Spectacular

Sitting on Mark's verandah the other night and watched as an amazing sunset lit up the sky. Couldn't resist getting out the camera.





Stunning!!

Agapanthus

Had a lovely day last Saturday. Started with lunch with our daughter Jo and her partner Steve. We lunched at Howard Vineyard where our son Mark is the head chef. Great meal of tapas and delicious wines. Howards, at Nairne, have a tapas day every Sunday with live music and great food. You do need to book, though. Friday and Saturday lunch is the bistro menu. Superb food, even if I am the chef's mum. Check out the website if you want a pleasant day in the country and good food.

After lunch we visited the Agapanthus Farm at Littlehampton. Don and I had been there before and spent too much money, but Jo wanted to have a look - not to buy, just look.

We spent well over an hour there just looking around. The gardens are fabulous and of course we couldn't resist buying 'just a couple more'!! Check out the website, then visit. You are assured of a warm welcome from a very helpful, friendly family.

Finished the day with pizzas! LOL!!

Liz

Pandas

Two days in a row. Amazing!!!

Adelaide has been hit by Panda Frenzy!! This Christmas nearly every little girl must have received a panda in her stocking. They were everywhere. Funi and Wang Wang (pronounced Wong Wong because so many jokers were substituting the 'g' for a 'k'!!) must be the best known names in Adelaide.

So, Jo, Mark and I took the girls to the zoo!

After a long and tiring tour of the zoo, we duly lined up with hundreds of others to wait 45 minutes or more for our time to see the precious pair - tedious, boring, but like everyone else there we were captivated by our first contact with real live pandas. We had heard that all pandas do is eat and sleep, but we must have been there on a good day. Funi, in particular put on a very cute and entertaining performance and the several hundreds who were there with us were totally under her spell. Shutters snapped, video cams hummed and the very photogenic pair were captured on a hundred cameras. Small matter that the reflective glass gave a very poor picture - we had our photos!





Just as impressive is the area in which they are housed. When we were there, they were still in quarantine and behind glass, but they are due to be allowed outside mid-January, so next time we will see them in beautifully landscaped custom - built compounds.


I for one am a fan. I will be going back!!

New Year's Resolution

My resolution this year was to keep up to date with my various commitments - including my blog. So far I have done a pretty lousy job. However I am at least up to date with making my ATCs - if not posting them.

One of my excuses has been that the 'm' on my keyboard has not been working. Quite remarkable what gobbledegook one can write when one letter doesn't work. However, that has been rectified and now I have no excuses.

We had a very pleasant Christmas this year. For the first time in many decades (apart from two restaurant meals) I did not have to cook Christmas dinner - the girls did it and at Jo's place not ours. Have to admit that I did feel very bereft for a while not having a hundred and one things to do on Christmas morning - but a few wines soon made me feel far more relaxed.

The Sydney contingent stayed with Jo and Steve this year which was better all round as they didn't all have to squeeze into the sewing room, but had the luxury of a parent's bedroom and a kids' bedroom.

We had an indecent number of presents under the tree and a mountain of wrapping paper to clean up, but we had such a lot of fun and this was followed by great food and entertaining company - and NO family arguments!!!

In among the wrapping paper.

Erinn enjoying the cream puffs

A quiet moment reading a Christmas book. Lovely now that Niamh can read to Erinn. They share some very precious moments.

I do love Christmas.

Will it ever end??

Disaster follows disaster. We have had a night and now a day of steady rain, which is very welcome, but along with the rains we have had high winds as well. One of the trees along the driveway shed a large limb this afternoon, narrowly missing Don's little truck. Then, as we sat having tea, we heard a crack and a thump outside and went out to find a large limb of the old willow across the lawn. We have many old willows that we planted 35 years ago to take up the water in the side paddock which is always a bit of a bog. They looked lovely for a long while but as they have aged, they have become top heavy and brittle. During the last few years they have begun losing limbs on a regular basis. In fact the side paddock looks a lot like a bomb site.

So I wasn't too fussed when the willow came down. However 10 minutes later there was another crack and a thump and we went out to find a large limb had fallen from the claret ash, just missing the outdoor table and the chiminea on the patio. This was starting to be a worry. Five minutes another limb down, but by now it was getting dark and we couldn't see it, so we assumed it was one of the willows in the paddock. Since then there have been at least 6 loud noises and thumps - I wonder what we will find in the morning!! Hopefully they will all be willows, but at some stage we are going to have to get a tree expert in to clear the willows as they are now a tangled mess of limbs and far too big and dangerous for us to do anything about.

Lesson to be learnt - don't plant willows!!!

Liz

More Garden Disasters

Strolling around the garden a fortnight or so back, noting all the work I had to do to clean it up, when I noticed that our beautiful big shrub rose 'Fritz Nobis' was not looking well. This 20 year old rose has been my favourite ever since it was planted and the sight of it not looking well was somewhat of a worry. Looking further along the garden bed, I noticed that a few other shrubs were looing yellow and sicjk. Curious? We had just survived 3 very dry summers and I had been amazed at how well the roses had survived, but this one was looking very sorry for itself, despite a mild wet winter.

I mentioned it to Don and he came out to inspect the plants. Then, he apologised profusely, almost on bended knee!!! And all became clear. A few metres up from the rose, was a flowering prunus which for some years had a blackberry coming up through the middle and we had been unable to get rid of it. Don had decided to cut the blackberry right back and put some poison on the cuts. Normally he is very careful and paints this stuff on with a brush with no problems in the past, but he discovered that he can adjust his sprayer so that only one drop comes out, so he decided to do it this way for a change!!!!!!

Not only did he kill the blackberry very successfully, but he also managed to kill everything within 5 metres all around the darn blackberry!!! He then admoiitted that he had done the same for another large blackberry at the front of the garden. We checked. Sure enough, the trees and shrubs in the vicinity were also long sick, but not as badly affected as the first lot.

Needless to say he has been banned from using this poison anywhere in the garden!!! And we have learnt a valuable lesson.

And here is my beautiful 'Fritz Nobis' in happier times.

Liz

About time

Why do I do this. Get all enthusiastic for a while, then nothing ............................... for ages. It's no wonder all my thousands of fans and followers have abandonned me!! LOL!!

In my last blog I proudly displayed some beautiful shots from the garden. Alas, since then the news has been pretty disastrous. Our glorious old flowering gum - at least 70 years old - decided to drop one of its very large limbs - right on top of my rose garden and across the drive. It took an age for the tree man to come and clean it all up, but I guess we have enough firewood for next year - leaves a very bare patch in the rose garden though.

A week later, down came another, higher branch. It is a very one sided tree now. We are going to have to get a tree doctor in to look at it, as some of the other limbs are looking rather unsafe as well.

More garden disasters tomorrow when I get my camera organised.

Liz

Holidays!!

Rather the holiday from Hell - well, so far anyhow.

It began when I woke up on the last day of the term with a lousy sore throat, a stuffed up nose and a headache. Any other day I would have turned over and gone back to sleep , but being the last day, I just had to go to school!

I struggled through the day, my voice gradually becoming croakier and croakier. Just my luck!! As soon as the holidays arrive, I get sick! How often does this happen to teachers???

My worst fears were realised over the next few days as my cold developed into a humdinger. All my good intentions about getting so much done duringthe break, went out the window as I sat by the fire and wallowed in misery. The weather did its best to cooperate - it was just too darn cold and miserable to do anything outside - and I was just too cold and miserable to do anything inside.

At the end of the first week it dried up a little and we were able to get a little done in the way of weeding. I also managed to pass my rotten cold on to Don, so we were able to be miserable together. I am hoping that the second week is better than the first as I am off to Sydney on Wednesday to see my girls - cold or no cold.

I did take a few more shots of the garden - please excuse the weeds and uncut lawns. We need some warm, dry weather.

This crab apple is lovely, but just check out the state of the 'lawn' under it.

More flowering apples - and a whole lot of weeds too.

My hellebores have been amazing this year - and after no summer watering.

This is a beautiful camellia. So simple and elegant.

This one on the other hand is rich and gorgeous

And my favourite flowering tree. Hmm. Didn't notice the car.

And from the other side. We're actually a 3 car family, but I couldn't fit them all in. VBG.

Liz

Spring is springing

It's taken a while this year, but Spring is beginning to show its beauty in the garden. Now all I have to do is get rid of the weeds!! Too wet and muddy at the moment to even attempt it. My dad always used to tell me never to weed in muddy ground.

The ajuga makes a lovely blue splash wherever I need ground cover.

Such a pity the daffodils are finishing just as the bluebells are beginning. They look good together when I can get them flowering together - not this time.

This dainty little miniature violet is one of my favourites

The blossoms on this flowering crab apple are so delicate and beautiful

Thed camellias are nearly finished now. They copped a beating this year with the rain. Nice to be able to say that, though.

An early fuchsia - in a protected spot.

The birdbath always make a pretty spot .

And of course Ollie has to get into the act. He loves gardening with us. He digs enormous holes - usually where I have just pulled up a weed, or planted something. I am amazed that he is still in one piece, so closely does he get involved helping with digging and hoeing.

Liz from the garden

Ollie again

Ollie
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

I accidentally deleted this from my blog and don't know how to get it back on the correct page.

Ollie

What would we do without our furry friends. Our two little Jackies give us so much love and devotion and all they ask in return is our love and the occasional game.

I say the 'occasional' game, but with Ollie it's one long non-stop game. He's the first pup we've actually had inside most of the time. Our earlier dogs were mainly outside dogs (by choice - they loved to hunt and roam all over the paddocks, but the roads are busier these days and we don't let the dogs out without us), but since Don has been retired, they spend a lot of their time inside keeping him company during the day .
At night Ollie claims me as his own and would happily chase a ball or anything I throw for as long as my throwing arm holds out. Have to say I can't resist those eyes and that cute face.

If there is no one around to play with him, he gets in to the most horrific mischief. On the occasions that Don has gone out, he has come home to find that Ollie has found something to amuse himself

balls of wool unwound all over the house

toys with stuffing ripped out of them

library books chewed up - the last one cost me $38 to replace

a bag of flour torn apart and spread all over the lounge floor

potatoes chewed up and spat out

soap packets torn open

a set of school assignments home for marking totally destroyed

bags of fabric strewn around and so on.

Now when we go out we Ollie-proof the house. All chairs and sofas are moved to the middle of the room, doors are locked and he is confined to the living area only. Everything is put away or placed totally out of reach. He is obviously paying us out for going off and leaving him alone with no one to play with except old Jeb. Jeb puts up with Ollie remarkably well and will play with him until he gets tired and then he lets Ollie know in no uncertain terms that he has 'had enough!'

Jeb is 14 now and likes to lie around and watch TV with Don. I guess we will have a life without Jeb soon enaough, but meantime we are enjoying the company of these two little lads.

Liz

Bush plants

I really enjoy photographing plants of all kinds, especially flowers. At Nepabunna I didn't have lot of time to indulge this particular passion, but I did get a few photos of local species. Unfortunately I am not familiar with these species and have not had time to research them, but I hope you enjoy them anyway.

Perhaps one of my readers (if I have any) will be able to help out.

This one is the flower of the bush tomato - one of the members of the Solanum family and regarded as very good bush tucker.

Another bush tucker offering - sweet but with an unpleasant texture. It left a slimy residue on the tongue.

Bush tucker again. Very small, sweet berry reminiscent of ones we used to collect as kids in the Adelaide Hills - we called them native currants, I think. I wouldn't want to have to rely on these for a feed. It would take all day to pick enough for a meal.


This pretty thing is the flower of a native hopbush - a member of the Dodonaea family, but I am not sure which particular one.


This flower looks familiar - a member of the Malvaceae family, I think - some form of native hibiscus, perhaps?

And finally, my favourite. Obviously a pea flower, but I haven't a clue which species. We only saw one small bush of this and I was captivated by it - the colours so delicate for the harsh environment in which it was growing.

Liz

Still Day 4

Garry was very keen for the kids to give something back to the community as thanks for their hospitality and kindness, so after our gorge visit we planted trees around the little mud brick church and also repainted one of the murals around the town.

And then it was time to get the fire ready for the evening activity. Kelvin Johnson, one of the community leaders had been out the previous day and shot a kangaroo for a feast on the Thursday night. He had also [prepared a large fire which had been burning for about 12 hours and on which we were to cook the kangaroo. Most of the kids were OK about the roo, although some of the girls didn't hang around to see it being prepared and cooked.

Kelvin gutted and cleaned to roo, then removed and skun the legs. The main body of the roo was then thrown on the coals to burn off the fur. If left unsinged it gives the meat an unpleasant taste.



After the singeing, the roo was taken off the coals and the tail was removed. This was cooked separately and is considered to be the best part of the roo. Kelvin the dug a trench in the coals and the roo was placed in the trench and covered with rocks and coals. It was then left for about 4 hours.



Meanwhile the kids and I gbegged for one of the legs and we hastened to the kitchen to ransack the larder for ingredients to add to the leg, which we then wrapped in foil and added to the coals.

Garry and some of the local ladies helped make large dampers to cook in the coals and the kids were shown how to coil strips of damper around sticks to cook over the coals. Once cooked the sticks were removed and the holes filled with butter, honey or jam. Delicious!!!







As it grew dark, the excitement grew. The women who had been helping earlier decided that we might as well have a real party and they disappeared and came back with sausages, chops and salads, while we raided our food supplies for anything that we could add to the feast. We set up a screen on the back of a truck and projected all our photos onto the large screen. The roo was removed from the fire and prepared for eating, our leg was uncovered - perfectly cooked and everyone tucked in to a great meal.

We sat around the camp fire and listened to a muso from the community sing a selection of Buck McKenzie songs about Nepabunna. He taught the kids a fun song about their tummies (we heard this song a number of times in the next 24 hours!!)and all the locals joined in the fun.

It was a great night, warm friendly company and lots of fun. We tumbled into bed, tired but happy, not really looking forward to leaving the next morning. We had a wonderful week, we had experienced and learnt so much and none of us wanted to leave this magical place and return to the mundane life of school. Thank you so much to the people of Nepabunna. We will never forget what you taught us.

Liz