Orchids and Car Trouble

Before I moved here I knew nothing about native orchids, but there are several species that grow on our property. Right at the moment two species are flowering.

This is a Tall Greenhood, and it is right beside the driveway:

Several flowers open and a few buds to come at the top. These pop up in various places over the property, but this particular one is in a spot where I have never seen it before.

The other orchid in flower is the Nodding Greenhood:

Each plant has just one flower. They grow in many places on the block, singly or in small groups like this.

Something that doesn't bring much joy: 

My car being loaded onto a tow truck at 9:30 at night in the rain. Hopefully it will be repairable, but I won't know until next week some time.

April Bits and Pieces

More than 2 weeks since my last post. Here's a bit of what has been happening in that time.

These tubs of someone's unwanted fabric arrived at my place:

And a cardboard box of thread cones. Now I have the fun task of sorting through them to see if there is anything useful, and disposing of all of it appropriately. And then the donor wants the tubs back. 

Early one morning I looked out and saw two wallabies munching grass shoulder to shoulder. One noticed and looked at me:

And then her big baby noticed she had stopped eating and stood up to see what was going on:

Too cute!

I assembled this top:

The pattern is called "Simply Woven". I made a couple of blocks some time during a lockdown, then put it aside and forgot about it until I was doing some tidying up a few months ago. Now it is on my list of tops to be quilted.

I went to the Australasian Quilt Convention, which was back in Melbourne this year. The trip to Melbourne involved buses for part of the way due to track works, but was cheap because the regional fares have been reduced since my last trip a few weeks ago. I had been asked to buy some fabric for a friend, but when I found the retailer's stall they hadn't brought the particular line of fabric with them. For myself I bought a spool of thread and an irresistible panel from New Zealand.

I got my 5th covid vaccination.

I've managed to break both my hearing aids this month, although not both at once, and not in the same way. At the moment the left one is off being fixed.

As my sister was packing up her house to move last year, she asked me to rescue a dahlia plant which was dormant at the time, but which had some sentimental importance, (I don't remember now what that was so must ask her again):

Well when I dug it up I thought, that's not a dahlia, there was no tuber. But I potted it, and it grew, and is now flowering (as well as being covered in aphids I see), and it is a chrysanthemum. So maybe it was a Mother's day gift one year? It is a beautiful colour, anyway. I'll have to find a good spot for it in the garden for next year.

We had the opening of our miniature quilt exhibition. Here's a taste of what that was like:

It is on at the Mercure Hotel and Convention Centre, 613 Main Rd, Ballarat until 14th May if you are in the area.

I've been making these blocks, now I have to work out how to sew them together. Which arrangement do you prefer?

The pattern is "Pickle Dish Variation". I made the first components last November, and have been making one or two every so often since. Do you like them all facing the same way, or alternating?

Growing Things

 Look!

The hippeastrum flowers have opened in time for Christmas. They are a little ragged around the edges - I think a slug or snail had a nibble on the bud before I brought the pot inside to protect it. 

Meanwhile outside this is happening:

Remember all the boxes on the back of the ute earlier this month? Yesterday a cement mixer delivered the concrete for the footings all those bits will be assembled on, and now the assembly has begun.

Out of Iso

Last Sunday at 3:38am I was sent a very long text message about what I had to do having tested positive to covid. Part of it said "You can leave isolation on 11/06/2022." So I suppose now I'm free to go.

(Beautiful cyclamen gift from my neighbour the day before I got sick).

Each day (including today) I have been sent a link to a reporting tool to record my symptoms, including blood oxygen levels. (The same neighbour kindly collected the oxygen meter from the health service in Ballarat for me). For the first few days someone from the local health service rang to talk to me about how I was going, but they haven't bothered since Wednesday. I suppose by then they knew I wasn't sick enough for them to be concerned.

For a day or two during the week I couldn't taste anything, and for a day I could hardly stand up or walk because my balance was was all screwed up. The well-known symptoms of runny nose, cough, sore throat and tiredness gradually lessened during the week, and now I feel just about back to normal.

Sometime during the week a large chunk of a tree fell down on our block:

But we only noticed it yesterday.

One of my zygocactuses almost has a flower:

These used to flower for my birthday in the city, but they are a couple of weeks or so later in the colder climate here.

I don't know if a rapid test will still show up as positive. I will have to try one at home before going to visit my mother. Don't want to drive all that way only to find out that they won't let me in.

This afternoon I made a couple of test blocks for Preeti's 2022 Positivity Quilt-Along. Block tutorial here.

I will probably make enough for a small quilt to donate here. But I was also interested in the block because of something that has been in the back of my mind for a while, that I mentioned when I took a trip to Amitié 4 years ago.

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.

Daylesford

This afternoon we took a drive to Daylesford. We took a walk around the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens.

Parked under giant conifers at the top of the hill:

An interesting (unlabelled) artwork:

The sun was intense (not surprising, the day after the solstice), so the shady fernery was inviting:

I found this amazing dragonfly hanging out under some brilliantly coloured lilies:

This flower was a puzzle:

I have no idea what it is. Anyone recognise it? I've got pictures of the leaves as well it that would help.

None of this was the main reason for being in Daylesford. There's a clue in this ornament hanging on my Christmas tree:

This has been the year of the vaccine. The government recently brought forward the wait time for third doses; we had been due to get them at the end of January, but suddenly we were almost eligible. We made booster bookings in Ballarat on New Year's Eve, but then came the announcement that due to the various holidays we could get them before Christmas if we wanted. Hooray! We just had to find a clinic with spots available, which is how we found ourselves in Daylesford this lovely afternoon, getting doses of the cutest-sounding vaccine, Moderna's Spikevax.

Bluestones

Way back near the beginning of the year, a Melbourne friend was doing some garden renovation, and offered me some bluestones she didn't need any more.

Travelling to and from Melbourne has been off the cards for a lot of the time since, but today was finally the day to go and get the bluestones, tour the garden, and enjoy a lovely lunch with her, her husband, and another Melbourne friend I hadn't seen for most of the year.

Bluestones loaded into the back of the ute, along with mail we collected from the postoffice on the way.

As well as the stones, I came home with plant gifts from each of my friends.

An epidendrum orchid above, and an Austromyrtus dulcis below:

Also known as a midgen berry. It is a pretty shrub with attractive flowers, which are apparently followed by delicious berries. It will be interesting to see if it bears any berries in our climate, and if they are as sweet as "dulcis" would imply.

And here's how the stones were moved around at this end of the journey:

Hooray for the tractor!

Clarkesdale

 Eager participants at our bonus field trip to the Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary, rugged up for a wintry day:

Last time we visited we saw very few birds but they were everywhere this time. I didn't get a lot of photos of birds, but had a great time anyway.

 

Yellow robin, in the gloom of a rather cold and grey summer afternoon:

This little grey fantail posed beautifully for me, then took to the air just as I clicked:

I was luckier with this superb fairywren:

There were also lots of wildflowers out. This banksia doesn't count as it was planted rather than being native to the area, but isn't it gorgeous?

It is so nice to be able to have get-togethers like this again! We're squeezing in one more next Tuesday as well.

Last of October

We went for a longer walk than normal with the dogs, taking a route we haven't followed for quite a while. Jack proved his worth as an echidna hunter again, alerting us to this one which was digging into an embankment in search of its food, ants.

I wonder how echidnas manage bites like the one I got on Wednesday? Does the ant venom not affect them? Or do they avoid the worst biting ants?

Also spotted on the walk was this blue flower, growing in a weedy roadside:

It is apparently common flax, Linum usitatissimum, the source of linen and linseed. I put my photos on iNaturalist as it was a new plant to me, where it was identified by a Russian guy who is the top identifier of common flax world wide. But mine is the only observation of common flax anywhere in Australia. How can that be? According to VicFlora, common flax is present and naturalised in every state of Australia: Flax distribution. It is a mystery!

Rescue Attempt

Today in Bunnings there were some very sad looking plants which had been $27, marked down to:

I bought this one because it has one new leaf forming, so it isn't as dead as it looks.

I should have made sure the new leaf was visible in the photo, shouldn't I? Anyway, I hope I can revive the plant, but if you never see this plant on my blog again it will mean that it didn't survive.

Indoor Flowers

This Bilbergia brom which has been inside for some months, has popped out a flower:

And the "lumps" growing under the leaves of my African violet are now definite buds:

Now I've noticed the same tiny lumps on another African violet:

I can't see it clearly even with my glasses on, as it is so small. But that tiny light dot in the middle looks like a bud forming on my first African violet, which Sue gave me last May.

Flowering Trees

Most of the eucalypts on our block are either messmate stringybark (Eucalyptus obliqua) or narrow-leaf peppermint gums (Eucalyptus radiata). Both seem to have flower buds for a lot of the time, but we haven't seen them actually flower so far. However today I looked out the window and noticed that this tree by our driveway is in flower:

And it is not alone. Many of the narrow-leaf peppermint gums are flowering. The flowers are hard to see because they are so high up, but I found a smaller tree with flowers close to the ground:

I wonder if they have flowered in previous years and we just didn't notice, or is this really the first year they've flowered since we've been here?

Plants and Plants and

There are so many things on this weekend, it is going to be impossible to get to them all.

This morning I had to go to the guild Sit and Sew, because final arrangements were being made for our exhibition next weekend. After signing up for various duties, I spent some time sewing down binding on Bloom. Now I am more than 75% of the way round it.

The local branch of the Australian Plants Society have a flower show and plant sale this weekend, so that was where I headed when my shoulders told me I had sat and sewed enough. The show is at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens, so I popped in to look at the conservatory as well, where there is a display of Schizanthus:

 The massed display is beautiful, but the individual flowers are quite lovely too:

They come from Chile, and their common name is poor man's orchid, although they aren't orchids.

The display of native flowers is quite impressive, although I didn't manage to get any decent photos. This might give you a bit of an idea:

 All the flowers on display were grown by members. There must be some amazing gardens out there!

In the sale area there were a couple of commercial growers, and a smaller section which I think were grown by members. Their tubestock was 4 for $10, so here's my haul of 4:

Two very prickly blue devils, Eryngium ovinum, and two austral stork's bills, Pelargonium australe. I've been wanting to get hold of the pelargonium since seeing it flowering in the middle of a Ballarat winter on an excursion last year. I had a chance of buying a decent sized one for $1 when we had our trip to the Brisbane Ranges in September this year, but I didn't have $1 on me. So I'm very happy to finally get my hands on it!