Monday 14 January 2019

HERE AND THERE.

Hoping to blog more this year, so I've been thinking a lot of late about what I want to achieve.

     a.. A little more about my quilting & other crafts, including DH's.
     b.. Days out/holidays in photos.
     c..  Around the garden & house.
     d.   Walking to keep fit.

As I take my camera, basically, everywhere we go, I've always plenty of photos to hand, but it is thinking of what I want to say in words.  My friend Kate, has such a way with words & I struggle to make anything sound interesting enough to warrant reading.
Last week, we took a short break to Ballarat to test the car was up to pulling the caravan on a warm day & all went well.  As I sit here, thinking & writing this, it has topped the 40deg mark again & we are in for more of the same on Tuesday & Wednesday, before the temperature drops back to the low 30s.  We desperately need some rain too.
A couple of photos from before we headed off last Tuesday.
I picked these daisies, Eryngium & Echinops before a hot day was predicted so I could enjoy before they wilted outside.
On the Monday morning, I had these two visitors.  King Parrots, a male & female, which I don't get often enough.  Aren't they beautiful?
Monday evening saw the sky looking like this, due to a large bushfire, burning in East Gippsland.  It has been contained, but these heatwave conditions aren't good.

Tuesday, off to Ballarat.  I saw my friend Joy for a chat on Tuesday evening, then Wednesday we headed down to Torquay to visit a large quilt shop called Amitie Textiles.  I forgot to take any photos, but did purchase just "ONE" piece of fabric.  Amazing!!!!  We ate lunch near the sea.
Looking west.

Surfers among the waves.

Looking east.
Next we headed back towards Ballarat, exploring new roads as we went.  First stop was the lighthouse at Split Point.
The lighthouse & what would have been the keeper's cottage.

From a vantage point on the boardwalk, we could see this lone rock.  There are many of these along The Great Ocean Road, which runs along the south western coast of Victoria.
On Thursday, we took ourselves off to Ballarat Botanic Gardens, which some may remember, have featured quite a bit on my blog, especially when we lived there for a short time.  Of course, first stop was the giant glasshouse.
Lilies, which smelt heavenly.

Masses of fuschias, perlargoniums, hosta, japanese maples, all in pots, so they can be moved in & out seasonally.

Hydrangeas.

Heuchera, hostas & a few other bits.

This time of year they were planting up outside, getting ready for the Begonia Festival, held in March/April.  I spotted some topiary, which is quite new.
Think everyone will know what these are!
Lastly, a few special trees, classified by our National Trust.

Bunya Bunya Pine.


Tasmanian Blue Gum & a rare moment of hubby hugging a tree.  That's usually me.
Enough from me waffling on.  I'll be here again before January closes to start, what I hope, will be a couple of ongoing challenges/goals, I want to do this year.
Take care all & huggles.
Susan.

19 comments:

  1. How lovely to look outside and see King Parrots, what a wonderful sight. I love your pictures of the coast bathed in sunshine, though a little too hot for me. I've been fancying a trip to the seaside and it's quite mild here at the moment so we may have a day trip if the weather holds.

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    1. Thanks Jo, you'd love the birds. I need to get to the seaside at least once a month, though that particular day was really windy & we couldn't even light our little gas stove to boil the kettle for a cuppa. Had to be extravagant & buy one(giggle). Hope you get your day out for some sea air.

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  2. Loving your pictures Susan and don't worry about having a way with words. Your fine. Some people are definitely more poetic than others, I am definitely not one of the poets. Love your parrot visitors and such wonderful sea colours . X

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  3. Lovely photos and words, Susan. Your visit to the coast looks wonderful as does your visit to the botanical gardens. How marvellous to have those colourful birds in your garden:)

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    1. Thank you Rosie. Feeding days for the birds are a bit of a laugh, as they can be so comical, pushing each other about, chattering & chirping & even falling off the fence.

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  4. What a lovely selection of photographs you've shared here, I enjoyed every one of them.
    Thank you.

    All the best Jan

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  5. The parrots are beautiful. I guess you don't have to worry about squirrels raiding the bird feeder like we do. Beautiful trees and ocean pics. Hope it was a bit cooler near the water. I'll enjoy seeing your quilting projects. I'm trying to complete some that are aging in the closet.

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    1. Thanks Joanna & definitely no squirrels here. I saw your project that you are finishing & left a comment. I've just pieced backing to put another one on the machine.

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  6. Hi Susan - oh my sweet do not worry how you write, your words give a comfortable feeling of sitting next to you while you chat about your week - it is just perfect.
    I also find that when you mention a place - I instantly googlemap it to see where it is - my geographical knowledge of Australia is improving :D
    xx

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    1. Thanks Kate & you won't believe this, but I'd just said I might try & phone you tonight. I forget that people possibly don't know where I'm talking about in Oz, although I know most places are in the UK. Take care.

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    2. Thanks too funny, I thought it was just me looking up locations on Google Maps. Well done Kate. xx

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  7. Stunning parrots, what a treat to see those.
    Love the Blue Gum tree, that does look impressive.
    Warm weather and blue skies.... lovely, unfortunately, we woke to a sprinkling of the white stuff today, although the sun has come out and melted it away now.

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    1. Thank you Julie. Glad you enjoyed the birds & trees, but I'm not sure you'd enjoy the searing temperatures that we are having at the moment.

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  8. I always struggle with the words too, I'm so envious of other blogs sometimes and how they're written, some people can even describe the most mundane kinds of days so well and make them interesting to read about! Your photos are beautiful!

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    1. Thanks Louise & for making me realise I'm not the only one with 'word block'.

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  9. So much in one delicious post that I don't know what to love the most :-)

    There you go - if you made a separate post for each of the lovely different things you've done, you would instantly be blogging more {giggle}.

    I would love to visit those gardens, and the views of the sea are just sublime. xx

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  10. Thanks Jayne, but I also hear you being cheeky! I'm sure you'd love the gardens & I've another titbit from there for the Scavenger Hunt.

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