A Bunch of Stuff

I have fallen behind with blogging, and can't remember half the days I've missed. So here are some random photos taken since my last post, to bring me roughly up to date:

Ron's orchid started opening:

A load of dirt was dropped on the "lawn":

A few days later it was spread over the lawn to even out the surface, but I don't have any photos of that.


Blossom on a pear tree:

And a quince:

I adore the quince flowers.

I started quilting my Amanda Herring "Friendship Quilt", then had a bobbin problem:

 Then with the help of some internet advice, fixed it and could continue:

The first rose of the year:

Rugosa rose looking a bit strange because it was raining that day.

Visited an amazing display put on by the local Orchid Society:

Had two friends come to lunch one day and didn't take any photos. But it was lovely to see them!

Planted out the rest of my garden "bed":

Had to re-do the "pillow" section as well as the soil in it was completely hydrophobic so the plants were not growing.

Saw my brother for the third time in 37 years. And didn't take any photos.

This is the end of the tulips in the layered pot:

They have given us a lovely display over six weeks since the first one opened on 12th September.

And now the sweetpeas have started:

Apple Blossom

While we were away the apple trees started flowering:

Pretty pink buds that open up to white flowers.

But look at this one:

This is the blossom of a Redlove apple. The fruit has red flesh, and it appears that the flowers and leaves also have some of the red colouring.

Stay At Home Retreat

This weekend was my quilt guild's annual "stay at home" retreat. I had trouble deciding what to take with me to work on, as the main thing I need to do is my Christmas challenge piece for this group, and that has to remain secret.

In the end I took three things to do, and got them all done.

1. Binding and label added to the charity quilt with polar fleece backing that I quilted a week ago:

2. Backing made for my "Easy Street" quilt:

That's three lengths of fabric sewn together to make backing for this nearly 2.5m square quilt. Easy Street was the Bonnie Hunter mystery in 2012. Mine was last seen here in July 2016, when I was adding borders. Now I have the top, the batting, and the back ready. How long until I get it basted, I wonder?

3. Appliquéing the last three-and-a-half of these things:

That's the fourth side done for this round of Rajah Revisited. It has been a long time coming. I made the first side in March, finished the second side in June, and have taken another four months to get to this point. Here's how it all looks so far on the design board at home:

The top and bottom borders aren't attached yet, because see those bare corners? They are now meant to get something like this added:

I'm considering my options.

I was told beforehand that you should take far more than you can achieve to the retreat. I failed in that respect, but I'm glad that I did finish what I took with me!

Happy Dogs

Collected from the boarding kennel on our way home.


A quick look around the garden to see what's happened in our absence. The tulip pot's final flush of flowers:

Flowers on the lilac:

Redbud flowers:

Then it was time for some serious sitting quietly with dogs.

Canberra to Albury

First stop today was the National Museum of Australia to see the museum itself, which is new since my last visit to Canberra, and the exhibition "Rome: City+Empire", which features objects on tour from the British Museum.

Many attractions in Canberra are free to enter, but you have to pay for parking. eg the Arboretum, the Botanic Gardens, and the Museum. Each attraction has signs up saying that the parking proceeds are invested in the attraction. At the museum this morning, the parking machine took all my money, said it was printing a ticket, and then nothing happened. Someone else tried it after me and the same thing happened, so it wasn't something I'd done wrong. We took note of the machine number, and went into the museum to report it. But they were not a lot of help - they don't run the parking machines, it is another company. The guy at the desk looked up a phone number for me to ring and tell them what had happened so I wouldn't be fined. I duly did, but after I had given the lady the machine number and my rego, she told me that I had to ring their faults number to report it. She couldn't put me through. I had had enough of being messed around by then and we just went and bought another ticket from a different machine. To me, if the car park is for your attraction, you should have some idea how to solve issues with it, not just fob people off with, "We don't run the carpark". Rant over!

The Rome exhibition is very good. Objects range from giant marble statuary:

To tiny objects like this copper and enamel brooch found in England, and made between 100-200 CE:

And this beautiful silver wine cup found in France:

It looks like it could be from the 1920s, but was actually made in 220-270CE.

We had a quick look through some other parts of the museum. It would take more time than we had to see everything, but our general impression was that it seemed rather "NSW-centric" rather than "National" in its focus. Melbourne, I kid you not, is represented by some mud and muddy water from the Yarra River. If you want to talk about water, how about an analysis of Melbourne's lovely drinking water compared with the disgusting water of other cities. Like Sydney. Or Canberra, for that matter! We've been missing our Lal Lal rainwater on this trip.

Phar Lap's heart is here:

Or maybe it's a fake. See the linked Wikipedia article for details. Sorry about the reflection of my hand.

Display in the foyer of an FJ Holden (one owner, who purchased in it 1955 and drove it until 1980) with a Propert "Trailaway" caravan from 1956 (no owner, it was a promotional unit).

Farewell, Canberra!


Back on the road, our next stop was the Dog on the Tuckerbox again. Compare these two photos:

It is interesting to see what has changed and what hasn't in the intervening years. The top photo was some time in the early 70s.

Next stop - Holbrook, where there is a submarine in a park:

 a submarine museum,

and a picnic shelter that resembles parliament house:

 If you would like to know why the town is obsessed with submarines despite being 430km from the nearest port, you can check out the Wikipedia article I linked to.

Finally, our destination for the day, Albury. We are staying in a "self-rated 4-star" motel, which anyone else might rate a star or two less, but which is quiet, comfortable enough, and close to the Albury Botanic Gardens.

It was a beautiful evening for a walk around the gardens.

A friendly-looking dinosaur (and baby behind) at the entrance to the children's section of the gardens - unfortunately closed on Wednesdays.

The gardens were opened in 1877, and have some beautiful big trees, including bunya pines, a massive kauri, and this ginkgo included for Jenni:

They also have an app you can use to report sightings of wildlife in the gardens, which could be fun if you were a local:

Our holiday is drawing to a close. This time tomorrow we will be back home.

A Huge Day of Plants

This is going to be a big blog post, because this was a big day! Floriade, the National Arboretum, and the National Botanic Gardens. All plants, all day. So if plants aren't your thing, you might want to skip this post.

OK, this isn't a plant:

It is the National Carillon. (Everything in Canberra is "The National" Something-or-Other). 50 metres tall, home to a bunch of bronze bells, it was a gift to Canberra from the British Government on Canberra's 50th birthday.

We parked by the carillon and walked along R.G.Menzies Walk around Lake Burley Griffin to Floriade. Look who we met on the way:

Sir Robert himself, from back in the days when Australia could keep a Prime Minister for longer than five minutes. (Hat is not part of the sculpture.) In the background, the National Library and the High Court.

Eventually we reached Floriade:

This is the first time I have been able to attend this festival of flowers. Somehow I had imagined that it was a Canberra-wide thing, with floral displays all through the city. But in fact it is one 4-hectare site, which makes it easier to see all at once. As you can see from the sign, this year had a "Pop Culture" theme. Personally I don't think it really worked. Can you tell what the design of the garden bed in front of the sign is? Each garden bed was planted to illustrate some aspect of pop culture. But as most of the beds are viewed from human height, it is impossible to make out the design. You can see that there are odd blotches of colour, but you would have to be able to view them from above to see the design. Looking at the designs on the Floriade website, I think that the garden bed above is Marilyn Monroe's face. Looking at the garden bed, it just looks like a mess.

Other beds could just be enjoyed as swathes of flowers:

If you love tulips, there were plenty to enjoy:

But there were also daisies and pansies and other flowers to add to the depth of colour in the beds.

That's probably enough Floriade pictures. I took heaps, but you don't need to see them all to get the idea, I'm sure.

Walking back to the car I remembered to photograph this view:

Parliament House behind old Parliament House.

The path beside the lake is studded with memorials of one kind or another. This one struck me as a little strange:

It is a memorial to the Australians who died in the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004. What I find odd (and a little tasteless) about it is that nowhere does it mention the fact that about 230,000 people died in that disaster. It only marks the deaths of 26 Australians.

Chapter Two.

Next stop, the National Arboretum.

This is the inside of the visitors' centre. The roof is designed to resemble the leaves of a fan palm. From this building there are panoramic views of the arboretum and to the mountains which surround Canberra. We joined an introductory talk, conducted each hour by volunteer guides, which was very informative.

Kids (and others) flying kites they made in a school holiday program:

The arboretum consists of forests of 100 trees, of about 100 different species of rare, threatened or iconic trees from around the world. Some are still to be planted, and most of the ones which have been planted are still quite small:

 It would be great to be able to return every 5 or 10 years to watch these forests develop.

The whole site covers about 250 hectares (600 or so acres) which was previously a pine plantation destroyed by bushfires in 2003. Here you can see part of the arboretum between remaining sections of the pine plantation:

At this time of year, many of the deciduous species are only just leafing out, so they are hard to see in these photos. And unfortunately we had just missed the cherry blossom!

View to the visitors' centre with Black Mountain on the far right:

Just imagine what it will all look like in seasons and years to come.

The visitors' centre also hosts a bonsai collection:

And a display garden of plants suitable for Canberra gardens:

Seeing those redbuds in full flower made me wonder what mine is doing at home. The flowers were almost opening when I last looked at it.

Trying out the panorama setting on my new camera:

Chapter Three.

After such a big day we only explored part of the Australian National Botanic Gardens. The visitors' centre has an exhibition of artworks by Dirk Lejeune that I really liked. His pieces are made of timber, bark, and crosscut branches:

Outside the visitors' centre we met this fellow as we were sitting eating icecreams:

He (or she) is an eastern water dragon. He ran over to gobble up any crumbs we dropped.

On dry days (like today) the rainforest gully is sprayed with a fine mist:

which kids love to play in!

The gardens were lovely, but I was so exhausted I took almost no photos. This sign woke me up a bit though:

After that it was time to head back to the motel for a bit of a rest before we ventured out again for dinner at an Indian restaurant we had spotted nearby, Bombay Spice House. The food was excellent.

Well done if you made it to the end of this marathon post. Thanks for sticking with me!