Winter in the Fleurieu......

 Yesterday, 24th July, was a very wild and woolly day and not looking forward to being inside yet again, we thought it might be good to pack a picnic and go to Parson's Beach look out and have lunch there.
So I duly made salad rolls and a thermos of coffee, packed our cameras, dressed in rain jackets and set off late morning in somewhat of a storm...We drove through misty rain and howling winds along the roads that led through Yankalilla ,past Fannyside on the Torrensvale road which becomes a dirt road before you get to the Range road which leads to the turn off for Parsons Beach.

As it had been my suggestion to go on this little adventure I kept saying I was sure the weather would clear by the time we got to the look out.
Sure enough it did clear long enough for us to enjoy our lunch and see the wild waves, swooping gulls and a little singing honey eater taking shelter in the undergrowth. It was an off shore wind so the waves had these interesting plumes blowing back as they arrived where they break. Remember to click on the photos to get a better view. We came home via the Victor harbour bypass, a more civilized way to travel..

The above photo was taken last week, early in the morning when the sun was rising through some very dark clouds and the light was rather spectacular and reflected off  tree limbs and the Trevi fountain I foolishly agreed to take off someones hand some time ago. Still, the birds like it and it has succulents on it so it needs very little water. The pond is quite full now after these lovely rains we are having at present. The white flowers are some snapdragons which seem to last longer than one season.

More wildlife appeared suddenly last week when these two kangaroos were sitting in the front garden by the pond.They were not all that fussed when I came out with the camera, not to just photograph them but also to tell them I had rather they went back to the vineyard next door where they mainly live as they could do quite a bit of damage in our garden. Besides, they are quite imposing as they sit there looking at you and the male could be aggressive and I don't really want to argue with him....

Across the road from us are vineyards in their winter dormancy, pruned and ready for spring. Willunga village is actually at the base of the hills but the vines block the view of the houses which is rather good.
This afternoon this pair of Black duck arrived to investigate the pond. I am pretty sure it is the same pair which arrives near spring but of course that may be my fond imagining, although they never seem very disturbed by me photographing them through the kitchen window. They obviously do see me there as most birds have excellent eye sight.
This last photo is of our garden at the back.

It looks lovely and green now with the winter rains as in the summer it is brown and yellow.
The roses still have leaves and I will have to start pruning next week in spite of that. I picked Black velvet and St John last week and the roses are still looking well in the vase, just amazing.
The lemon tree in the container is looking much better. We have not been able to grow a lemon tree here as the soil is heavy clay and lemon trees like well drained soil. Luckily our friend gave us a whole bag of lemons which are so useful and make wonderful lemon butter......

Yellow tailed Black Cockatoos and other Birds in Willunga

Over the past week or so, we have seen some very different birds come to our garden.
Yesterday, early in the morning we had a flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos land in the gum trees at the back of the house. They have a modest, rather squeaky voice, unlike their raucous White Sulphur-crested cousins or indeed the even more loud and obnoxious Corellas....
These Black Cockatoos are meant to be on the endangered list but we had about two dozen here for a while. They are inclined to prune quite heavy branches near the top of the eucalyptus trees. So if they stay too long they can do quite a

of damage.
The Ibis on the right has been stalking around the garden for some days now and this morning it decided to investigate the pond.
It has been on its own, yet they mostly seem to be in small flocks and patrol the vine yards nearby.
We often wonder how many bugs and harmful insects they would devour each day and so keep crops and vineyards healthy. It was finding something under the low shrubs by the pond and I hope it was not a frog....

Later in the day the White faced Heron came and stood on one leg in the pond, looking miserable and cold.He, and I think it is the male as he is inclined to attack the spare bedroom window probably thinking it is a rival, has been catching the gold fish which are still there in a goodly number. I wish he would catch them all as then we may have frogs again. The Goldfish eat small froglets and also the spawn so there is no hope of having a lot of frogs in the garden, such a shame....

We have also had an influx of little White Eyes or Thorn bills. They are difficult to photograph too, as they are very quick and don't stay in one place long enough to get a really good shot.
They too, must do an excellent job of keeping little bugs under control. Of course they also love fruit and when we had Mulberries quite some years ago now, you would be picking Mulberries one side of the tree and a flock of the little buggers would be feasting on the berries on the opposite side. They also fit through the bird netting.....
Still, it is nice to have them around.

The other thing that is changing is the fact our neighbours are at last going to plant vines to the north of us...In a way it is sad as we are going to loose our young share farmer now. He was not told they were planting vines this season so he had planted his crop and he includes our three acres as well. Now it wont be worth his while to come down with all his equipment and do our three acres, though he assured us he will find a solution for us. I may have to start thinking Dexter cow and calf ?

I include the bottom photo to show how large the leaves grow after the Blood lily has flowered.
They are spectacular flowers that first appear with the autumn rains and the Honey eaters love them. Then the flowers die and the leaves appear......a haven for frogs.... if only the Goldfish wouldn't eat them....

Bats and a Cacophony of Birds...

Well, no sooner had our share farmer  sown his crop at the back of our place last week, than the noisy Corellas descended in huge numbers to demolish the first seed sprouts that appeared.
There would be at least a thousand birds all making raucous noises all... day... long...
It is deafening when they take fright and fly over our garden and settle for a brief moment , screaming obscenities knowing full well they are perfectly safe.....or are they?... I do wonder how Saint Francis of Assisi would have dealt with

 such marauding flocks eating his and his monks, future food stuffs. The two Corellas above are quite elderly by the look of them and I think they have come here to die as I found a dead one under a bush this morning.
Yesterday they were here too and when I asked my friend, who was repairing some eaves under the front verandah , did the birds from hell bother him as well, he seemed surprised at my question. Well, of course he had been working with earmuffs on.....

The above photo shows part of the flock of Corellas in the neighbours paddock and an elderly bird sitting there in front not taking a blind bit of notice of me photographing them all.
Click on the photo to get a closer look to see the numbers that are there.
 The photo on the left are the other noisy blighters that sat on the bird bath in front of the kitchen window this morning. The colourful Rainbow Lorikeets  were very vocal and scolding each other, saying "I was here first and who do you think you are?"
Flying off into the fig tree for another dispute.

They too, are in quite large flocks but at least their noise is bearable.
The photo on the right is of our Tawney Frog mouth family, Mum, Dad and offspring....
I wonder will they get junior to move off to his own territory..... sue him even, for out staying his welcome... this was taken in March when they came for a few days to sit and sleep while the Greenies, another honey eater, came and told them off and it wasn't even breeding time and the patio is attractive for nesting places.

The photo of the Magpies was also taken in March after a hot day and I had put on the sprinklers to give some of the plants a drink. One kept on trying to sit on top of the sprinkler while the others were content to sit and be sprinkled...
I must mention the Micro bats now, I was given some information on Friday to say the recording taken in January shows there could be six different little micro bats here, but definitely the lesser Long eared bat, Nictophylus geoffroyi
Hope you can pronounce it.....

Nerada Teabags and recycling......

 For many years now I have been using Nerada leaf tea because it is grown in Australia and I love the taste. I make a large pot of tea first thing in the morning and drink it out of my little Japanese mug which was made by a visiting Japanese potter in Victor Harbour back in the 1980ies. Very often the sun isn't even up so I see the morning light arrive in all its golden splendor while writing my journal....so this is a real ritual for me. During the day though, I use Nerada teabags and started drying them and emptying them to get the lovely fabric which results.

The photo above shows how I process them.
I especially like the Rooibos and Vanilla teabags as they finish up with a lovely antique look about them. The Camomile teabags don't dry so well and are inclined to clump, so they tear when you try to empty them.
I started experimenting with them and using them either bonded onto recycled cotton sheeting or bonding them onto interfacing which gives them more stability to use under a sewing machine or for hand embroidery.

The photo above shows the background of the teabags and I digitally printed it with a photo of a vine moth. As we live among vineyards in the Willunga area we get some interesting insects on our verandah. Not only insects but a variety of wild life like an echidna knocking on our glass door thinking no doubt it might like to come in and watch television with us.....
I did some machine stitching on this piece before a friend framed it for me to make it look like a museum display case.
Remember you can click on the photos to get a better look at the detail of the pieces.
The wall hanging on the left is 74cmx140cm and I did with climate change in mind calling it "Water". I did quite a bit of research for this to find out how much water animals drink to stay alive. The teabags were also drawn upon and named for the month of the year. The roundels are again digitally printed photos of our Magpies which love to congregate at the birdbath and generally muck around.

I used a verse from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as translated by Edward Fitzgerald about flinging your garment into the Fire of Spring.....
The photo on the right shows how the teabags lend themselves to kimono shapes. At the time I created this I was also trying my hand at Haikus, those delightfully short pieces in which you are meant to say something very profound .Those I actually made into a booklet but these on the right I had framed and called The Japanese Connection. So this photo is before framing.

The teabags also made wonderful tent shapes and it was interesting finding out about various early man made shelters and dwellings.
This booklet is on one of my earlier blogs should you be interested to see the whole thing.
The booklets are made up of three mini quilts and then bound with covers using my machine knitting pieces which are made with a mixture of fine yarns and different colours. The little base player sits there to hold the book cover open so as to take photos.

I have included a photo of the Kimonos and Haikus booklet as well. On the Kimonos I used both machine stitching but also hand stitching as I just love colonial knots..... they are a very satisfying stitch to do especially with a mix of embroidery floss or fine knitting yarns in the needle ......
I hope I have given you some ideas of how to use the teabags, the dried tea leaves are great to put on your pot plants.....
It is autumn here and we are longing for rain, the native trees too are looking stressed for lack of water....
Perhaps it will rain soon...............

Praying Mantis, the Micro-Bat Box & Monitor

 We had an amazing visitor in December , just near Christmas. It was a Praying Mantis which had landed on the door post of the patio.
I believe they are voracious insect hunters so it was good to have it in our area. I have no idea where it normally lives and hunts as this is the first one I have seen here.I was looking for facts about this insect for South Australia and came up with the Latin name of Orthodera Novaezealandiae but whether this is correct or not I do not know.

I do know their sex life is most peculiar as the female will bite the head off her mate which continues to copulate with her.....I ask you, how weird can that be...
Here at last is a photo of the Micro-bat box we nailed to the rafter of the shed. The difficulty with this is, that you have no idea if it is being used as there is no lid to lift. It has to climb into the space via a small horizontal opening in the bottom of the box. Shining a torch up into it may give us a clue.

The man who monitors the Micro bats in the Aldinga scrub, very kindly came and installed two monitors last Wednesday to see what activity there may be at our place and also to identify the little bats by the sounds it emits as it flies about.
He told me that the little creatures can travel as far as 25km to feed which is astounding for such a little bat. It is no bigger than a house mouse really. So it is all rather exciting and we look forward to seeing the results in a few days time.

On New Years Day we had to harvest the apricots as, though they seemed still firm, they were starting to deteriorate near the stone.It was a good crop this year as you can see by the large bucket full, last year we had exactly "one" which we shared with each other.....
So this year I was able to not only make jam but also some apricot paste which is similar to quince paste but I don't think is quite as good.
Besides that I stewed some and they are in the deep freeze ready for winter breakfasts or puddings even.....apricot cobbler with cream....

The nectarines have just started today so I have picked two buckets and given one to my sister in law this afternoon as I can't cope with such a large amount. I will stew some but dry most of them as they are lovely dried and the flavour is very intense, it makes my mouth water to think of them.....They don't make very good jam for some reason which is a shame. The other draw back is that they ripen all at once so they have to be picked straight away.
The picture at the bottom here is one of my two little boys when we were at Hughes Park and had orphan lambs to nurture into full grown sheep.
This would be in about 1966 and while Gordon is holding it , Gregory seems somewhat put out by this......Just above Gordon's head in the distance you can see the meat shed and killing yard.....Those were the days.....

More Wildlife at Willunga: Micro-Bat.....

Well, we arrived home early last evening after being at a birthday party....and I was stone cold sober as I am the driver these days and had been on aqua pura all evening ..... and here we had a micro bat flitting around our rooms..... We have no idea how they get into the house except perhaps by the brick half circular wall which goes up to a high ceiling and may not be perfectly sealed. How to get them out is always a problem so we are inclined to let him fly about and hopefully find it in the morning hanging behind a curtain somewhere.

 Only this morning when I got up early, I found him next to Brian's chair and I thought it was dead. But when I went to push a piece of sturdy paper under it, I noticed it was moving its head. So I got my gloves and carted it out, grabbing my camera on the way. It isn't easy manoeuvring a camera trying to get the right focus while holding a bat. So the gloved hand photo is out of focus but I thought it would give you the idea of how small the bats are. On the left you can see his delicate little feet and some of the cobwebs (shame on me) it collected up high in the ceiling.

 The other exciting bit of news is that we have some visiting Kookaburras. They were flying through on Sunday morning but yesterday they inspected our pond and studied the waterlilies in great detail. There are some goldfish left still under neath them as the White faced Heron has not got them all yet....and when I was removing the scum off one end of the pond, low and behold... froglets and tadpoles so the scum has been left for them...
I was able to get this photo through the music room window.

 On the right is our new ( or is it my) acquisition.
In a moment of madness I accepted a friend's offer of what she calls, her Trevi Fountain. She has sold up and is moving closer to Adelaide and the fountain was not suitable for the new place.
It really is not suitable for ours either as we have what I fondly call a "Wild Garden" meaning things get done in there when they get done and litter of the Lemon scented Gum lies about till it gets too much and we rake it up and mulch it. Since we have a friend who helps us each week

with all the heavy work and is extremely good at trimming things that look decidedly out of control, he also helped bring the fountain from Pt Willunga over to here and assembled it beautifully. In the end though, he did have to have one of his willing sons come over to lift the main structure on its pedestal as that was beyond me altogether. It won't be a fountain of course as it would take masses of water and so it has succulents in its basins instead.
By the way, I put the little micro bat in the open shed on some bark...I have also bought a Micro-Bat Box which will be installed soon....

More Wildlife at Willunga

It seems I have to alter the way I write this blog for reasons unknown....oh, the ways of the internet....
It has taken me a while to sort this out and so here is the latest of our Wildlife in our garden.
Mr Hare (or was it Mrs?) was lazily loping around our back garden a week or so ago. They are extremely shy (as would you be, hunted by vignerons who object to you chewing through their drip lines) so it was fortunate I was able to sneak round the corner without opening the laundry door and get two photos. The moment he heard the click of the camera he was off and running.....
While I had the camera out I took some more photos of the vegie garden, The peas have done so well this cool and wet winter that we have not had to buy any green vege at all.It probably helps too that now I am able to water with rainwater from the tank.
We also have broad beans now and silverbeet  and Swiss chard which is very pretty as well as good eating.
The photo of the spring vines was taken some weeks ago now. They are shiraz grapevines and belong to the next door neighbour. They look so delicate at that stage and you wonder where they get the energy from after the rough harvesting they have endured in Autumn when they look so battered and bruised.
Because the weather has been damp some days, the fumigating machines have been very busy in the vines keeping the downy mildew and other nasties at bay. It seems a constant battle for them but if they don't spray the sulphur, they would have no grapes to harvest.
The Dutch irises were very blue and contrasted wonderfully with the succulent plant also flowering at the same time.
The photo with the tall,straight gum tree is the view from my studio window.
It can be very inspirational looking out on this at times when I am stuck for ideas to go on with for my stitched art works. It was a seedling we decided to keep as the Holm oak had refused to grow there. Holm oaks can be very slow to get going but grow into magnificent shade trees.
The arum lilies are considered a weed now as they can spread along waterways, but I don't think they will cause much harm in front of the studio window.
The Holm oaks in front of our kitchen windows are flowering prolifically and the bees are there in droves....this is so exciting to have such numbers of bees as they have been sparse for several seasons and perhaps, just perhaps our zuchinis will be fertilized and so will our Queensland blue pumpkins and I may yet realize my dream of pumpkin vines covering the front yard and pumpkins in such numbers as to be embarrassing and so lots to give away and share......