Sepia Saturday 2

October is running away from me, so I had better get on with my transport shots. More from the family album.








This time I am looking at human powered wheels of various kinds.

From Two Wheelers

These dapper young men belonged to a German youth club in Adelaide in the 1890s.

And my uncle (far right) and friends with their decorated Billy Cart taken around 1916

To Three Wheelers - taken about 1940.  His first trike.

And this elegant lady in her Invalid carriage, dating back to the 1870s, I think.

To Four Wheelers  -  my daughters and their baby carriages  around 1967

And one of the girls in a cart with her pet Dingo - Ginger. He was a beautiful dog, sadly stolen one night. Taken in Darwin in 1965.

And these delightful children's carriages are not from my collection, but I could not resist them.

Liz Needle  -  linking with Sepia Saturday.  

Sepia Saturday - Transport

I am a bit late getting started on this theme - my excuse being that *I have been really busy organising a family reunion for the descendants in Australia of my great grandfather Ernst Bernhard Heyne - known affectionately as EB. He was an interesting person and deserves a post of his own, so I will get on with this month's transport theme.

The family reunion has renewed my interest in the old family photos that I have, so as is my usual wont, I will stick with photos from my family collection.

Although this is not the earliest photo, the horse was certainly a very early form of transport and here we can see my lovely mother-in-law, Mavis astride her favourite pony, Molly

 Molly was also used to pull a buggy it seems along with her pal Trilly. Driving the buggy are my father-in-law, Ron with Mavis and her mother.

 And a here is another pair of horses used on the farm to transport hay on a much bigger cart - Ron driving.

And it would seem that if Ron could not find an available horse, he made do.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Sepia Saturday".

Wild Bird Wednesday

Our herons may have upped and left, but we have a new visitor to the garden. We haven't seen a kingfisher here for years, but he has been seen 3 times over the last week and I was lucky enough to get some shots of him as he moved around the garden.

I think with all the really wet weather and flooding we have been having, the water-logged paddocks are yielding up all sorts of little frogs, worms and grubs.

This fellow is a Sacred Kingfisher and usually only comes this far south in summer to breed.They usually hunt on dry land but also use the margins of wetlands - which our place definitely is at the moment.

We are hoping with the coming of the breeding season, we may see him with a partner.


And a few shots of the water pouring from the neighbours dam and into our paddocks and garden during our record breaking spring rains.

This is the side paddock where usually we have cattle grazing.

Almost into the garden. This dam is usually almost dry.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Wild Bird Wednesday" and "Our World Tuesday"

Monday Mural

I had a rare visit to the city last week to have my car serviced and with a couple of hours on my hand I went for a wander through the east end of Rundle Street. It is an area alive with cafes and boutiques and a favourite spot for the young and trendy.

I was very pleased to find this mural on a wall in a narrow alley. It was too long to get in one shot, so I did it in sections.

Liz Needle  -  linking with Monday Mural

Wild Bird Wednesday - Easy Come - Easy Go

Some of my readers expressed concern about my earlier post about the  White Faced Herons. Well, a few days after my post both herons appeared and built their nest in the same spot as in previous years.

Great excitement for Don and I and we spent some happy weeks watching their coming and going with one at a time sitting and then going off to feed.

Here you can see one of them sitting just above the nest while hi mate is on the nest just below him to the right.

For several weeks life seemed to go smoothly for the herons, then one day we saw both of them feeding in the front paddock for about an hour - and then they were gone!!

There had been no time to build, lay, hatch and rear young, so we suspect that some disaster had occurred. We have had some extreme weather with very high winds, heavy rain and flooding. The currawongs have been sighted nearby as have a pair of Wedge-tail Eagles. Or they may have been a young pair trying out an old nest.

Who knows?  But it looks as if we are going to have to wait and see if our lovely herons return next year to give it another try.




Liz Needle - linking with "Wild Bird Wednesday"

Monday Murals

I haven't posted for a while as I have not had the chance to go mural hunting. But here is one I did find on one of my rare trips to town. It is on the side wall of a cafe in Norwood.

I took this with my mobile phone so the quality is not as good as I would like.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Monday Mural".

They're Back

Several years ago we were lucky enough to have a pair of White Faced Herons nesting in our pine trees and raising a family of two.

Fledgling plucking up the courage to take off.

The following the parents returned and chose a nesting site, but they were so harassed by the local Currawongs, that they took off and did not return. They did not return last year either much to our disappointment.

However we were very excited last Saturday when it became obvious that the pair had returned and made a nest in much the same spot. Today we are a little concerned that only one of them is visible and is sitting on a branch not far from the nest and calling.

He/She sits there for a time calling then flies off. It may be that the other one has started sitting, but we are concerned that something may have happened to one of the pair. I guess that only time will tell.

I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Wild Bird Wednesday" and "Outdoor Wednesday".

Sepia Saturday 2

Thanks for all the nice comments about my sewing. I have made a few wedding and bridesmaids dresses in my time, but not for my second daughter - the last photo in that last post.

Here is another family wedding photo that I was sent.

My aunt and her husband in 1944. The flowers are gorgeous.

And when you take the plunge, the consequences are usually children. Here are the bride and groom's children 10 years later, having a play wedding of their own.

And I couldn't resist adding this 1977 wedding.

Don't you just love the groom's white suit.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Sepia Saturday".

Sepia Saturday

Our prompt this month is this rather elegant wedding photo. I don't have a lot of wedding snaps in the family albums - not old ones anyhow, but I have been able to find a few.




This one is of my great grandparents, taken in 1877. It is a pity that the details are not clearer as the dress she wore looks very intricate.








































These two are the parents of the bride on the occasion of their Golden Wedding Anniversary

I am not sure who this couple are - probably friends of the family, taken in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Edwardian dress style I think.

This happy pair are my English Aunt Mildred and her husband, taken around 1920. This is one of the very few photos I have of my father's family. He was cut from the family and sent to Australia as a Remittance Man to come to his senses and stop embarrassing the family. What he did, we have no idea. All kept very quiet.

Moving along to 1939, this elegant couple are my uncle and aunt. I really wonder how she managed to walk in that dress.

How fashions change. This is another photo from the English side - one of my cousins taken during the 50s.

And my own wedding in 1962 in a gown made by myself.

The 70s saw a great change in wedding gowns judging by this photo of one of my cousins, taken in Darwin in 1970. The gentleman is my husband who gave the bride away. It looks as if the bride is being propped up here.

In the 80s my eldest daughter was married in a gown made by her mother - me. In fact I made all the wedding dresses. How on earth did I find the time.

And finally to the nineties when my second daughter was married.

So a parade of family weddings  over 120 years.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Sepia Saturday"

Getting off my Butt

One good outcome of the wet weather is that I got so bored with myself that I got off my butt and went back to my sewing. A lovely new Bernina 750 helped get my quilting mojo back.

So I have been having a fruitful couple of weeks.  I completed a quilt for a cousin's new baby boy - he's only 8 months old, so I am not all that late with it. Hope he and his family like it.

We have  a pair of 3 year old twin boys who belong to a friend of my son. We are courtesy grandparents and as they are into superheroes I made them a cushion each.

And, in my boredom I got out the knitting needles and scrap wool and knitted a jumper for our step great grand daughter.

Now I plan to get out some of my UFOs - Unfinished Objects - and get a move on and finish them - in between watching the Olympics.

Liz Needle

Raining Cats and Dogs

Well, we needed rain this year and we got it in bucket loads. It has been the wettest, coldest winter in years - very like the winters we used to get 30 or 40 years ago.  I can remember the first year we were here - just down from Darwin - and in a cold draughty house with hardly any firewood and just small bar heaters to huddle around. It rained and rained and was freezing cold. We wondered whether we would survive. We had 3 small sniffly children (one in nappies), 4 siamese cats, one dog, no clothes dryer, no TV, little furniture, bare floors, no curtains or blinds - we were very close to chucking it in and going back to Darwin.

This winter is a bit like that - except we have a warm and welcoming wood fire to sit around, comfortable furniture, rugs, a clothes dryer - all mod cons. Outside there is water and mud everywhere and the mulch on the top garden beds is now all over the lawns and the patio. Everywhere there are trees down, some causing really severe damage. Our dams are overflowing and take up most of the paddocks, but the rain means less watering this summer.

These first shots are of a winter we had in the eighties. The creek - normally dry - is on the left, the side paddock on the right.

The dam is normally about half this size.

The next photos are this winter.

Water pouring across the neighbours property then over the road into our front paddock

From the front paddock it streamed down the side paddock into our dam which then covered most of the side paddock.

The storm drain on the other side of the road blocked and the water banked up in the drain the poured over the road and across our garden. It then flooded the patio and the sewing room/ Mark's bedroom.

The front lawn and the side lawn became auxiliary dams - in case we ran out of water!!!''

I really think I have had enough winter this year. I almost want to go back to hot, dry. waterless summer - almost. Why can't we have the best of both?

Liz

Linking with "Our World Tuesday"  and "Outdoor Wednesday" and "Wednesday Waters" too.