Beautiful Spring Day

A glorious day for an impromptu drive to Daylesford, Castlemaine and Maldon. The countryside is as green as can be because of all the rain. But everyone was glad to see the sun again. Everyone remarked on what a beautiful day it was!

The only place I took photos on the whole trip was the garden at Spring Park Nursery at Eganstown.

Filling Gaps

I've finished quilting all the flower ball section of my current work in progress. But there were a few gaps in the background which were too small to fit any of the swirls and ruler designs I've been using. Rather than come up with some other small motif, I shrank the swirl designs by printing them 4 to a page:

The smaller designs worked well for filling those gaps. So now I think the whole thing has enough quilting. A bit of waviness has developed around the edges as I've quilted, so tomorrow I will wash and block the quilt to try to get it flat.

Open Gardens

This afternoon I finally went for a walk around the block to see if there was any more damage from the storm, and found that we have lost more trees down there. I think it is one or two whole trees, and three or four large branches have come down. And each of course breaks bits off others on the way down, so there are lots of shattered bits lying around.

Let's not think about that. Let's go back to the open gardens I visited on Sunday. Three lovely gardens belonging to members of the Ballarat Horticultural Society were open.

A few highlights:

I have one of these planters (from Kmart a couple of years ago), but haven't put anything in it yet or worked out where to hang it. Obviously it needs an echeveria, and I should have bought more than one while they were available!

Every bit of this suburban block is garden. This little courtyard area has about four rooms overlooking it. There were little bulbs and unusual plants everywhere, and I don't seem to have taken close-up pictures of any of them.

The second garden is built on the side of a hill, with wooden walkways allowing access down the steep slope:

It all looks still and calm, but in fact it felt like the wind would blow the whole garden and the visitors off the hill.

Garden beds between the walkways.

How about this echidna planter:

 There were also koalas and wombats in the same style. Cute!

The last garden is in an older house closer to the centre of Ballarat:

A lot of this garden is in pots.

 Don't throw out broken ones!

Is this a classy canary cage?

Canary whistles filled the garden, adding to the sensory delight.

I enjoyed all three gardens. All were tucked away in places I would never have come across in my regular travels, and it was a privilege to see them.

Sunshine and Ice

We've had a lot of weather lately. Today, sunshine as we cleared up the fallen tree:

Followed by hail turning everything white:

Crash!

Today was very, very windy. In the morning we visited three open gardens, which were all wonderful in their own ways. Lots of inspiration on display. But those photos will have to wait for another day, because this afternoon this happened:

A strong gust of wind brought down a tree. Fortunately it wasn't the tree the rosellas are nesting in. The branches landed in the orchard:

And amazingly seem to have missed our little fruit trees. One apple lost a branch, but everything else seems OK. The chooks were a bit shaken up, but they also are all OK. They will have to spend a few days locked in their little pen now though, until we can clear this up and repair the fence.

There are trees down all around the region, causing damage to houses, blocking roads, and cutting off power supplies. So we are lucky that this was the only damage here.

Quilt Show With Plants

More quilt shows should have stalls like this:

Plants from the Friends of the Melton Botanic Garden nursery, for sale at the Willows Quilt Show in Melton this weekend. And I spent more at the plant stall than either of the quilt-based ones.

Proof there were quilts as well:

Small challenge pieces on the theme "weather", made by members of the Willows group, and a sister group in Switzerland.

The quilt show included a few quilts by a friend that I had only seen online. They looked even better in person. There were lots of lovely quilts on display, and picking a "viewer's choice" was very difficult.

Predator Insects

A month ago aphids had found some of our newly-planted roses. But now the predators have found the aphids:

 And the ladybirds are munching their way through the aphids:

Let's hope that within a couple of weeks we have ladybird larvae as well, as they will eat even more aphids than their parents do.