Harvey...The Gardens

Back today with some photos of the gardens that surround Stirling Cottage as promised. I always enjoy walking around other gardens, because there is always some idea you pick up along the way, that inspires you to try something new in your own garden.

Warning this is a picture heavy post :).

Quiet spot overlooking the river.

Water fountains are always nice in a garden.

This shady gazebo was the perfect spot to sit in order to keep out of the very hot sun.

There were a number of butterfly bushes (Buddleia) planted and the butterflies really did seem to love the bushes. It was a bit tricky trying to get a photo of the butterflies as they were flitting from one flower to another. I would just get a butterfly all lined up with the camera and off they would go onto another flower.

They even had a small vegetable garden and quite a few fruit trees.

The original Stirling Cottage had a large vegetable garden along with many fruit trees.

We saw corn, tomatoes, bush beans lettuce, artichokes, cucumbers and lots of herbs,

which I'm guessing they would use in the kitchen of Stirling Cottage for the lunches

that are available daily.

Past the Silky Oak tree...

Through the arch and down the garden path

to...

The river walk.

Lots of tree ferns and...

Ferns.

I didn't really take any photos of the river itself, because to me, it didn't look to be in great shape.

I remember the river from years ago and this was nothing like it, and I was shocked at how little

water there was in there.

The only photos I did take were of...

Mumma Duck and her babies!

This gorgeous Hollyhock had self seeded from one of the garden beds higher up, into a crack in the footpath that ran along the edge of the river.

It was such a hot spot for it to be growing.

These Lilliums are beautiful.

One plant I don't grow in my garden because they are deadly to cats.

I just admire them in other gardens.

That was a long post! That was only some of the many many photos I took. We didn't actually even see all of the garden as it was just so hot walking around out there. One thing I noticed too is there were mass plantings of Hydrangeas under the trees. None of them were out in flower yet, but when they are, it will look gorgeous. I will be back tomorrow with part 3, photos from Harvey dam and some pics of our stunning Australian Kangaroo Paws.

It is starting to feel and look very much like we might get a thunderstorm. It is so hot and muggy. It would be nice to get a storm and some rain. We really need some rain our rainwater tank is virtually empty which means any day now we will have to switch back over to town water - yuck! Only problem is the farmers don't want the rain as they are now all harvesting their crops.

Harvey

Today saw us take a trip to the pretty town of Harvey.Years ago when Megan and Daniel were only little we used to live near there and spent quite a bit of time around Harvey. It is a very pretty place. A very green place. There are lots of beautiful dairy cows there. Todays' visit was to catch up with my Uncle and take him out for lunch for his upcoming birthday. The three of us along with Mum and Dad went down there for the day. It was a lovely day, although stinking hot. We spent the majority of the day doing the aussie salute! The flies were shocking.

I will probably get into trouble for putting this one on the blog - oh well!

This is where we had lunch, Stirling Cottage. This particular cottage is a replica of the original cottage that was built in the mid 1800's.The original had fallen into major disrepair by the late 1960's, so on the 9th October 1994 the replica Stirling Cottage pictured above was opened to the public. I can't believe it, but I actually forgot to get a photo from the back of the cottage which has a deck that juts out over the Harvey River and is a nice spot to sit and eat lunch. As today was so stinking hot we chose to sit inside, in the cool, with the air conditioning.

The original Stirling Cottage was built by convicts and was home to many pioneering farming families including the family of May Gibbs, famous for her children's books of which Snugglepot and Cuddlepie is well known. May Gibbs and her family lived in the cottage in 1885 and 1886. It is thought that this is where May Gibbs created Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, whilst riding her pony through the surrounding bush, she would stop and do drawings and paintings of the bush around her.

I feel a bit funny posting pictures of the public toilets, but they are a cute idea.

Once again they are a replica, based on the original cottage's stables...

hence the colts for the boys and fillies for the ladies!

But you will be very pleased to know they were indeed very

modern inside!!

The above four photos I took of the paintings that have been done by local artists and they are at the entrance to the Harvey Visitors Centre and Moo Shoppe. The Moo Shoppe has all kinds of giftware and trinkets, not only to do with the local dairy cows, but also other Australian birds and animals. I crossed one Christmas present off the list whilst I was in there! Hard to believe it is only 39 days until Christmas!!

Both going down and coming back up the Coalfields Highway we got stuck behind oversize vehicles. This monster was the biggest one, he was so big he took up the whole entire highway. Luckily for us we weren't stuck behind him for too long before he and all his support vehicles (there were another 3 in front of him as well as the truck and van directly behind him) were able to pull into an area off the highway, and the long stream of traffic was able to get past.

I took sooo many photos today, I think I will come back tomorrow with part 2 which will show the lovely gardens surrounding Stirling Cottage and the Harvey river. In fact I think I will do it in three parts as I also took quite a few photos out at the Harvey Dam, that we also visited before heading for home. I didn't take any photos of our meals, because I always feel really self conscious doing that sort of thing, but get me out in the gardens and I snap away like crazy. Even though I didn't take any photos of the meals we all thoroughly enjoyed what we had to eat. And with that I am going to go and raid the fridge. None of us really felt like eating when we got home as we were still full from lunch and also it was just too hot, but I am starting to get a bit peckish now.

So Stirling Cottage at Harvey is well worth a visit and I will be back tomorrow with photos of the gardens.

Sunday Catch Up

Not sure where the last five or six weeks have gone. I didn't mean to stay away from the blog, I guess things just got busy and before I knew it, quite some time had passed. I can't even remember everything that has happened, so below are just a few of the goings on.

Megan attends an Agricultural college and is doing the agricultural course (rather than trades or mechanics), but every so often they have to spend a certain amount of time doing parts of the other courses. Above is the metalwork she made for me in trades. I love it and think she did a brilliant job.

At the end of September I finally managed to find a white manual car within budget for Megan as her first car. I had heaps of trouble trying to find one. I was looking for white or light coloured (I just prefer that as it is more visible on the road), manual (found so many automatics, manuals are becoming harder to come by) and in budget and in good condition. Was so happy when we got this one. We were starting to run out of time as Megan had her driving test booked for mid October (which she passed yay!) I have always had manual cars until my latest one, so I didn't plan that very well. All worked out well in the end though as both Megan and I are happy with this car and it's a great little car to drive. So she has now passed her practical driving test and is on phase 2 of her L's.

My gorgeous boy BJ has been slowed down a bit this week. Last Saturday I noticed a lump in the top corner of his eye. First thing Monday I rang the vet and she thought it might be a grass seed, so we drove the 100klm round trip to the vet, but it wasn't a grass seed, but she thought it was a cyst. So she told me to take him back in Tuesday to have it removed. When I picked him later that afternoon, the vet said it was a tumour. That was my gut feeling all along. It is gone now and he has a couple of stitches which need to come out after 10 days. the vet said because he is getting old now, the chances are it may come back or he may get another one somewhere, I really hope it doesn't come back and that we don't find anymore.

We have cherries yippee!!

We have mulberries too.

Lots of mulberries!

We won't be eating any of them this year though, as the local shire has been fogging

for the mozzies which are in plague numbers. They have been fogging along our

back alley each evening and the chemical fog comes over the back fence and

lands on the mulberry tree. Not happy.

Not sure why, but the last week or so we have had so many crows visiting our yard.

The roses are looking beautiful and full of so many buds.

This one is Apricot Nectar.

Double Delight.

All the bottlebrush shrubs are covered in masses of flowers.

And the bees are going bonkers over the flowers.

This foxglove is planted out near the washing line and is so pretty

to look at while I am pegging out the washing.

The snapdragons just keep on flowering!

Time to go and bring the washing in and cook tonight's tea, yummy nachos and salad. Then I think I will try and google what the best type of smoothies are to help reduce inflammation as I have have been having lots of problems with swollen and sore joints in my shoulders, elbows, hands, knees and feet. It is leaving me feeling really blah and makes doing anything, less than enjoyable.

Spring Beauties

*Ginger*

 



*Sam*

 



Love their crazy hair-do's!

 

Two photos of the spring beauties out in the garden was all I was able to take.

We have gale force winds out there. Again.

It was way too hard trying to get the flowers in focus, they were moving about

all over the place.

Well lunch break is over, back to work for awhile this afternoon.

Back out into the freezing cold wind.

At least it is not raining...yet.



Before The Rain

I had a look around the garden to see what else was flowering.

Gorgeous purple Beadered Iris

Clivia in the shadehouse.

Another pretty cornflower, slightly different colour from the last one.

Jess

Billy

Of course around this place I can never walk around the garden or try and do something in the house without having one or two + 'companions'. In this case Jess and Billy were on hand today, with both the dogs deciding it was just too cold to go outside unless absolutely necessary.

Somebody forgot to tell the weather it is actually spring!

It was so cold today, had to dig out the real warm winter woollies.

Back to warm jumpers and soup weather again!

Sunday In Pictures

A lovely Sunday pottering around, doing jobs both inside and outside. It's now time to go feed the menagerie and cook our dinner before ending the day in front of the fire watching a bit of tv. Hope everyones' Sunday was a lovely one too.

::Ten on Ten:: September 2013

10 pictures on the 10th day of the month.

{Document a snapshot of your life and find beauty among the ordinary things in your day!}

Joining in with Rebekah for this months Ten on Ten.

 First thing this morning was to get 3 loads of washing out on the line

as a series of storms are supposed to be moving in.

At least the strong breeze got it dry in no time.

Taking a wander around the garden, I noticed my first cornflower

had opened. Can't wait to see the rest of them open up.

Late morning I started working on a small project.

My kitchen is blah and boring, so I am trying

to do a few small things to brighten it up a bit.

I made a start on brightening up the pin-up board on the side

of the pantry, with this happy looking polka dot contact.

Unfortunately I ran out of time to finish it off.

 Hopefully I will be able to get back

to it at the end of the week.

Less fun to do today was finish off a job application

and do my tax return.

Thankfully that job is now out of the way.

After tackling my tax it was time to have a cuppa.

A herbal tea in this case, trying to cut down

on the amount of coffee I'm drinking.

Once again I pulled this fabric out ready to start cutting it up,

but once again couldn't bring myself to start as I am

afraid of making big mistakes with my cutting and

ruining the chance of being able to do anything

with it.

Today's egg count.

My beautiful boy BJ.

He was in his usual spot in the kitchen

waiting ever so patiently for his dinner to

appear in his bowl.

This was the sky about 5pm.

Apparently some heavy rain and gale force

winds are on the way!

I certainly wouldn't make a food photographer!

It mightn't look much, but this creamy mushroom pasta

and salad was yum. And the best thing is there is enough to

have for dinner again tomorrow night. Tomorrow is going to be a

loooong day at work. I will be on the road all day, I have hundreds

of kilometres to drive. I should hopefully finish about 7pm.

Should be fun with all the rain and wind coming in!

At least dinner will be easy to rustle up. 

I had fun participating in my second ten on ten and finding the beauty in the everyday. Looking forward to next months ten on ten.