Sowing the Seeds

These two very unusual specimens arrived in our garden on Christmas Day. They seem to like the place and have decided to stay. They dont eat much or cause a fuss.

My very clever brother made them actually. They are made from steel, cut into shape and painted with a very quirky kinda style. This is the first time he has attempted to make anything like this and I think he should get his creative hat on and make some more. There is a whole world of wonderful birds out there and therefore just a ton of inspiration.

The Native Appleberry ( Billardiera scandens) is one of my favourite native plants. It is a delicate little climber with beautiful lime green little bell flowers. The flowers are then followed by this lovely edible fruit that falls to the ground when ripe. The fruit was an important Aboriginal bush food and it has a flavour reminiscent of unsweetened stewed apples.

The plant itself is very commonly seen growing in the bush and in coastal areas of Eastern Australia, from QLD right down the seaboard to Tasmania. It will grow in full sun to dense shade and can be grown quite successfully under large trees.

This is a photo of one growing on my property on the fence. I never planted it there, it is a wild species that has taken a liking to the position. You can see the appleberry fruit in the top right hand position of the photo. The fruit can get quite large, approx 5cm or so and are very squishy when ripe. I wonder what the kids would say if I replaced Granny Smith in their lunch boxes with lovely Appleberry’s…

While many parts of Australia are still very much in the grip of drought, we experienced the wettest week in months.

It was just divine! The rain was lovely and steady, a good soaking rain many people commented. I think we had just over 100mm of rain in the week. This is great for my parched garden and brown lawn. Most of my plants appear to have a new lease and are vigorously striving onwards and upwards!

We rely on tank water too for all our water needs, washing, drinking, etc. So it was nice to see so many gallons of it going into the rainwater tanks.

This is the view looking outside our front door on a wet, rainy day.

Thats rain on my window pane!

I know that this is now completely off topic, but I am finding it actually quite difficult to be inspired to write anything at all in the light of what has been happening in India.

My thoughts tonight and over the last few days have been with the people of India. Having travelled through India twice in my lifetime and experiencing the most sincere hospitality and human kindness, I am devastated by the news of the terror attacks there. I always remember a gentleman in India telling me “India is very poor, but we are also very rich”. My sincere condolences to each and every person affected at this very difficult and heart breaking time.

Just today I was out in the garden, lamenting the inevitable loss of my beautiful black Mulberry tree. The tree was bought just this Winter, as a bare rooted, dormant fruit tree. I actually bought it as a gift for my father, on Father’s Day. But, it has never taken off or grown any new leaves.. I keep scratching back the bark and checking that the cambium layer is green…it is. The little buds continue to promise withholding green growth but they never burst forth I cut back about half of the growth two weeks ago, hoping to encourage it to grow…but alas…nothing.

Anyway as I mourned the loss today, I wandered over a few feet to the fence line. There it was that a scarlet stunner caught my eye! A beautiful, graceful native wildflower, growing on the fence and climbing sky ward. She is one of my favourites and grows very well around here. The dusky coral pea or Kennedia rubicunda.

Her breath taking beauty combined with the lovely sunshine on my back after three full days of rain, certainly lifted my spirits.

I guess I’m going to the nursery to buy another Mulberry tree