A timely reminder that it’s not just snakes that can get over a 6 foot fence đ â Something tells me the neighbour’s chickens are in for an interesting afternoon. â
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a little goanna in the garden
30 Saturday Sep 2017
Category Archives: garden
views of London – the Sky Garden
04 Tuesday Aug 2015
Tags
free, london, Photography, the London series, tourist, travel, UK, views
If claiming the high ground is important to you – or you find some perspective helpful – the Sky Garden might be for you. There are plenty of places that will charge you for seeing London from their dizzying height – but the Sky Garden does it for free.
The Sky Garden is at the top of the building affectionately known as the Cheese Grator. It’s on Fenchurch Street near Monument Tube but it’s an easy 10 minute walk from Bank Tube (and a few others).
You need to book your free ticket on their website –Â Sky Garden website – and give them all the details for security and a bag search airport-style on arrival. I didn’t have my water or apple/snacks confiscated so I don’t think they are too strict.
There is a small walkway on the south side (that’s the Thames side) open to the outside, though the staff monitor the wind speed and will close it if it gets dangerous. There are some lovely fern garden beds to walk and sit amongst that are constantly sprayed with mist to ensure the humidity and moisture stay constant.
There is a reasonably priced cafe – the coffee wasn’t too bad for London! – but if you go up late in the afternoon, the cocktails are a little pricey.
There are also some more pricey restaurant options up on alternate levels – but as you’ll see in the photos – these are set back from the main windows of the building. Check their website if that is more your style. 
There are other options to get high in London – but they will all cost you something. The Shard is considered the best – 69 floors up and ÂŁ25. You can go for a spin on the London Eye (ÂŁ20 plus) or the Emirates Air Line back from Greenwich will set you back around ÂŁ5 one way. You can climb Primrose Hill just off Regents Park or Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath – they are free excepting a little sweat. But then they are miles away and will give you a view of the city skyline, not a view down to the winding Thames.
Happy travels.
the end of mango season
04 Tuesday Feb 2014
Another summer of homegrown goodness, and it’s all come to its inevitable end. No more mangoes. All gone. The last few have been chopped up for one last day of snacking but the rest must be frozen for posterity. Cryogenic mango will save the day in the months to come. – the trick is to use them wisely.
Gucci the python comes out to play
25 Saturday Jan 2014
Epic morning of de-hedging around the shed today, with the help of two friends. The weather was kind with an overcast sky and some light rain. The chooks over the back were clucking. There was one rather large toad which startled us a bit.
And then…just when we could see the fence through the massive bougainvillaea, we noticed Gucci. All tucked up and sleeping peacefully, right where one friend had been snipping branches. None of our sawing, clipping or heaving had disturbed his slumber…until his cover was nearly all gone of course. Then he started moving. And so did we!
just me, the birds and my roses
12 Saturday Oct 2013
Nice and quiet here today. I love this suburb. Lots of people out walking but all for the same reason – enjoying a peaceful morning. It’s overcast and grey and there is a bit of drizzle around… the garden is giggling.
I’m old school when it comes to roses. If it doesn’t smell like a rose, I don’t see the point. Mr Lincoln, Freesia, Gold Bunny, Honey Dijon, Double Delight are some of my roses that all have a strong fragrance.
I break my own rule when it comes to my favourite rose. It’s called Julia’s Rose. It buds up a deep brown colour and when it opens it fades to the colour of parchment. My parents had it growing in the garden I grew up with and although it doesn’t have a scent, I love it because of its unusual colour. Parchment. What a delicious word to describe a flower. This is my favourite rose.
well that weekend was short and sweet
29 Sunday Sep 2013
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What a shame the weekend is only two days long. Saturdays for errands and some chores. Sunday for the rest of the chores and as much of the good stuff you can cram into a few hours. Add in at least one catch up with family and/or friends and the time for doing hobbies is seriously compromised.
There needs to be a third day. A day of unwinding from the chores and the errands. A day for a movie. A day for some art. A day for reading, while lying on the lawn in the dappled shade filtered by a tree. A day to nibble from a small plate of antipasto and sup on some fruity wine. But instead, we have to go to work. It just doesn’t seem right, does it?
up and at ’em
21 Saturday Sep 2013
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Time to get cracking…why would you want to live anywhere else? Brisvegas does do a lovely spring. Have a good day everyone.
poppies
31 Saturday Aug 2013
experimental Sunday
11 Sunday Aug 2013
I’ve spent my day doing “what if’s…..”
What if I followed this old wives tale and used a pair of tongs with half a kitchen sponge rubber-banded to each side and dipped it in strong tea solution to clean my blinds? (A: it worked)
What if I just planted some bat plant seeds without researching if that’s how you propagate bat plants to see I they will pop up?
What if I planted a seed in each leftover Nespresso coffee pod to see if they’ll germinate?
What if?
a nice morning gardening
02 Sunday Jun 2013
epic day of gardening
21 Sunday Apr 2013
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An epic day of gardening today.
6 roses planted, two transplanted.
Heaps of herbs are potted up. I dummied up a shade ‘sail’ for a sunburnt hippeastrum. I’ve savaged the hedges until the bins are full. Last job is the watering – and its a satisfying way to finish the day. Watered plants and the smell of cut grass – awesome.
Now for a long, hot shower. I can already feel it in my back – ha.
an Aussie Christmas
28 Friday Dec 2012
A belated Christmas check in with you all. I hope you had a sane day/s with your family. If not, I hope you were safe and warm and fed and at peace. I fear more and more people don’t have “somewhere to go” during the holidays. I hope if you weren’t with family, you got a smile from someone.
Our family’s Christmas venue changes each year – and that’s ok. What ties us to the years before is what we do on the day. Â We make sure we do the little things each year to celebrate the season and the beginning of a new year.
It’s a simple as:-
- a tupperware server full of nibbles – chocolate scorched almonds, choccie peanuts, jubes, rumballs, cashews, macadamia nuts. And it magically refills overnight to be full again for the feet up tradition of watching the Boxing Day test and the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race
- a bowl of mock chicken dip (my Nanna’s recipe and made by mum)
- a tray full of mangoes – eaten over the sink or in a bowl with ice-cream
- copious cups of coffee and tea and a good chat over each one
- cold roast chicken and ham off the bone with salads galore for lunch, dinner, lunch, dinner…you get the idea!
- christmas cake or pudding with custard – although no-one ever has the room
- short walks in the heat to stretch the legs and amuse the dog
- a christmas tree with gifts under it and cards amongst the branches
- at least one gag gift – this year I got an M&M dispenser….”You get in the bowl!” Ha.
- no twitter/facebook/texting – but lots of calls
And the best Christmas gift of all – a cracking storm that dumped enough rain to fill the tanks and back up the down pipes.
Here’s cheers to you and yours.
The best Xmas pressie an Aussie can get
look for the silver lining
10 Saturday Nov 2012
So, the second day at the Gabba for the first Australia vs South Africa test in 49 years has been delayed due to rain. Rather than wait all day, I’ve bailed and will go back in for tomorrow’s play (fingers crossed it happens).
Regardless, there’s always a silver lining if your eyes are open – here’s the pretty view on the way back to pick up the car.
Something that makes me happy
11 Thursday Oct 2012
It never fails to make me feel better to smell a freshly mown lawn. My mower went under in the floods so I’ve splurged on a mower man who comes once a month. On a weekday morning, I hear the whippersnipper fire up when I’m in the shower. The mowers are going when I’m blow drying my hair. And by the time I am dressed and walk out to the kitchen – I look out on my lovely, looked after backyard. Somehow it looks more ‘clean’.
A little pot plant gardening
23 Sunday Sep 2012
My front door went from zero to hero with my pot plant revamp today. I had two very heavy black pots with ugly little plants left behind when I moved in. I knew they’d filled them up with dirt but I didn’t realise it’d petrified into stone đ The other owners did mix their soil with beanbag foam though! Yikes.
Now it’s dug out and with some lively Aussie natives. I can add a few each month now and build a sweet and colourful entrance. Yay!
rain rain go away
03 Sunday Jun 2012
stabby plants
24 Thursday May 2012
I get that the bird of paradise is a hardy plant, drought resistant and tropical as, but I can’t like it. I’ve tried but each time I see one I itch. The flowers aren’t beautiful, they could poke your eye out. There’s no scent. The leaves look dusty and get scrappy as quick as you look at them. Seriously, I will pull them out of any garden I am in control of.
a friday photo
09 Wednesday May 2012
how to survive office chess
09 Wednesday May 2012
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Work has been a little unsettled of late. Â There’s a reshuffle going on with the higher paid members of the office community – not that anyone is saying anything. Â It’s like the powers that be are more happy to shift everything on paper and then tell the pieces the news and suffer the fallout.
I am one of the pieces. Â So how do I deal with being the last to know when it’s my 8 hours a day that’s changing? Â Beats me actually – I don’t do it that well. Â I go back to the important principles of leadership. Â The things I value in a boss – honesty, straight-forward info, handshakes, open communication and telling it like it is to the face of the person that it is too…if that makes sense. Â Basically I think I expect the kind of behaviour that doesn’t get delivered in times like these.
My “Queen CLM” title (ie. career-limiting-moves) comes from my not being able to look a game-player in the eye once I see how they make their moves. Â I lose a lot of respect for people very quickly. Â I know they don’t care about it – but I’ve never been good ~ never will be good ~ at pretending how they play the game doesn’t matter.
I don’t smile when someone’s blowing smoke up my arse. And I sure as hell don’t thank them for it. Â But, that’s my problem – so I buy myself some roses and sleep well at night. Â Not sure how they sleep – but that’s their problem.
tranquility
09 Wednesday May 2012
firesprite
05 Saturday May 2012
aussie autumn
01 Tuesday May 2012
i love lawn
22 Sunday Apr 2012
on the road again
09 Monday Apr 2012
cos we can
26 Monday Mar 2012
sundays
18 Sunday Mar 2012
Downtime. That’s what Sunday’s were invented for. I’d like to say this is what my Sunday was like today, but no. It was filled with the chores I don’t get to during the week commuting to and from work, or the hectic errand filled time that is called Saturday.
Sundays are becoming endangered. There’s a risk of it not being a day of rest, but a day of catch up with every other bloody thing that hasn’t got done. Worse still, Sundays are being spent inside my head – mulling over what happened the day before and/or planning all the stuff to do on the dreaded Monday that follows.
I need to reclaim my Sunday. Â Say ‘no’ to everyone and do the want to do’s, not the have to do’s. Â Who’s with me?
storm coming
16 Friday Mar 2012
ready for a close up
16 Friday Mar 2012
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Change of season is a lovely time to take a second to smell the roses, literally. Â With what we call autumn in the subtropics upon us, this is the last flush of flowers before the winter.
a rose by any other…
10 Saturday Mar 2012
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 My parents have got the greenest thumbs. This climbing rose is gorgeous.
eyes open
05 Monday Mar 2012
I walked past these windows quite a few times before I saw the detail added to them. My lesson – a little more focus in the here and now and I would see the kind of depth I’m craving to find in my boring daily humdrum.
There are a million gifts of beauty for us all. Made and left where we might find them if we open our eyes. How many pieces of wonder do you walk past each day?
nature girl
04 Sunday Mar 2012
Beautiful morning.
7:00 Great walking. A bit of slipping in the mud. A careful eye on the uneven ground in front. A thud from a low hanging branch. A bit of laughing. A leach caught before it’s dastardly act. A dramatic re-enactment of it’s woeful attempt to do evil. More laughing. Silence at the waterfall. A bit of sweat and puffing on the walk back up.
8:00 Terrific start to the day.
time out
04 Sunday Mar 2012
My time:-
– in a safe place
– with no computers
– surrounded by supportive people
– walking amongst natural beauty
– in silence
– massaged
– cooked for
– taught new things
– and reinforcing old knowledge
– relaxing
– reading
– sleeping
– balancing.
Time out for me.
more time in the garden
25 Saturday Feb 2012
QUEENSLANDER!
16 Thursday Feb 2012
bat babies
12 Sunday Feb 2012
well, this looks familiar
24 Tuesday Jan 2012
quiet time
22 Sunday Jan 2012
