Imaginary Blog Posts

So for the last little while I have occasionally taken photos for a blog post, then not written that post. So here are a few of the things I didn't get round to posting.

The 29th September was my 13-year blogiversary. My first post in 2009 was of aphids on a rose bud. But here the climate is a bit different, and the roses hardly even had leaves at the end of September, definitely no buds. However, tulips are budding at that time:

And daffodils are flowering:

On the 8th October I attended a quilting meeting, and a few other people brought along their blocks for the birthday quilt I made blocks for in September. Here are most of the blocks laid out:

They looked pretty good! (I think I have a photo somewhere of the whole top assembled. Will have a look for it.)

Also on 8th October, the crabapples were looking great,

I had a couple of magnolia flowers,

and pots full of tulips looking lovely:

 

On the 9th of October we had a field trip, and on the way home saw a sign pointing to Nimon's Bridge, so took a side trip to check it out:

It is an old rail bridge, now just for walking across. Next time I will take the path that leads to the bottom of the bridge, as it is probably more spectacular from down there. The view from the top was pretty nice, but I didn't photograph it.

On 13th October I started quilting my Positivity quilt:

It was a good day for it, as this terrible photo of the weather station shows:

27mm rain that day.

On 22nd October, I sewed down the binding, and Positivity was officially finished:

Closer view of the quilting:

 

Just found the photo I was sent of the birthday quilt blocks assembled ready for quilting:

Made by 8 different people. I'm glad I didn't have the job of assembling it. There were the usual issues of blocks not being all the same size, which for a design like this was a bit of a problem as you don't want to trim blocks and lose the points. But I think the assembler did a good job of making it all work. I hope the person it is for loves it!

The last 4 days of October were a bit mad, as we participated in the Great Southern BioBlitz, trying to do as many iNaturalist observations as possible. But I did take the time to notice on 31st October that my tree peony flowers are beginning to open:

Also October was the wettest month ever since we moved here, with a total of 115.4mm! Everything is mud and the lower half of the block is under water.

That's it for all the posts I didn't write in October. I'll see if I can do better for November.

The Garden in October

I took these photos on 15th October, but I'm actually writing the blog post much later.

The day was grey and wet, as was much of October. We went to look at Lal Lal Falls to see how much water was there after all the rain. I took a small number of garden photos between the house and the car:

The tulips have been bashed around by the rain, but these pinky ones are still not finished:

Ajuga:

A terrible photo of what I think was the first rugosa rose for the year:

Clivea:

 

At the Falls there were a lot of people, and a lot of water:

The sun even peeked through for a moment:

 

Back home again, I took a look around the orchard. I just looked at this photo and thought, was that a peach or a nectarine?

Fortunately I took a photo of its label at the time. It is actually a "Peacherine", a peach/nectarine cross. 

The quince had a few flowers that weren't quite open, and lots of buds:

The is the "Red Love" apple, which has red flesh, red blossom, and red leaves:

A more normal apple, although I don't remember which one:

Next, the Gondwanaland bed. My protea "Limelight" has quite a few flowers this year:

This amazing plant is Acacia denticulosa, known as sandpaper wattle because its leaves are rough like sandpaper. But look at its flowers:

The rain has flattened them a bit, but they are like huge yellow fuzzy caterpillars. And much softer than the leaves!

This grevillea is a ground-cover variety, possibly "Bronze Rambler":

The Digger's Speedwell is beginning to flower, and I can see in the background of this photo that another wattle was flowering, but I don't remember which one and I don't seem to have photographed it on its own:

 

Along the driveway the melianthus buds are just starting to open:

And the Euryops daisy is going strong:

These must be the last of the various daffodil varieties:

These photos were taken at 2pm, which shows you what a grey old day it was. It looks like dusk!

Loropetalum:

Tulbaghia:

Thryptomene:

I was surprised there were any open flowers on the pigface (Carpobrotus), as they normally only open in the sun:

In the back yard, my redbud buds are opening:

And the wisteria is doing its thing. I hope I have a better photo of it somewhere, as it looked fantastic this year. Will have to search my photos.

And maybe lastly, this echium just starting to flower:

With bonus Portuguese millipede.

That's probably not everything, but I am writing this so long afterwards I don't remember what I might have missed on the day. Just glad to have got this blog post done!