Eucalyptus trees and their peculiar habits....

How annoying is this...Blogger is supposed to have updated this process you go through to write a blog and it almost seems as though they don't want you to go on blogging....

Getting back to these photos, it shows how our pond seems to be attracting more and more diverse wildlife, especially water birds.Here is a Whitefaced heron and wood duck or maned goose and the next photo shows a wood duck and a black duck together. And as for frogs....we have a frog chorus again at night ...so good to hear

I wanted these photos of the tree, to be at the start of my blog, but no, they were put on the bottom of the page instead, why oh why , do these computer people do this?
I wanted to show how unpredictable our Australian native eucalyptus trees can be.
Some nights ago, there was this enormous thunderclap, only there was no storm at all.... in the morning I was able to check up on what had caused the noise the night before and found this enormous limb had broken off the huge tree on the corner of our block and fallen slap bang onto my neighbours
shed roof and caused a heap of damage.
Now for my overseas readers, Australian eucalyptus
are notorious for dropping branches in the summer especially but this is in the middle of our winter.

You can see by the height of the tree how dwarfed the shed is and it is a large shed indeed.

Social Distancing,Isolation cautiously suspended and Insects Carry on as Before....

This monstrous centipede was wandering in our sitting room the other afternoon. I managed to capture it under a plastic food container, which I also use to capture big spiders, which frequently like to come into the house and nosy around too.
This centipede to me looks like a Chinese Dragon with its orange legs and banded body.
Its proper name is" Ethmostigmus rubripes". They are found all over Australia but in different colours. It eats snails and spiders and anything else in the insect world. Its bite is painful to humans but not fatally poisonous. This one was about 6 inches or 15/16 cm so they are quite large.

So you can see I didn't want it wandering into a bed. The house centipede is quite different.
The other thing that intrigued me, is the wasp which has built this very large mud nest on the clinker bricks of our patio. It was a large orange/black wasp with dangly legs. When I looked it up on the net (where would we be without the "net") it is called Mud dauber wasp, its official name being "Sceliphron formozem".
In the left hand corner of the photo you can see some other mud daubing wasp's nest....
I guess they do a lot of good in the garden....

The weather has become quite cold and we have the wood heater going day and night to keep the house reasonably warm for both Brian and the two little tropical fish. The Guppie and the Gold barb which live in the fishbowl on the breakfast table, are fascinating for me to observe. They are very active on my side of the bowl in the morning where I sit to have my breakfast as I feed them then, at the same time each morning.What intrigues me is the fact that after they have eaten the flakes I give them, they become quite aggressive towards each other. One morning it is the Guppie which attacks the Gold barb and the following day it will be the other way round.....

The wood which is to be burned can be quite beautiful with this lovely orange/yellow lichen on it, and I am reluctant to use it up.I have in the past used sticks with this lovely lichen on it for my fiber art booklets as anchors for the binding threads.
The neighbour on the East side of us has put sheep in his vineyard which brings back fond memories of my earlier life involved with thousands of the dear creatures in the Mid North....
these sheep are doing very well in cleaning up all the weeds in between the vines

Yesterday we actually had a sunshiny day for Friday and Kym was able to install the solar panel for the little pump to work in the bath/pond. It works a treat and the different fountain fitting now gives  a mushroom shape water head which will prevent water from being thrown out of the bath and so I won't have to top up the water too often. In fact when it rains I have to bucket some out, to stop it from overflowing and make the surrounds too wet.
Last week when we had an inch of rain I had to take out four bucket loads.
This morning I put in some stuff which will help to keep the water cleaner and clearer and we will be able to see the little goldfish in there a bit better.
Of course it will also mean the White Faced Heron can see them better too.....

Social Distancing, Isolation V and Weird Creatures Observed

This puff ball fungus has been growing in our drive for the last couple of weeks and it amazes me no one has driven over it.Just goes to show that isolation is working here doesn't it...
 The black surrounding it  though, was an earlier one and has now left a stain in the form of  map of Australia with Tasmania just below it....
How these living plants (is a fungus a plant?) manage to push their way through such tightly compacted earth is a mystery to me. 

 The other weird thing I found was this creature floating in the fish bowl one morning a few days ago.It didn't seem to be alive but it did look like a bug of some sort. A little later another one appeared so I took a photo of that one next to a match stick to show its size.
There have been no more since and I now wonder if it is actually a seed from the Ludwigia
branch I stuck in the fishbowl to give the two little fish something other than their yellow plastic plant to look at....

 Last week too, I found this weird , dumpy little moth clinging to the kitchen window one morning and popped it into a plastic container to photograph and then carried it outside and put it on the vine. It was quite pretty with lovely warm, brown colours and cute little antennae.
It would have made a nice little breakfast for a magpie but I hope it survived and lived to full fill its purpose in life. Probably to lay eggs on some poor plant for them to hatch and chew holes in it...

 The  mornings have been so still and beautiful I couldn't resist taking a photo of the little mermaid's reflection surrounded by all the blue coffee mugs that leak and the jug which is a haven for bugs. The cement frog was a gift from a dear friend who also loves frogs.
I tried to crop the photo which I thought I had successfully done, but then couldn't find it in the gallery, so the picture is wider than it is meant to be.

One of our friends visited yesterday, now that restrictions are being lifted somewhat, to come and walk through our garden and brought us these glorious golden Chrysanthemums.
I adore Chrysanthemums and found some cuttings with roots on the Post Office porch where people sometimes leave produce from their gardens. I left some quinces there the other day. So I took these cuttings home and have planted them in the old rose garden and look forward to some wonderful flowers ...eventually..

Social Distancing and Isolation IV.....Mouse Spider and Burrow...

 We are all living at a much more relaxed pace now, are we not? yet somehow my days seem busier than ever and in the evening I am happy to flop into bed with a book...mind you I only read for ten minutes at the most and sink into blessed sleep till four am....the "Wolf hour" I believe it is called somewhere.
We are still longing for rain yet meanwhile I am planting out truncated  agapanthus divisions throughout the garden and at last I have them all in. Whether they will survive is another matter.

 Last week Kym dug over some of the vegetable patch and found this very interesting structure,
it is solidly constructed and very smooth inside.
In South Australia we have a burrowing spider called Missulina Reflexa and it is a red headed spider. I looked up the information on Australian spiders on the net where there are lots of photos.
They are not the prettiest of creatures I find and as I was an arachnophobe it is amazing I can stand to look at the photos at all....
They are called Mouse spiders because they make these tunnels which look like mouse holes.

 On the left you can see how wide the hole is , so I am not absolutely sure it is a mouse spider burrow. Nevertheless whatever constructed it is an absolute architect. It is beautifully smooth inside and quite deep and solidly constructed.
While I was digging the holes for the agapanthus this afternoon, Lo and behold, I dug up a Mouse spider and there it sat among the gum leaves...
I rushed back to the house to get the camera, thinking all the while, when I get back it will have gone... I picked up a plastic food container as well, just in case it was still there, and sure enough it was still there next to the hole I dug.

So I managed to get it into the container, shoving it with a piece of bark to encourage it.
Took it back to the patio and set up a few books to act as tripod to hold the camera steady on the small focus setting. Then I encouraged it into an ice cream container as that had higher sides than the one it was in and I thought it might climb out. But, no, it is a Zen spider and not at all frisky, a bit like our dear Zen Frogmouths....
So, there it is...if you want more information about spiders there is an amazing amount of information on the net....what would we do without the net......

Social Distancing and Isolation III

 I know I was going to walk you through my house and show you how we live, but suddenly I felt very reluctant to do so in the face of so many people out of work and even loosing the place they have lived in. So many people overseas who have absolutely nothing, it made me feel and also wonder, why we are in such a privileged place here in Willunga....
We live in such beautiful area and today we decided to take our sandwiches to Sellicks Beach look out and practice our social distancing in a slightly different way....

 The sea was dead calm and the sky overcast giving the whole scene a feeling of remoteness and almost unreality. We really don't need to go overseas to enjoy such glorious scenery.
The White faced Heron on the right has found the new logs around the frog pond a perfect place to contemplate the hidden frog population. With the buttercup plant and water celery so dense now, it would be lucky if it found a frog at all. The yellow fringe lilies are interesting in that they have escaped the pot and float around freely flowering enthusiastically each day...

 On the left are my new vegetable beds put in place by our gardening friend Kym.
He is very particular that everything is straight and in line and consequently my leek seedling are crooked as a dog's hind leg...they were planted before he constructed these fine beds.
I have since planted beetroot seedlings, sugarsnap peas, snow peas, turnips, more beetroot this time seeds and garlic.
English silverbeet will go in tomorrow as well as parsnip seeds I saved years ago and may well not germinate as it is better fresh off the plant. Sadly I planted the sugarsnap peas in last years' garlic

patch and peas and garlic don't get on...
The Tawney Frogmouths have been sleeping on
the patio each day for the last fortnight.
At times there is only the one and you wonder if they have had a domestic and decided to separate for a while...It is lovely to have these Zen birds sitting there so quietly in this amazingly chaotic and very uncertain times, they inspire a calmness we all need.
Well, I seem to be having trouble moving the cursor to where I want it, so the photos will be all over the place by the look of it.
I have no idea what button I may have pressed
for it to dictate to me where the cursor must go,
it is very annoying...
The last photo is of the old Galah which keeps on
returning on its own, looking scruffy and slow as
though it may be on its last legs and about to kick
the bucket.....
Are we in an evolutionary tidal wave at present
with this pandemic throwing everything as we
know it into chaos and confusion?
If we are I would like to jump on and surf it
and see where it eventually lands us.....
I have never surfed but love seeing the people
who do surf, do it so elegantly and the feeling
of freedom must be exhilarating .......

Social distancing and Isolation II

 Would you like to join me in the room where I spend a lot of my time resting in between chores or just sitting early in the morning watching the sun rise through the trees and over the vines? I also do a lot of reading and contemplating there....
the book case is jampacked with ,well, books of all types and genres, science fiction and murder mysteries (mostly Brian's) classics and gardening in which we are both interested... The hanging in the corner was done as a mourning piece at Springfield after we had to leave our beloved Hughes park. It was done in cross stitch with my handspun Merino wool in natural colours on a rug canvas. The pattern was meant for a table cloth

 and represents a snowflake in the Hungarian tradition. So it was wonderful to see it expand to this size.
On the right , behind the settee is the wine cabinet with a delicately fashioned Celtic cross and to the right of that a tree both done in fine scroll work by my artistic friend Meredyth. They are wonderful to gaze upon and admire.
The glass crab on the serving platter on the wall was created by our local glass artist Glenn who has a studio in the Willunga main street. It was a present for Brian whose zodiac sign is the Crab.

 To the left of the door into the study is my rendition in cross stitch of the Fisherman's prayer. I found this prayer in the hut on Currango in the Snowy mountains where we used to go trout fishing late March early April, between crutching and lambing...it is a lovely prayer and I stitched that when we lived at Inman Valley for Harry's 75th birthday....I had good eyesight in those days.... The pear wood frame I saved up for back in the 60ies and cost 10 shillings.....from a second hand store in Clare. I could become quite sentimental here...

 Well, now, here is the pond Kym constructed for me out of the kerbside timber he found and the bath which has been sitting here which we inherited from the previous owners 30 years ago.
I have put in the native lobelia which apparently came from Warrawong  in the Adelaide hills. It loves water and has the most delicate blue flowers. The fringe lily is there also and the strawberry plants may or may not thrive along the long side. I have caught  five little goldfish and they love the cave I have made for them out of bricks and a slate tile.

The Bougainvillaea has exploded into a riot of colour and I had to cut some of it back quite severely as the thorns on it are intensely sharp and were preventing me from getting to the rainwater tap.
I use that water to irrigate the rhubarb which, I am slowly coming to the conclusion, isn't worth bothering with as it just won't thrive and looks wilted a lot of the time....could be the quince tree is sneaking its roots under it of course, so perhaps I may give it another chance by shifting it to somewhere else......
Do click on the photos to get a closer look...

Social Distancing and Isolation....

Now we are all confined to our homes, I started wondering how other people are managing and living with an unexpected time of restrictions.
I found myself this morning, looking more closely at the every day things we live with. Let me start with my new bedroom...since Brian became very ill last September, I had to leave the marital bed and move into one of the spare bedrooms. I started sleeping with my cello as cellos don't have to get up numerous times a night to use the en suite, nor do they forget to turn off the light  ...and I do so need a good nights rest.....

 The beds in this room once upon a time were the beds John Dutton and his poet brother Geoffrey Dutton, slept in when they were boys living on Anlaby, their parents Merino sheep stud 10 miles from Kapunda. The beds are very narrow, only 80cm wide....and I have to tuck the sheets and blankets in tightly so I don't roll over and fall out.....The large painting of bright flowers I bought for my late sister Attie one afternoon coming back from a walk along Henley Beach beach. A woman was painting outside,on her verandah and I could not resist buying this bold painting for my sister. The little pictures are painted fabric with hand stitching done by moi.....

The recycled bath is sitting in its cage now ready to be surrounded by gravel and  soil so plants can be planted, the bath filled with water and water plants and fish to be put in from the pond..
I love water plants and really like looking at the fish in the pond. These ,by the way, are breeding up at the rate of knots and I see little groups of tiny black fish swimming about among the plants.

The crested pigeons were courting each other in front of the dining room window the other day. You never can tell who is who here, as they both display and fan out their tails,
showing lovely flashes of iridescent colours.
The males can be quite brutal with each other and will whack each other with their wings. This goes on for quite a while sometimes.

The Galah on the right here, sat in front of the window last Saturday and looked as though he was on his last legs. On his own and just sitting there looking miserable, yet an hour or so later he flew off when a noisy mob of his mates arrived.
Was it isolating itself too? did it know something might be afoot? It does come back to the pond to drink on its own from time to time, so perhaps it is an escapee.....seeking quiet, away from the maddening crowd......