Christmas 2017

As its New Years Eve I suppose that technically Christmas is over.

Christmas is always a good time of the year for catching up with friends and family. Its a time of too much food, a little too much drink and for us, high temperatures.

A rare visit from a group of Yellow tailed Black Cockatoos, feeling the heat, at the water bowl.

Even the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo are strangers since the Rainbow Lorikeets and Galahs have taken over.

Happy Socks Christmas tree a sign of the season.

 

 One of two Christmas cakes that we made this year. One for us and one for Becky.

Christmas Eve morning we were at our favourite butchers at 06:30 to pick up our pre-ordered Christmas meat. The reason for the early start is to be able to park easily and undercover.

The queue at the Fishmongers was out the door of the shopping centre.
On the way back we stopped off to pick up Ben and Alex who traditionally stay over to see our local Santas parade.
It was very hard to get the curb side candles lit as it was very windy. Last year it rained, this year the hot winds, I wonder what next year will bring.  

Christmas really started on Christmas Eve with Skype links to family in Sweden and England. In Sweden, Christmas Eve is the main celebration and it was lovely to watch as Johan and Henry opened their parcels.

Some of the Christmas meat that we will take across to Beckys.

Christmas morning and a bit of rain around. At least the temperature has dropped.

Beckys Christmas tree and loads of presents.

Christmas lunch.

One of the deserts.

Beckys take on the Christmas cake. Traditional on the inside but Dr.Who on the outside.
The cake was definitely bigger on the inside!

A great time was had by all. Here's to next year!!

A bird in the hand.

Not really a bird in the hand but more like a bird in a herb bed.

This is an old metal watering can that I just hung up out of the way on one of the cross members of the pergola. It is now nearly hidden by the climbing Jasmine. Over the weeks we have noticed a pair of birds, Noisy Minors, coming and going with nesting materials. Last week we heard what was obviously chicks calling. Being in a metal can they were easy to hear.

Early one morning Di came out to water the garden and heard this little chick in her herb garden. These herbs are below the watering can, now a nest box. If you look close you will be able to spot him.

There he is, well hidden.
All that day we noticed him making progress around the shrubs and bushes near the house as he got stronger.

This morning we came out to hear this constant chirping and looking up noticed, perched in the upper branches of the Jacarranda, two little chicks. We missed the second one leaving the nest.

They seem to be doing well, still staying close to the house but taking short wobbly flights and moving from tree to tree.

The parents are never far away and on a constnt feeding mission.

Nature on the back doorstep!!

Bits and Pieces

Its Jacaranda time again. A lot of the local streets have a blue theme and blue carpet below each tree.

This magnificent old tree is in the car park behind a Richmond shopping mall.

Last weekend was the Glenbrook Festival. We went up there early, before the crowds and the heat.

Lots of colour.

Table decoration at Vincent Dinner while enjoying a good cup of coffee.

Not sure what this is but a lovely tree near the cafe.

Local orchestra providing some of the entertainment.

Love this sign!

 

One of the well appointed delicatessens.

A nice morning in the mountains.

Rain

At long last we have rain. Not too much but enough to make the garden think its birthday time. We have had 25mm in 24 hours which doesn't seem much but it is when considering we haven't had any for a long time.

The ground is so dry and hard that most of the rain ran off. I'm sure some has gone into the ground but it would be nice to have follow up falls.

 

 

Only problem is that now I will have to get the mower ready!

One of our best roses this year.

Lovely colour but not much perfume.

Rain dancing.

We all know that, according to Donald Trump and some of our own politicians, there is no such thing as climate change and global warming. Maybe they could explain the following.

With just a day to go, it looks like its going to be Sydney's driest September on record.
With only 0.2mm of rain recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology at Observatory Hill and no more forecast over the weekend, its​ expected to be the city's most parched September in the 159 years of weather data collection.

The previous lowest rainfall was 2.1mm way back in 1882.

Parts of western and north-western Sydney also hit record high temperatures for the month, including 36.5 degrees at Parramatta, 36.9 degrees at Richmond and 37.3 degrees at Penrith Lakes on September 23.

As a result we are having to do a lot of this.

Its so dry that to walk on the grass is like walking on it and a layer of frost, its all crunchy, to use a technical term.

No wonder the fire fighters in this strange land are busy.

Oh, by the way, I have a new mobile phone. Whats so strange about that I hear you say, well its the first one I have ever bought. Usually I receive hand-me-downs from Becky as she upgrades but unfortunately she wasn't ready to upgrade just as my old phone died. It died that convincingly that not even Graham could fix it.

I am now the proud owner of another Samsung.

Fathers Day continued.

Just before Fathers Day, while watering some garden plants, Di noticed something lying in the grass under the Grapefruit tree.

These photos are a reconstruction of what happened.

Closer inspection.

 

Whatever it was, it was very tightly folded.

Indoors for a closer inspection and guess what ......

....... correct, a One Hundred Dollar note.

Some of the folds have blue paint on them which match exactly with the paint on the station bench that I got for Fathers Day !!

As I dismantled the bench where it stood, under the Grapefruit tree and took the bits and pieces into the shed we can only surmise that this money has been lying there ever since, at least two months. Luckily we haven't had rain so I haven't cut the grass but we have had high winds. This note must have been folded up very tightly and wedged either between the slats or behind an end plug. It's obvious that this bank note has been there for a long time as the paint on it is from when the bench was last painted in-situ. What tales this dollar bill could tell ! 

What you may call a double whammy Fathers Day.