SOME LOCAL COLOUR

Still busy, folks, so I thought I’d take the easy way out and post some colourful pictures…

These are the ripe fruits on a Macarthur palm.The birds and bats have a wonderful time, but they don’t ‘alf make a mess! Squished berries all over the place! * The possums don’t seem interested; must be about the only thing they don’t eat!

This giant daisy/sunflower thingamabob is probably on the Weed Police’s hit list as it seeds and layers all over the ruddy place. How did I come by my splendid specimen? Picked a bunch of the flowers from the roadside, didn’t I and stuck bits in here and there to fill gaps and hide the junk over the fence. I’ll be paying, big time, for years to come! But they are colourful, especially at a time when there is not much else on show.
And the white-ish “flowers” below it are really bracts on a Euphorbia. You wanted me to tell you that!

And this is one of my favourites. When people ask what I like about Australia I answer (straight-faced, of course!) “the wattles.” Mimosa to some of you.
This one goes by the tongue-twister of Acacia podalyriifolia, which is used by the Leith** police as in indication of sobriety (or otherwise).
There’s another acacia (A. fimbriata) on the opposite side of our driveway and when they are in flower a stroll down the drive is a bit like being showered with yellow confetti.
The pinkish thing poking out on the right is another Australian mainstay, a Grevillea, full of nectar so birds and bees are all over it. No idea which cultivar, so please don’t ask!

And here is some more local colour…can you guess what this one is?
Oh, alright, I’ll tell you. It’s Dinah’s toe. Dinah’s broken toe. How did Dinah come by such an injury?
Well, Dinah, considerate person that she is, got up during the night and , out of consideration for the sleeper, did not turn on a light. Not a smart move, as it turned out, because Dinah walked WHACK! into the solid timber bed post, which woke the sleeper anyway. And if the thump had not woken him the ensuing colourful language would have. (See, I said this post was about colour!)
At first, it felt as though several bones had been snapped, but by morning only the middle toe was causing me some “ouch!”

The next few days are boring so I’ll jump forward to yesterday…

…when, with the toe by now pretty much mended, I managed to get my feet into trainers and went down to a local gallery to help hang an exhibition.

another boring bit…blah, blah…

You must all be familiar with those hideous plastic stack-a-chairs? Well, some clown had stacked far too many of them in one stack. The stack toppled. The stack landed. On Dinah’s foot.That foot.

The bed-broken toe survived, but the big toe which has suffered hockey injuries, cow-stomping and lord knows what else bore the brunt.

Still, the exhibition is hung and it is quite colourful…

* I wonder who’ll be the first to paraphrase “Macarthur’s Park”…HE gets the smart money!

**If you can say “the Leith police releaseth us” you are deemed sober!