More on the Tour Down Under

This morning we decided to go to Kuitpo and take a picnic lunch as the weather is just lovely and cool today. As we drove along the road where I took photos yesterday, not a sign remained of all the festivities, balloons , bunting flags and the marquees all gone, not even any litter in sight! Except, when we drove up the old road the cyclists would have pitted their strength on yesterday, on top there was the two story marquee still up but in the throes of being dismantled. I would love to know what that would have cost to put up and take down!! The other photo is from yesterday and shows part of the huge entourage these cyclists have.
Kuitpo forest is one of our favourite places to have a picnic lunch. The trees are stunning and tall and give that wonderful feeling of being personally small.It has the feel of the Hundred Acre Wood in the Pooh Bear stories.And Lo! and Behold! after eating our lunch I went off to take photos and found a Koala bear (they are not bears of course) high up in a gumtree, the first one I have ever seen there.

 We had a Kookaburra come and look to see what we had to eat, but when I got the camera out , he flew off and the little thorn bills were really hard to see let alone photograph. Otherwise the forest was pretty quiet with only a few families having a picnic. A lot of Kuitpo is used to grow Pinus Radiata which are harvested and taken to the mill near by.The yellow tailed cockatoo lives there in small numbers and there are times when the Corellas are there too. Kuitpo has quite a high rainfall and along the Meadows

road is a quite substantial strawberry farm.The tree on the right , the pale green straight up and down tree, is a lemon scented gum, I think, the trees in the foreground are pines of some sort with amazingly lumpy bark. Further in are some cork oaks which can't be seen from here.
Afterwards, we went to a whole sale nursery which was having a closing down sale. It was half way to Aldinga and occupied a huge area. There were huge numbers of plants but none we saw we wanted. There were some native hibiscus in pots but they looked so neglected they would never amount to anything when planted out in our heavy clay soil.Besides, my violin playing friend has been able to strike some for us from the bush we have here so we must have a go at getting cuttings to go as well. They are the most stunningly beautiful flower which will last when picked, in a vase without water! How is that for an easy care flower arrangement!!

Willunga's Tour Down Under

We have been watching all the preparations in our little township for all of this previous week. So much time and effort goes into getting everything set up for this bike race day.The road is smoothed at the intersection with the rumble strips removed, banners and balloons by the kilometer to decorate the way into the township and up Old Willunga Hill where the race finishes with some bike rider being crowned "King of the Mountain". There they were erecting a double story marquee when we drove past last Tuesday on our way to a friends place in Stirling,  so I guess all the politicians and officials today would have had a grand view of the bike riders making their last desperate effort to be crowned King.It is a huge hill and a very narrow road as well.

 I took these" before" pictures yesterday as I thought we could see how things change with all the people and families arriving and settling in along the route. Who needs to go to France when we have a Tour Down Under? It was good to see all the young kids on their bikes, some all dressed like their Dads and looking very serious about keeping up, treadling past the Willunga High School where I chose to take up my position to get some shots of the Tour competitors.

 I love this metal sculpture on a massive dead gumtree opposite the school, I am not sure who the artist is but it is very innovative of him.

So many volunteers must have blown up and positioned these green and gold balloons along the school fence and up the High street as well.

The weather this morning was especially kind, with a cool breeze and a bit of cloud as well.What did surprise me as I was waiting for the action to start and watching people walk past to go to places further along, were the number of women wearing inappropriate footwear, mostly thongs or high healed sandals, all listing to one side or other.As you can see the above photo and the one on the left were taken this morning after the riders had passed, people everywhere and families gathered under awnings and enjoying their food and drinks with other bike riders whizzing by.The picture on the right are the actual competitors riding in the race. They had to cover aprox 150 km by going over various roads several times and then climbing old Willunga hill at the end of it all. I'm sure they won't need any rocking to get to sleep tonight!!

Anlaby in the 50ies (cont)

When we arrived at Anlaby in February 1952, as children of course we had to go to school. Anlaby was a large sheepstation and had at least six families, some with children who all went to the Eudunda Area School. The station had a large ute (Fargo?) with canopy which was the schoolbus. We were driven in this vehicle to the Eudunda road where we caught the Area School bus which then drove us to the school. My little brother and I were thrown in at the deep end not having any English other than a few words like "threshold" and" Thank you" and little else. I had been practicing the "th" sound in the word Threshold all the way from Holland on the ship "Skaubryn", only to find no one had a clue what I was on about till I pointed to what I meant and still remember the look of amusement on their faces as they said "oh, you mean door step ".We had no counseling in those days and we had to adjust to a totally different way of interacting with the Australian country kids and so we did.
The above is a school photo taken when my little sister also came to school. It must have been a long day for her as we left home at 8am and got home about 5pm. The photo on the right must have been taken by my mother as we walked off early in the morning to catch the little bus. The first day we went to school, I was put next to a girl who to this day remains my best friend. She was the first person who asked me to come and stay for a weekend on her parent's farm out at Point Pass.

At dinner that first night, I wanted to make polite conversation, and as on Anlaby, sheep were slaughtered and distributed to all the families as part of the wage, I asked my friend's father:"Do you kill yourself Mr Glover?"much to my embarrassment everyone around the table roared with laughter and I could not work out what I had said was so funny!! My English could only improve.
Sport was one of the things very much on the agenda and sports days were great fun. I have no idea who took the photo of us at the Eudunda oval or whose car it is in the background.I am the one in the middle with a very badly done home perm which frizzed my hair like a Fuzzy Wuzzy.

Anlaby in the 1950ies

.Well, I seem unable to put these photos where I want them to go. The top one is my Dad and me holding some hares we shot and which my mother ( who is on the left here holding my black pup called Tor which could mean "beetle" or the Norse God Thor ) would have cooked slowly with plenty of bacon into succulent portions...yum yum...and above is my little sister Jo with the pony Flicka belonging to the managers daughter, but I was teaching my sister to ride. What a fabulous life we rolled into after migrating from Holland. My mother used to be so thrilled to be able to bring the washing in , dry as a chip in no time at all. In Holland I can remember her bringing in the washing with my Dad's long johns frozen and stiff as a board.
She warned us not to touch them as the fibres of course would break and cause holes, and they would be planted around the pot bellied stove to defrost and dry. I was shoved behind that self same stove once, nude as the day I was born, because I had slipped into the canal through the ice hole cut for the fish to breath and the boys I was with had managed to fish me out and bring me home.
I was probably seven or eight at the time.We certainly weren't restricted there as we played out on the street and no one warned us of "stranger danger" in those days, nor obviously how dangerous open cut squares in the ice were.
Back to the photo in which my mother is holding the black pup Tor, the house was corrugated iron and hot as Hades in the summer.Luckily we were only there one summer as we were shifted to what was known as the dairy house, a beautiful stone house with masses of room.That was because my brother as well as being a station hand was also milking the 12 or so cows to keep everyone in milk and cream.The dairy was just up from this house.There were yards where the cows waited to be milked and a very placid Hereford bull used to stand outside and wait for his harem to return.
After the starvation Holland had suffered during the winter of 1944/45 my mother was so thankful for all the good food we were able to have at Anlaby and it erased some of the memories of not being able to feed her family during the war years.We had been more fortunate than most Dutch city dwellers as my father had a job inspecting the market gardens in 'het Westland" and so was able to sneak in potatoes and root vegetables for his family which averted death from starvation.

A Philosophical Mood.

A friend lent me "The Tao of Pooh" book,  which is very appealing seeing as I used to read the Pooh books, by AA Milne, to my young sons ,years ago now. Pooh is known as a bear with little brain, but he leads a very happy and fulfilling life eating honey and visiting friends, mostly at morning tea time so that he may be asked by his friend, to stay and have a little something to eat. I have known a few Pooh bears myself in times gone by!. He is the steady influence on his rather nervous or pessimistic or overly bombastic friends and they heed his no nonsense approach in the main, for indeed if they don't they find themselves in dire straights.We have all known a few of those too in our lifetime who ignored our sound reasonings and could then  be compared to Icarus.
It is interesting to think about the stories we were told when we were young. We didn't necessarily understand then, the morals they very often contained. Think of the Tortoise and the Hare. We have all been envious at times of the Hare's smartness and speed while we as Tortoises plodded along and wondered what we were about. But now, as a mossy backed Tortoises we sit on our Taoist verandah, viewing our Zen garden while the Hare has run full bore into strife because they were so intent on living in the fast lane they didn't see the white ants undermining them.

the Spider web

At the moment as you know, I am rereading "The Life of Pi" and I found the philosophical ideas about religion expressed by young Pi worth a mention. He goes to his father and tells him he wants to be baptized and be given a prayer rug as well. His father is appalled and tells him he cannot follow two different religions. Why not says Pi, they both claim they are descended from Abraham and profess to love God...his father responds with the fact they are Indians and not interested in Gods of any kind, and unable to give Pi a reasonable answer, cops out and tells Pi to go and talk to his mother about it!!
I have learned to appreciate all religions symbols and images and while I was brought up in a very austere religious atmosphere I can understand the reasons why my parents clung to what they saw as the proper way.I respect my parents point of view, but now I wish I was able to talk with my father and discuss our different points of view, and let him know I appreciate his instructions when I was little but that now I have discarded a lot of what he saw as essential to our living a structured life.

I cannot seem to get these pictures inserted where I want them, never mind, this one is a beautiful leadlight window in St Peters Cathedral, Adelaide.

Murray Magpie

 The crested pigeon is quite a pretty bird,it makes this wonderful whirring noise as it flies off. The couples do this interesting little dance to each other, bowing and spreading their tails in a pretty fan while doing this. I can never tell who is male or female as they both look the same and they will alternate in their tail spreading dance.They have very attractive colours in their wing feathers and this cute little crest on their heads which they can raise or flatten. Their call is rather monotonous but not as penetrating as the Bronze wing pigeon. Their nest is an appallingly few sticks on a branch in the tree.

Yesterday I meant to insert the Murray Magpie sitting on the the little girl with dolphin, statue which sits on the edge of the pond as part of the garden scene. The statue attracts a lot of birds of various kinds as does the fish fountain bowl . We seem to have bred a few goldfish fry, I fished some up in the net when I was cleaning away a bit of algey. The bird above, the white faced heron, is also very interested in them, and he is hanging around quite a bit.At least he isn't as bad as the shag we had a few months ago and cleaned out quite a few fish as well as frogs. We seem to have a new frog at the moment , it is making quite a different sound and it is curious how his call stands out from the others. We also had 5ml or 20 points of rain yesterday which has been most welcome and saved watering today. Our fig tree is showing stress, so unusual, I have never had to water it before and has produced wonderful crops of figs I could hardly keep up with. put down jars and jars of sticky figs which lasts us all year. Brian has decided to make French Tarragon vinegar and is also hanging bunches of it up to dry. Must say Tarragon with chicken is delicious!!!

Waylaid by Gardening Books

It is interesting that when one is looking for a specific book, one invariably picks up a book one hasn't looked at for ages and is waylaid by it. Yesterday I was looking for my copy of Life of Pi which Perry had given to us one Christmas as it was a Man Booker prize for 2002. Instead I found my Gardens of the Spirit book by Roni Jay which I hadn't looked at for quite a while. I love the simplicity of the outlay of the book, the lovely photographs and the whole concept of gardens as a spiritual practice is so appealing. We have a wild garden, meaning there is no real structure to it and it rambles here and rambles there, there may be a path, or there may not be in which case you are either walking on carpets of gum tree bark and leaves or getting oxtongue thistle heads in your socks. The pond for me is the focal point of the garden and then to read that a Taoist garden has a verandah which is open and straight, looking out on a pond which was created with the rocks and slate the previous owner left behind, I have inadvertently created a Taoist garden with day lilies , water lilies and a view between the trees which leads to the front of the place. Reading the book made me enthusiastic again and because it was cool and overcast went out and did a heap of cutting back, especially the "Kiss-me-quick" which are apt to get straggly. They come back with renewed vigor especially now we have had rain today. Brian has planted new tomato plants he got from the Farmer's Market yesterday.
We had our friends from Goolwa come to lunch today. I made the Coronation Chicken dish which is very good on a summers day. We had a very nice Chardonnay to go with it and finished up with a summerfruit crumble my friend brought along. They reminded us too, that the Victor Harbor Rotary Art show is on now so we will go and see it Tuesday morning.

Ordinary every day things

This morning while having my early morning cup of tea, I was looking at the wheelbarrow full of gumtree bark Brian has been collecting for our winter store to light the indoor fire when it is cold again. It looked so serene and dignified and the birds were as usual hopping on and off.Yesterday I took a photo of the Willy wagtail and it's offspring sitting on the rake handle sticking out of the same wheelbarrow. The Lemon scented gumtree in the background was given to us by my niece when we first moved in here 22 years ago. It is tall and straight and dwarfs the walnut tree to the left of it. The walnut tree is also 22 years old and has kept

us supplied with walnuts for years. This year I was too late to pick some for pickling, you have to pick them before the shell sets. I also did some research on "bread and butter " cucumber pickles today as I thought I had lost my recipe. None of the ones on the net were what I had used and I was very pleased to find it again after another look through my books. Brian has grown some lovely Lebanese cucumbers and we will never manage to eat them all so making the pickles will be a good way to enjoy them throughout the year.Would you like the recipe?
You can see on the photo our lawn is Australian Summer brown now, it will green up again when the autumn rains come again.

Blackfaced Cuckoo Shrike

How I admire Wildlife photographers! When I went to feed my three chooks just now, there was a baby bird sitting on the ground, not far from the chookyard. So went back and got my camera, put on a long sleeved shirt so I could lie down on the ground for a steady aim. As I was taking shots a myriad of little black ants decided I was a corps and needed to be removed! Well they succeeded after a while but I did get a reasonable shot of the Black faced cuckoo shrike chick. Its parent was coming back but would not come down to feed it so I removed myself (with some ants still in attendance) behind the ash tree hoping I might get a shot of the parent feeding its chick. No way was that going to happen anytime soon.I did get a picture of the adult sitting in the gum tree.Reading about the cuckoo shrike, apparently it is not a cuckoo at all as it rears its own young after all and cuckoos are those sneaky birds that lay an egg in other bird's nests which then hatch and raise their stranger at the detriment of their own offspring.I remember this when I was living in Inman Valley. We had blue wrens and I found this fat, demanding chick in their nest and they were frantically trying to satisfy its voracious appetite.
The other thing I did today was take a photo of the white waterlilly. The goldfish were also in there but I will need to put a filter on my Nikon 860 to get a good picture of them in the water. We also have a pink waterlilly but it is not out at present.

A pond is quite a high maintenance project. I had intended to have some sort of filter system but my friend said all you needed was a pump to aerate the water.We do have that but the algae still builds up and I have to physically remove it and put it on the mulch where it dries out. It would be excellent for paper making as the fibres are very tough. It looses its green colour of course and is quite dull when dry. It is supposed to be 40C today so have watered the pots early and given the young Holm Oaks a good soak.

Happy New Year 2013

Here we are in 2013! let's hope it doesn't fly quite as quickly as 2012....many of my friends felt the past year galloped when we would have preferred a quiet and steady walking pace instead. Yet who knows, there may well have been people who found the year a drag and certainly, certain parts of the world where mayhem and unforeseen disasters occurred ,would now be hoping for a peaceful and more predictable year ahead and we would all agree with that and wish it so for them.

Just a while ago we had a young honey eater which we call a "Greenie", fly into the window and stun itself. I was able to revive it with water. Poor little thing was very distressed so I put it outside on the fishbowl to recuperate.They are interesting little birds as they will fly from the fig tree into the big pond and out again into the Holm oak on the other side. The bigger wattle birds will do the same thing. Unlike the New Holland honey eater which is rather raucous, the greenies have a gentle song.
The other bird which has re appeared this morning is the Black faced cuckoo shrike. They make a  little churring sound. Because they are nomadic we only see them on occasions and so their distinctive sound is noticeable when they return. And now , just this very moment the grey thrush is singing its 'Here I am' song. We haven't heard her for a while either. The Frog mouths are in the Pepper tree this morning but only two of them. You can't tell whether they are the young or the parents.
We have had a few visitors over the holiday period which is always good. My niece from Sydney called in with her brother( my nephew) and my sister arrived as well on my birthday.We had a simple lunch together and then moved into the Studio as some of my friends arrived as well to wish me Happy Birthday. It was a lovely afternoon and everyone admired the aquamarine pendant Brian  commissioned our local silversmith to fashion out of the stones he'd bought in India some years back.
This afternoon we had my brother and friend arrive and then Brian's eldest son came over from Strathalbyn where he was staying with his in-laws. so a great start to the New Year!!