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Sunday, October 30, 2005

rainy Sunday

Lots of lovely wet stuff falling from the skies over Sydney, started last night and has kept up all day so the garden is getting a really good soaking, let's hope some of it is landing in the catchment areas.
So what do you do on a rainy Sunday, you surf the net of course.
Sonia left a comment on my lilium so I went across to Brazil to visit her garden where she has the most amazing fruit tree called a Jaboticaba tree (Jaboticabeira)
I think sometimes we have such preconceived ideas based on our own experience (such as what a fruit tree looks like) and to see something so exotic and different is to understand how wonderfully diverse nature can really be.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Drum roll please........

TaaaaDaaaa....
the mystery whatsit bulb has flowered:
what do you reckon? a lillium?

romantic roses

Way back in 1996, (I know it was then, because I still have the catalogue) we visited Honeysuckle Cottage at Bowen Mountain (in the Blue Mountains of NSW)home of "Roses of History and Romance" and I fell in love with a exuberant weeping miniature rose, spilling lush, luxuriant and copiously from a large pot.

It wasn't for sale but I bought one of the same variety, planted it into a pot, put it in a sunny spot next to the swimming pool and waited....and waited...

Mine was far from lush and luxuriant, it was more lax, limp and lacklustre....probably because it had moved from the cool Blue Mountains to the sweltering west...and probably because I often forgot to water it.
My guilt about this pretty rose got the better of me and I moved it to a spot where it is much happier and I can enjoy it with a clear conscience.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

banksia rose from hell reincarnates

why can't the plants that I *want* to grow be as stubborn as this one,
haven't looked at this corner of the garden since the weather warmed up and look what the determined little buggar has done!


I'm warning you buddy, the napalm comes out next!

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Travel: Sydney and Redcliffe Qld

there are just a couple of photos I can show
This is my view from the plane window as we left Mascot on an overcast day, just before we reached the cloud cover, my beautiful Sydney, I love this town, with all its faults (like greedy councils, see below)


and this next is the free council swimming pool at Redcliffe, Brisbane Queensland, near my brother-in-laws place.

It looks more like it belongs to a luxury resort, the water is pumped and filtered from Moreton Bay which is just on the right. The bottom of the pool is sandy and goes from a childrens wading depth to swimming in the centre, there is a lifeguard on duty and all around are childrens play areas with wading pools, fountains and slides.
The path on the right goes right around the bay from the beach at Margate and on to Scarborough.
The main pool here is not fenced off, you just wander in from the path or the shops on the left, I couldn't believe how nice it was, if it was in Sydney, the council would have a wall around it with a $5 charge to go in.

avocado and orchids

oohhh, I HATE it when I exceed my downloads for the month and optus slows me down - how did we get by on dial up....
anyway, we're back from Queensland - hot, humid Qld. and it's only October, there is no way I could ever move there, I would never survive summer.The wedding was nice, and we had a good couple of days catching up with relations.

Here is the progress of my avocado seeds, they are all starting to sprout after about 2 months sitting half in water

and here's a couple that have been growing in a pot,


and here is another of my rescued dendrobiums from our friend.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

another gardener

Have just discovered Melissa's gardening blog Sweetpea's Garden, after she left a comment on my wool blog (Melissa has one of those too!)

Husband and I are off to Queensland tomorrow for a nephew's wedding, will be back late Monday.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

the first rose of summer


...and those droplets on the rose are rain! yippee!!

(we are on level 3 water restrictions here in Sydney - that means we can water the garden with a hand held hose twice a week - my garden doesn't even get that, so it's smiles all round when we get a rare drop of the real thing)


g'dammit - I broke the whole stem off my cattleya trying to photograph it - oh well, it looks nice in the vase


we have a friend who grows orchids, these were his discards, he called them rubbish, luckily I was visiting that day and caught them on the way to the compost heap.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

the plot thickens....

....as my mystery bulb grows (I think it is some kind of lillium)





ummmm.....just wondering.....is anyone actually reading this? would you like to say hello in the comments (and maybe pull a couple of weeds while you are there?)

Friday, October 07, 2005

yippee!!! we have frog spawn!

tag: frogs

Thinning out the water hyacinths from the frog pond and found that we have frog spawn -

lots and lots of frog spawn



wow, things will really be hopping around here soon!


Travel: Bowral tulip festival

I've been away for a week at a craft show in Bowral as part of the annual tulip festival, we were here:

right across the road from the tulip gardens, so I was able to escape for a short time to take these photos: