No room for plants

Son has just moved to a flat over a factory with no balcony, so he brought his plants for me to mind - he has great faith in his mum's gardening ability, we could almost say I taught him all he knows about plants - but when it arrives looking like this.... I guess there are only two options, grow or the compost heap.

Once the Australian dream was the suburban house on a 1/4 acre block, now those 1/4 acres will fit a block of units or a row of townhouses, as we lose more and more space people are losing the chance to get down and dirty in their own garden, I was doing some web searching looking for an art gallery in the Sutherland Shire and on the council site stumbled on their council run community garden
Will this be the future for city gardeners?

nephelococcygia

On those days when you've laid on your back and found horses and castles and dragons in the clouds, did you wonder if there was a word for what you were doing (no - "skiving off on the back lawn" is six words)

The word is nephelococcygia - apparently thought up by Aristophanes for his comedy, "The Birds" (414 BC). In the play, two characters turn into birds and plan a cloud city which they decide to call "Nephelococcygia." another character in the play calls them mad so the word came to mean Cloud Cuckooland
You can hear it pronounced here

This cloud is called "Betty eating her green chew stick"

tomatoes

Great minds etc...was taking a look at the garden today and decided I have just the spot to try some tomatoes this summer, and then Sweetpea wrote about her tomato obsession, her perfect tomato is called 'brandywine' - I'll have to have a look for it.
My past tomato growing attempts have been a bit of a disaster, back when the children were young, they didn't trust my tomatoes, we had to cut them open and watch to make sure nothing was moving inside them, kept telling them it's all good protein but they didn't believe me.
My mum would say "if the bugs won't eat them, there must be something wrong with them!"

Travel : Penrith Regional Gallery and Lewers Bequest Gallery, Emu Plains, NSW

tags: travel

Picked up some friends yesterday and the five of us went to Penrith for the day - first stop was the mid week markets at the Paceway, it's not an arty crafty type of market, it's fruit & veg, cheap clothes, bags, plants and lots of dust collectors for the house.
One of our favourite stops there is Henny's paper - Henny sells all kinds of luscious papers and card, pens and all kinds of scrapbooking supplies - I don't do scrapbooking but like browsing all the products, so I bought some nice embossed cardboard from her but was very restrained with the rest of the market.

Then we had lunch at Panthers and off to the combined Penrith Regional Gallery and Lewers Bequest Gallery where they are showing Operation Art - a collection of work from NSW school students, 50 of these works will be selected to become part of the permanent art collection of The Children's Hospital at Westmead, these will also be exhibited at the Art Gallery of NSW in December and tour regional art galleries across NSW the following year.

Other selections will become part of Operation ArtBank, some will be presented to the children's ward of a country hospital and others will be on display at various other sites.

Still more will be chosen for GlobalArt and will hang in children's hospitals overseas.

One of the friends with us yesterday has a grand daughter with art in the exhibition.

This was taken inside the Penrith Regional Gallery section of the building, isn't it a great space!



It was interesting reading the childrens' comments on their thought process for their paintings, saw a lot of teachers influence in some of the 'art speak', but then a piece of direct innocence like the 8 year old who painted Sydney Harbour, he said "I like fishing, last week I caught a snapper and an octopus"

The Lewers Bequest Gallery was established on the site of the former home of sculptor Gerald Lewers and painter Margo Lewers, the Regional Gallery was added in 1981 with a large purpose-built exhibition space. It's presently undergoing a lot of building alterations to extend the newer gallery areas, but the old historic house will remain the same.

The history of the house and the Lewers family is here

This is the entry area to the old building which houses the Lewers Bequest Gallery section:





More of the exhibition inside the house:



Looking through the front door into the garden, where the gardener was getting ready for spring - lots of winter flowers were blooming









This boab tree was in the grounds, I wonder how old it would be, compared to these it looks like it has a way to go yet.



Lots of bird baths around the garden, this one sculpted by Gerald Lewers





A rather strange thing to have in a public building space was the thriving vegetable garden, but I'm guessing it was probably there when the Lewers family lived here, and the grounds are being kept authentic to the era.



and this next? how to disguise your water tank so no-one will notice!



technorati tags:travel sydney

on a cold wet winter day

We haven't been doing any thing in the garden, it's been too cold and wet and I've been spending solid time on the computer setting up my Etsy shop

This morning the sun was shining after a wet night, so I dragged Betty from under her blanket and we had a quick wander around the yard.

Lovely little raindrops on each plant:




the freesias and bulbs are all shooting:


bromeliades are blooming:


then our little patch of blue sky disappeared so we scuttled back inside:

Snakes alive!

I'm a city girl, born and bred, give me a nice solid pavement under my feet, my rare bushwalks are limited to well trodden tracks, rustling in the shrubbery is enough to send me scuttling back to the car park.

I've had two close encounters with red belly black snakes in my life - as a child, we were on holidays in Queensland, snake was sunbaking on a footbridge over a stormwater canal near our bungalow, I had new shoes with slippery soles and as I ran back up the concrete path to the house my shoes kept slipping, I had nightmares for days of me sliding down the hill into the snakes' gaping jaws.

Next encounter was as a teenager, again on holidays, (why do we have this urge to escape the city on holidays, cities work for me!) friend and I were sitting on the lawn sunbaking when my father said quietly but firmly "don't move!" we froze as a red belly slid between us and went on its way, so you can imagine why this site really gave me the shudders, and another reason to stick to the city.

thanks to Barista for the link and lots of other interesting reading.

moon planting

If you are a gardener who takes notice of the moon cycles for your planting, then the Cosmic Gardener has a chart July planting guide for Australia listing the dates for each moon cycle and the plants according to the areas (cold, temperate, tropical etc.)

Haven't much to report from the home front - husband has been under the house with what I think in the trade is referred to as an 'acro, jacking up the house supports and putting packing under them - the last several years of drought has resulted in the beams and foundations parting company in several places, with walls inside developing cracks and floors creaking and big gaps between floor and skirting boards.

I'm just hoping he doesn't get too carried away with the packing, I worry that if we ever get back to normal rain and the ground swells again, the house will just go 'pop' and bounce right off its' foundations.

Travel: Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba (lots of photos)

After raining all night, the day dawned with another thick fog and we were in two minds whether to head off up the mountains to what looked like being a cold bleak day, but by the time we crossed the Nepean River we had left the fog in Sydney and the mountains were clear and sunny and a brisk 10 degrees C.

The Winter Magic Festival celebrates the winter solstice each year, in a true hippy pagan heaven.

There's more pictures from other festival goers at the Flickr Winter Magic Festival page

By the time we arrived the main street was packed, with the scent of patchouli in the air and the soft swish of lots of panne velvet.


Yes, all those little dots spreading up the hill of Katoomba Street are people, we joined the throng and shuffled our way along the street stalls.

Just reached the top of the street as the crowd parted and the parade started.
The lovely thing about this festival is the participation by who ever wants to dress up and join in - there were lots of families, old and young.
We were surprised to see some friends dressed up and in the parade, didn't get a photo and couldn't find them later in the crush.





there were stormtroopers



and a bear raising money to free captive bears in asia



there were lots of dragon fly motifs, because the Blue Mountains is home to the endangered Giant Dragonfly - petalura gigantea and the push is on to try and save it - (it's survived 190 million years, but good old mankind and his urban development is about to wipe it out)







don't know who this was, but guessing, being a solstice festival, he's probably the horned god


These young green frogs hopped all the way up Katoomba Street



while this little viking took the easy way on dad's shoulders



the socialists were all dressed up to plot John Howards' downfall



there were big mermaids:



and little mermaids:



there were little fairy princesses



and big fairy princesses



some had lots of panne velvet



and others just had a smidgeon



there were witches in black



and witches in purple



and witches with drums



this was a float in the parade - don't ask me to explain why an animal of indeterminate breed (wearing his pj's) is on a surfboard atop a two headed snail - I guess you had to be there when the planning committee met.





Lots of stilt walkers in the parade, and coming up behind this one you can make out the bright pink and green feathers belonging to....



...well, you tell me who!! "Her" feathers stretched right across the road and we all had to duck them as "she" passed. Would have loved a full on photo but it was impossible in the crowd.

It seemed everyone had their dog with them, most dressed for the day - there were big dogs



and little dogs



and some just hoping that mum will take them home soon, before their friends from puppy preschool see them in this getout



After the parade had passed, we again joined the shuffle to the Carrington Hotel area were we watched the most fantastic performance by tribal dancers and drummers , "Hands, Heart and Feet" from Blue Mountains Drum and Dance group











the girls danced for ages, individually and together, so much energy! then these three young boys took over



and then the guys in the group showed what they could do



we wandered up and down the street a couple more times, met people we knew, (what a small place Sydney is!) stopped for soup and chicken focaccio then watched the gypsy dancers



At the other end of town were folk dancers dancing to an irish sounding jig, having a great time but seeming subdued after the tribal dancers

As we watched them dance, I thought they had a sort of 'cult' look to them, then saw their food stall later and realised they were from the Peppercorn Creek Farm which sounds all warm and fuzzy but hasn't always had the best press

By late afternoon the main street looked like it had even more people in it than in the morning



We had shuffled up and down several times, bought a leather belt for him and a silver dragonfly necklet for me so decided that was enough for the day.

On the way back to the car we passed some of the old mountain houses that I drool over







and then a last stop at a lookout as the fog started to settle in the valley and off home