Hardware Store Plants

As I typically have an hour to fill while waiting for ballet lessons to finish, I've been exporing the commerical neighbourhood of Phillip in Canberra.  

I have a soft spot for Phillip but not so adjacent Woden with its shopping plaza concrete edifice, an alarmingly ugly apartment tower and a maze of hollow office blocks.  Just my opinion, of course, but it always seems to be a grey and windy urban space.  

Phillip, on the other hand, rolls its sleeves up and gets down to work in a no nonsense low-rise way, with a mix of amazing little shops, car yards and auto repair joints and sundry other venues ranging from music stores, sewing shops and fitness studios.  Plus Magnet Mart. 

Upstairs is the garden nursery.  Last week I found some potted plants which I thought might be suitable for our garden.  So I jotted scant details on the back of a docket in my handbag.  Here's what I found:

Anthropodium Cirrhatum "Matapouri Bay"

Arthropodium 'Matapouri Bay' is a new hybrid form of New Zealand Rock Lily prized for its good looks and easy care. Upright, broad, glaucous green foliage is a year round feature that in summer is crowned  with lovely panicles of starry white flowers.

Dietes Bicolour "Spanish Iris"

A clumping plant with long arching leaves and a prominent midrib to 0.9 m long. Lemon, iris like flowers with dark brown basal blotches, appear predominantly in summer.

Then, the cordyline (thanks to the splendid Faux Fuschia, and Magnet Mart, for reacquainting me with this species).

I wondered whether they would suit Canberra's cold climate.  But advice from the helpful International Cordyline Society indicates they would.  I shall leave the last word to those knowledgeable folk:

Whilst Cordylines grow in the tropics and are certainly beautiful, they are definitely not tender. They’re as tough as the proverbial “ old leather boot laces”, growing happily in the tropics and sub-tropics down to New South Wales, provided they are protected from direct frosts. The cold loving New Zealand species, (australis) will grow in the cooler parts of Australia. Cordylines are at home in the garden, some even prefer almost full sun to show their best colours. Most prefer good light with protection from the direct sun, under the canopy of palms or trees is perfect. While Cordylines like regular watering for optimum growth, once established they will tolerate dry spells better than most plants.

Twelve Project Photo idea from Mocking Bird

The theme for April is: Our Changing Seasons

April Colour Inspiration: Bright Spring colours/Autumn Oranges and Reds

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soule Mama.

{whew. made it.}

Rockets

The Aurora Australis

~ Mary Hannay Foott


A radiance in the midnight sky

No white moon gave, nor yellow star;

We thought its red glow mounted high

Where fire and forest fought afar,

 

 

Half questioning if the township blazed,

Perchance, beyond the boundary hill;

Then, finding what it was, we gazed

And wondered till we shivered chill.

And Fancy showed the sister-glow

Of our Aurora, sending lines

Of lustre forth to tint the snow

That lodges in Norwegian pines.

And South and North alternate swept

In vision past us, to and fro;

While stealthy winds of midnight crept

About us, whispering fast and low.

The North, whose star burns steadily,

High set in heaven long ago:

The South, new-risen on the sea,

A tremulous horizon-glow.

We mused, “Shall there be gallant guests

Within our polar hermitage,

As on the shore where Franklin rests,

And others, named in Glory's page?

And, “Shall the light we look on blaze

Above such battles as have been,

In other countries, other days,

The giants and the gods between?”

Till one declared, “We live to-night

In what shall be the poet's world:

The lands 'neath our Aurora's light

Are as the rocks the Titans hurled.

“From southern waters, ice-enthralled,

Year after year the rays that glance

Shall see the Desert shrink appalled

Before the City's swift advance.

“Shall see the precipice a stair,

The river as a road. And then

There shall be voices to declare

This work was wrought by manly men.”

 And so our South all stately swept

In vision past us, to and fro;

While stealthy winds of midnight crept

About us, whispering fast and low.

What a week people.  Flu, mad frenzy in the big open plan office (I mean really mad, frenetic, crazy, led by jet-propelled, 'intuitive decision-making' - to borrow from Kerry) and three sprogs to feed.   Just when I have a half hour to spare, the computer won't upload photos so I have to use more images from our mega road trip this summer.  Hence the ute on a stick above taken in none other than Deniliquin in New South Wales -- home of the Ute Muster.  Hopefully when the IT HelpDesk gets home from playing hockey tonight, I can get a quick solution in time for {this moment}.  We're off to swimming lessons as usual.  Cate take note! ;-)  It's all 'rocket' arms and tumble turns and butterfly kicks.   We're even models in an AUSTSWIM conference shortly.  That's dedication.

Germs

THE GERM

~Ogden Nash

A mighty creature is the germ,

Though smaller than the pachyderm.

His customary dwelling place

Is deep within the human race.

His childish pride he often pleases

By giving people strange diseases.

Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?

You probably contain a germ.

***

I'm propelling myself to work today despite waves of flu-like symptoms (which subside with a cup of coffee) and a deep-seated, toxic chest.  Bad I know.  By the end of the day, I'm ragged.  Fit only to curl up under a crotcheted rug with bed socks on and the remote control to hand.  Thankfully the latest edition of Inside Out arrived in time to offer some gentle reading. 

We are still working on body clocks set an our earlier.  I've managed to get to work early before the rest of the miners descend.  It's magic being the first one to turn on the lights and the photocopy machine.  I settle down and witness the morning unfurl.  Even manage to get some work done, or at least sketch out the day's priorities, before the hub-hub of office life gets distracting and the 'urgent' wheedles it's nosey way in to trump the 'important'. 

My Dream

My Dream

~ Author unknown

I dreamed a dream next Tuesday week,
    Beneath the apple-trees;
I thought my eyes were big pork-pies,
    And my nose was Stilton cheese.
The clock struck twenty minutes to six,
    When a frog sat on my knee;
I asked him to lend me eighteenpence,
    But he borrowed a shilling of me.

***

Gosh.  End of daylight saving and we gained an hour yesterday.  Wouldn't it be great to gain an hour EVERY week-end!  What a difference that one hour makes.   Better not waste it.  I'm off early to the coal mine and hope to leave at a respectable hour to collect the offspring instead of skidding in to After School Care at one minute to six, as I usually do.  Hopefully we can stay an hour ahead of ourselves all day.   This will be a test.

Little things

Little Things

~Julia A. Carney

Little drops of  water,

Little drains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean

And the beauteous land.

And the little moments,

Humble though they be,

Make the mighty ages

Of eternity.

So our little errors

Lead the soul away,

From the paths of virtue

Into sin to stray.

Little deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,

Make our earth an Eden,

Like the heaven  above.

Well gosh.  I've been having problems with using Internet Explorer 9 browser on Blogger.  It just doesn't work.  I logged a job with my IT Help Desk several times and begged for Firefox.  Finally got some action. That, coupled with the usual domestic mayhem and the huge chunk of life committed to paid employment, has meant no diarising of life in the Gull's Nest.  There's been nothing much to report though; perhaps infinitessimal progress on a number of fronts but with barely detectable results.  Ro-Ro has finally resumed piano lessons, now that we've found a teacher, and picked it up surprisingly well given that he has hardly played for six months.  We been swimming like little Olympians to let Charly get some extra training in for the South Canberra swimming carnival.  (How I wish we had our own backyard pool to save trekking to Civic or Tuggeranong public pools.)  But other than that, it's the usual grind of washin', cookin', cleanin' and launderin'.

I see there have been some terrific goings on among the gorgeous crowd on my favourites' list.   Creativity, travel and dedicated home-making.  I can feel a wish-list coming on.  It will be school holiday shortly so hopefully I can take some time off to break out of this repressive routine and dream a little.