Spring, time and flowers

The garden here does not really show the seasons. The roses are out and the hibiscus flowering, although each flower only seems to last a day. One of the new draecena is in flower and I'm hoping that that is not an indication it's about to die. Generally the terrace plants seem to be doing well and the curly succulent seems to be producing lots of babies. The plumbago that was dying on the terrace appears to be thriving on the patio.
Sadly the hibiscus has aphids and the roses are infected with white spiders. We decided we weren't organic about pests and went for the spray. That has proved complicated. Eventually we found the right shop in the souk for insecticide and were shocked by the price. We needed different ones for aphids and spiders and had not taken sufficient funds to buy both the same day. Each one was more than a weeks fruit, bread and vegetables. When I got to grips with the french instuction I realised why. Firstly I had to google "hl" to find it was a hectolitre = 100l (not an SI unit). we then found we had dilute only 25cl into the 100l. Clearly this was designed for horticulture on an industrial scale. Not  having a field we only needed 30cl to put in our spray. We had to do a double dilution and now have empty bleach bottles and the original small pot with enough pesticide to spray half the Souss valley.
Meanwhile we have no way of explaining a british spring to friends here. When we left everything was blooming at once; daffodils, tulips, primroses, cherry blossom, appleblossom. The only thing here which shows any equivalence is the Jacaranda which is in full bloom. Wonderful blue blossom almost like wisteria. There is a wonderful avenue of it in Agadir but beloved would not stop for pictures; we do have some coming into town here.
The other confusion is summer time. For the last few years Morroco has used summertime. As they are further south and the diurnal difference is less it only started on april 29, later than Britain. They always finish it early for Ramadan too, only with Ramadan moving forward each year  and being mid-july to mid-august, I have heard rumours that this year they intend to stop it, and then start it again after ramadan. It is of course absolutely crucial to know what the clock time is if you are to catch a plane, train or bus, and it affects banks and schooltimes, but everybody else just ignores it and continues the course of their day based wholly on the muezzin. Except for the birds which ignore the 5.15 dawn call and have their own chorus at 6.30.




Jacaranda in bloom




Draeceana flower



Plumbago recovers