Snow

That's right. Snow. We have chosen to live in a region of Australia that gets as cold as Vancouver in the winter. It snowed briefly on Thursday although, as it didn't stick to the ground, Michael claims it wasn't REAL snow. I did my best to capture the moment on film and will admit that it could as easily be mistaken for sleet or even merely rain.



Then again, this afternoon, another little flurry came by and this time it lasted long enough to make the ground look white for about half an hour. The photo below shows our Cootamundra wattle blooming defiantly above the white stuff.



You can see the beginnings of some garden beds in this photo too, but as long as the weather stays this cold, not much more will get done. The area along the back fence gets the most sun, so that is where the veggies will be planted. I've already shifted my little bottlebrush plant to a spot below the wattle, and it will eventually become as large as the wattle and thus replace it. This particular species of wattle has a short life span and ours is already showing signs of ill-health. We won't replace it with another as it is considered an invasive weed in this region. Instead, I've planted a sunshine wattle which doesn't have the attractive powdery blue foliage, but is native to this area and so a more responsible choice. The bare patch at the bottom of the photo is always in the shadow of the house, so only only shade-lovers will thrive there. There are a couple of existing hydrangeas, not very attractive ones, but they will do if surrounded by more interesting companions. I've already added three rough tree ferns(Cyathea australis). When they leaf out, they'll cover a considerable area. Their eventual height will be 15 ft. or higher, like the ones I've mentioned in the previous post, but it will take years for them to reach it as they are quite slow-growing.
It will also be a good site for hellebores and Australian plant breeders have produced some stunning ones, including many doubles. Normally, I prefer the simplicity of single flowers, but in the case of hellebores I make an exception as they suffer from that tendency to hang their heads so that you have to tip the flowers up to admire the freckles, dark centres,or pretty stamens. The doubles look good without the need for any handling.'Mrs. Betty Ranicar', the first double white to be introduced, is for sale in many garden centres at around $15 a good-sized pot, and for twice that much there are cherry- and apricot-coloured doubles available from specialty nurseries.


It was cold enough overnight for the snow to turn to a crust of ice. In spite of the blue sky, it hadn't melted by 10:30am when I took this photo of George inspecting the front garden.

Old Coach Road

Our July hike took us along an old coach road, then followed a disused railway track leading us through a tunnel inhabited by glow worms back to our starting point. No photos of the glow worms for several reasons: my little camera can't handle a pitch black environment; being school holiday time, there were too many people shining flashlights and talking; apparently glow worms respond best to warm weather and this being winter it was icy cold in the tunnel. Consequently, the glow worms were sulking and only one or two were visible.
However, the old coach road we followed throughout the morning was too long a trek for young families and teenagers in flimsy footwear, so we saw no other hikers until we neared the entrance to the tunnel.

Here we are getting ready to head out for the day. That's our fearless leader, Libby Raines in the centre of the group on the left.



We came upon the usual number of stunning rock formations and views as we made our way along.




Beyond Donkey Mountain, a controversial resort and golf course is soon going to change the landscape.


In several places we came upon magnificent specimens of grass trees (Xanthorrhoea media),



one with a flower stalk just emerging, olive green against the tree trunk behind.


As we walked along the old railway line, we came through a deep gully where flourishing tree ferns towered above our heads.



At one point we passed a lyrebird's nest. Some of our fellow-walkers even saw a lyrebird but unfortunately I wasn't one of them



I was intrigued by the beautiful bark on the trunks of some of the eucalypts that we passed. The blotchy ones are spotted gums (Eucalyptus punctata).

Kangaroo Paw Fever

No, it's not a new virus; it's my new passion. I've fallen in love with this exotic native plant. (Australians would say this is a contradiction; exotic to them, botanically anyway, means a non-native plant) And I keep finding more must-have varieties to add to my collection.
I took the photo on one of our sunny winter days so that the shadow of the flower stem appears on the wall behind it.


The recent focus on using native plants in the garden has resulted in a plethora of new kangaroo paw cultivars hitting the market. The flowers now come in many colours from deepest burgundy to silvery-white, or a combination like this vivid red/black/emerald scheme. Some, including this one, have slate-blue hues in the foliage, which is in my opinion an improvement on the standard green. This particular variety is called 'Royal Cheer'

Vancouver in June

You always take a risk with the weather, visiting Vancouver in June, but I didn't really expect only one (1) sunny day out of fourteen. Still, it didn't actually rain much, even though the skies were cloudy and the temperature so low that I never got to wear the shorts I had optimistically packed.
And besides, the highlights were the times we spent with family and friends.

Visiting my brother-in-law at work gave me an opportunity to photograph the city from a bird's eye point of view, including:

The beautiful terracotta icing on the Marine building -


and its frieze of seahorses -



Downtown landscaping from above -




And the preparations for a green roof on a new waterfront project -



The last day of my visit was the one sunny day,and also, by good fortune, the weekend of the Vancouver Open Garden Scheme, so my good friend Sally and I went to have a look.

Water features, small and large, were popular elements:





A mirror on the far side of one pond gave me the opportunity to snap Sally and me together.



I particularly liked the hot tropical effects in this small garden:






And the thoughtful groupings of colour and form on this much grander estate:

Aussie speech patterns

There's a new pattern in Aussie speech that's used particularly by people being interviewed on radio and television. Politicians use it a lot too. It's prefacing any statement with the word "Look", as in "Look, Deborah, our research shows that....blah, blah, blah." Now that I've noticed, I'm hearing it everywhere: it's an epidemic. On this morning's radio program a doctor being interviewed about anorexia increasing among young children began his every sentence with it. I started listening to see if he could come up with at least one answer where he did not begin with the L word, and nope, there wasn't one.
I think it's being used to stand in for "I'm a reasonable person", a sort of softener to preface an opinion: "here's what I think, but I don't want to appear too assertive, too direct."

In the time I've been away, the word "mate", which used to be a male prerogative, now seems to be applied also to women. I've been called "mate" by assorted tradesmen...and women. It is, after all, a term that's not gender-specific, but it still seems a little odd to me.

The New Fence

Before we could do any serious gardening in the backyard, we really needed a fence to keep the local dogs and the wild weeds like ivy and jasmine out. We've had a good hack at the vines, and in fact you can see their dying leaves on the trunk of the large eucalyptus behind the fence. I attacked them at their base with my trusty loppers a couple of months ago.




Graham, who built the fence for us, has done a lovely job, grading the palings on a slope that matches the lie of the land. The large chunks of wood lying in the grass are the remains of an earlier fence that we uncovered under the mass of greenery. Though scarred and cracked by weather, they are iron-hard, and we'll use them in the beds along the sides of the building to hold the soil in place, a job now filled by an assortment of roof tiles, old tin and other remnants of building material - not a pretty look!
I've already supplemented the young bottlebrush, the only shrub I'd already planted, with some kangaroo paws, and some large bulbs rescued from the front garden which I think (hope!) are something spectacular. I've also planted a Mussaenda frondosa that my sister gave to me after I admired this one on a street near her home.


My poor plant has beeen waiting some months for a home and badly needed release from the pot it came in.
Eventually, I hope to make this back area a mix of native and imported plants in hot colours, whereas the front garden will be softer and more cottage-like in greys, blues and pinks.

Walk to Lunch Rock

Friday saw us making a rendezvous with our bushwalking group to hike to Lunch Rock. This was not a challenging walk compared with some of the others, although the terrain was less varied: mostly heathland and scrub until we approached our destination.



All the rock formations in the area were dramatic.






Early morning rain had filled hollows in the rock surface, reminding me of coastal tidepools.



Michael, as usual, had brought along his sketchbook. Just below him, my sister-in-law, Judy, is trying to shelter from the stiff breeze sweeping across the plateau.



Below the plateau, the Wollangambe River had cut a deep gorge through the sandstone cliffs.




On our way back, we passed through a gully where this eucalypt was leaning against the cliff face.


And the first of the winter wattles, Acacia terminalis, the sunshine wattle, was just coming into bloom.