Out Of Hospital

My mother has improved so much that today she was discharged from hospital, and is now in a rehabilitation centre to gain strength and movement so she is ready to go back home. Thanks to everyone for your concern over this rather stressful time!

Today I tested another part of my Hottie idea

but it is back to the drawing board for this section. I'll save this idea for a different project as the scale is too large for this one.

Back To The Machine

This is the first time I've spent at the sewing machine for over a week. I'm testing a concept for my entry in the Hottie Challenge.

I need to get moving on this - some people have finished already!

Bird-Netting Update

The bird netting has done its job keeping the sparrows away from the ripening persimmons, but it has also caught all the leaves as they have fallen

Most years the persimmon leaves turn beautiful red shades before dropping. This year, when the autumn colours have been wonderful everywhere else, it seems the persimmon isn't bothering! At least the fruit are autumn-coloured.

Earlier This Year

Last year the zygocactus (Schlumbergera truncata) flowered on my birthday.

This year it has already been flowering for about a month.

Ballarat Birthday

First I unwrapped all these goodies:

What a bunch of lovely surprises!

Then I caught a train in Sunshine. Amazingly it is $10 cheaper to take a bus to Sunshine to get the Ballarat train, than it is to take a tram into the city to catch it.

Notice lack of actual sunshine. The beanie and gloves from the first photo came in handy straight away!

In Ballarat I received a wonderful birthday present; my mother's confusion has passed — she knew who I was, she knew it was my birthday, we conversed normally. What a gift!

There was even some real sunshine. I had to stop and get a shot of this beautiful tree glowing in the sun as I headed back to the train.

Home again, I found birthday wishes had arrived from far and wide, then had a wonderful dinner (with each dish adorned with candles).

Thank you everyone for a wonderful day!

How The Seedlings Are Growing

Here's how all the Tree Project seedlings are going.

The manna gums (Eucalyptus viminalis) are the most advanced. They have grown very quickly, and are now mainly 25-30cm tall and looking very healthy:

The swamp gums (Eucalyptus ovata) are not doing quite so well. Some are about 12cms tall, but others are still quite little. They are very susceptible to powdery mildew, which is surprising for a species which apparently prefers a swampy environment.

They really look like they could do with a few straight days of sunshine, rather than the grey drizzly days we are having. They got another dose of lime sulphur after I took the photo.

The third lot of eucalypts are meant to be candlebarks (Eucalyptus rubida). However, there is such a variety of forms in this box that I really wonder if they are all the same species:

Apart from the long slender red-leafed ones and the round grey-leafed ones, there are a few others with larger, broader leaves which look more like pictures on the internet of immature candlebark leaves. So I suspect that there may have been some seed contamination in this batch.

The blackwoods (Acacia melanoxylon) are the smallest, averaging only about 4cms tall at the moment. In fact they are still germinating, three months after they were planted.

They are all healthy, despite being slow to get going.

Lastly, there are the wirildas (Acacia retinoides). Some of them are starting to grow their adult-form leaves:

The tallest is about 20cm tall, but most are still at the baby stage, and only about 4 cms tall.

They all have a few months to grow before they are planted out. Then I'm hoping to participate in the planting day and see where they will all live!

Ballarat Again

This time by train.

It is a pleasant journey. If you travel out of Melbourne in the morning, and come back in the afternoon, the trains have very few passengers.

My mother looks much better than she did on Sunday, but she is confused. We don't know if this is just due to the shock, the pain, the pain relief, the anaesthetic, the unfamiliar environment... In other words, she has a lot of physical and emotional reasons to be confused, but tests haven't shown any medical ones. However, only time will tell if she gets back to her old self.