FEBRUARY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT...2020

Linking up for the second hunt of 2020 with Kate from I live, I love, I craft, I am me.
Our list of words for this month, weren't necessarily tough, but the weather has not been conducive for getting out much, even with it being summer.  Had to do quite a bit of searching through the archives & photo bombing inside.😖  I've also come up with a few doubles & a little bottom heavy(lol), you'll see what I mean as you scroll down!!
So here goes.....

1.  HEART/S.

Can you see the heart shapes indented into this rock?  I took the photo at Smith's Beach on Phillip Island some years ago.  I often wonder how rocks get to look as they do with etchings or bands of beautiful colour.  Our world is so fascinating!😖
2.  REPAIR.

I thought of many things for this word & then DH got involved & suggested repairs to our lovely MM which has happened many times over the years since we got her in 1991.  In August 2015, it was decided her timber tray back needed replacing & I happened to take a few photos of the progress.  Looking through the folder of photos, DH spotted this one & said, ooh, that one is good.
After the next photo, you'll know why I underlined a certain word.😊
3.  TAIL.

Left was the obvious one I chose to start with.
I took this photo at Melbourne Zoo a few years ago when we went with DD, Master L & Missy Moo.  I was looking at the peacock, camera in hand & he suddenly opened his tail & stood looking at me as though waiting for me to take his photo.  I obliged.






Next as I was looking at other photos, I realised that so many people are fascinated by our local wildlife, that I'd pop on this one too, to feature the size & strength of a kangaroo's tail.  Er!!  That underlined word has just made another appearance in this photo & I wasn't going to use it, but DH thought the coincidence was funny & everyone may get a good laugh.  Certainly need to smile with so much in amongst all the bad news this year seems to be inflicting on this huge rotating orb.


4.  KEY.

Me being silly once again.  I thought of so many for this one & failed to get out to find a few I'd thought of.  Hence a photo was needed of something & as the last few days have been quite dark, dreary & wet, I needed to put my thinking cap on.  Here we have piano keys, a timber key rack & an old style key on a big ring made at Sovereign Hill (based on a gold mining town) in Ballarat.  And why the monkey?  Monkey ends with "key"....ha ha!  This one with it's rather flat tail, was eldest son
A's, when he was little & he chewed that tail.
5.  KNOT.

I had this one in mind for heart, but when I couldn't find my old Macrame Knot plant hanger, I changed my mind and chose my Colonial Knot embroidery of a heart.  Again I took this photo yesterday & the light just didn't do anything justice.
6.  MY OWN CHOICE.
Can I have 2 again?

                                              A dream space for a sewing studio.......yes?
This garden room is at Harlow Carr, the RHS garden in Harrogate, North Yorkshire where they hold talk, lectures etc. and I think it is gorgeous.  Or you could be viewing this from it's windows...........

                                                        Aren't you ever so cute Mr. Caterpillar?
Also photographed at Harlow Carr last year in August.  I really must catch up on some posts about our trip, as I've lots of lovely photos.
OK, that's my lot of being a bit wacky this time.  Hopefully there will be lots of giggles.
Thanks Kate for supplying the words & now I'm off to link up.
Take care all & huggles.
Susan.

PLODDING ALONG.

Not a lot of exciting things happening at the moment, but we take each day as it comes. 
The garden doesn't seem to know what season it is with a "few" warm days, then quite a lot of grey days with blustery winds, occasional very heavy downpours, which flooded the garage one afternoon & has left us scratching our heads with the current rainfall for this month at 100mm.  That is a lot for February here.
We've not been out and about much, so I went for a little photo shoot around the garden.

                                                       The Magnolia trying to flower.😖

                                    The waterlily in the pond finally giving us some flowers.
                                                    It overflowed in all the heavy rain.

I picked some silver beet for our tea & also found a "tiny red" tomato, though it has a small hole at the top.  This is the only one so far, but there are plenty more on the plants.  Hope we get a good feed                                                                            from them.

Back in January, we had a storm one night &  heard on the news that Melbourne had been hit by heavy rain full of red dust from the very dry western part of our state.  It rained here in the middle of the night, so I didn't think we'd had the dust, but lo & behold, our blueberries were all mucky & this is what the leaves looked like.

A BIT OF CRAFTING.....

Hydrangea Galaxy.

The quilt I'm making for Miss A from a paper piecing set of stars by Blossom Heart Quilts.  I've put them into my own setting to make the quilt bigger & will quilt it soon.  My long arm machine is misbehaving a little at the moment, so have made a call to the mechanic & waiting for confirmation on date for servicing.I do have one on the machine, so will get that done this week hopefully, before he comes out.

Another of my own designs, called "Second Helping" after colouring it several different ways & not being able to think of a name.  I'll show it in more detail once it's quilted.
I filled part of today with making some blueberry jam from surplus produce, as I'm running out of space in the freezer.

A silly post about nonsense in the Smith household.  Still grey outside at 6pm with the sun popping it's rays through for a few minutes every now & then.  Wonder what tomorrow will bring.  I need to move now to serve up our tea & ease my never ending back pain after sitting for more than about 10-15 minutes. 
Take care all & huggles from Susan.

Five on Friday - GRATITUDE - Feb'20

Joining in with Kate, although I'm a little late due to a wild thunderstorm & lashings of rain last night (Friday) & having to put my thinking cap on straight to realise, yes, I am grateful for so much, especially little things sometimes.  Still struggling somewhat, but we'll have a little look at what has made me smile over the last month.
Gratitude..............
1.  for having a garden.

Looking up under a tiger Lily.

As well as having a garden, which although the steepness is getting more difficult, it still produces plenty of amazing things after our weird weather patterns and I can take photos easily with my digital camera. 

2.  for nature.

The wonderful aspects we see all round us in nature, if we take the time to look & capture.  Isn't this spider web great.  It was huge and went from our pergola over to a shrub near the pond.

3.  for laughter.

We spotted this sign last month & I want to see if anyone can spot what made us laugh?

4.  for handy hubbies.

The start for my chest of drawers to go in my sewing room, instead of a stack of boxes that hold all sorts of bits and bobs.  Watch this space to see progress.......

5.  for lots of scraps & leftovers.

Not wanting to throw away odds & ends from some quilts I've made, I'm now able to make a quick start on some charity quilts for giving to uprooted people from both the recent fires & floods.  Hopefully I'll have them ready as winter arrives in the middle of the year.

I know I'm finding it hard to blog, but I've made some lovely friends through my little blog & if I didn't have them, life would be quite lonely, so here I am, hopefully easing back in.  Comments are wayward on my tablet & what with my old laptop not picking up WiFi anymore,  I'll try & get to the PC a little more & leave comments on your posts.  Thanks for sticking with me.  

Take care & huggles from Susan.

NATIONAL ARBORETUM......Canberra.

OK, I am still here and trying hard to get motivated to blog, thinking that it is probably pretty boring reading for most.  Not helping is the worldwide  disastrous news headlines about all sorts of happenings.  I'm going to do some catching up on our happenings over the last (6) months & will start with a visit to our son & family in Canberra, back in October '19.  On this particular visit we took ourselves out to the Arboretum (I've shown a little before) and discovered a few bits we'd not seen.
1.  The Bonsai House.

At the entrance to The Bonsai House.
I do love the candles all standing straight & tall.

Port Jackson Fig.

Bottlebrush.

River Red gum.

Coast Banksia.

The above four are all Australian natives grown in a miniature form.  I was quite blown away by these specimens, as most of the Bonsai I've seen before has been with exotic species.

We took a walk up to the lookout on top of the hill and saw these on the way.

Looking back towards the Visitor Centre and ancillary buildings.

Quercis trees or what I've always called The Judas tree.  They are so pretty in flower.

The views towards the suburbs of Canberra over lakes and towards the mountains.

Once at the top this is what we could see.

                                    The views over plantings of trees towards the mountains.

                                                           Framed by trees this time.

An Eagles nest made from scrap, which I found fascinating.  DH & I were discovering all sorts in                                                                             this  lot.
Back down towards the Visitor garden are a number of small areas dedicated to different organisations.  Now something I don't generally talk about, but feel it's relevant as this plaque (below), stood out as a reminder of my late younger brother. 

My brother passed away from AIDS in 1993 aged 41.  He did actually live in Canberra for many years, running a small restaurant, before he contracted the horrible disease.  I just found it emotional that this was in a place he lived & he also loved gardening when he had time.

                                     Part of the Memorial gardens with a red flowering gum.

             This was called the Labyrinth garden and had lots of lovely sweet smelling lavender.                 Walking up from the Visitor Centre carpark we spotted this little beauty.  How could I not take a photo, before we headed up to the opposite hill where my beloved rusty sculpture sits.

     A lovely Morris Minor panel van (ours would have looked a lot like this before it was pulled from the blackberry bush & the rusty van bit fell off 😊), and from near our part of Victoria.
Up the hill to this..............................

                     Part of the finishing words to the Dorothea Mackellar poem "My Country".

                                                                   The views from up here.

  One last photo, just because.......................

Well, that's it.  Promoting our capital maybe, but a place we visit when we can whilst up that way & never cease to be amazed by the growth of some of the trees in such a new planting & considering our harsh climate at times. Also discovering other areas I'd not seen before.   
Just at the moment we seem to be experiencing the worst of what mother nature can throw at us, as a country with drought, bushfires, flooding rains, storms & cyclones, all this season of summer 2019/2020..  We will survive all this!!!!
On the home front, it's been the same old & because of the strange weather, we've not been out'n'about as much.  I've had a dental checkup & need a few fillings replaced, possibly all done before I go onto a medication for my osteoporosis, which scares me somewhat, but should, I've been told, help with bone strength.  OK done for now as I've been sat here for too long doing this.
Take care all & big huggles from down under.  See you again soon.............
Susan.