An Invitation

This is a screen shot of an email I received today:

I replied and told them they had an incorrect email address in their records, but it sounds like an interesting convention!

Seven Fruitboxes

Not an exciting picture, but these fruitboxes are the basics for this year's Tree Project Re-Tree Scheme kit.

Each one contains potting mix, native fertiliser, and gravel for mulch. Each one will contain 48 tubes of seedlings. Unfortunately the seeds weren't available to be picked up today, so there will be a little wait to find out what they will be. I'm hoping for a little more variety than last year.

Joining QAYG Blocks

Started to sew together my pink and blue QAYG blocks, using a dotty pink fabric for sashing. I've got the first row joined:

I'm doing it completely by machine. Below is what it looks like as two blocks are joined together.  It probably won't make sense unless you've done this! The bit of sashing you can see under the foot is the front of the quilt, and the piece off to the left will become the back sashing later:

Here's what the joins look like at the moment.  You can see that the sashing on the back is only joined on one side so far.  Later I'll be pressing it into place, then stitching-in-the-ditch from the front to get that last piece sewn down, but I want to get all the rows assembled to this stage first.

I made the sashings a little too long because it is easier to start sewing them to the blocks that way.  Once the back one is sewn into place, I'll trim the sashing flush with the blocks, and then I'll be ready to join the rows together using the same method.

QAYG - Green and Yellow

I made these a couple of days ago, on Australia Day - but the colours are coincidental! I was cutting strips for the QAYG working bee I'm going to next Tuesday, and got carried away and made these 9 blocks.

They are not cut to the correct size yet - I don't have a square ruler in those old-fashioned inches!

Basset

Name That Tree

Can anyone identify this tree for me? It's a very large deciduous tree, growing in a neighbour's front yard. Here's what the trunk and leaves look like:

It is flowering at the moment. The flowers are a long way up in the tree, so unfortunately this picture isn't as clear as I might have liked.

I first noticed it a few years back when it flowered on bare branches in summer - perhaps it didn't like the dry hot conditions? That year it grew new leaves after flowering. Normally it is in full leaf when it flowers, and so the flowers aren't particularly noticeable.

A Different Kind of Working Bee

My lemon-scented teatree is flowering at the moment, and this year it is covered in bees.

The bees are probably very happy to find this rich source of nectar only about 10 metres from their hive. With such a short distance to fly they can probably make a lot of trips per day.

Another plant attracting the bees is the crepe myrtle:

I didn't manage to get a photo of a bee in a flower, though.