Vending Machines

We had had dinner, ventured outside in the rain to check out the façade of the station, and were now back inside to catch another train back to our hotel. This is when I found this vending machine.

I didn't have time to play with it, and I really didn't need to, but it was interesting to see that that it was screen orientated, and the screen changed every few seconds. I have used vending machines before, but not quite like this one. Not quite sure how it worked, there was a button to turn that would obviously do something, or maybe it was touch screen?

It was also interesting to note that it gave the weather details ( check out the top pic). Yes it was still raining, that pesky typhoon was still hanging around. I might add here that the rain and wind intensified by the time we completed our three stop journey. It was quite heavy  and blowing at an angle when we had to walk back to the hotel. We did have poncho's and an umbrella which kept us basically dry. Though if this is a typhoon, maybe the Japanese should come to Sydney in summer and experience one of our thunderstorms. Then they may know what weather is really about.

Mt Fuji and Rain

One of the girls we were travelling with had managed to get us reserved seats on the Shinkansen. It was organized so that we would be sitting on the side of the train to give us the best views of Mt Fuji, that is if Mt Fuji was visible on the day. I had heard that Mt Fuji was only clearly visible about 30 days a year, and this day was clearly not one of them. Somewhere under all that cloud from the approaching typhoon was Mt Fuji. Ah...... maybe next time.

Busy Little Bees

Well, it's been a while, what more can I say. Just a shot of the bees busy working on my roses. They are out in full flower now, following all the nice rain that we have had. Nearly 6" in the last month. My garden is singing & so are the weeds.

After The Rain

Well, it's been a while, so I thought I would show you my garden after the rain. We have had rain on 11 days out of a possible 15 so far this month, with a total of 190mm, that's nearly 8 inches in the old school. Some of it has been from electrical storms, some just rain. I don't really care how it comes just as long as it fills the dams & gives everything a drink, including my garden which is currently singing, as you can see by the sea of pink below.

Then there is the frangipanni, the pink one that was given to me a few years back. It's been in a pot for a few years, and only flowered once in all that time. Then last year we planted it out into the garden and look what it is doing now. I just love the colour.
Then on the weekend I noticed a few of these fungi comming up in amongst my Rock Orchid. Not sure where they have emerged from, all I can think is the new orchid mix that I used for re-potting this orchid last year.
Rain, the giver of life. I will take it any way it comes, as long as there is some sunny days as well.

A Caterpillar Tale

Remember the caterpillar from here? At the time I rescued him from my dinner & took him outside & placed him on my balcony wall. I figured it was up to him to crawl away or stay put to be lunch for one of the birds. The next day I found this catterpillar in my rain guage which is attatched to the top of the wall and I am not sure if it is the same one or another one. I have been watching & waiting to see what happens, emptying the guage at regular intervals so he does not drown.

He has changed colour,

and shape, but he has been there a while now & still looks the same. I think he might have drowned. There was one night when we had heavy rain & the water in the guage was way over his head. I'll leave him another week to see what happens. Mother Nature sure works in funny ways.

Mother Nature's Rewards

We have had a fair bit of rain over the last few weeks, around 120mm ( nearly 5"). There have been times when the sun is out & then the clouds come scurrying across only to dump more rain. The result is that on occasions Mother Nature has rewarded us with some beautiful rainbows. The top one is viewed from my back balcony, over the gumtrees in the park.

This next one was taken out the windscreen of the car. I had been out to a textile exhibition opening in Western Sydney & was travelling home when this one appeared. At first it was only very short, and as I travelled further it grew until it spannned the sky. The colours were so vibrant, and at one stage it looked like it was landing on the bonnet of the car. I just had to stop the car and take this pic, though it does not do justice to the colours.

Rainbows have been rare over the last few years because of the drought. It is nice to see them again.

A Final Showing

We have had some decent falls of rain back in April & again just recently. This has made my roses make one last effort to bloom before the winter pruning.

Loving The Rain

A sparaxis plant has sprung up in the garden, ready to flower when the weather warms in spring. The garden has been loving the rain that we have had this past week, about 3 1/2" in all. The ground is now soft & makes weeding much easier.

The rain that we have had here in Sydney is not nearly as much as the NSW North Coast where it has been flooding yet again, the third time this year. As an ex local to this part of the world, I remember floods every year, but not three in a few weeks. However, I have been talking with another ex local who does remember it flooding three times in a year, just not for a very long time.

Singing In The Rain

It is raining in Sydney today, buckets of it, and just what all the new transplanted babies in my garden need. 28mm of the wet stuff yesterday, and it is still comming down.

I have transplanted double jonquils, african daisies, two dahlias, and split apart this daisy into quite a few different plants. I also want to split up my shasta daisies as well. A job for another day. The pic above are of jonquils comming up in another bed. I have them scattered all over the garden, and have just recently given away a bucket full of bulbs. So watch this space to see them bloom in the comming weeks.

Red In The Morning.......................

There is something to be said for old sayings. I used to hear as a child "Red in the morning, shepherd's warning." Well, this was the sunrise yesterday morning as viewed from my back door, and I thought of that saying as I pondered what was in store for us for the day weatherwise. It was a sunny/ cloudy kind of day, nothing special ,until I spotted the cloud formation to the south of us around mid afternoon. Storms are my phobia & I watch them like a hawk. This one wasn't doing anything much, well at least not wandering too close to us. There was rain in it, but we weren't getting any. It wasn't until much later, after dinner , that the rumbles & flashes started. This one was comming from the west and was making it's presence known very loudly. Putting on a fantasic light show, it thankfully didn't wander too far east. Just far enough to give a little drink to my garden.

A Visitor in Autumn

One day I will get a great pic of a dragon fly. I have tried a few times & so far this is the best that I have got. This little one made a visit to my garden with one of his friends last week. I do not see them very often so it was a pleasure to have them.

It is Autumn in Sydney and this morning definately had signs that summer is gone the chilly weather is on it's way. A minimum of 13 degrees overnight, this has been the coolest night so far this year. We have also had some rain. A late afternnoon storm on the weekend, then two later at night, brought a total of 32mm to the garden, which made pulling weeds yesterday easy.

Australian Contrasts & A Lizard Rescue

This last week has been one of lots of things happening in the real world. Around the country we still have fires in Victoria, there have been floods in Queensland, floods along the North Coast of NSW, and the valley where I grew up had over 28inches of rain. There was a National Day of Mourning on Sunday with a special service held in Melbourne for the fire victims of Black Saturday. This service was telecast all around the country and I watched some of it with the comfort of my tissue box. Very moving, with addresses by politicians, dignatories, and HRH Princess Anne. The music created by combinations of orchestra, didgeridoo & sticks was haunting and will live with me forever.

Here in Sydney my garden has had a drink with most of last week being wet. One morning I went to read the guage to find a lizard sitting at the bottom. Lucky we hadn't had too much rain the day before, as he was still alive with his head just poking above water, though I figured he must have been very cold. It took a while to get him out, he kept wanting to run back into the guage, even though I had emptied the water out & layed the guage on it's side. He must have just wanted to get warm first. He eventually came out & sat sunbaking on the table, only to be gone later when I came to check on him. Maybe he will be more careful next time.

Mother Nature's Colours - The Rainbow

OK, OK, I know I said I may not be able to post much over the next little while, but I could not let this go past without sharing it. It has been another warm day & the storms have been predicted. No storms have eventuated as yet but the rain is around, and combined with the setting sun just a few minutes ago, Mother Nature has produced this beauty. The colours are not quite as vibrant in these pics as they were in reality, but I am sure you can all imagine. Rainbows have been rare lately , it has been so dry. This one was just so nice, be it seen through electrical wires.

More Rain

It's raining again this morning. Not that I am complaining, as my garden desperately needs it. It is just that I am over this cold weather. We got to a top of 19 degrees with an apparent temp of 14 degrees yesterday & in my way of thinking that is winter in this part of the world. It is after all summer in Sydney, & Christmas is around the corner. It really should be sunny & hot, with temps in the 30's. The weather people say it is going to be seriously hot tomorrow, but something serious is going to have to happen for us to get to that. In the meantime, my pots are all out from under cover getting a drink, including this geranium.

Slimey Things

This morning dawned cloudy & by the time I went for my morning walk, it was raining lightly. So by the time I came home, guess what was crawling all over the garden. A member of my family has a habit of seeing if "snails can fly", and with a toss in the air the snails land on something hard like the road or driveway. Guess who has also picked up the habit, only to find out this morning that sometimes this just does not remove the snails pemanently.

So this morning I returned to a memory of my father, who used to fill an old paint tin that he had (complete with wire handle) with boiling water. He would then go around the garden, in the rain, collecting every snail he found, and drop them into the tin. This was me this morning, with a bucket partially filled with boiling water, collecting every snail I found. I might add that the snails definately did not like the hot water, and are now cooling ready to be manure for my garden.

I might also add that the rain did not last very long & was not even enough to wet the driveway.

Snail pic above courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

New Babies

The storms did evenuate yesterday, one at lunch time & a second late afternoon. Overall a nice little drop of rain for my wall pots that I had left out. Also what these new babies required. I acquired these from a wedding that our family attended just recently. Instead of the traditional almond bomboniere, the bridal couple provided tubed Australian Native Plants, wrapped in florist paper of a colour that matched the bridal party. Very nice! So I now have two kangaroo paws, one NSW waratah, and one Angophora hispida. I have been doing some reading about these plants, where to plant, how to plant, how often to water, etc etc, so for the moment I have just transferred them into lager pots containg a mix specially for Australian Natives. At least that will give me some time to think about where I will eventually plant them .

Australian Bi-Centenial Rose

One of my beautiful red roses this morning, once again taken in the drizzley rain. I bought this one quite some years ago & on the tag it was called "Australian Bi-Cenenial Rose". Personally, it is the smell that I wanted, not the name, as one of these flowers in a vase will perfume the whole house. The perfume is just divine.

White Roses

Something beautiful this morning. Just one of the many white roses at present in my garden. The rain from the last few weeks has brought on a flush of flowers on all my white roses. So in a few weeks my garden has changed from pink to white. This pic was taken in the drizzly rain of last week & if you look close, some of the other blooms on the same bush can also be seen.