Lunch by the Water

My first social outing in a while (since Christmas, maybe?) involved meeting a couple of family members in Geelong for lunch in the western beach foreshore reserve.

Two different species of cormorant on one of the jetties.

A much larger waterbird:

I enjoyed the shade from this tree

and the company of these hopeful seagulls

while waiting for lunch to be ready from here:

A couple of the decorated bollards:

A bit of a contrast between the lady in the backless dress above, and the Salvation Army member with her tambourine below.

Four of us sat at a picnic table in the park, and enjoyed our food, the conversation, and the fresh air.

The view over the water to the You Yangs. It was fantastic to go somewhere and see some different sights!

Catching Up on March So Far

There has been a bit going on, but I seem to have got out of the blogging habit. Here's a few happenings of the month so far.

The white belladonna lilies opened:

They will probably have faded by the time I do my garden round-up on Monday. This photo was taken on the 5th.
 

We had a field naturalist's outing to Geelong on the 7th. We saw all sorts of fascinating coastal vegetation such as this Grey Samphire (Tecticornia halocnemoides):

Obviously not grey at this time of year. 

And the Grey Mangroves (Avicennia marina):

Also not actually grey.

And lots of water birds:

The 10th March was my parents' 65th wedding anniversary. This is not an event we expected to be celebrating, as earlier in the month my mother was thought to be dying. She doesn't look in great health in this photo:

But it is the first time she had been out of bed and in her wheelchair in over a week. A vaccination team visited her nursing home on the 4th to deliver the first round of the covid vaccine for the residents, but she wasn't offered it as she was too ill. Maybe she will have her first one when the rest of the residents get their second one, if she is still with us.

 

Also on the 10th, we had 8 kookaburras come to visit in the morning:

The chooks are having a tour of the front "lawn", moving to a different part of it each day. The kookaburras are sitting on their temporary fencing.

The chooks weren't impressed that some food was thrown to the kookaburras!

One of my orchids has thrown up a flower spike:

It has flowered in winter/spring in previous years, so this was a surprise. Perhaps being in the shade house has confused it about the time of year.

Another "time of year" confusion:

A bunch of peonies open right now. I had half a dozen buds left in the fridge which I had forgotten about, so here they are, as if it was spring rather than autumn.

And finally, today I basted my WOOFA (working on or finishing a ...) project for this month, my small Frolic that was assembled in March last year.

While I was at it, I pieced a backing for Trail Mix and basted it as well:

It's only been a top since October. It will probably be my WOOFA project for next month.

So that's March so far!

Art Quilts at the Wool Museum

My Sweet Sixteen was booked in for its regular service (2 years or 2,000,000 stitches) in Geelong today, so while it was being worked on I went to the National Wool Museum to check out Art Quilt Australia 2019:

There are two sides to the exhibition, because of the different prizes:

• $3000 for Expressions: The Wool Quilt Prize, for a wool quilt. The winner of the Expressions prize is also acquired by the National Wool Museum for its permanent collection.
• $3000 for the non-acquisitive OZQN Award of Excellence, which is open to all quilts.

The colourful quilts glow against dark walls:

Here are a few of my favourites.

This photo doesn't do justice to Pat Forster's "Ten Shades of Rhododendron, Seven Blooms Intact":

Lois Parish Evans' "Aussie Bush Delights", an mandala of native flowers:

Alison Withers' "Change for Earth" received a "highly commended" in the wool quilt prize:

I really wanted to touch her woollen floral creations - they looked so tactile.

Denise Griffiths' "Flora Australis" used a 3D padded appliqué technique, which I also would have liked to get my hands on!

It was only looking back through my photos that I realised they all had a floral theme.

The winner of the Ozquilt Network Award for Excellence prize had nothing to do with flowers. This is a detail of Neroli Henderson's "Whitewash", a representation of churning waves:

She used a photo printed on silk as the basis for this piece, then used a heavy thread (12wt) in the quilting to add texture.

Beside the River

While waiting for my sewing machine to be serviced in Geelong, we visited the Fyansford Paper Mill, which is now home to various art spaces, a winery, and cafe and the like. However early Tuesday morning is not the best time to visit, as nothing was open.

So instead we went for a walk along the Barwon River.

These steps behind the mill car-park lead down to the river:

Steep, damp, pebbly steps with no hand rails. Walk carefully! And be glad you don't have to deal with all that oxalis.

Buckley's Falls get their name from William Buckley, whose story would be familiar to many in this part of the world:

The view of the falls might be better from the other side of the river:

Revegetation project between the oxalis:

Amazing rock formations:

Encroaching suburbia:

All that yellow around the houses is oxalis. Glad I don't have to establish a garden there.

This stone-work engineering, which includes a weir across the river about about a kilometre up the river from the falls, was built in 1876 to direct water along the race (on the right and in the foreground) to power the mill:

The beginning of the water race:

Notice how it is lower than the weir across the river, to ensure that water enters the race even when the river flow is low.

Above the weir the river is wide and tranquil. One of the people we met on the way said he had just seen a platypus somewhere up here:

Unfortunately we saw no sign of the platypus, but it was a lovely walk.

Geelong Botanic Gardens

I had a reason go to Geelong today, so added in a visit to the botanic gardens because the Friends' Nursery is open on Wednesday mornings.

Perennial borders looking fantastic:

Also came across their wonderful ginkgo:

This tree is on the National Trust's Register of Significant Trees.

We enjoyed morning tea in the gardens. A few plants from the nursery came home, as well as a few more from the Wombat Gully nursery.

The main reason for my trip to Geelong will have to wait for another blog post once I have tidied up my sewing room a bit.

Cuttings

Cuttings is an exhibition of work by Elizabeth Gower at the Geelong Art Gallery until later this month.

Prismatics is a trip around the colour wheel:

Each square panel has a different geometric design:

The works are composed of pieces cut from printed paper such as magazines and packaging, but can't you see them as quilt designs?

Delineations are strips of paper arranged on drafting film, to form beautiful, complex patterns:

Savings is a collection of works assembled from packaging and advertising materials:

The most recent work is Monochrome Compilation, which is 21 metres long, so can't possibly be included in one small photo. As you walk along it, the pattern gradually changes. It is a challenge to see what has actually changed from one section to the next,

but the changes build up so that the patterns at either end are nothing like each other.

I found it quite intriguing.

The whole exhibition was fantastic. Worth a look if you will be in Geelong in the next couple of weeks.

Cinema Discovery

I've been wanting to see the film Ali's Wedding, but the cinemas in Ballarat are not showing it. I was planning to trip to Melbourne until I became aware of this little cinema:

The Pivotonian in Geelong.

It's a lovely little cinema. The seats are comfy and have a huge amount of leg room. And the cinema seems to show the sort of film I like to watch. It reminds me of the Kino 30 years ago, or the Nova 25 years ago. I'm sure this won't be my last trip to the Pivotonian!

And another handy thing is that the cinema is literally around the corner from a fabric store - the Bellarine Sewing Centre.

Geelong Botanic Gardens

In all my trips to and through Geelong over the years, I have never visited their Botanic Gardens. Until today!

Highlights included this gymea lily (Doryanthes excelsa) flower about to open:

We have planted three in our garden - I wonder if they will do this one day?

Pelargonium collection:

Over 200 varieties on display.

Rhododendrons:

Must plant some of these!

A peony or two:

My peonies are a long way from flowering yet. One has a bud, but the other two are only about 5cm tall so far.

In fact it seems that spring in Geelong is several weeks ahead of here. The wisteria on this arch is just starting to flower:

Whereas ours have only the beginnings of swelling growth buds so far. And in the first picture, there are some open echium flowers to the left of the gateway, but our echiums are just starting to think about sending up flower spikes.