Grocery Lucky-Dip

Since it became available, we've been using the pick-up service to collect groceries from Woolworths. In general, the service works well. You order and pay online, then select a pick-up time slot. They send a message when your order is ready, and you let them know when you arrive. They bring the bagged groceries out, you load them into your car, and off you go.

However, we have had a few strange things happen. One week there was a random bag with 2 boxes of frozen crumbed fish fillets that we didn't order. We found it when unpacking at home. No point doing a 50km round trip to take that bag back, as they would have thrown the fish out anyway as it had thawed out.

Another time we ordered and paid for 2 bags of onions, but received 2 individual onions. Nice onions, but a bit expensive at that rate!

Today I picked up our latest order, and when unpacking was surprised by this:

Definitely not on the order! I'll be happy to eat it, as I love Cherry Ripes. I don't know that they really needed to be made into a chocolate block, but obviously someone at Cadbury thought it was a good idea. But how did Woolworths come to add it to our order?

Foaming Trees

Seen today while taking a long walk in the rain:

A bit of searching once I got home lead to the information that eucalyptus bark and leaves contain saponins, which foam when wet. They don't ooze out of the tree, but wash off the the leaves and bark  when it rains. The saponins are wetting agents, that help water to soak into the soil at the base of the tree.

When I saw the foaming trees I was amazed. But now I am more amazed that I don't remember ever seeing this phenomenon before.

View

My mother has been in hospital since Monday. When I found out her bed was beside a window, I was happy for her that she would be able to see the outside world. Until I got there and saw the view myself:

Shadow

I was fascinated by this shadow as we were driving along, but didn't think to take a photo until it was nearly too late. I managed only one shot just as we were turning the corner for home:

There is a plane that you can't see because of the sun, and that power pole appeared just at the wrong moment. But I don't think I've ever seen the shadow of a contrail before.

Unexpected Item

In a hardware store?

Mitre 10 in Maryborough.

Unusual House and Garden

Last night we had the opportunity to tour a rather amazing place.

"The Old Curiosity Shop", built by James and Caroline Warwick in 1855, and decorated with "stuff" for the next 40 years.

The view of the outside today:

The oldest part of the building is covered in mosaics of shells, glass, and broken crockery. The temporary fencing in front is for safety reasons. The actual fence is a bit fragile at the moment.

This is part of the inside of that fragile fence:

Bizarre!

I've turned up the contrast on this shot, so you might just be able to make out "1855 WARWICK" in light stones in this corner of the garden:

The original shell mosaics are looking a bit sad, with many lost and broken shells, and all looking rather grey:

But the glass mosaics have kept their colour:

Some fascinating pictures taken in 1913 when everything was much newer can be seen here: State Library


This plate advertising the Coles Book Arcade caught my eye:

The Book Arcade closed in 1929. You can read about it here: The incredible Coles Book Arcade. Don't you wish you could visit a book shop with "a menagerie featuring a monkey house, a fernery, a toyland, a stationery department, a second-hand book department, a glass and china department, a refreshment room, and a confectionery department." Plus comfy chairs and a sign saying, "Read As Long As You Like – Nobody Asked To Buy."

The current owner of the house has added lots of her own whimsical touches to the garden:

One of several places to sit and enjoy the atmosphere:

Note the quinces ripening on the tree visible at the top left. That is one of two giant quince trees in the garden.


Another shady spot to sit and relax:

We went through the house as well, but I didn't feel comfortable taking photos because the owner actually lives there. But there is a newspaper article which includes better pictures than mine, and some inside the house, here: Warwicks Old Curiosity Shop.

It is an amazing place, and I'm very glad I got to see it!

I Might Need Zebra Clothes

Scientists researching why zebras have stripes have found that the stripes confuse blood-sucking flies.

Story from The Guardian: Why the zebra got its stripes.

In an experiment that involved zebras, horses, and horses dressed up as zebras, they found that Tabanid flies (think: march flies) didn't land on zebras or on the zebra-print horse coats as frequently as they did on naked horses or the exposed parts of the dressed-up horses.

Do I need to make myself some zebra-print clothes?  It's not all good news - the horseflies in the experiment still buzzed around the zebras, they just didn't land. They either veered away or bounced off. I don't really want march flies buzzing around me and bouncing off me.

Snap!

This is what happens when two people go to a very interesting talk about native bees:

They buy the book for each other!

Decorated

Ready for Christmas:

Not our ute, I hasten to say. This one was spotted in Ballan, where it may have just been transporting decorations to be hung in the street.

That Didn't Last

Last month in Aldi in Albury I saw neapolitan flavoured milk for the first time ever. Since then it has appeared in local Aldi stores, with a "Look what's new" label.

Yesterday in Geelong I saw what could be the beginning of the end of neapolitan flavoured milk:

Still "NEW", but already 50% off.

Garden Sight

An unusual decoration in someone's back yard, spotted while out walking:

Who Knew?

Apparently even the Bunnings staff were surprised when this product arrived:

When I saw them and expressed surprise, I was given this pack to take home for the dogs.

Christmas Scenes

A lovely Christmas lunch with a group of quilting friends involved:

Gifts, chocolates, gingerbread people, and even some stitching. The binding on the never-ending apple-core piece has less than a quarter to go now.

Seen on the way back to my car:

Creative Christmas "tree" and two "snowmen" made of tyres.

Back at home tonight I felt so cold that I was wearing 3 long-sleeved tops and still shivering. That doesn't seem right for the middle of December.

But it seems I wasn't the only one to be grateful when the fire was lit!

More Orange Things

Spotted in a junk shop today:

Who could resist an orange sewing machine with pretty flower decals all over it?

It is a hand-crank machine. All the mechanism moved smoothly, and the bobbin case was there. But there seemed to be a problem with the bobbin-winder. It is missing! So $89 seemed a bit steep and I left it there.

Back home in the garden some pretty orange flowers of our own:

Christmas in September?

At the supermarket today:

Christmas puddings, cakes, mince pies... It has started.

Even the reindeer are shocked, they haven't grown their antlers yet!

(Spotted on our walk this afternoon. Probably not actual reindeer.)

Book Bargain

I found this book at an Australian seller with a free postage offer last week:

Their price was nearly $20 less than other Australian sellers. I wondered how they could sell it for so much less. Now that it has arrived, I wonder if this was a poor print run being sold off cheaply rather than being pulped.

The main problem with it is that the index is incorrect. However, it is consistently incorrect, in that every pattern is two pages later in the book than the index says it is. So things are findable. Then there are a couple of patterns that are illustrated incorrectly:

I don't know if 207 and 341 are the only ones with the incorrect pictures, but they are two I noticed immediately. I haven't had the chance yet to check if the accompanying CD is correct - ie if the patterns are on the disk in the location the book says they are.

There are lots of really nice designs in it. And the "1000 Blocks" book cost less than two of the "100 Blocks" magazines, so it was definitely good value. But I would be interested to hear if the issues my copy has are general, or was this being sold off cheaply because of the errors? Anyone else got a copy they could check for me?


Added later: Apparently every copy has these mistakes! And there is an "Errata" pdf that you can download, but it doesn't even include all the mistakes I've listed in this post.

Christmas Day Moments

How do you gift-wrap a door?

My "Mr Ed" door for the sewing room. That should keep dogs out.

Strawberry Santa:

I've never seen these before, but when I got home I googled it and found heaps of variations on turning strawberries into Christmas-related goodies.

I usually wave to these three chooks as I go past:

But this time I just pointed the camera at them.

We had to drive through the fire area on the way to lunch. At the southern edge of the burnt area there are two houses apparently undamaged, but with their gardens all burnt around them. Fantastic work by the CFA to save them. I don't know if these nearby hay-bale people were set up by the owner of one of those houses, or of the undamaged building in the background of this shot:

Their signs say, "Merry Xmas", and "Thank you".

Elsewhere today fires have caused the evacuation of a few towns in the holiday areas on the coast, and there are reports of up to 60 homes lost already. Let's hope no lives have been lost.

Random Pie Truck

We've driven past this van parked in what seems like the middle of nowhere a few times:

but today it was just about lunchtime, so we stopped and sampled a couple of "Wiz In Highway Pies". And they were pretty good pies!

Old Ladies

In the past couple of days, there have been three of these large moths inside the house:

I have no idea how they got in. I've managed to catch two of them and set them free outside, but this one sitting up on the fan mounting (more than 3 metres up) has eluded me so far.

I think they are Southern Old Lady moths, Dasypodia selenophora.



And for something completely ridiculous, here's me as a Peanuts character:

I don't know that it looks much like me, but that was the only grey curly hair available. It's advertising for the Peanuts movie coming out soon. If you want to be sucked in by the viral advertising yourself, here's the site: Peanutize Me.

I LOLed

I really did laugh out loud when I read the name of this house in the neighbourhood:

Click on it to enlarge it if you can't read the small version.