Purple Crowned Lorikeets and the Heatwave...

It was the hottest February day on record yesterday, and it was very, very hot indeed!43C!!
I kept a sprinkler going in various areas of the front garden as the birds were all desperate for water.
I became very excited about the little green birds we had fleeting glimpses of  earlier in the week and suddenly I  saw them in the Holm Oak which provides dense shade, when shifting the sprinkler to a new area.

 To start with I thought they were Double Eyed Fig parrots when I looked them up in the bird book. This would have been too rare for words as those little parrots are only in special areas of rainforest on the East coast of Australia. So having another look this morning I came to the conclusion they are Purple Crowned Lorikeets. This is much more likely as they inhabit most of Southern Australia. It is exciting all the same to have such interesting little visitors.

The poor little New Hollands and the Greenies , both honey eaters, were sitting with beaks open on the edge of the fish bowl which sits in front of the window here, busily trying to have a drink before the bigger Wattle birds would demand their go at the water.
Meanwhile the Magpies were darting in and out of the sprinkler along with the Murray Magpies.
The rest of the Magpie clan were hogging the bird bath and wouldn't let any other bird near.

The Murray magpies are annoying in that they screech and give their warning call the moment I came out to fill yet another bowl with water for them or to shift the sprinkler thereby upsetting all the other birds except the Lorikeets or the Willy Wagtail who take no notice of me at all.

 The Murray Magpies were also domineering the pond and the Wattle bird was having a tough time there trying to get a drink.
I did not find any dead birds this time, last time there was a dead wattle bird after the heat wave which I didn't bury, thinking the ants might leave a clean skeleton for me , but no, something has carted it off.

As you can see on the right, there are three lorikeets and I took that photo with a night time setting on the camera as the shade is quite dark in the Holm Oak.
This morning it is much cooler but we are being pounded by huge winds and I have had to shut doors to keep them from flying and banging shut. Also brought the washing in as I thought the rotary hoist might be lifted out of the ground....
How did the men on sailing ships in the 18th century cope ?...

Cabin Fever in Summer Heat

We  had a lovely cool change in the weather last night. We have stayed put for the last week or so with the Tour Down Under, as well as the hot ,hot weather and we were getting cabin fever... There is only so much watering, reading books and using the computer you can do to pass the time each day when it is so hot outside and so this morning being cool and pleasant I suggested I pack a picnic and we go to Somewhere else, a different place.... I love going the back roads so after we took on fuel at McLarenVale we headed south via the roads

which go south of Willunga through the hills which give wonderful views of the distant sea at Aldinga. I still don't know where the Buddhist retreat is on the hills to your right as you go to Myponga.
In Myponga I take the road which leads to James' track and it takes you along a ridge which overlooks the hills to the sea at Normanville. There are some stunning vistas there but it was quite hazy today so we didn't stop to take photographs.The track over Mt Robinson is quite a challenge but that is why I chose a Subaru XV

so that the vehicle could deal with the rough dirt roads.There weren't a great deal of native plants flowering but the yackas were looking brilliant.
We got to Parsons beach and the look outs, where we parked and munched our sandwhiches. I had packed a bottle of bitter lemon for our drink but... we couldn't open the bottle and whats more my brilliant Subaru does not have a tool box  would you believe .....only a Philips screwdriver and a wheel brace, so we had a dry lunch.

The top photo is one of Waitpinga Beach where Sonny and I used to go fishing when we lived at Back Valley. He used to catch big salmon and I would attempt to catch Tommy roughs clearly visible in the waves. The waves were not big today and the sea seemed fractious with no real pattern to the waves at all. Brian in the photo above is looking out for mermaids......
The photo with the stone and plaque, is of Waitpinga beach as well, to my sorrow I didn't really look who the plaque was commemorating

The outlook on the northern side has this beautiful stone wall and the outline of the coast with all the headlands which were a bit hazy still.
I think this is Coolamon Beach but I am not sure if I have spelled it correctly. My son took me there just after I was widowed many many years ago and we were able to get to it in his fourwheel drive.
The stone wall runs along the path down to the beach, I love paths that meander and disappear from view.

Also on this look out were the native cotton bushes that survive in the harsh conditions of these coastal habitats.
We left and drove on to Victor Harbor where we stopped and had a very nice iced coffee in one of the many cafes Victor now has. The whole place has changed so much since I used to frequent it thirty years ago now, so many eating places and so many new holiday homes as well....
The forecast for the next week is in the forty degree area again, I hope the garden survives

Celebrating Australia Day!

Our poor garden is looking the worse for wear after the 40C and 44C temperatures we had the week before last. A lot of plants just went underground and won't come out again till the first real rains. I always think our summer has the same effect on plants as the Northern European winter-- they hide underground not wanting to know those extreme temperatures, hot or freezing cold. It was interesting to see on a documentary about ducks that the eider duck has a sort of anti freeze mechanism in its feet as do the Mongolian horses I was reading about in Tim Cope,s book who traveled those freezing steppes 

on horseback.
We decided today to celebrate Australia Day on our front verandah with a traditional sherry for Sunday lunch. It was a truly beautiful day with glorious sunshine and a little cool breeze.
We know how fortunate we are in this country and it is good to sit on your own deck and think what pleasure we get out of our surroundings here.

The pond still attracts various birds that come in for a bath and a drink while we are sitting there quietly sipping our Spanish sherry. It is amusing to see the Greenies dive in and out from the Holm oak to the Wisteria tree where they sit and preen themselves. So do the wattle birds.

On the left is what we look out on from our front verandah. Our crucifix orchid has been very slow to show any progress but it does have what we think may be a flower spike with tiny buds on which will hope fully develop into the stunning orange flower head. The poor daylillies are looking dry but they have been watered and the Queensland man says you cannot kill a daylillie.
Our new young roses are struggling too and the week ahead has been forecast as more over 40C heat. 

We were enjoying sitting here so much we decided to have lunch here as well. So I got a bit of finger food from inside and as you can see on the right Brian was bringing the white wine, a Hugo's of course....
Tonight we watched some of the migrants becoming Australian citizens and the very impressive venues the ceremonies were performed in. When I was naturalized in 1956 it was a very plain affair in the Kapunda Town hall. I have a certificate to prove I am Australian....and how fortunate we are that my parents were brave enough to bring their
four remaining children out to this wonderful country.....

Altar Bistro For Fabulous Food !!

Today Brian and I went to lunch at the Altar Bistro as Brian had not been there except when his son Perry and family were over in November and we had coffees and cake. I had been to lunch there with our craft group back in October and was so impressed with the food and service as was everyone else , that I was keen to show Brian how good it is.
We arrived at 12.30pm as I had booked just in case things were very busy. I always like to book ahead if at all possible so as to be assured of a table.

We were warmly greeted by staff and shown to our table. I love the tablecloths and proper napkins with a dear little rose in a small vase fresh from the garden.
We took out time looking through the neat menu and Brian chose the slow cooked pork while I can't ever go past duck which is served as an entree.
A glass of Minko pinot noir seemed a good choice to go with both the duck and the pork.
The food takes a while to arrive as you know it is being prepared fresh so we never mind waiting.
We are in our Epicurus stage of life when food and all things are to be savored at leisure, that is the beauty of retirement, we no longer have to hurry...
The flavors are just superb and neither of us spoke during the meal, just concentrating on the delight of good food carefully prepared and beautifully presented.
Because my lunch was an entree I felt I could have desert as well and I can tell you, the creme brulee is to die for, (als of een engeltje over je tong poept) just fabulous. The coffee too, was hot and strong.... we went home feeling we had a dining experience few Adelaide restaurants would match
I urge you all to support this treasure of a place in Willunga!!

Life and Death

Not only have sheep collected me but in a way piggybanks have also. They happened to sit near the Christmas center piece while I was getting all housewifely like and cleaning up a few things before Christmas. They looked so cute so I photographed them. The big brown pig actually belongs to Brian but the other three are mine, the other little ceramic creature is a mouse....and speaking of mice I have caught 9 mice in quick succession on the kitchen bench before Christmas and another two over this weekend. The last one was so little it fitted inside the trap so I had to drop it in a bucket and then cover it with a pot to drown it quickly, otherwise the poor little things swim for ages before they tire and drown.

Over the weekend I cut a lot of grapes off the patio vine as they were very mildewed and the blackbirds help them selves to them but drop an awful lot on the bricks and everyone treads on them and make a mess. So I cut down the beautiful nest the Greenies wove for their eggs and raised two chicks out of them. The nest is a marvel of woven grasses,twigs and fibres and beautifully attached to the vine branches.
I don't think they use it again, certainly the Willy wagtails never use their same nests.

The rather gruesome sight on the left is a chick which fell out of the nest a few days ago. I have no idea what it is as I could not see the nest it fell out of. The undertakers were busy stripping it and as I watched it over a few days the skeleton became quite clear and I could not get over the delicate little bones, how teensy they are and again, so intricately constructed.

It reminded me of another skeleton I have saved which was a goldfish. It had somehow jumped out of the outside container I sometimes keep some in, to give to friends and the ants had cleaned it up to perfection. Our pond at present has about forty goldfish and I noticed some more teensy ones yesterday. The skull is from a blackbird which I found eaten clean last year.
When you think of all the bones which must be covering the earth and also buried in the earth, the mind boggles.....all the millions of people who have died in just the last century of wars, millions and millions......

The two big goldfish are the breeding pair but I strongly suspect the slightly smaller ones are breeding too now. I don't mind if the heron has a few now and then
The cool weather has been unsettling I find, you steel yourself for the hot summer and it has only been very hot for a few days, which was enough to kill some of the plants mind you....we had ten ml of rain over the weekend.....so didn't have to water quite so much. The tomatoes are starting to look good too but the dwarf beans were a disaster, the zuchinis too are pretty slow this season and the plums are drying on the tree!!

Christmas 2013

Here we are and it is January....the Festive season behind us again and it is good to do a bit of reflecting.
I always get a couple of branches from the Cyprus tree these days. The decorating is monotone and simple with no lights.

 When the boys were little, seemingly eons ago now, we used to get Pinus radiata branches and the boys would have much fun bringing them inside and  decorating them.
Slowly too, the presents under the tree are getting less and less as we don't need or want anything these days.
So, there are tokens of gifts but always some books! Books remain a joy to give and receive.
There is always a Man Booker prize book a literary family member gives his father each Christmas and this year it is The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. It looks fascinating but I haven't started it yet as my son sent me Tim Cope's On the trail of Genghis Khan for my birthday which is also at this time of the year. I have always been interested in Mongolia as my father had two volumes on Genghis Khan with beautiful cover jackets of the hordes on horseback. I wonder what happened to those books......

So I have started reading about the young man who wants to understand what the nomadic life was like in the 13th century. He travels on horse back from the edge of Mongolia to Hungary.....
It is freezing cold as he seems to insist on doing this journey in the beginning of winter ...
But I digress
Going back to Christmas, I decorated the fire place with Lhemanii buds which look like fingers, gumtree branches and bird nests and a Christmas bird or two....

 Christmas day we had quail for lunch with a bottle of Penfolds Grange my brother generously brought along for us to have a veritable feast...
and so we did.
After that, we had to try some of our own renowned local reds of course and so it went on
Why did I feel less than healthy the following morning??
Just as well we had plenty of left overs so I didn't have to think too hard about what to have for the next few meals....

Christmas time also always reminds me of sheep.
Everyone seemed to think I ought not to be without sheep after I had to give my own little flock of beautiful spinning wool sheep away years ago. So these sheep on the right here are my constant companions and reminders of days I would spin skein after skein of wool or later Alpaca and also silk. They have collected me and not the other way round.

I also adore pigs and would love to have a pet pig, in fact I wanted a pet pig long before it became fashionable. However, my mother packed my piggybank when we left Holland to come to Anlaby, South Australia and it has been with me since I was a little girl.
You are supposed to smash the pig to get at the money but my brother showed me how to insert a knife blade and the coins would slide out along it and so I was able to save and save my little pig as well.....

Tineke rose and long necked turtle

We have had a peculiar Spring into Summer this year. The weather has stayed cool and very often there has been misty rain, not really doing any good to the soil but keeping the plants damp.It must have and still is, driving the vignerons up the wall because they have had to keep on spraying to prevent downy mildew. We hear them going up and down the rows of vines with their spraying machines whining away for hours on end.

The "Tineke" rose bush has been flowering with very impressive blooms because of the cooler weather. I discovered my namesake rose twenty years ago when we first started our garden here.
There was a woman at the Aldinga market selling these bare rooted roses which she had received as payment for her work!! So naturally I had to buy one....
It has lovely single roses which cut and keep well for sometimes two weeks. If I cut the rose bud it will slowly unfurl into a a beautiful huge flower.
The Bonica rose as a standard has looked fabulous too.

Last week when we were enjoying our evening drink on the front verandah, we suddenly spotted this long necked turtle wandering in the front garden amongst the ox tongue thistles. I got my camera to photograph it but it heard me coming of course and so hid its head around under its shell. It is peculiar to this turtle that it folds its neck and head under its carapace rather then withdrawing it like the other of its tribe do. I did not pick it up as they squirt you with some vile smelling liquid if you do.Remember to click on the photo to get a better look at it, the press esc to go back to normal.

Three mornings ago when I got up early to make my ritual pot of tea, there were some ibis doing an emu parade. I assume they are finding crickets to eat or some other insects. They are very aware of the clicking of the camera and moved off quite smartly when they heard me despite the fact I had sneaked up on them behind the fig tree.
They must do an awful lot of good in the paddocks and in amongst the vineyards by keeping the insect population down. The white faced Heron has been around again too but they are not reducing the goldfish population in our pond.....