more knobbly are these volcanic rocks, which were formed when molten material shot up in the air from the vent of a volcano. Composed mainly of hard Silica, they are permeated with holes that plants can push their roots through.

July continued on from June in being cooler and wetter than normal. A big difference to our weather in May. But, as you can see, the jungle, pictured above, prospered and the foliage became dense. And on the other side of the Water Garden, this sedum was rampaging in among the bamboos.

A couple of objects featuring in the garden. This very old iron Milk Churn has a top hat of another type of sedum and a terracotta urn, rescued from a skip, boasts its hat of sempervivums.

Below is Gladiolus flanaganii from the Drakensburgs and an Echinopsis from the Abbey Brook Nursery. The main picture, at the top, is of the Cabana, which went up this month. Perfect for when it is raining.

Well, June started with a drought carried on from May but ended with cold, wet, windy weather, most unlike June and thus the title of this entry.

Below are some wild Orchids that volunteered to join the Arum Lilies in our water garden. Three are pictured out of four that arrived from nowhere.

This Beschorneria, which formerly flowered to fourteen feet long has been made to mind its manners by being incarcerated in this extra large pot, a metre wide. Now the flower spike only reaches to four feet or so and doesn’t get in anyone’s way.

A view of the coombe in the West Garden. The Euphorbia is Tasmanian Tiger. To the left of it is a new planting of Cercis canadensis “Forest Pansy”.

Agapanthus “Jacaranda” always seems to give a mighty display each year. Grown in the Xeric Bed, it rarely sees water.

And below, “Devil’s Claw” Physoplexis comosa, truly a magnet for both home-carrying and homeless molluscs. I have it defended by a barrier of microbore.