A Walk in the Rain

One thing I forgot to do yesterday was get a photo of my siblings and me together. There might not be too many more chances to do this, as we all live in different parts of the country. Fortunately I got a chance today:

Taken after we had completed a very important task together, scattering the ashes of both of our parents in a beautiful and peaceful place.

Flowers for the Service

 This morning I cut some daffodils and leucadendrons from our garden and put them in the car,

It seemed like a lot at the time, but I probably should have cut more. Then I collected some proteas and banksias that I'd ordered from a florist (forgot to photograph that stage). I had wanted waratahs, which were my mother's favourite flowers, but it is a bit early in the year for them.

Then I took them all to the church and put them in vases:

Probably should have trimmed those banksias down a bit more than I did. Their stems were very difficult to cut through though.

I think the vases looked better in real life than they do in the photos, but I can't be sure. And probably most of the people who attended this afternoon's memorial service for my mother didn't even notice the flowers.

The church also provided an arrangement:

Which I got to bring home with me.

As for how the service went? I guess it went OK. There were tears and hugs and not enough voices to carry the hymns and too much food left over at the end. And I'm glad it is over.

Orange

 I don't have a lot of orange scraps, I found this month.

I made six of Ivani's Hearts: 

 

 I only made three pairs of Scrappy Sprouts leaves before I ran out of scraps large enough for them: 

There is not much orange in the garden at the moment. So here's an orange-ish beetle (Paropsisterna sp.) I found yesterday while we were splitting logs:

And a native wildflower on our property which has just started flowering for spring:

Dillwynia cinerascens, Grey Parrot-pea.

Here's the link to the orange round-up for ScrapHappySaturday.

Splitting Logs

 Spent the day helping some friends turn some of their wood reserves

into firewood, with the help of a hired log-splitter.

Once split, they were thrown into the ute, then taken to the woodshed. There the tipping tray of the ute made made unloading a lot easier!

Five ute loads, or about 2.5 cubic metres of split firewood, ready to be stacked up under cover for future use. I was exhausted by the end of the day, but imagine how much more exhausting it would be to chop the wood with an axe, and move it by wheelbarrow!

Blowing out the Cobwebs

Are these dogs having fun?

 

They are.

And so was I on a morning walk before the weather turned cold in the afternoon. Here the dogs are running past a former pine plantation that has been harvested. I wonder what it will be replaced with?

The wind was strong, and as well as turning the turbines, it blew away some of my stress.

A Finish

It seems quite a while since I had any finished items to show. But look!

Not one:

Not two:

But four!

Cushions for the caravan finished today.

They have zips in the back, covered by a flap:

That meant I could use zips of various colours that I had on hand, rather than having to buy new ones. I used the instructions on Chris's blog here. You can find her pdf file if you scroll down her page, to the section on the right-hand side called "Patterns". I tapered the corners, as shown on this site: How to Taper Corners, which makes the cushion corners plumper.

Some time in the future those bench seat cushions will be on the list for new covers. And the curtains could do with updating. But for now I am just happy to have got them done (even though it is 8 days since the birthday they were for.)

The Garden in August

There seems to be almost nothing in flower this August. I went back and looked at my post from the same time last year, and we seem to be significantly behind this year. 

Here's the first thing I saw in the garden today:

A swamp wallaby! Actually it isn't in the garden, it is just beyond the garden. You might notice a jonquil in flower in the foreground.

Now to the actual garden. Two hellebores, just because there isn't much else. Duke of Burgundy:

and an unnamed one:

Fortunately the leucadendrons haven't minded the frosty mornings:

But lots of other plants have been frizzled by over-night temperatures below zero.

Wattles are reliable at this time of year. Here's the leafless one:

And the Ovens wattle, with open flowers at the ends of the branches, and a million buds behind them:

Rosemary for a touch of blue:

An open daffodil, and a few about to open:

But many of the daffodils are only just emerging from the ground.

Camellia "Volunteer" has a flower, with quite a few buds to come:

Lots of euphorbias:

There were several different coloured cultivars here, but it looks like the plain green one has just about taken over.

Viburnum tinus:

and, slightly ratty-looking:

 

Then the sun came out for a few moments, long enough for this shot of the white flowers under my redbud (which has no buds yet):

and this hyacinth emerging:

 

Yellow flowers and leaves on this mahonia/berberis:

 

A few blossoms on the flowering quince, which almost don't count as it seems to have flowers all year. But at the moment there are no leaves, so the blossoms are more obvious:

And last of all a couple of cyclamens that I should have planted out but they are still in their pots:

The ones in the ground are flowering too, I just didn't photograph them.

That's it for August in the garden.

Life Goes On

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments on my last post.

Last Sunday we went on a orchid hunt, and for the first time in my life I saw helmet orchids in flower:

Two different species of helmet orchid.

They are teeny-tiny things, but fortunately we had a guide who know where to look for them.

Lunch among the trees:

It was a fantastic day out.

On Tuesday on my way to work I stopped to photograph these swans who have newly-hatched babies:

A couple of times in recent months I have thought I've seen a swan on this dam as I was driving past. But a lot of the water is hidden by an embankment and long grass, so I could never be sure. 

 On Thursday some heavy-duty machinery showed up:

to make a large delivery:

It was cold and rainy so I didn't stay out to watch how they managed it.

Yesterday I attended the quilt guild AGM and found myself with a new job for the next 12 months. It was good to see people again after a long absence. When I got home we tried to take the dogs for a walk, but we didn't get very far before we had to turn around and run home:

That's hail.

So I had to do most of my daily step count on the treadmill instead!

Vale

On 31st July my mother left this world as I sat beside her stitching and a CD of hymns played quietly. 

Here is one of the earliest photos on my blog, from 2009, on her 81st birthday:

I gave Mum the waratahs because they are the state flower of New South Wales, where she was born and raised.

I have had this post open on my computer for a week now, adding words and then deleting them, wondering what photos to add, which words. But this is it

Vale, farewell, my mother.