Thursday Thirteen (about thirteen hours late!)

I don't know how to get fancy headings, etc.

but I thought I'd have a go at 'Thursday Thirteen' just for fun.

And since she started me on this, here is my

THIRTEEN THINGS I LOVE ABOUT TANYA

1. She is beautiful.

2. She is clever.

3. She is hardworking.

4. She is multiskilled.

5. She is funny.

6. She has persevered through difficult times.

7. She likes gardening (when I never thought she would).

8. She is a meticulous and talented patchworker/quilter.

9. She cares about her sisters and brother, and nieces and nephew.

10 She even cares about her parents.

11. She is very environmentally conscious.

12. She is a wonderful and loyal friend.

13. SHE IS MY DAUGHTER.

(13.5 Now Tanya, be a good girl and tell me how to use that link now that I've registered and all.)

This and That

Roaming around with a camera doesn't always bring much in the way of results. So this posting is, as the title suggests, just a bit of this and that around the garden and on the deck.

These are some of the first flowers on the Snail Creeper. It's actually more purple than the photo shows but it is too high up to get a good shot.


Abutilon (Chinese Lantern) flowering prolifically.


Tuberous Begonia


Variegated hydrangea (has beautiful blue and white lace-cap flowers earlier in the summer).


Fuchsia


Plectranthus - note the purple colouring on underside of leaves.


Jacarandas in pots, grown from seed.


The label said it was a Norway Maple, but not according to the books, and we have no idea which maple it is.


Red begonia and variegated ivy-leafed geranium.


Pink ivy geranium.


I've waited all season for the Tecoma to flower.


Pennisetium.


Sedum.


Crab Apple knows that autumn has arrived.


Begonias and Cycads.

Paddling in the Puddles

ShellyC wrote about the children playing in the rain and the puddles and it reminded me of walking home from Primary School when I was about 9 years old. Joyce lived on the next farm and was a year older than me and we used to walk 2 miles home each afternoon along country roads. On wet winter days we often wore rubber boots to school and we would walk all the way home in the deep, water-worn gutters alongside the road. When the water banked up in some of the culverts we called them Eildon and Hume Weirs (named after two of the largest weirs in Victoria). One afternoon we found a puddle beside the road that we hadn't seen before. I made a dash to be the first to jump into it, however Joyce wanted to be first so she pushed ahead of me and rushed into the puddle. The puddle was actually a hole in the ground and the water came up over her knees, filling her rubber boots with water. I'm not sure whether Joyce was more upset about having wet boots and feet or me laughing at her.

A couple of weeks later the laugh was on me though. The big river bridge was under repair and there were several large steel girders lying on the ground nearby waiting to be moved into place on the bridge. It was a fine sunny morning but with a heavy frost. We were happily scuffling our way through the frost in our leather-soled shoes on our way to school. Seeing the girders lying on the ground was open invitation to walk along them, stamping our feet to see how much noise we could make. The combination of heavy frost, leather shoes, and the girders being on a slight slope was a recipe for disaster. I was merrily stamping my way down the first girder when my feet shot out from under me and I sat down with an almighty thump on cold, frosty steel. I'm sure I can still feel that pain as I write more than 50 years later.

Shrinking Shed
In case some of you thought that Richard was going to excavate the entire length of the deck, he is only working back to the second set of posts. The finished 'shed' will then measure 6 metres X 4 metres.

For those who asked - sorry, he is not for hire or loan, at least not until he's finished all the jobs around here, which should keep him occupied for the next 20 years or so.

Anyone for sand castles, mud pies, or just getting down and dirty?

They say that 'every Aussie bloke needs a shed'. Well, sometimes they have to build it first. Or even dig out what looks like tons of rock and dirt in order to make a shed. WHEN these excavations are finished, including walls built and floor paved, it will become a shed for gardening equipment, eg. mower, mulcher, barrows, etc. Also shelving and a potting bench on the northern side, and there must be room for a couple of chairs and a little table as it's the coolest place I know on a hot day. There is also access to storage areas under the house from here . THEN, when all that's done we may be able to put the cars in the garage for the first time in years instead of leaving them in the carport at the front.



Fugitive scurrying away from the camera.




The inevitable result, all sifted into various grades.


It just wouldn't be home without a few dirt heaps! Grrrr.

Rain .... as precious as diamonds

I've always considered rain to be precious, especially in our dry country, but yesterday morning I discovered that it had also brought 'diamonds' to my garden. (Click on the photo for a larger version.)

Gaura lindheimeri (White butterfly bush/ Whirling butterflies)



Blue Salvia

Swamp Cypress (Taxodium distichum)



Geraldton Wax (Chamelaucium uncinatum - an Australian Native plant)




Gaura 'Passionate Pink - has pink flowers & burgundy leaves)

Rocks, rocks and more ... seaweed!

If one tires of taking photos of sandy beaches, there is usually a variety of rocks just posing for photos ...




























...or people,























...or even seaweed.