Scatterdays - Autumn

It is some time since I have been involved in the Scatterdays - photo challenge , but now I am back to blogging, I will get my camera out and get on with it. This month the theme is Autumn and as I live in the Adelaide Hills, there are a lot of photo opportunities - without even leaving my own garden.

Here is a selection of photos taken in and from my garden. Enjoy!!

I love the colours in the Medlar tree. This year I plan to make jelly with the fruit.


My Nyssa sylvatica - Tupelo tree. Glorious rich colours

Pistacia chinensis - another brilliant tree - can you tell I love autumn colours?


Part of the garden showing off for autumn

Looking down the drive at a Viburnum opulus 'Sterile' - Guelder Rose


The next door vineyards are losing their leaves now and are just past their best.


Autumn is my favourite month in the garden.

Liz

Welcome Ollie

I am catching up on events of the last few weeks, hence the two blogs on the same day.

After Cooper died, our old boy, Jeb fretted badly and we decided that we - Don and I - would get another dog to keep him company. We sort of decided that we would get an older dog if we could and started looking in the papers. Last Saturday we found a young dog advertised - younger than we had planned, but he sounded like a good fit with us - a Jack Russell puppy about 5 months old.

Off we went to have a look at him. Of course the minute we saw him, we fell in love - as we always do with JR pups. And so Ollie joined the family.

See what I mean? How could we resist? Jeb wasn't sure at first, then he decided that maybe the young fellow wasn't so bad and he deigned to play with him. After 3 days he's not so sure about the situation. He plays for a while then finds a place to hide so Ollie can't annoy him.

Ollie on the other hand loves Jeb - in fact he loves everyone and everything!! He loves chewing things, he loves chasing things, he loves playing games, he loves being put outside to do his bits and then coming back inside to do them! He actually watches TV and reacts to what he sees and hears. We've never had a dog do that before. Very funny!!

Already he is making a place in our hearts alongside all the other dogs we have had over the years.

Ollie wanting to play - Jeb not so sure

Jeb, out of reach, but looking decidedly fed up with everything

Welcome Ollie!!!

Liz

Cooper

Nearly a monthy since I added to my blog. So much for good intentions.

I have had a very busy time over the last few weeks. First the end of term with all the usual and of term activities, then the Southern Cross Quilters quilting retreat for which I was a committee member. Check out the website if you are interested. Then the school holidays and a visit from my gorgeous grand daughters and my daughter. A very busy few weeks!!

My girls, Niamh and Erinn watching television

Sadly, during the holidays we lost one of our lovely Jack Russells - my son's little fellow, Cooper. Cooper will be sadly missed although he will always be in our hearts and memories.

Cooper was a sweet natured, funny little dog and we all loved him dearly. Mark will get another dog one day, but you can't ever really replace a friend and a companion - and Coop was certainly that.

Liz

Too Good to be True

Oooooops!!!!

After a night of celebrating our amazing and unbelievable win, we had a phone call this morning to say "Hold on a bit. We think there has been a mistake in the scoring of the Handicap Shield."

Sure enough, it was discovered that the computer operator had given us points won by 'the other' Lobethal school. So no shield!!! Lucky we hadn't already taken possession. I don't think they would have been able to wrest it away.

No matter. We still had a ball. Them's the breaks.

Liz

What a hoot!

Today, I took a team of 25 Year 5/6/7 children to the Hills Combined Schools Athletics Carnival. This is an annual event and although we don't have a lot of success, the kids are really keen and put a lot of time into practising before the carnival. We are only a small school and so practically every senior student is involved somehow.

Had trouble getting a bus to take us there this year, but finally we were offered a second run which meant we were late getting there and we had to leave early so the bus could do two trips. Not a problem; we sent a few over by car for the early events and coming home before the presentations is never a problem as we don't figure in them anyway.

So, today we had a great day. One of my Year 7 Vietnamese boys got a second ribbon in the Shotput as did one of the Year 7 girls. We also got a few 4th and 5th places which pleased us a lot. Despite the lack of wins, we had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed the day away from books, the fresh air and the good sporting competition.

We left early and got back to school, where I was met by the school secretary. She had just had a phone call from one of the other schools wanting to know why we had left early. We explained about the buses.

"What a pity!" was the reply. "You won the Handicap Shield!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Unbelievable!!!! We won!!!

"What does handicap mean?" asked the kids???

Liz

Great Kids

I am very proud of my 6/7 class. One of my friends is the principal of a primary school that was in the bushfire area in Victoria. Although none of the families from the school was injured, many of them had to be evacuated and they all lived through a horrific time not knowing if they and their homes would be safe. I asked my friend if there was any way we, my class and I , could help and she suggested we could write letters to her kids. She also said that they would like to take their children away on a fun excursion to get them away form the horrors they had been through.

I took all this to my class and they decided that they would try to raise some money to help the Victorian school finance this trip. They set to with enthusiasm, organising a non-uniform day, a sausage sizzle and a pancake day. Sure they had fun doing it, but nonetheless, they never lost sight of the reason behind their efforts. I am really pleased that we have just been able to send of a bundle of letters and a cheque for over $400.

There's not a lot wrong with the younger generation. They just need the older generations to have a little faith in them.

Liz Needle

A week of mourning

This week Australia has been saddened by the tragic loss of lives and property in Victoria and Queensland. On the one hand we have had the devastation of the worst bushfires in the history of this rugged land and on the other the widespread and catastrophic floods in the north. We are certainly a land of wild contrasts.

Our hearts go out to all those whose lives have been affected by flood and fire - loss of loved ones, pets and livestock, property and possessions. It will take a long time to recover from the events of the past week.

The one bright light in this tragedy is the way Australians have rallied to support and care for those whose lives have been so devastated. So many people has provided comfort, time, labour, goods, services and funding. It makes me proud to be an Australian.

Landscaping

I have the bit between my teeth now. I thought I would show you what my clever son has done in the past few weeks. The back garden has needed attention for a while, but we were waiting to finish some paving. Now Mark has paved the area, built some new back steps and landscaped the area at the back of the house, including two small fishponds which I have wanted for the past 30 years!!

The birds just love this area. They drink from the bird bath, but I am sure they think the fish ponds are really giant bird baths as well.

Seen from another angle. The steps and the paved patio area can be seen middle right.

The fish ponds - no fish yet. We are waiting for the cement to 'cure'. Check out the lawn. This is never watered.



Liz at Lenswood

Kersbrook

So much for my good intentions about keeping up my blog. But, in fairness I have been in Sydney visiting my gorgeous little grand daughters. Sorry I can't show their photos, but trust me, they are beautiful. I can show you their dog, Buddy, but he's not as pretty as the girls. LOL!




Gotta say he is pretty cute though.













Finally my eldest daughter Jo and her partner Steve have taken possession of their new home - well not new, it was built in 1849, which considering South Australia was only founded in 1836, is pretty old for this part of the world.

It is an old sandstone farmhouse on 28 acres of land - the house is in good condition and really only needs a coat of paint of make it liveable, There is a big rambly, run down garden full of old fruit trees and European trees, shrubs and perennials. Jo is a keen gardener and she will have a ball seeing what comes up as the year progresses. They have numerous fruit and nut trees - nectarines, peaches, plums, apples, pears, cherries, lemons, walnuts, mulberries, almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts and, weirdest of all considering we are in South Australia, 5 spindly, sick looking paw-paws. The plants all need a lot of work, but they are certainly worth the effort.



The front of the house with its lovely verandah














The back entrance

















Part of the front garden

Part of the back garden











Back to school next week. As much as I enjoy teaching, I am not really ready to go back. Maybe a ticket in Cross Lotto will do the trick???

Liz

Christmas is Done and Dusted

Oh dear! 6 weeks since I have even looked at my blog. How slack. Term 4 was so hectic, I was sure I would never get everything done. I can't recall being quite so busy and rushed in other years. I'm not sure whether there was more to do, more pressure or whether I am getting more disorganised and less multi-tasked as I get older.

Finally finished Christmas shopping a few days before Christmas and got the tree up - as is ordained by family tradition, it has to be big enough to touch our 11 foot ceilings - and it was.

Oops! That was last year's tree. Wonder where the photo for this year is. No matter. Looks much the same - just no little kids around this year.

Small group of 8 of us this year, but we made up for it with 32 to tea the next day - all family. That was a hectic but fun day. Little kids everywhere, with a new one on the way - another great niece or nephew in June. Very exciting.

One of the things Don and I got for Christmas was an iPod from Mark, so we can listen to our music more conveniently. I've had fun the last 2 days going through my CDs and putting them on the iPod. Now I'll have to persuade Don to learn how to use it. He tends to resist modern technology - more out of perversity than anything else.

I remember years ago in the early 70s when he was still teaching high school maths and he used to take his classes on excursions down to Adelaide to play on these computer things. All they ever did was print out long pages of words or make calendars and Don swore that it was a waste of time and computers would never be of any use to schools. Hmmm. Eating his words now!!

Off to record more albums.

Have a safe and Happy New Year .

Liz

Old Photos

We were chatting by email about old photos yesterday, so I went searching. I have hardly any photos of myself before I was about 10 - they've been lost somewhere along the way. But I did find some facscinating ones of my husband Don and his family, so I though I would share some of them.

Don's mother and grandmother and their dog.




Don's father and his
twin brother




Don, his mother, grandmother, a family friend, older brother and twin brothers










Don and his 4 younger brothers


I'll have to go searching for photos of me now. Heaven only knows where the few we had have got to.

Liz

Sadly.............

A friend recently sent a photo by email showing her son holding the most glorious armful of Waratah blooms. Quite breathtaking, but also heartbreaking. Why?

I'll show you my waratah - a prized possession carefully nurtured over 10 years and bringing joy to many over that time. They are a relatively rare species here in South Australia and many passers-by stop to admire this specimen - or they did!!!



This was our lovely Waratah 2 years ago. The Community bus used to drive along our road just so the old folk could see it.










This is it now. It was the first our our shrubs - and the most heartbreaking - to succumb to the drought.

There will be others this year. Already, despite a fair winter, some of the plants are looking less robust than usual. I guess sights like this one will be come more and more common in gardens as the water restrictions hit home. With over 2 acres of garden, my allotted 3 hours of hand watering doesn't go far.
We're going to learn the hard way what plants are going to be most suitable for South Australian gardens!!

Liz

October in the Garden

October in the Garden
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

There always seems to be happening in the garden - always something coming to life around each corner - apart from the weeds, of course. The winter and early spring bulbs and the camellias have just finished and now it is the turn of the perennials, the late spring bulbs and the flowering shrubs and trees.

Here is a selection of what is on offer at the moment in our garden.
1. White camellia 2. Miniature violet
3. Scabiosa 4. Iris
5. Peruvian lily 6. Malus ioensis

7. Michelia 8. Iris
9. Nasturtium 10. Howard Florey rose
11. Babiana 12. Perennial Forget-me-not
13. Arum Lily 14. White Flowering Chestnut
15. Pink Dogwood 16. Camellia

Liz Needle

More broken

Some more 'broken' photos. Our place is just full of them. The trouble is that with me working full time and Don retired, but not very fit, we just can't get to fix these things - and to pay someone to do it is well beyond my means ( about $15 000 to clear away all the fallen willows!).

Thirty odd years ago 10 acres was fun - hard work, but fun. Now it is getting too hard. Trouble is that we have made this place so perfect (for us), that we can't bear to bite the bullet and sell up. Where else could we have the peace and solitude, the birds, koalas, echidnas and possums, the beautiful garden? Nowhere that we can afford, that's for sure!

Liz

Scatterdays

Scatterdays theme this month is "Broken" and I have tons of 'broken around this old farm. I'll sart with the old house - not the new one which was built around 1902, but the old one at the back.
When we moved in 37 years ago, we planned to do this old place up and use it as a B&B, but the architect took one look and threw his hands up in horror. It was built of cement and rubble - an old cheap method and the weather wall was sored up and covered with iron to keep the rain out. It could have been rebuilt, but at huge cost to us - poor struggling 30 year olds with 3 kids to raise and an old farm to re-fence and farmhouse to do up. So, the old house was left to die gracefully.

The blackberries have taken over the outside and the swallows, bats, rats and snakes the inside.







Liz Needle

Daffodils

Daffodils
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

I mentioned yesterday that the bulbs have been stunning this year. Here are a few photos I took while the daffodils were out.

A pity in a way that they don't last until the bluebells are out. The blue and yellow combination would be amazing. There probably is a way of managing this, but I like things to happen in my garden without my intervention.

Below is another view of the garden. Last Friday the fog came in about 5 pm and I tried to catch it on film. It actually looked thicker than this in real life, but I still like the effect.



Liz

Bluebells

Bluebells
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Don and I have been busy trying to get the garden in order. The drought and water restrictions were very discouraging and we let the garden go last summer. After a good winter the garden had sprung to life again and is looking quite lovely. The spring bulbs have all come up regardless of the drought - bulbs are so rewarding. They seem to forgive all.

The daffodils have all but finished and the bluebells are holding sway. The blue is just amazing, but unfortunately, the colours lose their splendour once they are photographed. The garden is awash with shades of blue at the moment. And the occasional pink clump. Such a satisfying bulb. No matter what you do to them, they flourish in the shady areas. I love them. To add to the blue we have babiana just about to flower and grape hyacinth and iris as well.

Soon the roses will wake from their winter sleep and the pinks, whites and golds will add to the spring colour in the garden. It will be interesting to see how the roses recover from the lack of water during the summer. We were amazed at the hardiness of the camellias (we only lost one) and the magnolias. Plants are surprisingly adaptable.

Spot the Difference

Finally finished the blocks for the Web Challenge quilt and spent today trimming and putting them together - block by block, row by row, being careful to match everything up, get seams butting, blocks in the right position - you know the drill. Done it many times over. Checked it out with my spyhole and everything looked in place. Great!

Photo take. Quilt spread out on the lounge room floor. Dogs locked outside. Ladder in so I could get high enough to get good shots. Finally photos taken and I stood back to admire the effect. Then........................ big expletive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I won't tell you what I said. It was very naughty. Can you see what I saw?

I couldn't believe my eyes. And I had checked it so carefully. Looked at it over and over.

So back I went and carefully unpicked what I had to and did it again, but what a bummer!!!

Below is the corrected quilt. Much better. Now I have to add sashing and borders, then get someone to quilt it. Too big for me to manage under my sewing machine.

It's my first significantly red quilt and I rather like it. Not sure where to put it mind you as my house doesn't cater for red, but I am sure it will find a home.

Liz

Our River

Earlier this week we took advantage of the beautiful Spring weather and drove along the lower reaches of the Murray River. We had not done this for 6 months or so and wanted to see the deterioration since our last visit in Summer.

I guess for people not familiar with the river it doesn't look too bad - there seems to be a lot of water still, but for those living on and depending on the river, the changes are devastating. Even for visitors such as us, the changes are scary. Every year I take a group of Year 6/7 kids to Murray Bridge for an Aquatics Camp and we have noticed the receding water level over the past few years. Where once the water lapped the lawn verges of the camp site, now there is a stretch of sandy beach. The jetties and loading ramps are high out of the water and worst of all, the lovely billabongs along the river are dry, cracked mud. Where once there was abundant bird life sheltering on these quiet backwaters, now there are only birds in the willows along the banks and a few larger birds on the river itself.

It is difficult to see how these billabongs will ever fill again. It would take huge amounts of water from upstream to see them flourish as they did a few years ago.

The large grey expanse was once water teeming with wildlife. Note the irrigated grain crops on the left hand side of the photo!

What horrified me most was seeing large areas of grain crops (barley or oats) being watered by large overhead sprinklers around Purnong. To me watering such crops is pure waste. But then, I am not an expert on such matters. I guess it's no worse than irrigating rice and corn in the middle of the Hay Plains?

Liz

Web Sampler Blocks

Web Sampler Blocks
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

These are the quilt blocks I have been working on this week. They are part of a quilt called 'Web Sampler Celebration #2', that was put out last year as part of the Shop Hop in USA.
They are a Civil War Classics range of fabrics by Julie Rothermel for Marcus Fabrics and I just fell in love with the range. My final quilt design is from Quakertown Quilts and I can't wait to see it finished.

Wet Photos

Hmmm,. You can tell I'm on holidays - I have time to spend on my blog. As you can see if you have visited before I have changed the colour and style. I like this green for a change.

Have to say I was disappointed at the size my 'wet' photos turned out with Mosaic Maker. Mine always seem to be small, whilst similar ones on other blogs seem quite large. Wonder why that is? So, I have decided to publish them again because I like them.

These are photos I took of the TV screen during the Women's Road Cycling Race in Beijing.

Wet

Wet
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

I am really pleased with these photos of the Women's Road Race in Beijing. I took photos of the TV screen and crossed my fingers. I like the reflections I got from the rain and the screen.

Cheesemaking

For my birthday this year, my daughter, Jo, paid for me to attend a cheesemaking workshop with her. It was held in Angaston at the Barossa Valley Cheese Company and the workshop on making washed rind cheese was run by Carole Willman of Cheeselinks, Little River, Victoria.

Having purchased a new pair of clean rubber galoshes, unearthed an apron in the depths of my kitchen cupboard and found a plastic tub with two lids, I presented myself at the venue, ready to make cheese. Jo and I were introduced to the other 5 participants and Carole introduced us to the art of making cheese.

I won't go into details - hopefully the photos will do that, but suffice to say that it was totally fascinating and at the end of the workshop we proudly carried home our embryo cheeses with instructions on how to proceed to mature said cheeses over the next few weeks.

At home we had to keep our cheese at a constant temperature between 11 and 14 degrees until the mould started to show. The hardest part was actually maintaining such a temperature as it has been so cold and unless I put it on the mantlepiece over the fireplace, I could only get a temperature of 10 degrees anywhere in our cold old house. Next we had to wash and turn our cheese every few days until the washed rind culture became established (it was supposed to go reddish, but neither Jo's or mine did). Instead it started to go runny inside the rind, so I wrapped it in baking paper and foil and popped it into the fridge to mature slowly.

Well, mine is maturing! I'm not sure that it is maturing as it should, but it is sitting there doing something. It smells OK and tastes OK, but I'm not sure that it looks exactly as it should. Despite this I will purchase some cheesemaking supplies and try again, because it was fun and a challenge. When I actually taste my cheese in a couple of weeks, I will give you a taste report. Until then I check it regularly and give it more care than I did my children. LOL.

Liz

I have won an award!!!

Yeah!! I would like to thank Katie for my award.
This is my first ever.





Rules for this award

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link to the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs for an award.
4. Put links to those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message on the blog of the person you have nominated.

I am nominating some of my favourite blogs.
Laurie, Taniwa, Lindi, Mandy Sue, Loz, Dawn, Random Applique . Well done, ladies.

Liz

Musing about books

I have just been adding lists to my blog. Books and authors. I thought it would be an easy task, but I found it really difficult. Who and what to put on - who and what to leave out?

I read through my book diary - yes I do keep records: my friends think I am anal!! As I browsed I pondered how tastes in reading change. There are always some books and authors forever ingrained, but many of my favourite authors of yesteryear are forgotten - or tucked away in the dark recesses of my mind and only brought out and dusted when I spend time browsing in a second hand book shop.

On my bookshelf are many books that I devoured avidly when I was younger, but which I haven't touched for years. One of the problems is that there are so many good books around these days that one has a hard time keeping up with them, let alone re-reading past favourites.

My new resolution - I will not borrow/buy any new books until I have read some of those old ones that have previously given me so much pleasure.

I wonder how I will go? I'll keep you posted.

Liz

Cold Spell

As I look out of the window this morning, the fog moves in from across the paddocks- another cold wintry day. It has been raining all night - very much needed rain, but not adding to the winter's cheer. It seems to be the longest wintry spell we have had in years, with temperatures regularly down in the single figures and several morings here where it was -1 on our front lawn. We have had a good lt of rain, but it's further north they still need it and even more in the catchment area of the Murray River and it's tributaries. The Murray is desperate - it is dying.

The theme for our photography this month is wet - well, it's wet all around us, but nothing like on the scale of earlier years up here. These photos, taken in different years are actually of the paddock to the side of our house.

We don't seem to get wet winters like this anymore.

Liz