Sowing the Seeds

During a recent road trip to Sydney from the south coast of N.S.W, our journey took us up over Brown Mountain. The mountain is approx 1200M above sea level and is very often quite foggy and misty up on its peak.

We stopped on the top at Pipers Lookout and as we expected, were shrouded in thick mist. There is Eucalypt forest all around and many native wildflowers, although this is not the best time of year to see them. On a clear day it is an excellent view right down the mountain and across the Bega Valley.

I couldnt resist a few misty Eucalypt photos.

It was very quiet in the early morning, very fresh and crisp too. Just very serene and beautiful, almost magical…

I know I have written a post before about these beautiful tropical Grevilleas, but they are just stunning at the moment!

I don’t think there is actually a time of year when they are not flowering. The Wattle birds just love them and are continually foraging the flowers for nectar.

Grevillea ‘Superb’ is actually a hybrid of a QLD Grevillea, ‘Grevillea banksii’ and a W.A Grevillea, ‘Grevillea bipinnatifida’. Now the QLD Grevillea actually has white flowers, whilst the W.A one has red, therefore the hybrid of Grevillea ‘Superb’ has these enchanting salmon pink coloured flowers.

This Grevillea is just so hardy and it even tolerates the moderate frosts we get here too! Because it only grows to around 1.5 to 2 metres high it is the perfect plant for many gardens.

There is a beautiful beach just near where I live that has the biggest, fattest beach worms living in it’s sand. This particular beach has become known to me for its wonderful worms due to a lovely old fisherman who frequents my workplace and shares my passion for all things piscatorial. When it is time to go fishing I often go there to catch some with my brother, who is a master worm catcher. I have tried many times to catch them but cannot. There is certainly an element of skill involved that I am yet to possess.

This is the first part of catching a beach worm. You really need to go down to the beach at low tide. You will need a piece of old smelly bait or a fish frame tied to some string. You then need to drag the old bait or frame over the sand and through the water at the shore line. You can actually then see the worms heads as they pop up to check out what the food source is! They really only pop their heads up by about 5mm or so. When you locate a worm you need to put the fish frame in front of the worm’s hole and wait for it to emerge to grab the bait.

Now this is the part that I find tricky…. When the worm comes up and tries to feast on the bait you need to try and burrow your thumb and forefinger into the sand behind it’s head. The worm will arch up slightly and that’s when you grab him! Easier said than done, I say. The worms are very fast and super slippery! Some people actually use pliers to grab their beach worms but my brother thinks that if you have a bit of sand on your fingers to grip them and are very quick you can catch them ‘no worries.’ Once you have the worm by it’s head you need to pull it from the sand in one fast, steady movement.

This a very big beach worm, probably around 75cm long but it is the average sized beach worm for this particular beach.

See their feelers and mouth? Kinda freaky huh? They do have pearlescent kind of bodies too. Anyway we got around 5 worms which we thought was a good amount for a days fishing. You need to keep your beach worms in a bucket of damp sand and it is best practise to take only the amount of beach worms that you will actually use or need.

With our lovely fresh beach worms we headed off to catch some fish and we had a fantastic days fishing, catching two big sand flathead, one big Aussie Salmon, around fifteen big silver trevally and one lone wobbegong who was subsequently released.

The beautiful, shapely crimson hips of my glorious Climbing Rose Masquerade.

With raindrops still upon them and their glory by my gate, I marvel at their simple wonder and by chance I hesitate. They really are sublime, their colour just divine, and I so LOVE Masquerade because it reminds me of a simpler time.

I had this rose growing in the very first home I rented when I moved out of my parents home at the age of 19. I moved into a fabulous little fibro beach shack right on the sand and a stones throw from the water.

The garden was full of so many amazing, textural succulents and this one rampaging Masquerade Climbing Rose just rampant over the back fence. I fell in love with it and then after seeing it available in a nursery, I planted it by my front gate on our country property 20 years later.

Oh and aren’t her hips just luscious?

Yesterday was very grey, overcast and drizzly. The sun managed to break out from behind the clouds for a few short moments and so I grabbed my camera to try and capture some shots of the lovely rain.

As I walked around our property I was amused by a beautiful little grey shrike thrush.

We have a remnant Black She-oak (Allocasuarina littoralis) in our garden. It is a graceful, beautiful tree that I adore and it seems like our little feathered friend does too.

This morning when I woke up and stumbled out onto the front porch I was greeted by the most phenomonal rays of morning light.

This is the view across our dam and through the tall Eucalypt trees. It was cool and dewy with lots of moisture in the air. The sunshine shone through the trees in beauiful rays of light, it was truly breath taking.

As Winter approaches the nights are becoming chilly and the mornings are just so crisp and fresh. I truly love this time of year….but then again I think I am a sucker for all the seasons! I love ‘em all.

Yesterday I turned 40!! Woot!

Well 40 is a big one..there was a need to celebrate it and enjoy the day. Unfortunately my husband is currently working the night shift so had to sleep the day and was then gone the evening so we weren’t able to share a bottle of champagne. That will have to wait until next week when we might have a dinner party…possibly with a 70’s theme, coz I kinda love retro

Anyway what my DH did give me was a fabulous gift of a brand new Canon digital SLR camera! Talk about stoked and I can’t wait to show you all the fabulous pics I have been taking and just wait till I get my macro lens. I am very keen to get some fantastic shots around the garden of the flowers, leaves, seed pods, etc. I have taken quite a few shots already and will post some up soon. He also gave me this too cute for words birthday card which I just adore and will put in a frame for on my dressing table.

I was very spoilt on my special day and I do feel very lucky and thankful Among my gifts was a beautiful red Le crueset casserole dish and a Pandora bracelet with three charms from my parents! I also received a stunning red glass lamp in the shape of a Lotus flower from my sister and brother in law. I will have to take a pic of this one to show you, it is absolutely amazing! I also received little leaf earrings from my children (so cute) and a very funky Crumpler camera bag from my bro in law! My brother and his partner gave me a brand new fishing rod and a very nice Daiwa reel so cant wait to go fishing, he he

We had a luscious family dinner last night of home baked lasagna made lovingly by my mother AND these very cool and delectable canapes, devoured with champagne.

To top the whole dinner off we had a very, very yummy and oh so rich chocolate tiramisu birthday cake.

What a way to celebrate 40 years!

I have not written a post for so long….argh! I am sorry, but fishing has been a high priority for me lately and I have been trying to ‘wet a line’ when ever I can! It seems like the old bug has bitten me again…fiercely!

Along with my brother we have caught lots of lovely fish lately…and just tonight had a great time catching some Slimy Mackerel.

They are lots of fun and very easy to catch. A great little fish to catch if you are looking at introducing your kids to fishing. Actually we use them for bait when trying to catch bigger fish, but some people tell me that they are yummy smoked or cooked on the bbq.

Anyway….what I was getting to with this whole post that has gone completely off the topic is that I have this just lurvely grass by my front gate. It ain’t no ordinary grass either. It is beautiful, bronze in colour and bows and sways in the wind. It welcomes me when ever I come home, from where ever it may be…such as my recent difficult days out fishing! OMG how I have loved those days!!

My sublime and my absolutely number 1 favourite native Australian grass is Themeda australis or Kangaroo Grass. Apparently the seed heads look a little like a kangaroo…..hrmmmm, I honestly cannot see that.

Readers of my blog probably know I LOVE native grasses and oh there are so many new hybrids and cultivars out now! Just you wait till I show you them all. I’m in heaven

The other day as I was driving down one of our local streets on the way to an appointment, a bright splash of pink entered my peripheral vision. Now this appears to happen to me quite often…I can be just driving along, minding my own business when the plant kingdom seems to shout out at me to stop. I am often quickly glancing into my rear-view mirror, indicating and screeching to a halt on the side of the road somewhere!

On this particular day the beautiful tall and shapely flowers of the Naked Ladies or Belladonna Lily’s (Amaryllis belladonna) had caught my eye.

This particular one was such an intense bright pink when most of the time I have seen very pale pink ones. The plant grows from a bulb and the thick, purple stems appear first above the ground. They are about 50cm high or so and then the stunning, trumpet shaped, fragrant flowers appear. It is because of the stalk appearing with no leaves that the plant gets its name ‘Naked Ladies.’

Another great thing about this plant is how drought hardy they are. They seem to require very little attention and I have seen their beauty bursting forth from the most hostile places and conditions.

I really don’t mind my day being interrupted by all these gorgeous flowering plants that I stop top visit. Even my kids don’t mind anymore… except when we do the eight hour journey to Melbourne during wildflower season!

This morning I was taking a walk around our property, enjoying the glorious sunshine. I had my son with me and the dogs, including the garden terrorist.

We have a dam on our land that we use to water the garden. It was here that I was marvelling at the dragonflies flitting over the water, when one of the dogs had a close encounter with a Red Bellied Black Snake.

Image taken from the Museum of Victoria.

He was sunbaking only a few meters from us and I watched him as he rose up his body in a position ready to strike. Quickly I growled at the dog to immediately come to me, which she did thankfully and the snake slithered off into the scrub near the dam. This particular species of snake is usually not very aggressive, but is considered docile and will try to escape a situation at the first opportunity.

I was relieved that it wasn’t my son who discovered it. He has walked by one on a different occasion and came close to just about trodding on it’s head!

The red bellied black snake is probably one of Australia’s most well known snakes. They really are quite beautiful ( if you like snakes!) with a glossy black body and intense red belly. They are venomous which means that if they happen to bite you, they can kill you, although these snakes are not as poisonous as many other Australian snakes. Some people say they are a good snake to have around as they actually eat the baby snakes of the more venomous species like the Eastern Brown’s and Tiger snakes.

We are right in the middle of their breeding season and apparently each mother snake can give birth to up to 40 young live snakes!

I am usually very conscientious about walking around in the bush during the Summer. I have encountered around 5 snakes in the few years we have lived here. In fact one was right up in the house when we were building! It is actually quite late in the season to be seeing them and in fact this is the first one I have seen on the property all Summer.

I am not much of a snake lover, lol, and I would be happy actually not to encounter him again for a while