Not Yet an Orphan

On the 2nd of this month, my mother's nursing home rang me to discuss her situation. She seemed to be fading away, and they considered her to be on an "end of life pathway". She was not responding to people, not eating, and not drinking much. My father died in May last year, and it seemed Mum was going to do the same this May.

My sister had not been able to visit Mum for 6 months, but as Mum was dying the visitors vaccination requirement was waived. So she has been to visit a few times, which maybe is why Mum is still with us. Seeing her other daughter again seemed to perk her up quite a bit. 

This is the Ukrainian bookmark I started cross-stitching last month. I take it with me when I go to visit Mum, and if she is sleeping or unresponsive, I sit quietly and stitch for a while.

There is a covid outbreak at the nursing home, with about 15 of the residents testing positive over the last couple of weeks. None have been seriously ill so far, probably because they were all vaccinated. But the fact that it has spread at all is a worry. It seems to point to lapses in infection control procedures. If Mum catches it, the outcome is unlikely to be good, given her general frailty and lack of vaccination.

Another issue is that my sister is moving interstate next week, so will no longer be around to help lift Mum's spirits.

There are good days and bad days. On Friday (my birthday) Mum recognised me and spoke to me, and didn't at all seem like she was about to drop off the perch. Yesterday she was completely unresponsive to me and everyone else, until a nurse who has been away for a few weeks came in. He got a "Hello" and a smile!

She is keeping us guessing, but with under six hours to go, it looks like she has made it to the end of May.

RSC for May

The colour for May was sage green or forest green. I chose to just go "green".  I made six of Ivani's Hearts:

True confessions: I really only made four, as I already had two I made last year. Next month's colour is blue, and I already have one blue heart too.

 And I made six pairs of  pairs of Scrappy Sprouts leaves: 

Linked to the Super Scrappy green round-up, if I'm not too late.

Bonus garden pictures. There aren't any green flowers, so here is every green under the sun in the back yard:

And the side garden:

Because next month is blue, and these flowers will be finished by then, here's the second flower open on my nodding violet:

Although really the blue is more because the camera can't quite cope with the purple shade they really are.

A Day in May

 It's that time again. When strange welded creations appear:

And new plants:

And books and goodies:

And cake!

And the postie brings cards and packages containing fascinating publications:

Published in 1951, so a bit older than me. This is exactly how I will look next time I'm pressing a seam while dressmaking:

No more sewing in my "blob around the house" clothes!

In the afternoon I went off to have the 2nd covid booster that my advanced years now make me eligible for. Hooray!

Altona

I drove to Altona to meet friends and do normal things!

The pier:

Friends getting the perfect instagram shots of the beach sculptures:

Me trying (and failing) to get an identifiable photo of a bird flying past:

We met up for lunch, then visited an exhibition at the Louis Joel Arts & Community Centre.

It was the last day of the "Abstract Threads" exhibition of works by Robyn Cuthbertson and Tania Tanti. 

In Robyn's work it is her free-motion stitching in coloured threads that creates the designs. I have shown some of her work before, when I saw it at "Golden Textures" last year.

Tania paints her designs on the fabric, then the stitching embellishes them.

"Just Me" above, and detail of "Flamingo" below.

Fun painted furniture pieces as well:

What a wonderful day out this was! Catching up with friends, visiting an exhibition, it was almost like life before the pandemic.

Flowers High and Low

A little flower surprised me today:

This nodding-violet plant (Streptocarpus caulescens) was grown from a cutting by my neighbour and given to me a couple of years ago. I'll have to ask her if hers is flowering too. There's a second bud developing, I see now, although I never noticed the first bud!

At the other end of the size/height scale, the tree dahlias are brilliant this year.

Although the photo doesn't really do them justice. Perhaps if the sun had been out?

The Garden in May

This is my monthly record for myself of what is happening in the garden. So be warned, there's lots of flowers ahead, and feel free to skip over it.

Here's a cheerful sight:

The tree dahlia has started flowering! We have had one night of temperatures below freezing, but most of the garden hasn't minded. 

The daylilies have not flowered much this year, mainly because they are apparently very tasty to wallabies. But with a fence around them now the occasional flower is appearing:

Roses are also very tasty to wallabies, so several of the bushes have been stripped of buds and leaves. Those closest to the house have managed to bloom a bit:

Penstemons just about finished:

Thryptomene covered in flowers:

A few gazanias out:

Hakea "Burrendong Beauty" covered in flowers:

That touch of red in the background is one of the crepe myrtles being autumnal.

Lavender:

Rosemary, with a bee:

Did you know that rosemary has become a salvia? It is Salvia rosmarinus now.

But the fact that I have posted a picture of one salvia, won't stop me adding this one:

This little seat is now surrounded by the Bethel sage. The flowers are visited regularly through the day by spinebills (a nectar-eating bird).

Camellia:

Abutilon:

These that I need to go and check the label on but it is dark outside now:

Leonotis just getting started:

Hebe:

This crassula, which I have recently discovered can get much redder than this if it gets more sun:

So I have potted some pieces that the crimson rosellas helpfully snipped off, and will see how red they get inside a sunny window.

Bromeliads, cyclamens, echeverias, correas, eremophilas, all have flowers but I either forgot to photograph them, did photograph them but the photos weren't great, or just decided that this is enough for now.

To finish this post, bonus flowers purchased this afternoon from the Bunnings markdown section. Beautifully clove-scented dianthus at under half price:

An Outing

Today we took a drive to the Melton Botanic Garden. It was great to get away from the family worries that have been consuming me lately. The gardens are looking fantastic, and have really grown and developed since our last visit. I'm not sure when the last visit was, as the only post I could find was our   bus trip in 2018. But we really need to make more regular trips to this wonderful spot.

This meadow argus (Junonia villida) butterfly was in the first plant I saw as I got out of the car.

The gardens are full of wildlife, like this musk lorikeet:

And this rainbow lorikeet:
 

I was so taken with the wildlife I forgot to take photos of the garden vistas, apart from these ducks helpfully sitting around the sign that tells you what species they are:

The reason we went to the gardens on a Thursday was to visit the nursery. And of course we did not come away empty-handed!

A haul of interesting and unusual plants to add to our own garden.

Morning Visitors

I didn't get to see this, I found the photos on my camera later in the day. 

Early this morning before I was awake, this happened out the front of our house:

Swamp wallaby in the foreground, grey kangaroo at the back.