Photo a Day 29 - Good Fences

I know she'd like to get through the fence. Our grass is so much greener, but these must be Good Fences

Liz Needle

Linking with "Good Fences"  -  for more great shots visit Good Fences.

Photo a Day 28 - Pelicans

This Wednesday I am linking with both "Wild Bird Wednesday" and "Outdoor Wednesday".

These photos were taken on a holiday on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.  Kangaroo Island is Australia's third largest offshore island and is an untouched gem. It teems with wildlife, conservation parks, wineries, fishing opportunities, gourmet food outlets and local businesses.

We visited some years ago when I took these shots, but we have been back a number of times for holidays and we can't recommend it too highly.

This shot was taken probably 30 years ago when one of the locals used to visit this isolated beach each day to feed the pelicans and seagulls with left over  bait fish. I don't think this still happens. The old fellow would be long gone.

These next photos were taken at a spot called Remarkable Rocks, again on KI

The cliffs around thew island provide a myriad of photo opportunities and the attractions are numerous. Check out the link above and do consider visiting this delightful island if ever you are in Adelaide.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Wild Bird Wednesday" and "Outdoor Wednesday. Visit these websites for more stunning photography

Ruby Tuesday Too

This is my first time in "Ruby Tuesday Too" , so I hope my entry meets the fantastic standard you guys set.

Yellow, orange, red, purple, black - glory at the end of a long summer day

Liz Needle   -  linking with Ruby Tuesday Too

Photo a Day 27

Tuesday is such a busy day in the world of photo memes, so I am linking this post with "Our World Tuesday" and "Rubbish Tuesday".

It is amazing what some old farmers find uses for around the farm. These old baths look quite strange in their setting. I can only assume that they were at some time used for watering stock. Or maybe the cows need the occasional bath.

Below are the remains of an old wooden farm shed or stable. This is a very old property.  Is that another bat in the top right hand corner?

Liz Needle linking with "Our World Tuesday" and "Rubbish Tuesday".

Use the links in the first sentence. They don't show up well on the black background.

Photo a Day 26 - Mellow Yellow

I was fascinated by this little car which I snapped at the "Tour Down Under" when it came through Lobethal this week.

 I think it fits the Mellow Yellow theme as it is not only 'yellow' but the car and its driver are also quite 'mellow' in age.  Or would you call this orange?

Liz Needle  -  linking with Monday Mellow Yellows

Photo a Day 25 - Sausages

Oops, I missed yesterday so will catch up today.  Life was quite busy yesterday as I spent most of the day making home made sausages with my cousin, Jan.  In fact so busy were we that I didn't even take photos, so will use this one that was taken last time we did our sausage bit.

Jan and Liz, toasting our sausages

The first time we made sausages, we bought the spices and flavouring ingredients from a Bake and Brew shop. We were not very confident and a lot of things didn't go as planned. We also found the sausages were rather too salty for our tastes. The best ones we made were the kabanas.

We also found we didn't have much room on the bench top and it was all a bit crowded.

This time however we invented our own flavourings and didn't use the ready made ones. Much better result. We put a table in the middle of the room  - much easier, room to move around and clean up as we went and we planned much better - nothing went wrong.

The proof came with the taste test at a family barbecue last night and we were proclaimed master sausage makers.  Now we have even more ambitious plans for our next venture into sausage making.

Liz Needle

Photo a day 24 - Angus

One of the many dogs we have had was Angus - a gorgeous Scottish Deer hound. We were given him by the family of one of the kids we taught. I think he was the last of the litter and they wanted a good home for him.

He was a delightful boy, gentle, friendly and very much loved by the family,especially Mark.

Angus (8 months) and Mark

Unfortunately we had to find a new home for Angus as he and our beloved Dobermann Sam just didn't get along. They were both entire dogs and there was just too much testosterone in the air. Poor Angus always got the worst of it as he just didn't have Sam's strength and as there was no question of getting rid of Sam, it had to be Angus to go.

Very reluctantly and with a lot of tears we found a friend of a friend who was desperate to take Angus and so he left us - probably happily on his part as he went to live in the outback and spent his life chasing kangaroos through the bush.

Liz Needle

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday this week s about advertisements, horses and carriages and  other strange and curious things.

While I have seen many old and comical advertisements in newspapers and the like, this one caught my eye.  It appeared in 'The Advertiser", Tuesday January 23rd, 1947. (The Advertsier is the South Australian daily paper)

Certainly not something you would find advertised these days.

I remember as a child and older that there were many asbestos built houses around. Now, the slightest trace of asbestos found in a building is treated with kid gloves.

I did discover when I looked up asbestos that it has been mined for 4000 years and health issues relating to  asbestos exposure can be found in records dating back to Roman times. It sure took us a long time to pick up on that.

Despite all the knowledge we now have, there is a sign on my classroom wall saying "Danger - asbestos used in this building". 

But, I am assured that as long as the asbestos is hidden away, is in good condition and not exposed to the weather, it is quite safe.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Sepia Saturday"

Photo a Day 23 - Agapanthus

This time of the year the agapanthus are making the garden come alive. Just had to share them with you.

Glorious deep blue

The agapanthus were originally from South Africa, but they love Australia and we love them. They can be seen in many gardens and in fact they tend to become a pest as they are so hardy.

Liz Needle

Good Fences

Good Fences - Thursday January 22nd

Thought I would show you the new Adelaide Oval, home to cricket and Australian Football in South Australia. It's a magnificent, world class stadium with fabulous facilities and we are justly proud of it - even though building it nearly broke the bank!


One of the access ways is this bridge across our Torrens River - fenced on both sides so nobody goes for an accidental swim. The sides are heavy duty perspex I think so you get quite an open feeling as you walk across.

Gates and fences direct patrons into the stadium

We're pretty high up here, so we need this fence to hang on to.

Cricket ovals traditionally had white picket fences around them. This is the electronic twist on the old fashioned picket fence - a digital picket fence. Don't ask me how they do it. Far too technical for me.

I love the design of this stand.

And looking up.......................

Liz Needle  -  linking with Good Fences

Photo a Day 22 - Tour Down Under

The show arrives

Great excitement in our sleepy little towns yesterday and today.  The Tour Down Under came to town.

For those not familiar with the world of top cycling, the Tour Down Under is the only major international cycling event held in the southern hemisphere. It is the first event on the international calendar and attracts top cyclists  from all over the world.  And today the whole show came to Lobethal.

First came the police cars with flashing lights and sirens

Then to the delight of the little boys, the police motor bikes

and at last what we were waiting for, the first of the cyclists a breakaway group of four  -  oops. I must have missed the first one..

  Some minutes later, the pelaton - hundreds of cyclists in a bunch.

It wasn't until I was downloading my pics that I realised that I had got a shot of our own Aussie hero Cadel Evans.  You can see him on the right hand side of the next picture - with the unzipped shirt and the green shoes.  Go Cadel, go!! He finished 2nd in a thrilling finish, pipped on the post by one of his team mates.

Liz Needle - loving this cycling event.

Photo a Day 21 - more pets

Continuing along with the pets theme  -  I'll try not to bore you with this as we have had sooooo many pets and thank goodness I did not take photos of them all.

This fellow - whose name I have forgotten was Jo's first dog - I think. My memory is hazy. Jo was always attached to a dog - and still is. She remembers the name of every single pet we ever had. I have no memory at all of some of them. Indeed I sometimes wonder where I was for many years of my children's lives. Certainly not on the same planet!!

We moved to Port Pirie and acquired a tiny black ball of fluff which Jo named Tinker. He was to be with us in Pirie, then back in Darwin and when we finally returned to South Australia. By this time we also had Mandy and we were also given a Doberman pup which we called Toby. We didn't take Toby back to Darwin for a number of reasons, but we found a good home for him in Pirie.

Back in Darwin with Tinker. Sadly Tinker was run over not long after we bought our property at Lenswood, South Australia, but the possession of 10 acres meant that we had room for lots more pets and so the saga of the Needle Menagerie began.









Liz Needle

Photo a Day 20 - Pets

Sorting through old family photos and I was struck with how many pets we have had over the years, so I think I will do a series of photos of some of our favourites.

I love this photo of my eldest daughter Jo and Lady.

Strictly speaking Lady was not one of our pets. She belonged to my aunt and her family, but Don and I moved to Darwin in the early 60s. It was our first time away from our families - and so far away.

My Auntie Ida had married a Darwin lad, Paddy Hickey  and moved to Darwin some years before and when we arrived, the Hickey family took us into their hearts and they became our second family. Jo was their first grand child in a way and she was very much loved and indulged.

I have included Lady in our pets as it was she who started Jo's love affair with animals in general and dogs in particular.




Among the many pets we have had - largely due to Jo, have been numerous dogs, cats,  guinea pigs, rabbits, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, mice, chooks, geese, ducks, quail, peacocks, guinea fowl, turkeys, kangaroos, emus, dingoes, budgies, cockatoos, galahs, magpies and finches.

I think that about covers it.

Liz Needle

Photo a Day 19 - Reflections

Reflecting about what I could post for Weekend Reflections and no matter how hard I looked, nothing came to mind.  Quite by chance I walked into my kitchen and there were reflections.  I had to fiddle with the settings - at which I am not skilled - but eventually came up with these shots.

I actually do a lot of reflecting myself in the kitchen.

These first two shots were taken with the flash, which showed the reflections, but took away the shadows.

This last one was taken without the flash and some playing around with settings. Not so well focused, because it was a slower shutter speed, but I like the effect better. I really must learn more about this camera.

Liz Needle,   not linking with Weekend Reflections because I was too late.

Photo a Day 18 - Magpies

One of my readers asked me about a bird that appeared in one of my photos It was an Australian  Magpie - an Australian icon. It is a very common bird in Australia, found nearly everywhere and familiar to and beloved by all Australians. It appears on coats of arms, is the mascot for sporting teams. In fact two of the best known Australian Football (AFL) teams whose colours are black and white, are known affectionately as the Australian Magpies, or Maggies.

They are intelligent, cheeky birds which are easily tamed and become very friendly. We have hand reared many orphans and they tend to hang around for a long time after they have been freed into the wild. This is one of a group that visits regularly to get the scraps that Don leaves out. We have had several that lived inside while they were young. One used to sit on the TV and seemed to be watching the screen. I did take a photo of that one, but can't find the old print.

This is a youngster. The older ones are much blacker. Below is an adult magpie in typical pose - looking for grubs etc in the lawn. The southern species have a white back, the Eastern ones are black backed.

Liz Needle

Photo a Day 17 - The Needles

As a child I always wanted to be part of a large family, but there were only 2 of us, so I married into one.  My husband Don is one of 6 boys, though sadly the eldest one Fred is no longer with us.  These shots were taken in the early 80s when the whole family got together.

Beards were obviously in.  Paul, Fred, Kym, Peter, Don and Mark

Peter, Don, Mark, Kym, Paul and Fred

And the wives  - Jane, Liz, Essel, Denise and Jill  -  much more attractive to look at!!

And the next generation of Needles  -  The kids!!  For a family of 6 boys, they produced mainly female offspring. There are four not there.

I got what I wanted - a large family.

Liz Needle

Sepia Saturday

This week I have taken a few liberties with the theme to tell you about a member of my husband's family.

Martha Needle or  "The Black Widow of Richmond" took as her first husband Henry Needle who was a brother to my husband's great grandfather. 

Martha Charles was born near Morgan, South Australia in 1863, an attractive woman with a kindly disposition she grew up in a violent and abusive household, and had shown signs of mental instability from an early age. At 17 she married Henry Needle at North Adelaide and in 1882 gave birth to a daughter Mabel followed by Elsie in 1883 and May in September 1886. The family moved to the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885.

She was subsequently hanged in the Melbourne jail for murdering her husband Henry, her three small daughters and her future brother-in-law Louis Juncken, brother to her fiancee Otto Juncken.  Her weapon of choice was rat poison (arsenic), which she administered in small doses until her victims weakened and died, supposedly from illnesses.

Her trial lasted 3 days despite a not guilty plea and the jury took 40 minutes to find her guilty. She was hanged on October 22nd 1894 at the age of 30. She was the last woman to be hanged in Australi

Melbourne Jail Women's section around  1905.

More details can be found by following the links above.

Liz Needle  -  linking with Sepia Saturday

Photo a Day 16 - Cycling

Exciting day today. My cousin Jan and I took up cycling again at 70+. I haven't been on a bike for 60 years except to ride around the yard on my children's bikes - and that was many years ago.

We hired bicycles from the local shop in Woodside and a very charming young man explained the do's and don'ts of bike riding. We decided that the seats were going to be painful, so we each invested in a pair of padded cycling pants. Thank goodness we did! He briefly explained the gears and the hand brakes - both Jan and I go back to the days when bikes had pedal brakes and no gears. Here is a photo of us in our gear.

That's me on the left

We set out on the Amy Gillett bike track as neither of us was confident about sharing the road with cars. I have to say that our first efforts were somewhat wobbly and I  had trouble stopping because I forgot to use the hand brakes - the gears had me totally flummoxed.

At one stage I tried to stop without really thinking about what to do with my feet and the bike got away from me and I fell onto the grassy verge. Jan was so concerned with my fall that that she lost concentration and fell as well - in sympathy I think.

However, that was the one and only mishap and before long we were tootling along happily with only the occasional wobble. We mastered the art of stopping, using the brakes and the gears. We rode about 5 kms , the last part of it uphill. At this stage I called a stop because I was out of breath, my rear end was very painful and my legs were aching.

 So, we turned around and headed back. I figure it took us about 90 minutes to ride the 5 kms because we were slow to start with and it was uphill. To our amazement the home journey was a breeze - downhill all the way and we were able to do a lot of free wheeling. It took us about 25 minutes to get back. What fun!!

The only down for the day was when we stopped at a Winery on the way back and had the worst coffee I have had for a long time.

We are already planning our next trip and we intend to look around for good second hand cycles. We are hooked. Surprisingly I am not the slightest bit sore - probably all the swimming we have been doing has made us fitter than we thought.

Liz Needle

Photo a Day 15 and Good Fences

Browsing through my photos trying to find a fence I haven't posted before and came across this shot  which was taken in February 1971.

It was taken shortly after we had returned from our second stint in Darwin. We wanted to buy a property with a few acres in the Adelaide Hills. After looking at a number of properties, we came across this 10 acre farm at Lenswood. It had been a part of a dairy farm and we could afford it - with the help of my mum. The house had not been inhabited for 2 years and needed a lot of work, but hey, we were young, with a young family, no money, but lots of energy, so we bought it and the rest is history.

This shot is of my mum and our youngest child Mark. They are sitting next to a stile. I had heard of stiles in my reading of English books, but never seen one, so this was quite interesting for me to actually own one.  For the uninitiated a stile is a wooden structure of steps which enables a person to climb over a fence.

I have no idea what happened to the stile. It should have been kept as part of the farm's heritage. but we were young and not interested in history, so the stile probably got thrown out or burned in our efforts to renovate and modernise.

That little poplar tree by the front gate is now enormous - I had forgotten how much the place has changed.

This was the house in 1972 when we purchased it. We had already done some clearing and cleaning up by the time this shot was taken.

Not much garden yet, but a bit of landscaping had been started. We had also started painting the outside of the house.  Now the place is surrounded by gardens and trees. 

Liz Needle  linking with "Good Fences".