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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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?)

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!


frogs

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:

the banksia rose from hell

I've been on a mission to get rid of the banksia rose from hell.


It's looking very picturesque here and is a beauty to behold when it's in flower, but in reality it sends out 10 foot canes that take over the path and need continual trimming and I'm sick of listening to DH complaining about the flowers and leaves dropping in the pool, poor dear doesn't complain about much - and I'm just getting to the stage of life where I want to sit and enjoy my garden, not slog it out with plants, so I've decided to get rid of the things that need high upkeep (DH has been warned he could be next)
Before:


After:
(looking really bare) - I put all of this through the mulcher, gawd blimey I ache!!

it must be true....

......I read it in the newspaper




(thanks Chris Henning, Sydney Morning Herald)

easy peasy...

there's a reason I avoid temperamental plants,

the petulant, the moody, the highly strung, the sensitive, the touchy,

the ones who like their compost just right, not too much sun, not too much shade, not too wet, not too dry..

it's because there ain't no room in this garden for both of us

that's why I get on so well with nasturtiums, daisies and calendulas - they don't try to compete with me



so imagine my surprise when I found a camellia thriving enough to actually flower


not a big flamoyant flower, it doesn't pay to be an exhibitionist

... just a sweet little flower to start with this year, then maybe next year.....if it behaves and keeps a low profile....

days like these.....

There are days when something happens in the garden to lift the spirit and make it all worthwhile...

that's how I felt when I saw my little visitor.....

short term memory

One of the features of ageing is that you start to forget things....

this can truly be an enriching experience as you discover things you put away and forgot about.....

like this,


I vaguely remember finding a little struggling bulb in the garden and sticking it in an empty pot and telling it to try harder next year....
and it did!!

have no idea what it is.

my avocado fixation

I have a problem...
(well, probably more than one)
I can't bring myself to throw away an avocado seed....
they are just so big and fecund and full of promise

the first duck of spring...

summer can't be far away when the first duck belly flops into our swimming pool.

bare trees

I've been thinking of some fibre artwork based around trees - leaves, vines, jungley looking, but at the moment all my trees are bare and it's a time of year that I love, I like the cold and bare trees always give me a proper sense of the season.
As Australia doesn't really have native deciduous trees, we have to make do with imported exotics, this is one of my crepe myrtles that is in the far corner of my secret garden

also a japanese maple that I had bought to turn into a bonsai 35 years ago, it sort of got away from me,

and I just love the texture of the bark on the maple with the contrasting bromeliad colour

crab apple

It always amazes me how this poor old decayed crab apple manages to continue to grow and do......

......this, each spring