A new week

I don't know why a broken rib should effect my brain, but it has.   Thinking is a problem so I am going to try and put that aside for a few days.  I had meetings and things on this past weekend, I thought.  I turned up on both days to things that will happen in the future!!  I am not with it.

Most of the feral flowers are now finished but I did find this iris.

Now there are lots of seed pods getting ready for next year.

My husband told me that the boganvillia I had planted was some other plant, so I went a bought a new one, only to find he was looking at the wrong plant.  I have 2 plants climbing on the back patio.  I would love them to look like this.

But they still have not grown too much and look like this.

I live in hope.  But my lavender and rosemary are doing fine.  The rosemary was bought in the fruit and veg section of the supermarket and has just taken.

And some of the other flowers are looking good.

I have finally got Bear to go in and out by the doggy door.  Just in time I think.  I found a dogs jaw bone the other day.

And then came upon these two wandering around.

They are last things I need in the house.

I can't concentrate on sewing so have been confined to mending. 

I suppose that does qualify as sewing, but it is boring.

Where I live and planning some more knitting

I am a bit stiff and sore after digging a new flower bed but it is spring and time to get things in the ground to grow. 

My 'feral flowers' this week are all from the bush with the exception of a few lavender flowers I put it for their perfume and a couple of azalea flowers for colour. The rest are considered weeds.   The crucifix orchid also come in a pink, purple and yellow but it is the orange ones that have gone wild.

It has been a sad week with the death of a childhood friend across the border.  There was no opportunity to see her again or talk to her but that is COVID.  My cousin, who is also across the border has cancer, caused by the drugs she was given when she was treated for breast cancer a number of years ago.  Our mothers where first cousins who were brought up as sisters and my mother died from breast cancer and her mother survived.  We know that we carry the gene and Beverly has been the unfortunate one who got the very aggressive form.

Her daughter so wanted children but after years of IVF treatment finally gave up.  Now at 44 years of age she finds herself pregnant.  I just gave away all my baby wool stash thinking I would never need it again.  I should have known something like this would happen.  I can order more wool on-line to knit her a hap.

A Hap is a Scottish shawl that can be used for a babe or an adult.

This pattern is from Shetland Traders.

The Danish Royals left hospital with their twins wrapped in haps.

This pattern is an old Paton's one that I have used before.  You can still get it on-line.

But we know the new baby is going to be a boy so perhaps a blue hap would be better?

The baby is due in January so I might look at knitting it in 1ply yarn?   I can get that from Bendigo Woollen Mills or from Scotland.

J & S knitting mills have a good article about haps.

And as an extra I see that Julie Williams from Little Cotton Rabbits is going to put out a koala pattern.  I must get that.

I need to get my current knitting finished so I can get started.

 

Where I live

Not being able to get out and about, most of my life seems to be centred around my home.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, just a bit different and I am sure there are a lot of other people around the world who's lives are much the same.

I had wanted to buy the house at the back of mine to move it onto another block so I could have a big garden but that didn't happen. 

So, I have put most of my attention into the garden I have, including the patios and verandahs.

 

  It is small and easy to manage and I have the bush across the road and the beach, so really I didn't need a big garden to look after.  I just wanted one.  It is a steep climb back to the house from the beach.

Every week I collect flowers from the bush for the house.  I can't pick native plants but there are plenty of 'feral' flowers where people have dumped plants in the bush.

I planted some more bushes to make the verandah more private and at the side of the house came upon feathers.

My little assistant, who is my shadow alerted me to them.

Then I noticed that the PeeWees have gone missing.  The males were always attacking their refections in the windows now they are suddenly gone.

I don't think it is the eagles, although they are always flying over.

And I know of no cats anywhere nearby.  I suspect some of those big crows that are around are the killers.

I suppose that is just how nature works.

Moreton Bay Fig Trees

Often when I turn up for the barge or ferry they are not there.  I have knack for arriving at morning tea or lunch time, when they don't run.  I am getting better at this and if it it lunch time I will get a take-away to eat in the car while I wait.  But the car isn't a very interesting place to sit so I have been driving down the dead end streets that run off the main road that goes to the jetty just to see where they lead. 

Whilst doing this I found a small park at the end of one of these little roads and it sits at the waters edge. It only has a garbage bin and one seat but it has a beautiful Moreton Bay Fig tree to sit under.  (My husband looks like a bushranger with his mask on.)

The same kind of tree that was in my book 'Memorial", but this one is only a teenager.  I shouldn't have been surprised because we live right on Moreton Bay but you don't see many of these giants around.  There are some here and there but like all fig trees they have invasive roots and most people do not have gardens big enough to accomodate them. This teenager spreads its branches across the width of three properties.

The trunk of this one has seen better days.  It looks like someone started a fire here, but it survived.

The birds have dropped seeds of the umbrella tree that have sprouted at the base and up in the branches.

The sunlight seen through the leaves is like a painting.

The fruit hasn't ripened as yet.  I will have to check if it you eaten by the indigenous people that lived here.  It has such a huge crop you would think so.

It was low tide when I took these pictures.  At high tide the water come right to the edge of the grass.  You look out over what some consider just a mud flat but there is lots of sea grass that extends far out.  No wonder we have Dugong living here.

Source: https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/dugong

This will definitely be where I will sit whilst I wait for the barge in future.

Where I live

The season is about to turn.  How do I know?  My neighbours blossom tree is in flower.

I look for this every year and know that spring isn't that far away.  Jane, my neighbour, has adopted an old Jack Russel dog named Buddy.  He is a lovely old man and keeps the kookaburras at bay along with all the other birds who try to steal the chicken's food.

I can see it is time to start planting my summer crops.  Jane has her's underway and her chickens are helping to prepare the soil.  We have all taken to having some native bee hives placed in our gardens as well.  Native bees have no sting and the honey is delicious.

My vegetable garden is just some styro-foam boxes.  I can move these around out of the salt wind off the water and into the best positions.  I usually get a good crop of salad vegetables.  Jane lives one street back from the waters edge and is sheltered from the salt winds.  I would love a garden like this.

But then I have the water views so stryo-foam boxes it has to be.

The dangers of wildlife

I love to sit on my patio outside my sewing room.  It is on the first floor and I have a great view of the gardens,

and the sky.

In winter it is warm and pleasant to sit here and read, have morning tea or lunch at my little table.

But I was given a rude shock!  I was about to take a bite of my sandwich when it was stolen by this rude bird.

And he was so brazen and didn't say thank you.  Then he was joined by another brazen fellow, who was only there for the company.

At least he didn't want MY food but I'm sure he was looking for me to feed him. (It has been raining and he is a mess.  I'd say he has been digging for worms or some other unspeakable things.)  That magpie had the audacity to come back and look for more food.  Then when it wasn't forthcomming to sing very loudly next to my ear!  (That beak looked very sharp so close to my head.) Then he jumped onto the table and looked under the plate and eye-balled me, as if to say "I want more food".  Some one needs to teach him some manners.

Where I live

If there is one bird that you associate with the island it is the Stone Kerlew.  These birds are endangered everywhere else, but not here.  Here they thrive.

They have a piercing call and being a night bird it can be heard ringing out in the still of the night.

Visitors to the island can find the calls disturbing.  The indigenous people say they are calling remembering the death of children.  It is a mournfull call.  I have been taking photos of them for years but have yet not been able to embroider one.

On the home front I am looking after my nieghbours chickens.

I have always had a love affair with chickens since I was a child but ours were always in a hutch.  These ones range freely, although they don't go very far and are always around when it is feeding time.  I had no idea they were so fierce.  They fight the kookaburras, crows, ibis and any other birds who try to take their food.  The other day I had the lawn covered with feathers where an ibis had come off second best.  Still I love to hear them clucking around.  They like to be talked to and praised when they lay an egg. 

I love chooks, but my husband doesn't like them.  Says they attract snakes, so he bought me a concrete one instead.

Not nearly as good as the real thing.

 

Another day

I think that it is actually winter now.  The temperature ranges from about 6 to 22 degrees C but the sun shines and the days are beautiful. Even the weeds look good.

I walk the dog along the beach or along the forest paths and just can't believe how blessed I am to live in such a beautiful place.

  But many  people only see the beauty and don't realise just how dangerous these beautiful waters around our islands are.  Just on the other side of Stradbroke Island  (seen in the distance) the Pacific Ocean pounds in causing currents and dangerous waters in our bay.

Even when the jet skiers travel in groups they can come to grief.

There are dangerous currents, sharks, and other dangers that people underestimate.  In the last few weeks two young men have lost their lives, although as yet their bodies have not been recovered.  One was a jet skier the other a paddler.  Both have disappeared without a trace.

It pays to respect Mother Nature and not take liberties.

Where I live

We have had quite a lot of rain over the last 24 hours and it has turned quite cool.  Cold enough to put on a cardigan and button it up.  The rain has flushed lot of insects out of the ground and the Kookaburras and Magpies are feasting on them and getting very wet.  I have been watching the caterpillars which are on the move at the moment.  The seem to join up head to tail to make one giant animal.

We have been having some wonderful sunsets lately.  They bring joy to my soul.

One thing about the wet weather is that I don't feel guilty just sitting and sewing.

Fungi

The recent rains has seen an explosion of fungi on the island.  Some I have never seen before and some are familiar.  These ones were all over the place.

I think these were related.

and these were so unusual.

Some plants must have been dumped here at the side of the road and have now taken over.

There  has been so much rain that even a block of grass can look good.

Home gardens are flourishing.

Even the statues in the gardens seem to like the rain.

I suppose it fits the cycles of "droughts and flooding rains."