October in Tribes

The time has gone very quickly since my visit to Lady Jayne's estate.  The first day back was the boys' choir.

On one of my jaunts, I noticed these Triabunna District School students hard at work.

My friend Jools had a birthday party at her home in South Hobart.  I stayed overnight and caught the Farmers Market the next day before driving home.

I have been spruiking the Dan Kelly concert everywhere I go.

I saw these nets drying as I walked to Anne's Soiree one evening.

Then there was the Saturday when 2 trucks pulled up and started to unload stuff at the Paris end of the street.

It's the infrastructure for Triabunna's own hanging garden.

We had more culture another Saturday with a play at the Community Hall.

Last Sunday was the British Car Rally at the local market.  This spiffing MG was driven by my friend Cheryl for a friend of hers who owns 3 and thus could not drive them all.

My first sit in an MG

It was also the day of the Seafarers' Memorial and Blessing of the Fleet.  Some of us go just to listen to Rod Stewart sing 'Sailing'.
There have been other delights for which there are no photos.  The usual gym, tai chi, etc but also 'A Dog's Purpose' at the Orford Odeon, lunch at the new Colonial restaurant, coffee and cake for Judy's birthday.  Also the Great Eastern Clean Up and the Marina DeBris exhibition - about which more later.  Then there's the garden, which I'll also try to capture before I go to Adelaide next week.

A gardener's lot

Lady Jayne invited me to Canberra to spend a week gardening.

Before

Fortunately there was time for Professional Development.  I realised a long held dream of walking the labyrinth at the Arboretum.  It is a concrete path so perhaps doesn't qualify as a garden but its wending ways certainly induce contemplation.

On another day we went to the National Art Gallery, mainly to look in its shop, but we also inspected Sky Space which is another contemplative space.  Sadly the dome was filled with a class of students and teachers whose ernest spiel we didn't dare interrupt so we moved on, contemplating murder.

There was also Floriade, a new experience for me.  It is all a bit overwhelming with so much floral colour and many designs needing to be appreciated from above.  I did get the Abbey Road one, though I felt Paul McCartney should have been barefooted.  Apparently Floriade gets smaller by the year which is a bit frightening because it will become virtually impossible to escape the school bands struggling mournfully.

But back to Lady Jayne's estate where the big heirloom vinyl cockatoo did little to deter the real thing

and crimson rosellas come for a hard earned drink.

More PD at Tulip Top just outside of Canberra.

Vast arrays of tulips, helpfully labelled for those intending to purchase.  To me red tulips are the real thing.

I was fascinated by a meadow of rosemary, looking one way

and the highway looking the other.

Sensorily sated and filled with Dutch Pancakes we trudged to the exit

and gaily festooned carpark.

A day's respite at Questacon with Miss Elle (she's the little one) - the tall one is not Elle McPherson.

More school students to contend with, even as we ate.

Some naughty ones were given Guantanamo Bay suits and marched away,

then pushed into Free Fall, which looked like wonderful fun - though difficult to catch on camera.

Imagine my excitement at Yarralumla nursery where they sell potted Bulbine bulbosas for $16.99.

And just to prove we were in Canberra, we drove to Black Mountain.  I have not seen the tower for quite a few years and was amused to see the new dishes hanging from it to enable our new communications technology, and looking like a tinker's caravan.

An evening's weeding after Black Mountain

After

Admittedly to the untrained eye a week's weeding may not seem to have made much difference.  But WE KNOW.  As do the self-seeded treasures that now have a chance to flourish.

bulbine bulbosa byebye

I am going away for a week so thought I'd do a quick bulbine post.  I have just returned from deadheading the bulbines at The Gatehouse, my garden away from home.

All the ones in the foreground are self-sown and I have been indulged by my council co-workers to let them stay because I believe they can become 'a host of golden bulbines'.  It looks as though it may work.

It's a joy to watch them develop buds and flowerheads.

Here's the experimental patch in my own garden.  I'm trying to merge my veggie garden with native Tasmanian foods.

I'm also trying them out in pots.  It they work, we can sell them from the Gatehouse produce stall.

Nicky from the school currently has pumpkin and zucchini seedlings for sale.  She also reworked the board with the most golden pumpkin yellow chalk.

These are very clean leeks from Mel's garden.  They inspired me to make Welsh Rarebit for tea last night.  One day I'll have a go at making it with the bulbine bulbs.  I have read that they have a mild onion flavour.

Springish

Lovely cards from lovely friends set the scene.

Yesterday we had the first sausage sizzle of the season.

And I am basking in this book, savouring the Corfu delights and Durrell's observations of fascinating animal behaviour.

Then I have Gerald's sister's book - a lesser known Durrell.  I got so enchanted with the Spring weather today I inadvertently closed the Gatehouse early.  The sun must have got to me.  24 degrees Celsius.  Perfect.

a garden that sounds interesting

The Floosie has commented that my garden sounds interesting.  And, having said that, shoots off to Mediterranean climes.  Very few people who have visited my garden would notice much difference.  But I have a plan, and I think it is starting to take shape.  Slowly.  And very subtly...

Hopefully more will become apparent as the weather warms.  The mornings can still be very frosty.

I'm hoping the wind will not blow away the apricot blossom as it did last year.  No apricots.

I've had a beautiful display of hellebores, sometimes looking good enough to eat.

Here is one new thing, but not particularly exciting yet for the viewer.  This is the garden bed under the carport - east facing, then devoid of sun.  I am gradually getting daffodils to grow here and have just planted that tiny clump of green, which is a daphne bush.  There is a daphne at the school that has been flowering for at least 2 months and is an absolute visual and olfactory delight.  May I be so blessed.

I have been blessed by this daffodil which has flowered for the first time this year.  I didn't even know it was a daffodil previously, suspecting it to be a snowflake, but when I returned from Adelaide there it was greeting me in all its glory.  May it thrive and prosper.

The other day I was disturbed by the sound of a chainsaw.  Eventually I traced the source to a chap cutting branches off this pine tree in the caravan park.  My first response was horror, of course,

but thinking logically, its demise would allow a lot more sunlight into our garden.  It is to the north-east and casts a long shadow.  I had no sooner thought this through with a rising sense of anticipation, when the wretch downed tools and has not been seen since.