Counting Pollinators

My health has taken a bit of a tumble lately and as a result I haven't been up to much.

But it's not difficult to become involved in the Wild Pollinator Count. I'm endeavouring to do this as often as I can in the time frame.

If you're in Australia you may want to take part too.  You've got until the 22nd of November.

Taking photographs of your finds is optional but I managed one or two not-too-bad captures today so here they are. (Bearing in mind I used my point and shoot camera.)

I chose a large stem of elder flower from which to make my observation.

I spotted a fly (there was a second much smaller fly too)

and a European honey bee as well as some unidentifiable insects that reminded me of midges; and what looked like a pintail beetle which was too swift for me to even begin to take a photo.

It's nice to see the sun shine after weeks of wet stormy weather but the prediction is for heat wave conditions with temperatures in the low forties.

Linking to Outdoor Wednesday

Our World Tuesday

Expect The Unexpected

I took this from our speeding car with my point-and-shoot camera as Mr HP and I drove home last night.  We'd had lunch with our family to celebrate the November birthdays.

I wasn't expecting much from the camera, even though the scene before me was one to behold.

I did ask him to stop so I could take a quick shot from the side of the road; but he chose not to hear. It seems there was no need ...

This is in the vicinity of Badgerys Creek, the site for what is being tagged as Sydney's next international airport, and looking west.

The blue finger along the horizon is The Blue Mountains...where we live.

Linking to:

Antarctic Vortex #2

Today, 17th July, is the 50th anniversary of the big snow falls in New South Wales (1965).

So we should have known that Mother Nature would celebrate by entertaining us with a just as impressive display of snow of its own on this day.  I took the train to Blackheath to see for myself.

She didn't disappoint.

Linking To 

Skywatch Friday.

Before The Storm

On Sunday, the sun was shining.

Mr HP, Miss Seven, her Mum and Dad and I, went for a bush walk.

A leech became attached to my shin.

I now have a nasty reaction to the leech bite.

Today I drove myself to the GP to have it seen to.  Luckily it's not infected.  It's inflamed and at times gets extremely itchy.

I drove in extreme weather for thirty minutes to get to my appointment. Since Sunday night it's hardly stopped raining.

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night. I realised that I had woken because the rain had stopped.  The silence had woken me up.  But it wasn't long before it was raining again.

Before Sunday we'd already had more than our fair share of rain so everything was damp and squishy, hence the leeches (well there were two leeches all up...and five humans)  We came across an interesting variety of fungi on our walk. 

Since Sunday night, Springwood has had around 150mm of rain.  We have been fortunate though, as we've had very little wind and so have been spared the devastation that has struck the coastal regions of the south east of Australia.

Today, Sydney airport was disrupted, railway tracks were flooded, a cruise ship locked out of port, flood rescues carried out, towns devastated as residents watched houses floating down the street, schools closed, and sadly, confirmation of lives lost was announced.

Flash floods are not uncommon in Australia, but it's not often do we experience such immediate devastation from flooding.  In this instance, the accompanying wind would have classed this as a category two tropical cyclone.  But technically, this storm is not a cyclone, because it did not occur over tropical waters, but it is an intense low-pressure system packing winds gusts of up to 135km per hour.

Batten Down The Hatches

We had such beautiful weather over the weekend.  

Yesterday's Blue Skies

Even so, we managed to receive more than our fair share of rain, which, thankfully fell mostly overnight.  This morning however, most of the south-east coast woke to a dreary wet Monday which is developing into an even drearier wet Monday afternoon with the potential for high winds.

We've lived in the Blue Mountains long enough to know that high winds means exactly that.  The Bureau of Meteorology has become a very reliable weather forecaster and when it issues a severe weather warning for damaging winds, I sit up and take notice.

As a result, all our deck chairs are neatly stacked on the verandah, my potted cuttings are set back out of the winds, and all loose objects (you know, the empty polystyrene box, empty plastic pots, gardening gloves, etc, etc), are packed away so that we don't have to spend the next month collecting stray items from the side of the holt on which we live.

Outdoors, the temperature has dropped from yesterday's comfortable mid 20 'C to around 12 'C so I think this calls for some serious cooking.

The heating has been cranked up but I always love to use the oven to help heat up the living areas of our home; so tonight (well, this afternoon), I'm preparing a slow roast fillet of beef for dinner.

I usually search the Internet for recipes but rarely do I follow a mains recipe completely. After scanning through three or four recipes I adapt them to suit my family's taste and what's available in my pantry.

The garden is overflowing with thyme...seems our dry, sandy, soil and humid conditions are ideal, after all, thyme has Mediterranean origins, so I've flavoured the beef with 25 (or is that 26)springs of thyme . Previously I had rolled the cut of beef in a mixture of freshly ground black pepper and Celtic sea salt.

After inserting the sprigs of herbs under the string I also rubbed some olive oil into the beef.

It is now in the oven roasting away in a pre-heated oven (reduced to 140'C - my oven is a 'hot' fan forced oven.)

  About an hour before serving the beef I'll put on a tray potato, beetroot and pumpkin to roast and just before serving make a nice dark gravy using the tray juices and steam some green beans.

This Month In The Garden - April - Indian Summer

The Blue Mountains has sort of been experiencing an Indian summer this autumn.  Technically it's probably been too wet but the combination of warm weather and high rain fall has seen some extraordinary things happening in my garden.

I have a potted echinacea purpurea by the front door which had a second flush of blooms late last month.  I honestly didn't think the buds would mature but I was wrong. 

Echinacea is also known as the coneflower because the seed head left after the 'petals' drop looks like a cone.

The 'cone' then continues to grow taller and taller.

What an amazing example of the Fabinacci spiral!

The pink petals of this echinacea are not true petals but bracts.  The many flowers grow from each of the spikes (eventually seeds) growing in the cone.  Sometimes a spectacular display happens when each of the spikes flower simultaneously.  This hasn't happened this year but if you look closely at the third picture from the top you will see three tiny, yellow, flowers growing to the top right of the cone.

My most favourite characteristic of this plant is the wonderful perfume produced by these tiniest of flowers.  I honestly believe the perfume rivals that of a rose.

Echinacea is commonly used medicinally to treat the common cold and boost the immune system.

Even though I've had this one plant for around six years I have not used it for making a tea simply because I felt the plant was not mature enough to cope with being harvested.

  Soon, it will die right back leaving only the seed head which is a favourite of florists to use in their floral displays.

Once the new shoots appear in spring I plan to split up the roots to start off some new plants.

I have under-planted the echinacea with runuculus so that over winter the pot continues to produce flowers.

Echinacea is a culinary delight to some of our wildlife and for this reason I have chosen to grow it in a large pot which I place close to the front door.  The possums and wallabies dare not venture this close to our house and so the plant survives long enough to produce flowers.  On a warm day, the perfume is glorious and can be appreciated every time we use the front door.

In the garden it works as a bee attractant too so if you are fortunate enough to not have to worry about what might eat this versatile plant...consider growing some in the vegetable and herb garden to help pollination.

Where There's Snakes

There's kookaburras.

We had six of them spread out in our garden today ... luckily I could not see what the whole flock was looking at!

If...

If I could choose any car, any car at all...this is my number one car of choice...

Spotted at the Lady Luck Festival 2015.  Katoomba Street Katoomba.

Wild Weather

Our spring this year has seen exceptionally wild weather and summer seems to have kept on trend with one December week experiencing storms each day.

On Sunday 7th December, Mr HP and I drove through three storms as we made our way from one end of the city to the other and back again.

We had an invite to my sister's partner's 50th celebrations only to receive a phone call early in the day to let me know that my dearest aunt and God mother was seriously ill in hospital.  I knew I would never forgive myself if I had not made an attempt to see her for what might be the last time.  Thankfully she is on the mend but have no regrets that Mr HP and I fought the elements three times that day to make sure we not only visited my favourite aunt, but that we also managed to make it to the 50th party.

Here are some December weather snapshots.

Thirty minutes of hail fell on the 5th December while I was visiting my Daughter and Grand daughter.  Thankfully no damage was done.

When I returned home later in the day, there were some very strange cloud formations in the sky above our house.

Two days later we head into the first rain storm as we head out to visit my aunt in hospital.  

Christmas eve in Leura...a whiteout. (Photo taken by Mr HP).

On Christmas Day, we had a wild electrical storm after lunch. We had to rearrange the tables to keep the wind-swept rain off the food, the children had to hop out of the swimming pool and eventually, the lanterns were blown away into the wind.

The one positive from all this precipitation is that the garden is doing wonderfully and the flowering plants are the best I've seen them for years.

I'm Thankful for This

After a spell of awful temperatures of up to 41 'C, I am thankful for the reprieve we had today when our day's low plummeted to 

16 'C.

I happened to spend the afternoon in Katoomba, which is at a much higher altitude than my village in the lower mountains and while there took the opportunity to visit Echo Point.

I didn't at all mind that the mist drifted in, a mist so heavy that I got wet.

The tourists around me were whispering: "Magic, magic, magic."

And it was.

Bright

My African violets need bright light to flower.

This morning's light was especially bright, as Sydney and its surrounds geared up for another scorcher.

The maximum temperature at our house reached 36.1 'C.  The humidity is very low, (at the moment it is around 31%. Tomorrow, a total fire ban will be enforced. 

African violets like a humidity level of about 50-60%, so I have had to put them on pebble lined trays to try and raise the humidity a little, especially since the air conditioner has been on for most of the afternoon.

During our on-again-off-again temperature spikes, I have been watering the African violets almost on a weekly basis.

So, I watered them again today,since the soil was dry. The pebbles ensure that the roots of the plants are not sitting directly in water and helps raise the humidity at the same time.

Since the light was so strong this morning, I kept the translucent window blind down until the afternoon.

I'm very happy with the way the violets are progressing...so many are coming into flower.

Once the blooms open, I sell them on an on line garage sale of which I'm a member.

Whole

I don't eat potato often, but when I do, one of my most favourite ways of serving it, is baked whole, with salted butter and ground, black, pepper.  This sebago potato came from my favourite farmer, John, at Nashdale farm, who sells his produce at the local markets, Glenbrook.

Hot + Cold

I missed yesterday's photo a day challenge; 'for me', because, to tell you the truth, yesterday turned out to be a very stressful day and in the end all I wanted to do was fall into bed.

The temperature quickly rose as the day progressed until it reached 39 'C in the shade.

Then, around 2.00 p.m. just a short distance down the road from us, a bush fire broke out. 

I though I had conditioned myself to 'be prepared' for my next bush fire encounter but to tell you the truth, I'm beginning to feel as if I spend six months of the year on high alert.  And it's really getting to me. Being prepared means having a bag packed, and knowing, at all times, where our family photos, medications, important papers and other valuables are. I know this might sound like a simple task to achieve but in reality, I'm finding it's not.  And I don't know how many more times I can go through the drill.  At 9.30 p.m. our little village received an emergency warning and was on high alert as the wind direction changed, meaning the fire was heading straight for us. Thankfully, the temperatures eased and eventually, Mr H.P. and I fell into bed just after midnight, exhausted, and smelling smokey.  We both had an uneasy sleep but were happy to wake to a much cooler day, even though the fire is still active.

If you're interested to see more on the fires you can go to these links...(In reality I didn't have time to take photographs.)

Warrimoo Fires on Facebook

Warrimoo Fires on ABC News

Warrimoo Fires at Rural Fire Services NSW

This morning, I woke up and had myself an affogato, which fulfills today's photo a day challenge of 'hot + cold'.  Coming to think of it, it also fulfills yesterday's photo a day challenge of 'for me'...so here it is...

Affogato: ice cream drowned in espresso coffee! (Or, the only way I drink coffee!)

Heck Yes!

Heck Yes! I love these creatures...

...and it's great to see how much they've grown.  They help to keep our insect and snail population down.  There aren't too many people who can boast: 'we don't have snails in our garden'. But we can!

8 O'clock

8 O'clock

Well, it wasn't quite eight o'clock...about 20 minutes to eight actually, and today we had four seasons in one day.

So it was nice to see the sunset, even if the temperature had dropped to a chilly 16 oC.

Weather

Weather

Sunshine through trees

Break Time

Last night's sunset,  near Mum's house.
What once was a dairy farm, will now accommodate 400 new houses.
The Blue Mountains can be seen in the background.  I still remember the first time I saw the Blue Mountains, I was only eight years old and the mountains have  been the family's backdrop for 54 years.
In 1988 Mr H.P. and I moved to the mountains to live with our four children.

Just a quick post to let you know I'm taking a short break from blogging.

I have had the flu twice this winter and  I am slowly recovering from that.  On top of chronic health issues which prolong recovery, I've been helping my Mum move out from what has been our family home for the past 54 years. 

This task has taken up almost every day over the past two weeks - and is a mammoth task.  Hopefully,  we will have achieved completion mid-week, and then comes the adventure of helping her find a new home to live in. 

To remain positive and build my health and strength I walk and attend yoga classes twice a week, and meditate daily.

The experience of helping Mum move has forced me to deal with the realisation that my mother is a hoarder, and I am fearful of the effect the compulsory acquisition and resulting move will have on her once the sale is finalised. 

I guess only time will tell.

In the meantime, we do what needs to be done on a daily basis and the entire family is coping beautifully, and more importantly, Mum is still smiling.

Skylands Artscape Schofields Railway Station - Eagle - 350 kilograms and 6 metres wide.
While the developers try to put a positive spin on the land release, for those who have been long time residents of the area can only feel a deep sense of loss - mostly because this has be a wholesale desecration of a way of life upheld for at least a century...which will disappear in a matter of months.

Sunset Spectacular

I just wanted to share with you the most spectacular night sky I think I've ever seen.

Right here, in our back yard.

Skies such as these have been spotted all along the south east coast of Australia tonight.

I hope you enjoy the photographs.