Post a peek of yourself here...

Yea the WILD PARROTS I recall my visit on on Hamilton Island they were around galore in red and green it was amazing. Just like in a wonderland .. Do you have the white ones with the yellow feathers on the head ? A friend of mine has a 27 year old one and a amazone one that is 45 years old he used to love to drink Almdudler I dont have digital photos..sorry they lived in Hong Kong and the Philiines traveling every winter there ...Here we have sparrow and blue jay how exiting :-) But the Blue Jay family is really sweet although the noise is less than pleasant.
I cant wait Liz to see your surroundings it sound so quaint and nice.

 

Oh yes, I am certain Liz has some lovely shots.


Did you ever take pics of those gorgeous wild parrots, Vic? Love to see them...


: )

 

Yes, Laurel hedges do require cutting, the English sort less than the Portuguese kind and there are others I don't know much about. I seem to have 2 types of the English in my yard as one has small marble sized berries and the other, perhaps older version at the back fence has the large marble size for fruits which, when the resident Robins return they will gorge on as this year is a plentiful year for fruits of all sorts here.

D

 

Yes, parrots pics would be lovely and doubtless, more dignified than the debauched looking Robin above !

Thanks Vic, for the wonderful compliment re: the face. Even those who know me ask - Who is that? as it looks nothing like my ordinary self.
I've had a look at your work Vic and am duly impressed. I love the visuals.
No, no artistry in my life beyond the daily living of it! I took the time to try drawing something on paper before trying it on the face. With big earrings and my large amber bead necklace and a very loose dress, I tried for an African taste as the band that year, at the Errington Hall where people have always dressed well for Halloween as long as I had attended, played Afro flavoured music.
Here's one from last year, taken from afar so no clarity. I had cut my hair short so that it could raise as it wanted to, in a shocking year, cut short for the first time in 40 yrs! I had hair as long as Holly Berry's, about the same colour tho without the lovely wave and with a touch of grey starting, being no spring sprout, I !
And below,under the endlessly growing Amaglia rose, a single, white, lightly scented - as said in its description: small dogs and children have been known to disappear if they ventured too near this rose, that reminds me so of blackberry. Having a neighbour now who hates it and all I grow it seems, I am reducing it a great deal over these 2 yrs past.

D

 

D your garden has the flavour of mine. Bad hair day and gorgeous.

Vic yes we have huge flocks of the white sulphur crested cockies. They remind me of bikie gangs. Very noisy. Also have the big black funeral director ones that flap flap flap and have a nournful cry. (rare) Heaps of other small parrots too.

Liz

 

haha

Why Bad hair day. I think it's quite manicured ? Some the plants just fall over each other down the rockery :-)...I cant cant them away I am waiting for the seeds to dry.
Ohh must be gorgeous all these parrots ..

 

Dana

Those roses look AB FAB who cares what the neigbor says..Really am I lucky I only get compliments of my neighors who wished my garden would extend on to theirs
If you love African rythmes here is the best ONLINE South African Radio mixed stuff
ITs called KAYA ( meaning HOME) Radio its run by a WHITE LADY who started it with all black DJs but the best is on Sunday night RSA time 6-9 pm that is Sunday morning here
http://www.kayafm.co.za/latest/stream/ try it I love it that program plays WORLD MUSIC from all over Africa and the rest of the exotic world.

 

Thanks for the radio stream. I have several world music types as I find I can work to it really easily. Listening to Chinese at the moment. Had Andean stuff earlier that came from CD's I was cataloguing a couple of weeks ago.

You might like this one a mix of everything both classical (not too highbrow) and lot's of world music. It is a really pleasant programm. You can pull it down anytime in the 24 hours following, pause it and replay.

http://www.abc.net.au/classic/drive/


Liz

 

You are taking me on a soft spot I loooove Mandarin music ( but NOT the new kind of pop hard rock like I want to be western in your face) But there are many lovely sounding Mandarin singers. Actually the two least gifted by nature visually speaking are extremely gifted with their voice. One is gay male singer and a gay female singer both from Tibetan origin but on top of many charts. Don't ask me their name now in ping yin its 2.30am here. Must ask my partner a link for you on you tube to check them out.

 

Liz,
I am wondering how it is to harvest fruit when there are parrots. They are fruit eaters are they not? Do they devastate the cherries the way our birds do here? How about the other fruits like plums etc?

Our crows are now dropping nuts on the road to break their shells as those are now ripening here.

I have had to cover my chard from the siskins here the past few years as the number of chard-eating siskins grows. I saw only one years ago, now I get up to 20 or so feeding at once! Quite remarkable really and demonstrates their adaptability. Of course I do leave lots uncovered out in the rest of the garden for them to snack on. We all need our greens to be healthy.

D

 

Help me god, my Chard is not covered and thousands are flying over our yard every evening before sunset to go sleep in their favorite spot. How does on recognize that species? Do they wear a tag? :-) Crows are becoming more and more "civilized" One of my neighboring yards get desroyed all the time they pick some stuff in the grass and digg it up ONLY that lawn and he has tried everything nothing will stop them.

 

I have only ever seen crows at a lawn when the underground termite is hatching and sending out fliers. They will sit and pick the termites off one by one as they emerge from tiny holes in the ground. Still it can look like dandelion fluff floating in the air when they come out. Last seen by me at the first rain after our dry spell, and before that right on the fall equinox - how did they know????

Well, Vic, I will not tell them about your chard. Perhaps the siskins dill not find it. They do have a bright green dash toward the bottom of each wing that is so coloured from...........
you guessed it
my chard !
I'm sure they are a local bunch who have learned the benefits of eating chard over the years, teaching this to their young each spring. Until I knew, I thought it was bugs of some sort!
Enjoy the beauty day out there today ! What we call Indian Summer tho it is the first day of Fall.
D

 

Amazing I never saw a Baby Crow so different looking from the big black beasts.
I see more dead ones lying around town.

 

"I am wondering how it is to harvest fruit when there are parrots. They are fruit eaters are they not? Do they devastate the cherries the way our birds do here? How about the other fruits like plums etc?'

They eat every thing they can get their beaks on and if they don't get them the native marsupial possum surely will :)

Have found white plastic bags tied to branches will upset the squakers. CD discs are even better suspended like christmas decorations.

The possums can be put off by light
Many people net their fruit in the suburbs I just let them have it mostly and grab what I can. Trouble is they often go after it when it is still quite undeveloped.

Funniest sight is the white cockies sitting on, I think radiata pines over the road ways, and happily spitting pinecone chips all over the road. The parrots are also fond of Hawthorn berries to the point I have had the quiet rare Gang Gang cockatoos in happily munching for hours with not a sound except for beaks working overtime

Liz

 

Hey everyone, thought i'd post some pictures of me.

Picture one: Hmm some kind of dance LOL, not too sure what i was thinking at that time.

Picture two: Last winter we had.

Picture three: No comment :P

I have better more recent ones, but can't find them at the moment, I'll post if i can ever locate them on my computer.

 

Thought you might be interested in the 3 day dust storm they are having in Sydney and Brisbane. Weather pattern is bringing sand straight in off the red centre.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/23/2694487.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2009/09/23/2693741.htm

There are some videos on the site as well.

We had something similar back in 1983 when the northern part of our state came south on the north winds just before the Ash wednesday fires.

Liz

 

Liz,
I can't imagine how you cope !
Does everything get gritty when this goes on for so long?
d

 

We have a white one locally.

Why are the crows dropping like that? Do you know?
Is it when they touch the wrong wires, as they often do or something else? Many young ones seem not to survive that learning experience. TTZZZtttt!

When they die after getting electrocuted the others come to see. Usually the transformer blows out with a bang too and someone loses power for a while.....
RIP little crows over in Burnaby, whatever the reasons.

D

 

Thanks for posting your shots, Rob!


: O


Nice to see you after all our chats and trades.


You are so young - thought you were older! You probabaly thought the same of me though too. A number of people thought I was a sweet little old lady, on this forum and others! Too funny.


Great ya joined the thread. Welcome.


: )

 

So Rob is that in your bed room or living room in the Winter :-) ?
I also follow the new greener trend. But still I am not wearing the down jackt and hat indoors . Haha Although I did in South Africa. We had a 700m2 home loft style nearly no inside walls (my design) the living room was 350m2 and it was built for summer.
But in winter the nights are cold down to 0C ( days are wonderfull up to 25c) and six month of sunshine guaranteed. So in the eve it was downjackets blankets by the open fire :-) with all the dogs and cats in a circle .
Here in Vancouver we lowered the temperature 2- 4degree and wear 2 layers more
and save 1/3 to 1/2 of your heating bills .. it really works we did it last winter
lowering to 19 instead of 22 degree.
I also found out the sunlight beam heaters are better than the electric one that just blow hot air. They go for 69$ at Cosco this year.

 

Sounds like white fly on the chard flying up.
I am seeing them lately too, mostly on fuchsias but on other things too. HSuld survive til frost ok I think. The white fly seems to have multiplied in the 'wild' in these past years.
It used to be that it was only greenhouse plants that had them. Cold winter did not kill them all off either hey!?

The Red Russian will be ok once the frosts start.
The powdery mildew, which is a different thing than the tomato blight, is common in nature here with it showing up in the last half of August on even the clovers in the fields. It passes with the frost.
The blight on tomatoes usually not till labour day weekend, that is after the first bout in July.

Later,
D

 

sorry to ask again. i do not understand that clearly
Do I rip the red russian out or just cut it back
as well as the curly kale ? do I cut it down , rip out , replant ?

I have Fushia no white flyes there.
Should I spray the chard with soapy water ?

I just like to grow late into the season that is why
I planted some along the house wall where is warmer
See Photos
QUESTION: Do you know how to collect the seeds of this flower family
there are loads around in friends gardens and I only have 2 ( by miracle)
But there are so many nice varities. When they make the big bubble on top
how long to wait to collect that bubble that I guess are the seeds
LH: I collected my 1st old head of the Vanilla Marygold
HOW do I collect the seeds
Normally its regenerating for the plant to take the old flowers off
but then how to collect the seeds can I dry the flowers separately
A few shots of my favorite new TEDDY BEAR Sunflowers
on the stem in a bit more posed shots.
and a bit OF LOVE to all of your FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART
photo taken in the garden of friends of mine.. Loooovely isn't it ?
and hey the other day it was 150 days to the Olympics
and still no one wants to use my multi language skills for something
better than selling tickets (not my cup of tea:-))
Taken on the day of the re opening of the newly renovated ROBSON PLACE in Vancouver
http://bit.ly/WgTsl here are the photos

 

Hi vicarious, that would be my living room :P

The winters there are much milder then here in hamilton lol, i'm jealous you get to live in the west coast. Here the average temperature is -20 C in january and febraury, with the odd day at -45 C not out of the question. I remember the day I took that photo, we had a snow storm and i think 30 CM of fresh snow had fallen, i was the lucky one who got to shovel! haha

HBL, i thought you were older too! I'm actually 20 years old, 21 in less than 4 months.

 

Wow Vic - love it that you showed the white marigolds! They look terrific! I knew you would love them. How pretty. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, Rob, well ShearMe thought I was 22 but actually I am in my mid-30's! Still not a sweet little old lady though - yet.


: )