SUMMER’S SWAN SONG

April 3, 2019 / dinahmow / 28 Comments

Perhaps. Maybe. I hope so!

Yes, it’s no secret that I do not cope well with extreme heat. So the current cooler nights and bearable days are very welcome.

Now…let’s see what I’ve been up to since I last popped in here…

Blimey! Two months ago! Well, we had more rain. Not as much as some badly-affected folk, but things were a little soggy. And many plants were confused, believing they’d had their wet season, albeit drier than it should have been.But hey! RAIN. Come on, flowers, go totally bonkers, bloom like crazy then set seed. Weeds, too! Homage to St Fiacre.

And so they did. Every. Single. Thing.

The Man and I seemed to be constantly sharpening blades and hacking our way out to the shops, then hacking our way back in again.And in between the hacking it rained.

So we finally got a couple of small areas cleared and I nipped around with a camera….

*The golden thread on the web of a Nephila pillipes*

*As The Man cleared some of an overgrown Hibiscus and even more overgrown weedy stuff…he exposed this. Nope, nothing to do with me! It just appeared on the stem of a huge palm.*

*Another big one -this is one of the vanilla orchids, heading for the sky!*

*The miniscule backyard after a make-over*

Because it’s been two months since I touched this blog, I am having all manner of trouble with bloody WordPress’ changes, damn them!

I expect I’ll figure out which finger to put on which key…eventually. Someone reckoned change is as good as a rest. Well, I’ve had “change” and it’s left me in need of “rest.”

So I’m heading for the coffee pot. A bit too early to start on the vino, darlings!

here we go again…

February 3, 2019February 3, 2019 / dinahmow / 32 Comments

You know that feeling of “been there, done that” that is somewhat more prosaic than deja vu?

Well, chez Dinahmow, we’ve hit the “repeat” button. In 2008, when still a very young cat, Sporran broke a leg.

And on Tuesday, Mr Ginger Stanley, who is/was the neighbours’ cat, broke his leg. Same leg, same break, same repair. Because the neighbours were at work, I took him to the vet, suspecting possible fracture or ligament damage. Yep. X-ray confirmed that the tip of the femur was broken. And the only solution is surgery to remove the hip “ball” as there is no room to pin the break.

A simple enough matter, but the vets were crazy-busy with several emergencies so Stanley was given pain relief and settled in a cage til his op. on Friday morning.

We brought him home late Friday afternoon. “Home” now being here, at our place. He’s on meds til the stitches come out next week and so far, is taking it all in his slightly wobbly stride.

Sporran was not at all pleased with the “stink” that came home with him! But he’s managed to groom most of the hospital smell away.

We are in for some more rain this week, though not the volume expected north of here. Serious flooding already and worse expected.

Meanwhile…Tasmania and Victoria are battling fires. And dead fish continue to float to the surface in the Murray-Darling debacle.

Let me see if I can find a “pretty” for you.

Allamanda in a corner of the front verandah. We eat breakfast and lunch here most days, though by evening its NW position is too hot to be out there. But the scent of the flowers is reminiscent of daffodils…

SUMMER HEAT

January 25, 2019January 25, 2019 / dinahmow / 30 Comments

I think the thermometer might be broken. Even this far north it’s not usually giving such consistently high readings ! Still above 30 C this late in the afternoon is not funny!

A couple of weeks ago…I saw a strange little plant in hardware store’s garden section. I didn’t have a camera with me so thought I’d look up the name when I got home. You know what’s coming, right? Yep. By the time I’d run several errands, stopped to chat with a friend and put away all the groceries when I did get home, I’d forgotten the name!I thought it began with S or maybe C or was it Ts? Searching images without a name was no help whatsoever.

So next time I was in town I popped back to the hardware store…no plant.

However, yesterday I had to go back to town again and, while waiting to have something fixed, I went to the store and there it was! Well, two small pots of The Thing. And no name tag. Stay with me, it gets better! First assistant I asked had no idea, but said she’d call the senior lady. The senior lady couldn’t remember, but said she’d ring the grower. The grower was not available. Oh, look, why don’t you pour a beverage of choice …go on. I’ll wait. (I’m getting lots of practice at that!)

I couldn’t hang about any longer so I left. But today…the name still eluding me, I went back to the store and there, on a rack, two pots with hand-written name tags. Dischidia pectinoides .

I bought one!

And right now, it’s in the “day spa.”

Update for Jon, who asked about the “day spa.”

*Vanda- those roots need more room than the tub affords!*

The days between rain are s t r e t c h i n g out alarmingly. At this rate I’ll have to bring the orchids back for some “spa treatment.” When it did rain there was a rush of growth and masses of things have filled bare patches, in some cases crowding things I planted for colour. I’m leaving it, weedy though it may be, as it’s an effective mulch, helping to keep soil cool and moist. Besides, if I get all sweaty trying to weed the mess I’ll add unwanted salts!

And this morning, The Man found a scrunched-up moulted ‘skin’ of a Huntsman. It was all dusty with bits of fluff and grass.

And when I got back from town he showed me this…he’d painstakingly cleaned away the fluff and straightened the legs.

And now I do believe it’s Happy Hour! Bubbles time!With Cheddar and Corella pears.(I removed the feathers!) 🙂

Home, Home on the Range….

January 6, 2019 / dinahmow / 9 Comments

Borrowing someone else’s story today.Thank you, Terry.

The Dorset Rambler

Worbarrow Tout with momentary brightness lighting up the sea

‘Home, home on the range’…..the MOD Artillery Firing Range that is 🙂 ! This week I made the most of the school holidays to walk the Lulworth Firing Range paths – these are normally closed to the public apart from some weekends and holidays, Christmas/New Year being one of them, so I made the most of it. It didn’t work out quite as I’d hoped in that the weather didn’t perform as forecasted, and my ankle didn’t perform as hoped either, but I didn’t care, I was out on the coast path again! In fact, the weather probably helped in many ways because on more sunny days, these walks can be very popular.

I set off on a very cloudy morning with the temperature barely above freezing, and I walked along a two mile stretch of the Purbeck Ridge, passing above…

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December 19, 2018December 20, 2018 / dinahmow / 26 Comments

So…a little more tinkering and tweaking and I think we can call it done.

But I should back-track a little…I have also tinkered with some photos .

My friends’ Eden garden.

*Dendrobium speciosum*
Here’s a link, should you live in a suitable climate https://www.australianorchids.com.au/pages/dendrobium-speciosum-the-sydney-rock-orchid

A pretty little grouping of soft pinks on the front terrace.Perfect for that early morning cuppa.

*Castanespermum australe.* This is down near our beach and is what my “bean trees” would grow to if I let them!

*Acacia holocericea* spent seed pods. Known as Velvet Wattle for its very soft leaves.

And we had a visitor! A niece was over from NZ for a conference in Sydney and she spent a few days with us. We took her out and about, walked along the beach, paddled in the sparkling water. And decided a swim would be just the ticket! So good, we did it again the next day!

That pesky cyclone that was hanging around finally went out to sea after making a bit of a mess up north. No serious damage here and most of us were very happy with the rain!

My sweet little Pigeon* orchid, Dendrobium crumenatum, was, perhaps, the happiest- it produced 7 sprays of flowers! True, they do not last long, but they are so delicate.

*And I’ve been calling it a “dove” which is the common name of a different one, a Peristeria. Mine is the “pigeon.”

Well, folks, in my world breakfast beckons. And I have a busy day ahead…

December 18, 2018 / dinahmow / 17 Comments

As you can see, I have been tinkering.Not nearly as effectively as the late, lamented John Clarke tinkered! But I will continue to tweak things and hope to do so later today…

Might even change the pretty image,up there /\, for one of my own. Come back after tea …

FROM CANBERRA TO EDEN

December 6, 2018December 6, 2018 / dinahmow / 12 Comments

I’ve been home for over a month and have almost forgotten what I wanted to say!

The bus trip down to the coast was a lovely, comfortable run, though I didn’t see much after Bredbo as daylight faded to stars-and-headlights. But it’s a good road and I’d be happy to drive it. Another time…

The nice driver told us remaining passengers, at the final scheduled stop, that if any of us wanted to be let off he’d stop. (Farming country, so some people might have taken that opportunity and been met at their farm gate.) My friends were meeting me in Eden so I stayed til the end of the run.

I’d travelled all that way to see Margaret and Bevan, friends from the time we lived at Tamborine. We’d not seen each other for 17 years!

Margaret is an artist and for many years sculpted wildlife forms alongside running their Arabian horse stud. Keen gardeners, I remember helping to divide, re-pot and pack many plants when they headed south.

A vastly different climate and habitat, they began a new garden on a comparatively small (well, much smaller than their former one, measured in acres!) suburban plot. I have a few photos…