LOVE THOSE JACARANDAS!

In Brisbane, the kids at High School and Uni students know it is end of year exam time when they see the beautiful Jacaranda trees beginning to shower the streets of Brisbane with vibrant purple petals.

 The town of Grafton in New South Wales has taken the celebration of this beautiful tree to a new level with the Grafton Jacaranda Festival. We visited Grafton for the first time this weekend and this is what we saw ....

A week of heavy rain had knocked the majority of flowers from the trees, but the sight was still spectacular.

Long avenues of purple disappear into the distance ......

......... and purple flowers carpet the grass beneath them

Breath-taking aren't they?

THINKING ABOUT BIRDS

Today was a scorcher - about 34 degrees and while I was giving the parched plants in the backyard a little water to get them through 'til the promised storms tomorrow, I listened to the sound of the lorikeets at dusk.

Noisy aren't they?

They seem to fill the treetops with their chatter. There are so many of them too. I used to feed them every day when we were at our last house. Just a little bread and sugar and they come in droves, tell their mates and bring them along too. And they love to have a bath- dive in and get really wet.

Sometimes the cockatoos would join them.

We still have them visiting our garden here because we have all the native plants they love.

The kookaburras visit us here too - and always manage to wake visitors at dawn with their laughing while they challenge eachother and claim their territory !

But we have to go a little further afield to see these beauties, they love the rainforest areas.

.

Aren't we lucky to have such lovely birds?

OLD AND NEW

My good friend has asked me to make her a birthday card for a special person - her Mother. It's for a milestone birthday, her 80th.

This lady's name is Rose so choosing the colour was easy.

Finished.

 Happy Birthday Rose

There's plenty of new life to be seen around the garden now that we've had a little rain.

 My precious Caladiums, the ones I put aside each year when they die off at the end of Summer, are beginning to poke their shoots up once again.

Won't be long before the pots are full of pretty pink and green leaves.

STUFF AND NONSENSE

NONSENSE!

Today I've been fooling around on the internet and I came upon this fun thing to do. You just need a whole lot of text - say from your blog - to create this bit of nonsense.

Don't know quite what to do with it next but it could lend itself to a nice card if you typed in a lot of nice words.

I think I'll put it in my "to do" list.
You'll just have to wait to see what I come up with.
(go to http://www.wordle.net/ if you want to try it yourself )

STUFF!

When I  was preparing my lunch .......

 (and by the way, it was quite yummy and oh so healthy don't you think?)

I got to thinking about my mug.
No, not my face, 

 THIS MUG!

You see, it's my souvenir mug from last year's trip to England.
Take another look.

                      

See, to me it was typical of the England we loved, so it was the ideal choice for my souvenir mug collection.

Here are some others from my collection.

 

Canada                                        Scotland

Next year I hope to have a souvenir mug from   France !

SATURDAY MORNING

You've heard the saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"? Well just think how healthy we will be after munching on this one!

This morning we decided to walk along the river and into the city, so munching on our apple in the car, we drove to St Lucia where we parked the car and went to catch the ferry across the river.

We didn't have long to wait before the CityCat came zooming around the corner, ....

.... then, after a quick trip to the other side, we were off on our way to the city.

It's a lovely walk along this part of the river. Enormous , shady trees dot the park which stretches most of the way to the city.

The rowers were out on the river too..

These elegant  ladies are looking their best as they gaze across the water towards modern high rise on the far bank.

Before long we encountered the West End Markets, a busy hub of happy shoppers out looking for bargains

and stocking up on their weekly supply of fresh fruit and vegies.

Look at this - a Supermarket under a tree!!!

Then the new Kurilpa Bridge came into view. It reminds me of the rigging of Tall Ships and I love it!

And now a reward for walking all that way .....BREAKFAST ! .......

AND WHAT A BREAKFAST !

YUM M M M.......

Time to catch the ferry home.........................

AUSTRALIAN SPRING GARDEN

We haven't had rain for weeks and weeks but the Australian native plants in the garden know that its Spring and THEY DON"T CARE !