Crinum Bulbs Around Coburg

Seeing this flower bud this morning reminded me that the rest of this post has been sitting round as a draft for months.

This is a flower forming on one the crinum bulbs rescued back in April. This one should be more successful than the previous flower which came up in the middle of winter before the whole clump was knocked back by the frost.

Here's the previous flower open:

All those leaves were destroyed by the frost. The new ones haven't yet regrown to that extent.

The rest of this post is pictures of the same bulbs growing in lots of different properties around this suburb. The strange thing is that I have not seen them in any of the adjacent suburbs. Most of the houses where they are growing were built over 80 years ago, and have gardens that have not been "renovated" in quite some time. It seems the bulbs were passed around the neighbourhood at some time in the past, but as I've never seen one in any of the houses built by post-war migrants, (whose gardens tend to be full of easily-propagated plants), I think that sharing must have happened before the second world war. So these clumps of bulbs have probably all outlived the people who planted them!

These ones in a house built in the 1880s or 1890s:

1920s house:

1920s house:

Most recent I've seen so far, built in either 1930s or 1940s:

1920s:

This house has been covered in bricks at some point, so most identifying features are missing, but it could be 1910s:

In another street which is mainly more recent houses, the only ones I found are on the nature strip outside a 1920s house:

Scruff checking them out.

Peeping over the side fence of another 1920s house:

These pictures were all taken back in winter. I will have to walk past them all again now to see if they also are starting to flower as the weather warms up.

100,000 Steps

Since I got the Vivofit a week ago. And here's my reward:

Wild and Goosey Progress - A Block!

Last night I managed to complete one whole Wild and Goosey block:

I tried to do some more today but was having some machine problems. And I haven't found the machine oil since I moved house.

For this quilt I am only using scraps and offcuts from other projects. I'm not cutting into any fabrics from my stash. Not that I'm short of stash fabrics, but I've got too many bits and pieces that are "too big to throw out", but too small to do much with! It will be interesting to see how big the quilt gets before I run out of "bits". The tiny light triangles are mainly offcuts from step 2 of last year's Bonnie Hunter mystery. A lot of the medium and dark fabrics are from that mystery or Easy Street from the year before. I was wondering what I would use for the centre sashing, as I only had small pieces of light-coloured fabrics, but then the instructions from a few printed panel projects I made years ago came to light. I found them tucked away in a shoe-box during the move. I thought it was an empty box, and grabbed it to pack some breakable thing on the last night, and possibly said a rude word when I realised it wasn't empty, but was in fact MORE bits of fabric!

Windows

Took a trip today to the outer eastern suburbs to look at some windows.

Outside view:

Double-glazed bushfire-resistant windows, recommended by our architect.

Inside, the window opens up completely:

Or, if you turn the handle the other way, it opens just a little from the top:

That's the same window in each picture. They are called "tilt and turn" windows, and they're amazing! They are also very effective at blocking noise (not that noise will be much of a problem at Lal Lal). They seal completely when shut, so no drafts will get in. That will make a change from the poor old windows in my former house.

Statistics

Horrible statistics:

My activity tracker reveals that I spend most of my time doing nothing! Walking 9 kms yesterday only took 13% of the day, and the rest of the time I apparently just sat around. (Reading, sewing, doing crosswords, watching TV, browsing the internet...)

My first goal will be to minimise those red "inactive for more than 1 hour" periods, then I intend to get my "sedentary" time down to less than 50% of the day!

Dog Growth

In February, he was a cute little puppy:

In June, he had become an adolescent dog:

And now, Jack is bigger than Sam:

Golden Spring

In spring, the block at Lal Lal takes on a golden tone, as the "egg and bacon" plants flower.

There seems to be several species of these shrubs on the block. They are probably Eutaxia species,

but identifying which species could take some time.

For contrast, a tiny Australian native violet, Viola hederacea, growing in the northern part of the block, which is lower and has a bit more moisture:

A family of at least 5 kookaburras treated us to an intense laughing session. It is so quiet at the block; apart from bird noises, it is almost silent. That won't be hard to deal with!