Bits and Bobs

Its getting close to the silly season of Christmas so here is a bit of silly.

Every tradie that's a real tradie has to have a dog on the back of the ute to guard the tools.  This all I could afford.

 

Its been a bit warm as you can see, reaching a maximum of 37C today.  Looks like we are in for a very hot and dry Christmas, will have to take on a lot of fluids!!!.

We've had some new visitors arrive in the garden this week. These are Blue- faced Honeyeaters and we haven't seen them before. They are lovely and quite big, about 32cms and really enjoy the water bowl, mainly for bathing in.

The mature birds have this bright blue flash on the side of the head..........

........where as the juveniles have this yellow flash.

The Greenman has finally found a home ........

........and appears to be settling in well.  He will feel more at home as the plants grow.

After Halloween night Alex and Ben gave us some seeds from their pumpkin to see if we could grow them pumpkins for next year.  They are growing OK and seem to be taking over the rose bed.

These are about the size of a soccer ball.

They are doing really well considering that we don't water them, but they just get the run off from the roses.

Just finished icing the cake this morning.  I'm quite happy with it but Becky thinks hers is the best.  Mine is done freehand whereas she used a brush. Its the taste that counts!!!!

Summer.

Summer certainly came in with a bang this year.  Storms and high temperatures have been the norm for the first few days of the month. I think I would still prefer this to Elin and Jim's snow and minus14C

This is a page from the Sydney Morning Herald for the1st December. As you can see the forecast temperature was 41C and it did reach that but I forgot to take a photo of the temperature gauge.

 

Even the cat was feeling the heat.

Our new look for summer.  Lighter and brighter furniture covers.

These are some of the cars from the car club that turn up for our monthly tyre kicking and bragging session at Rouse Hill.

As I obviously had my camera with me I walked down the road and took photos that I had been meaning to do for a long time.

These are Bottle Trees (Brachychiton rupestris) but I think their shape gives the game away.

They are originally from Queensland but occasionally turn up here in New South Wales.

For some time we have been looking for a "green man" and now that we have found one the arguments, discussions will start on where to hang him.  Watch this space.

Christmas Cakes.

It's a sure sign that Christmas is'nt far away when Di starts to make Christmas cakes.

Its heavy work mixing two big cakes at the same time but some of us are 'super heroes'.

Nanna and Alex mixing in their wishes.  Alex has grown a lot lately but not this much, he is actualy standing on a stool.

Di lining one of the cake tins and giving away trade secrets on how to make the paper fit the side wall.

Tins filled but not yet ready for the oven.  Liquid refreshment is part of the mixing ritual.

The level of wine in the glass has dropped due to the frustration when wrapping the outside of the tins and tying the paper in place. Far more than an extra pair of hands is needed.

Capped and ready for the oven.

Just out of the oven.  They will now be wrapped in foil and only opened once a week to add a spoonful of spirits. Next big phase is the icing and decorating.

A bear at the brick pit.

In Alex's class at school they have a Teddy Bear mascot called Bob the Bear.  The teacher thought that Bob would get lonely on his own at the weekend so each of the children were allowed, in rotation, to take him home for the weekend.  This was allowed on condition that he had to accompany the child everywhere and his escapades recorded in a special diary.  This weekend it was Alex's turn so on top of the usual weekend activities we gave him a trip out to the Olympic site at Homebush.  Part of the Olympic site is an old brick pit that produced most of Sydney's bricks from the beginning of the 1900's up until the 1980's.  When the games were given to Sydney, one of the plans was to connect this redundant pit by canal to a nearby waterway so that there would be water access all the way from Sydney right into the centre of the Olympic site.  Unfortunately this scheme was put on hold when four endangered species of frogs were found here.

The red coloured structures are light towers in the main stadium.

The big circular walkway high above the water.

More of the Olympic venue in the background.

Alex and Ben showing Bob around.

Its a long way round the walkway.........

......... and Bob had to stop for a rest.

So did the boys.  Ben has taken over custody of Bob.

One of the big hotels on the Olympics site.

We have done the brick pit so now we are off to show Bob the main Olympic site.

Alex and Bob outside one of the big stadiums.

Alex taking a chance walking under one of the fountains where the jets work randomly.

I think Ben is going to get a big surprise and wet!!

Gardening bits.

I seem to be doing a lot of cutting back lately but this was a bigger job. This is the removal of a forty year old Grapefruit tree as unfortunately it was diseased.  I hate doing this but we don't eat many Grapefruit and we still have another tree.

Alex isn't very keen on heights but with a little encouragement he managed to reach the top of the fruit picking ladder.  I had been using the ladder to cut back two Avocado trees, which have never fruited, before removing them. These trees came from seeds planted by Elin and Sara about ten years ago and have only ever produced small flowers.

Christmas Cacti.

Birds Nest Fern.

Bougainvillea

A lovely splash of bright colour against the Wisteria and Jasmine.

Catch up.

These are just a few photos found still in the camera from a couple of months ago.

These are some old favourites that the birds and bees enjoy.

Wisteria over one of the pergolas.

Wisteria and Star Jasmine

Wisteria.

Actually this is more of a test blog as the whole format of the web page has been so called, updated. From my perspective it seems slower and more cumbersome but cant do much about it so will battle on.