Round Up!

Although it has been cold, wet and inconvenient I have enjoyed the recent rainy weather as I have so many memories of crispy brown plants at this time of year. Having full water tanks also makes me feel good.

However the weed growth is phenomenal and I now accept that we simply have to use poison to maintain some sense of order on our block.  So we were busy this morning with "round-up" in anticipation of further rain over the weekend.

We've had a wonderful crop of beans and I will plant more seeds this morning.  Which reminds me of the hugely successful snow pea crop we had earlier this year which I attribute, in part, to the laundry airer that I used to support the plants.  This was the first year that I had no problems at all with mould on the plants.

What a brilliant idea! (His, not mine, I must admit!)

Yesterday I took some table mats up to my mum. I made them using the "sew & flip" "quilt-as-you-go" method from fabrics she gave to me when she last moved house.  She was delighted (and thought I was clever).  I do enjoy sewing but am never in a hurry to finish things. It's a bit like enjoying the journey rather than the destination!

Big Birthday

We are usually away from home for my birthday and it has been a non-event for some time so I decided to celebrate this year and I am so glad I did.  We had a bbq under the pergola with my mum, our daughters, friends and neighbours. And what a wonderful surprise when my sister from New Zealand arrived, uninvited, the evening before!

This is my sister and mum with me.

This is me with our two daughters. 

The weather was great and it didn't rain until after everyone had eaten - perfect timing!

My thanks to the bbq cooks, John and Luke. (Luke is so good we are going to let him marry our daughter, Rachel, next year.)

Jacaranda

Each morning in recent times I have religiously and surreptitiously swept the fallen jacaranda flowers from our pergola area for fear that my husband will "get rid of that tree that makes so much bloody mess"!  I have seen how he can butcher shrubs that he decides need to be pruned!

This is the first time for some years that we have been home for late November and I am so much enjoying my garden area.

Rain is forecast for the next couple of days, starting this afternoon, so I expect that will be the end of the beautiful jacaranda blossom for this year.

Long absence from here

So long since my last post! I always feel I should be doing things instead of writing about them.

It's getting quite warm outside so my gardening activities have finished for the morning and I want to record my observations.  The jacaranda is in flower, the star jasmine and gardenias look beautiful and add perfume to the air, the agapanthas are in bud and even the melaleucas (bracteatas) are flowering brilliantly this year. So everything is green, purple and white/cream at the moment.

I have picked my first tomatoes for the season, we've had a few pickings of zucchinis and beans are compulsory each evening. (I can hear our daughters reminiscing about the bean gluts!)

Galahs and pale-headed rosellas used our nesting boxes again this year and the babies have already flown the coop.  My poor old magpie that I fed for over 21 years died earlier this year but his absence has contributed to a change in balance in the bird life we see regularly. We have a group of babblers http://birdsinbackyards.net/species/Pomatostomus-temporalis that have been hanging around for months and have built several nests on our block although don't appear to have raised any young. They are lovely happy chatty birds. Years ago when they nested here, the blue-faced honey-eaters moved in after them.

2011 has been a pretty good year and I will blog some more soon (while I can remember it.)

Very hungry caterpillars - and other things!

The butterflies (dingy swallowtail, papilio (eleppone) anactus) are beautiful but their caterpillars are decimating my citrus trees in pots, especially the one that I am babysitting for my mother.  I have been unable to take a photo but know I have identified them correctly when my reference (Queensland Museum) writes "larvae feed on citrus trees in suburban gardens."  I have not yet been able to identify the ones that are munching away at my gardenias. I hate using poisonous sprays and also hate squashing caterpillars but every day I pick them off the plants and stomp on them. At least by doing this so regularly most of them are very small so, for me, the act is not so gross.

The wet summer has changed the balance in the garden. Shrubs and plants that survived and almost thrived in the years of drought have "drowned" while others have sprung to life with vigorous new shoots.  We have never cut so much grass so often and I am not complaining because the lush green growth is very pleasing visually and emotionally. I have revived my vegie patch, repotted plants and renewed my interest in the garden.  I use the term "garden" loosely as we simply have a few garden beds on a bush block plus dozens of pot plants in our outdoor living area.

This is a picture of one of my bromeliad flowers.  (They are wonderful drought-resistant plants that grow out of pots - literally.)

The flower head is about 10cm in diameter and quite prickly. This morning I was amazed to see that something has eaten away a large patch of the prickly "petals". I have absolutely no idea what would do this; a possum, a rat???

Actually we've observed several other amazing things lately.  My vegie patch is enclosed by chicken wire to keep out the wallabies and hares  and something had made a big hole in one of the walls at ground level. We concluded that it must be a rat although there was no other evidence. Last week I was surprised, in more than one way, to disturb a big goanna in my garden. It would have been about 4 to 5 feet long and made a quick escape through the hole in the chicken wire. Perhaps it had learned that chicken wire enclosures can be a good source of eggs?

Recently something has been chewing out the centres of the "pups" on our agave. In the absence of any evidence we again blamed a rat initially but what a surprise to learn that crows are the culprits! We've seen them on several occasions and have yet to determine the attraction.

No - we don't live in a rat-infested area!

Floods

So much destruction and so close to home! The flash flood that passed through Toowoomba at the beginning of the week is available for the whole world to see as is the major flood that hit Brisbane mid-week. The devastation and loss of life "down the range" in the Lockyer Valley and surrounding area is heart-breaking.  For so many people the trauma will continue for ages and, for some, forever.

The clean-up has begun and at least the rain has stopped for a few days. Thousands of volunteers are assisting friends, family, neighbours and strangers. I believe our governments, at all levels, have made genuine efforts to manage the crises, comfort communities and inspire individuals and groups but the continuing personal suffering of so many is, and will be, immeasurable.

For anyone who has faith in the power of prayer, now is the time to pray.

Seeing the grass grow . . .

... you really can see it!  We've had so much rain and while it has inconvenienced our family and caused disappointment, we are all grateful that we have been spared the devastation and heartbreak of the many thousands of people, particularly in central and southern Queensland, whose homes and businesses have been flooded.

Before Christmas were returned along the Newell Highway from three weeks down south. At that time huge tracts of land in central NSW were under water.  So very different from the same trip and the homecoming welcome we experienced twelve months ago!

Our trip to Wonboyn was a successful fishing trip but I didn't really enjoy myself as I was pretty housebound, due to the weather, and I got fed-up with being chief cook and bottle washer. I think we knew before we went that this would be the last trip there; it is such a long way to travel and John is now 87 so it is a huge responsibility to take him to a place so remote.  As he will tell anyone who cares to listen: it was 66 years since he first visited the lake for fishing - so it was a very significant trip for him.

While we were away I did read several novels and completed the hand-quilting on my "L" quilt so that was rewarding and I learned so much. Today I embroidered my quilt label and prepared the binding so it's almost finished!

The festive season has passed.  It was so good to have the girls here together plus our younger daughter got engaged shortly before Christmas.  All that's left is for me to take down the Christmas tree.  This time we really are going to dump it; a threat I have made for the last three years.  I feel quite sad because we've had it since the children were little and it's given us so many happy memories but it's starting to look its age (like a lot of things around here) and makes a lot more mess than it used to (also like a lot of things around here!)

I still haven't done much to sort my photos, and now we have a heap more!

OGP and dam ride

A couple of nights ago we watch On Golden Pond on television.  It made a wonderful change after some of the second-rate movies we've seen in recent times.  Mind you, Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda didn't look as old as they did to us back in the early 1980s!

Early this week we went for a ride to inspect the dams after October's rainfall and the top-up that Cressbrook Dam has received from Wivenhoe Dam. It was great to see Cressbrook looking better than it has for some years. It was a perfect day for a picnic at Crows Nest National Park and we agreed that we should keep the bike for a little longer. We've always had bikes and guess that we are not quite ready to end that era of our lives.

The spring flowers around Toowoomba have been replaced by summer flowers.  Jacarandas were starting to look beautiful (until today's heavy rain) and the perfume of star jasmine is everywhere. They are such hardy plants. This one was planted in our garden about 25 years ago and has been totally neglected and has survived all extremes of weather.

Disruption to Plans

This week is not going to plan but is rewarding in a different way because I am having to rearrange my planned activities!

Last week was just lovely.  I caught the bus to Brisbane, went to the Valentino Garavani exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art, had dinner with my daughters, slept over and spent the following day at the Craft & Quilt Fair before coming home. The facilites and infrastructure at Southbank are magnificent and I shall return to enjoy them some more.

Over the last couple of months we have been making an effort to walk each morning and we set off bright and early (5.30am!) on Sunday.  I was chattering happily about my trip to Brisbane and demonstrated the "Valentino model walk" - for a very short time only because I hurt my hip doing it!  I'm sure I looked funny but some sympathy would have been appreciated. So: no markets, no gardening, no yoga class, no walking for a few days. I'm sure rest is the best thing but it is hard to turn over in bed at night and I do confess to being grumpy when I don't sleep well.  However, I have been able to attend to a few things that were further down on my "to do list" including writing on my blog so I am feeling good about that. Plus the pain is lessening.

We've had some busy times. After some wonderful rain our block has sprung to life -  you can see the grass & weeds growing - so that has demanded some attention. We have appointed several new staff members and, somehow, that ended up being my job ( and I'm supposed to be retired!)  The QCAT case continues after numerous adjournments over the months although we don't get as upset as we did initially. During August we had a couple of wonderful weeks away at Wooli where the weather and fishing were so fantastic that my reading and sewing activities did not eventuate as planned.

Since then I have attended the Toowoomba Quilters annual retreat at Perservernce Dam and was delighted by the progress I made there.  My "stack & whack" quilt top is completed, although the quilting has yet to begin.  I found our 2010 exhibition (see previous link to blog) very inspiring and have taken advantage of the strong Aussie dollar to buy fabric from the USA with vague plans in mind.

I count my blessings. My poor sister has had her life thrown into turmoil by the earthquakes in Christchurch, NZ, where she lives.  It seems to have dropped off the news radar here but even in the past week they have experienced strong aftershocks.

My next sedentary activity (when it's my turn to use the computer) will be to organise the many photos I've have taken in recent times.  I may even get to load some to my blog. I should also change my profile picture: I have just noticed my red hair, and I've been blonde for over a year now!

Swan Lake

On Friday Night I saw the Queensland Ballet perform Swan Lake at the Empire Theatre.  It was absolutely fantastic.  I have long been a fan of the work of Francois Klaus, the Artistic Director of the Queensland Ballet, and this production with its divertissements was amazing. It was also great to see a full house at the Empire Theatre, a venue we are so lucky to have in Toowoomba.

End of Financial Year, and other things

Welcome to the beginning of a new financial year and the accompanying work. 1 July is our wedding anniversary and for the first time ever we celebrated by going out to lunch! I was sooooo surprised to receive the invitation although I chose our wedding date as I thought I was a good investment and R might remember the occasion because there was some association. We had a lovely lunch and I can hardly wait until next year!

Our posties of 20 years left us on 30 June because Australia Post decided not to renew their contract. Now they can take a well-earned holiday together but they will be missed by people in our area.

Another business that we will miss is Walsh's Nursery which closed down at the end of the financial year. A sign of the times I guess.  Where will I go for the sort of expert advice that they have given to me over the years?

Goodbye Trees, Hello Winter

It saddened me to have to get two of our big gums chopped down but one was dangerously decaying, as in likely to drop even more big branches and cause damage, and the other had put its more recent energy into lifting the pavers at the back of the house.  The result is not as horrendous as I anticipated and has, in fact, inspired me to establish another small garden bed when the weather warms up.

Winter is finally here after a magnificent autumn. I took this photo of our coral vine one sunny autumn day. It's a plant that comes up every year and never gets any attention.

Another plant that is continuing to please me is my tomatoberry.  Even at this time of year I am able to pick 12-20 small tomatoes every day although the bush is starting to look a bit sick.  It's a variety that I've never grown before but I will be looking for it next next summer.

And, the winter solstice has passed! It's a date I always seem to note.  The temperature may continue to drop but the days will start to get longer.  There never seem to be enough daylight hours for me and I've become 'not good' at getting up in the dark.

It's not often that I am there when our two daughters go out together. Rachel was a bridesmaid recently and Emily was at the wedding.  The other bridesmaid was the bride's sister and she was Emily's friend at primary school so I was delighted to get a photo of the four girls together.

Q: How do you eat an elephant?

Answer: Chew one mouthful at a time! ( Words of wisdom from a school teacher.)
This advice has served me well in recent months as there seem to have been many overwhelming times.

We travelled down south on a fishing trip, caught up with family, celebrated a few family birthdays and Christmas, worried about family health issues, immobilised myself for a week by falling over, enjoyed visitors from interstate and have just returned from New Zealand. Over this period I spent days working and arguing with my husband as we prepared information for solicitors for a pending court. Plus, on behalf of residents in our street, I have pursued an infrastructure issue with our regional council. While all this was happening we bought a new computer (we were waiting for Windows 7) and during the installation process an external hard drive, to which I had transferred heaps of data files, crashed.

It's weird that I am now looking forward to some routine in my life. I have for a few years viewed the random opportunities and challenges that presented themselves as manifestations of freedom after resigning from full-time paid employment. Right now, I want my life to be a bit more structured. (I might change my mind next week!)

It was depressing to return home shortly before Christmas as it had been so hot and dry that a number of plants had curled up their toes. I almost decided to stop trying to keep things alive but am so glad that I didn't because, more recently, we have had some great falls of rain and heaps of trees and shrubs have come back to life! I'm eagerly waiting for the mud to dry so that I can go "play outside".

We hate Indian Mynas

..because.. ABC article... and that is only one of many articles detailing these problem birds. We had regarded them as undesirable for a couple of years and understood that they had a preference for mowed lawns and tidy gardens (not like ours.) However one was recently spotted aggravating the galahs that are nesting in one of our trees for the fourth consecutive year and I was prompted to read more about them.

The galahs are now feeding their young and my male magpie that I have been feeding for twenty years has brought his sole baby this year to our back door. The ground is so hard because of the dry weather that it must be difficult for the birds to find sufficient food, so I am glad that they have only one baby this year. We have a couple of bird baths at the front of our house and the variety of birds that come in for water confirm what we already know: that there's not much water lying around the area.

whales!

Despite getting up early and going to gym at 6am I "lost" today but am determined to fulfill my intention to update my blog.

Our new carpet is down and we were too tired to go away immediately afterwards but we did have a wonderful trip to Hervey Bay last week. We had perfect weather, an awesome whale watching trip, an excellent accommodation deal and a great bike ride. It was the first time we had been away on the bike for ages and the conditions were perfect.

Toowoomba Quilters Club have a wonderful exhibition at TAFE, 100 Bridge Street, this week which is well worth a visit. I will go up there again tomorrow to take some more photos some of which will feature on their blog site. Our next event will be Open Day on Saturday 17 October.

New Carpet

Finally! Our new carpet is to go down next week! After much procrastination and endless debate (not all pleasant) our home is to be re-carpeted. Of course it has necessitated a big tidy-up, which is the reason for the debates. We have so much "stuff": bookshelves and cabinets full of things that we rarely use but are of sentimental value, some monetary value or "likely to be useful sometime." Anyway lots of things have gone to Lifeline and several boxes that have been put into the shed will not return to the house until they have been sorted through. I am finding the whole exercise emotionally draining. Lots of old books and magazines that have been sent to new homes are a record of our activities and interests over the years: cars, motorbikes, archery, guns, woodwork, gardening, alternative health, camping, caravans, nutrition & cooking........plus a big box of video tapes and LP records (we haven't had a turntable for years!) Lots of things are staying: a couple of early editions of Popular Mechanics (1949), a postcard album dated 1903 that belonged to a great aunt, a selection of National Geographic, Australian Geographic and Nature Australia. We have plenty of more recent publications to fill our shelves, and how many photo albums have we accumulated over the years?!!

Our living area has been thinned out. Next task: the bedrooms!

Winter Solstice

We've had some miserable weather in recent weeks - but it is winter and there have been some bright spots! The advent of our winter solstice means that from now on the days will get longer. Hooray!! I understand completely why this date features in pagan celebrations.

My cymbidium orchids are flowering and so too is my sole camellia (in a pot.) I am convinced that position is the most important factor that determines whether or not one's orchids flower.

Finally, we have got the website and blog for Toowoomba Quilters Club Inc up and running. It needs some work - but it's up.

Also I had a pyjama day last week. For those who don't indulge in such decadent behaviour, it means that I spent the entire day in my pyjamas, large parts of it in bed being a sloth. It was a bright spot because, afterwards, I felt so much better for being lazy and self-indulgent!

Our next major project is to re-carpet the house and I am somewhat heartened to know several people, including Di, who are managing to stay sane during major renovation projects in their homes. Packing up the contents of shelves, sideboards, dressing tables....not to mention the mess behind the computer desk...(Does everyone have endless cords, wires, connectors behind their electronic equipment?) ..is a nightmare!

A Winter's Day

I have just spent a large part of today sitting in a sunny corner of our house reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. What luxury and what a good book - highly recommended if you enjoy a bit of history woven into the plot.

I did venture outside into the cold wind for a short while to tidy up a few broken plants after the storm cell that passed through here early yesterday morning with lots of wind and not much rain. Fortunately there was not a lot of damage although we had a few garden chairs that travelled a long way.

...long time, no post.....

..and the longer I leave it the more daunting it becomes! I've done lots and lots has happened since February - and I've just read my previous post to refresh my memory.

I did visit my old school friend and she didn't appear to recognise me but I'm glad I made the effort. Then in April she died, as did Trish who had endured the ups and downs of cancer treatment for several years, and then a friend's husband died suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack. I suspect that these events contributed to a period of nightmares and bad sleeping (which is not normal for me) as my brain attempted to come to terms with what had happened. For some time I have believed that during sleep the brain attempts to "re-file" the information overload that ocurs during a typical day.

Good things have happened too! We made another trip to Wonboyn in February and have been out on another (unsuccesful) gold prospecting trip. During March I spent a few days in Sydney, went to a high school reunion dinner and visited some more old friends. My sister from NZ stayed with us last week which was wonderful especially for our mother who rarely gets to see her daughters together. And I know how happy it makes me to see our two daughters together!

Our elder daughter is currently touring around Europe. I'm so glad that she eventually made it. It was quite weird to get a text message from her saying "We're in the tube on our way to our London hotel." Decades ago when I travelled around Europe my parents were lucky to get a few postcards! I knew we were in a different world when she asked me what money I took overseas and my response was "travellers' cheques". (Like - what are they????)

I've done a couple of small contract jobs this year which pleases me as my superannuation funds continue to shrink.

My winter vegetable patch is looking good especially after some wonderful rainy days last week. Unfortunately little rain fell over the dam catchment areas so there has been no easement of water restrictions in town.

I have taken some nice photos in recent times. "A frog in my mesclun" is a good one. The discovery was most amusing!

Not a UFO and other things

I have finished one of my table runners - hand-quilted, machine quilted and bound it - and I don't like it! The colours suit my home and I think I have done some good work but the design is too structured and formal for me - and yes I should have thought about that ages ago! Never mind, I shall use use and not get upset if someone spills red wine on it. I guess everyone makes something that they end up not liking? I chose it originally because the pattern provided opportunity to do a "bit of everything" and it certainly did that. I reiterate my opinion that a table runner is a good beginner's project in terms of learning experiences, manageability and cost.....I have more to finish!

Talking about the formal style: my husband's comment was: "You've done a good job, it would look good on a communion table!" (Not sure that he knows what that is!) However it did remind me of our visit late last year to St John's Church at Gordon in Sydney where the pew cushions made a big impression on me. I hadn't seen anything like them since my early childhood and you have to be impressed by the work of the parishioners - so I'm going to share my photos.







My father-in-law who was with us has many forebears whose graves are in that church cemetery and that was the reason for our visit.

Last week I read "One Unknown" by Gill Hicks, an Australian survivor of the July 2005 London bombings. Easy to read, it was an emotional and inspiring book that reinforced my belief in the value of gratitude. It also motivated me to action one of the things on my "must do " list. (I have lots of lists!) Just before Christmas someone who went to the same high school in Sydney as I did during the 60s (and we've had no contact since then) traced me through the internet to tell me that a mutual old school friend was very unwell and that her husband who had recently relocated them to Brisbane would be grateful for some support. So I am off to Brisbane tomorrow to meet up with them; he is a complete stranger , I haven't seen her for over 20 years and there is every chance that she will not be able to recognise me. I am a bit nervous.