What Flower is This??

We have this little creeper growing in a pot, can anyone identify it for me?

I am still here..........

I know it's been awhile since I last posted, no excuse - just laziness or maybe a very busy year. Daughter getting married, a new baby in the family, our first grandchild, a beautiful baby boy who is now 10 weeks old.

To ease myself back into blogging I took some photos around the garden yesterday.

I also had a visitor take great interest in what I was doing, he flew that close a couple of times I thought he would land on my shoulder!

 I do have some new quilt pictures but not on this computer, lots of stitching and knitting going on this year. I will add them shortly.

A Recent Visitor

This male King Parrot was a recent visitor to our backyard. He seemed to be very tame, inquisitive. and posed for photos without any problems. He was approx a metre from me when I took these pics.

I did think that he had come to feast on our fig tree but he seemed much more interested in what we were doing to the hydroponic garden experiment.

Where are the days going??

I am surprised at how quickly the days are going, it's the end of November already! My sewing machine and I have been spending a bit of time together but with the weather being wet and windy I haven't taken any photos of what I've been stitching. I did make these postcards for a swap and I've popped them in the mail today.



This is a picture of the blue tongue lizard that lives under our back patio. He has an annoying habit of popping up in the least likely places and giving me heart failure as I think it's a snake when I here the rustling.

He has been living around the house since he was about 6" (15 cm) long, he is more than double that now. I have been trying to get a photo of him for ages but he is pretty camera shy.

More quilt pictures will be coming shortly.

In the garden.......

I was mowing the grass yesterday, one of those things that I don't really enjoy but has to be done and I thought I'd post some pictures of the garden.

My Mum gave me this rose, I just love the colour and it also has a nice perfume. It's one of my favourites.

It was so windy here at the weekend that most the other roses have been savaged by the wind.


This is a picture of my very neglected orchid, it is badly in need of repotting. I was so annoyed with it not flowering that I moved it around to the back of the house and lo and behold this year there are four flower spikes.

The yellow climbing rose is still a work in progress, it's only been in a year or so.

Spring is Here

Not a lot has been happening on the quilting front so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the garden.

With the arrival of the warmer weather the 'Man of the House' decided it was time to do some gardening.A little excessive I thought!

Looking towards the lilacs and the second of the 'no-dig' gardens, we're using re-cycled tanks as the garden beds. Just planted lettuce, capsicum, onion and silver beet in this one. We've just had to cover it with netting as the birds have been having fun scratching through the mulch and most the seedling have been up-rooted.

Once again we missed out on pruning all the apple trees but the display of blossoms makes up for the lack of apples.




The first of the 'no-dig' tanks gardens. I planted cos lettuce, silver beet, garlic, coriander, thyme, parsley, sage and chives in this one. We have so much cos lettuce that I can't give it away. I've been picking it for months now and with the warmer weather it seems to grow overnight.

A Garden Visitor

We have had some cold and foggy mornings lately. I'm not complaining as a lovely days usually follows.

This king parrot and his friends have been visiting our garden, I think they are lovely to look at but our citrus trees are suffering. They've cleaned up all the chestnuts and have been feeding on the lemons & cumquats.

I have attempted to upload some pictures of the ATCs and quilt related pics but blogger isn't in the mood to co-operate, maybe tomorrow (fingers crossed).

Foggy Morning

Just a couple of pictures taken early one morning from the patio looking over the roses and vegetable garden and down to the valley.

It can be quite eerie at times watching the fog creep up the valley.

Sometimes we can't even see the hills on the far side, it is just a sea of white.

Spring

I have a new camera, just a cheapie but at least it works without too many hassles and swear words like my older one.

Now, I just have to master the art of using this new little gadget, the older I get the less technical minded I become.

I can remember getting very frustrated with my parents every time they bought some new electrical appliance, I was the one that had to read all the instructions. Now I find myself doing the same thing!

Anyway, this morning I took some pictures around the garden.




After lunch we took a walk up the paddock to open the gate for the cows. They weren't overly impressed with having their picture taken and turned their backs on me.


Looking around you wouldn't think that we live in a 'drought declared' area. The recent rains and early warm weather has greened the countryside. Our annual rainfall is still way down on the average. We're very thankful for what rain we've had.
The blackwood trees didn't do too well, the lack of rain has really affected them

They are along the boundary of the same paddock the cows in the earlier picture.
At least we will have a plentiful supply of fire wood when they drop their branches.

Spring

Last week I took these pics of the cherry plum trees in the back garden. Spring has well and truly arrived.

We had pretty windy condition on Thursday and most the blossom has blown away. It looked like it was snowing at times.






Today I plan on mowing some of the lawn and helping DH put the fence up along the back of the vegie garden. Since we moved the garden further up the yard the vegies are suffering from the strong winds we've had lately.

It's a nice day for working outside. I really feel like curling up with a book or my knitting and taking it easy today.

It was my middle sisters 50th birthday during the week and last night we went out to celebrate with family and friends at a restaurant close to their home. The food and company were both great and I'm glad we went even if it was a two hour drive home.

Quilt Show

Yesterday DH and I went down to visit my Mum and take her out for lunch. I'd read of a quilt show in Mt Eliza so we visited that before going to lunch.

Mum had never been to a quilt show before and I think that she enjoyed herself. We saw lots of lovely quilts, unfortunately I didn't take the camera.

We had lunch at the local RSL (returned services club) in Frankston, the meal was very nice and the place wasn't overcrowded. Saved me having to cook a meal that night.

A friend gave us some daphne and I'm attempting to strike cuttings. I love daphne and over the years I've tried grow it without any success. Keeping my fingers crossed this time. We have also been getting the vegetable garden ready. We've planted out broccoli (some weeks ago but still a little late), silver beet, broad beans and lettuce.

Soon we will start building the glass house, I say we but it is DH's project - I just get to act as the builders lackey.

Sunrise

What a beautiful way to start the day, this is the first thing I saw when I looked out the window this morning. The picture doesn't do the colours justice.

Had a lovely weekend, eldest daughter came home for a couple of days. The last time she came to stay was Christmas. We don't get to see as much of her as we'd like.

After she left on Sunday, the boss and I went to the nursery to get some seedlings for the vegetable garden and some potting mix.

We gave my Mum some African Violets for her birthday in January and while I was wrapping them a leaf came off. I've had it sitting in a glass of water since then and it has finally struck. The next step is to see if I can get it to grow in the potting mix. Wish me luck......I don't really have a green thumb!!

Morning in the Garden

Spent a little time in the vegetable garden this morning, helping with the weeding, a never ending task. Picked the first of the beetroot, some peas, lettuce and potatoes. The broad beans look like they have finished, just a few left that will be used for seed next year. The vegetable garden is my hubby's pride and joy.

This is a picture of what I picked this morning. The jars in the background contain some of the rhubard chutney that I made last week. The chutney will be given as Christmas gifts to friends.