Easter

With Easter coming up I was reflecting on a two night stay I had a few years ago on Easter Island. I was returning from a wondrous trip to Antarctica. The island was discovered by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveenis on Sunday, April 5, 1722 — which just happened to be Easter that year on the Christian calendar. The island covers 63 square miles and is the most isolated in the world being 2,150 miles west of South America and 1,300 miles east of Pitcairn Island - its nearest inhabited neighbor.

I don't have any of my own pictures on digital so here are some photos of the extraordinary moai which dot the island. They range in height from 4 to 33 feet and in weight to more than 80 tons

Standing proud and tall over the centuries

A treeless island - with moai guarding the entire island

Showing no disrespect, it also made me reflect on the life of our our former Prime Minister - the late Malcolm Fraser who was often depicted by cartoonists as resembling a moai. I watched his funeral with a friend last Friday and was reminded of the statesman he was. Without his involvement in allowing so many Vietnamese boat-people into the country - our society would be a less multi-cultural one. (what a pity we now don't welcome those fleeing atrocities to our shores) And his work with our indigenous people and with Care Australia - just to name a few.   The funeral was touching and very personal - as close to a family farewell as a former Prime Minister can have. In the cartoon below - created many years ago - it somehow seems fitting that it should have a tear in the eye.

Malcolm Fraser - by the cartoonist Prior

Vale Malcolm Fraser - a true statesman 'of the world' - smh.com.au

So after rambling across the globe I wish you a safe and happy Easter break. Don't eat too many chocolates and spare a thought for the chocolate bunnies as you munch through them!

Pardon?! (wooinfo.com)

And getting older this is what we're all up against!!

The Maclura Pomifera

A friend dropped some Maclura Pomifera off to me the other day! It is commonly called the Osage Orange. It doesn't look or taste like an orange and you won't find it at your local farmers market - or any other fruit and vegetable market!

A bowl of Monkey Balls!

It's often called the Hedge Apple or the Horse Apple or the Monkey Ball - with ne're a mention of an orange! When I was 'googling' it I discovered that Martha Stewart was very excited that her sherpa  gardener (!) had just picked her first orange. In her blog (here) she states that 'The Osage orange is native to a small area in eastern Texas, southeastern Oklahoma, and southwestern Arkansas. This region was home to the Native American Osage Indian tribe, hence the name of the fruit'. 

I can't think what it reminds me of!

The mention of Osage takes me back to the extraordinary Pullitza prize-winning play August: Osage County I saw a few years ago starring our very own Robyn Nevin - you can read Alison Croggon's review here. Many of you will have seen the film starring Meryl Streep (see link here). Talk about a disfunctional family - they took it to great heights - but with actors like Robyn and Meryl - well....

Weird 'apple green' oranges!

Anyway enough of that diversion - the Osage Orange is a strange beast. It apparantly makes a terrific hedge. So if you are looking for something quirky to hedge your plot then why not try the Maclura Pomifera!

I'm just happy to have it decorate my kitchen table!

Had you heard of it? Have you seen it? Would you plant it?

 

A rarity - the double-yolker!

Cracking an egg and finding a double-yolker when I was growing up was a pretty common occurance. It was also very exciting (well very is perhaps a little exaggerated) it could be the highlight of the day before heading off to school (I've never been a cereal girl - it's like eating chaff to me!)

A friend co-ordinates a monthly market in the country town of Avenel just over an hour from Melbourne. One of her tasks is to buy eggs from the local supplier and on-sell the most enormous eggs. The difference in the size leaves the largest old supermarket ones for dead. I felt confident that perhaps a good old double-yolker would appear as I ate my way through my supply. But sadly no. 

A gaggle of googie eggs! And nare a double-yolker in sight!

So imagine my surprise recently when I cracked my ordinary morning free-range supermarket egg and there was a double-yolker. I couldn't believe it. They still exist. I enjoyed it with reverence!

Seeing is believing!

Did you know that a double-yolker means someone you know will be getting married or having twins? Or both! As an only child I always wished I was a twin! So much for superstition.

Have you been lucky enough to have a double-yolker recently or are they, like so many things, becoming a thing of the past? 

Road carnage

The powers that be seem to herald a drop in the number of persons killed each year on our roads and yet it doesn't quite tell the whole story. After yet another spate of fatal accidents over the holiday weekend and cyclists being 'doored' (is this a new word in the dictionary?) and pushed into passing trucks it seems that we just ain't getting anywhere. Our roads are more crowded and our public transport system is going backwards and no new train/tram lines are being built. Things are only going to get worse. But that's another story.

Whenever I read that there has been another fatal accident I always think about the number of passengers who may have been seriously hurt but are never mentioned in any official figures. It would seem to me that including those in the list may - just may - make people take a little more care on the roads. Of course many believe they are invincible and take the attitude that it's 'not going to happen to me'. Well hopefully it isn't but we are often in the hands of those on the roads who take that view.  

A reminder along the way

But what to do about it? Well I think South Australia (my home state) goes someway to addressing the issue. When driving in the countryside you often pass a clump of posts. Red posts are for those injured in an accident and black posts are for those who died. What always amazes me is that they are often out in the open road, no bends in the road, no dangerous crossings, no visual reasons for what has happened and changed the lives of those involved and their families and friends forever. This is what you will find throughout the state.

They tell a pretty graphic story

Crash markers also operate in Tasmania (since 2002) where these standard roadside guideposts are placed adjacent to where a fatal or serious injury crash has occurred. I was pleased to read that the South Australian Government did a backflip on its decision to remove roadside crash marker posts from roads in 2014. I was interested to see that Google even publishes a map of the crash markers in SA. See link here

I think they are so much better and safer and less distracting than many that we pass on the roads.

I guess it's easy for me to say - they are not my family (portpirierecorder.com.au)

A long straight road - and just that one tree... (bordermail.com)

To be reminded while we drive is a good thing. But to be reminded of those who received serious injuries is why I am in favour of the red and black markers. What do you think?

A surprise - beautiful Begonias

On a recent trip to Daylesford in Victoria's Spa country we visited the spectacular Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens in order to have lunch at Wombat Hill House the cafe run by renowned two-hatted chef Alla Wolf Tasker (she of The Lake House at Daylesford fame). What a lovely adventure it was. The cafe was charming and the food delicious as one would expect. And the setting was lovely. We sat in the cafe garden and if I closed my eyes and dreamt I could have been in Italy or the South of France. Gravel underfoot, lovely quirky tables and the lushest of lush herb gardens made it the perfect setting on a lovely late summers day. 

A lovely outside garden - I could have been in Europe!

Yes I know - too dark - sorry -  but the inside of the cafe is quirky and interesting

The wonderfully named Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens are a delight with some magnificent old trees and plantings as well as lush green lawns - what a cool delight on hot day. You have a birds-eye-view of Daylesford and the surrounding countryside. 

Lovely Wombat Botanic Gardens

But it was a hothouse of begonias that really 'blew me away'. I must say I have never had much time for the old fashioned begonia. They kindled up images of little old ladies and gents potting their plants in the 'fernery'. But these were just amazing. It made me want to visit the Ballarat Begonia Festival which just happens to be on this weekend (7-9 March 2015). 

The Alf Headland Conservatory - what a sight to come upon

And so a little history. In 1690, Charles Plumier, a Franciscan Monk and botanist, discovered 6 new plants in the West Indies. He dedicated the new genus to his patron, Michel Bergon, who had a strong interest in botany, and was at that time Governor of Haiti in the Antilles. (I bet you didn't know that!)

Beautiful Begonias

The Wombat Botanic Garden collection was started by W. Gascoine, Curator from 1885 - 89 - a Frenchman and experienced horticulturist, who grew tuberous begonias in the Conservatory. The plants were grown again in the 1930's in a new glasshouse. The curator Bill Greville obtained 45 plants from the Ballarat City Council and 30 from Queens Park in Essendon and soon had 250 tubers including a 'lost' one named Daylesford. When Alf Headland was appointed part-time caretaker in 1956 he found tubers in the woodshed. He became an expert in their cultivation. The Conservatory is named after him.   

Gorgeous colours

They look like full blown roses

Sometimes in life one happens upon a lovely surprise. Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, Wombat Hill House and the amazing Begonias on display was one of those happenstance surprises. So take a drive to Daylesford and spend some time at the Wombat Botanic Gardens, have lunch in the cafe and press your nose to the glass in the Conservatory hothouse - just go between March and May (although I went in February!)

Beach and Country Gardens

With my front and back gardens both ravaged it seems opportune that I take you on a wander through two special gardens that I have visited recently. Both were open for the soon to be no more "Open Garden Scheme'. 

Welcome to the Yallambie vegetable garden and orchard

I visited the first garden on a searing 42 degree day in the Gough's Bay area - just a hop, step and a jump (not that I could have done that in the heat) from Mansfield - in Victoria's High Country. But it was a journey of another kind that took me there. My dear friend Pamela, who has taken herself off to retire 'from the law' in Palermo, Sicily - not the usual choice but.. was visiting Australia for her annual 'pilgrimage' home. She was off to stay with her friend, and a long lost friend of mine, in order not just to catch up but to help with the throngs of people (even in that heat) who were expected to attend (and did) when Ann opened her garden. I was staying with a friend a mere 2 hour drive away (nothing to these country folk) and so we decided to head off to see the garden and my friends. After all the air-conditioner in the car was a great way to stay cool on the journey through Victoria's tinder-dry countryside.

Cool clear water

Yallambie is a 5 acre garden on the banks of the Delatite River (which can be prone to flooding and wiping out a good part of the garden) and Ann and Jim Lahore have done marvels since 'giving up the law' in exchange for 'digging in the soil'. The transformation since their arrival full time almost a decade ago is extraordinary. I didn't tell my friend Pamela that I was coming. I thought it would be a surprise and it certainly was! And she was the first person I saw when we arrived! So after much air-kissing we were off to explore the garden.

The 3 of us - happiness on a HOT Day - 'the writer', Pamela and gardener extraordinaire Ann

It has been a trial and error affair - as are most gardens. But Ann has had to contend with the river which provides much needed water (the garden was not too parched even on a searing hot day) but much of the garden goes under water when it floods. Imagine seeing your 40 newly planted roses and 100 clumps of perennials planted by the tennis court swept away by the flooding river. Heartbreaking. And then there are the kangaroos, rabbits, wombats and cockatoos to name a few who 'share' the garden as well. But as only Ann could in her inimitable way she had persisted with planting rare and unusual trees and as they have matured they have created their own microclimate. There is a walled vegetable garden that would be the envy of many cityslickers, there are birch glades, underplantings of nasturtiums and good old cosmos, there are cooling lawns and the ubiquitous crabapple walk.  Ann describes it as 'idiosyncratic and it is. Of course the wonderful sculptures dotted throughout the garden certainly help to take one's eye to the outside world. So come with me on a walk through Yallambie. 

Green, green, green thanks to the 'prone to' flooding Delatite River

Cool, cool, cool in searing 42 degree heat

Here a sculpture

There a sculpture - I'm sure it's not a disused bomb welcoming guests!

And so we leave Yallambie - with a view to the high country beyond the garden. Wonderful

By contrast I visited a coastal garden at Anglesea which was also part of the Open Garden Scheme. Sunnymeade was recently awarded 'Best use of Plants in the Landscape' and we could see why. It was enchanting. It was on a regular block (perhaps a bit bigger) in contrast to the 5 acre garden in Gough's Bay. 

Welcomed by a magnificent tree (and rustic tree house)

The garden included magnificent twisted stringy barks (such an Aussie sounding name) which graced much of the front garden. We were entranced by the lawn hills which had been created. It was explained that the trees take so much goodness from the soil preventing a lawn to grow but that by creating mounds with great soil the lawn could thrive and was lush and green. And those mounds were great for rolling down (just wish I was younger!) 

A free spirit (hope she stays that way!) rolling on the hilly grass

The owner runs his own landscaping business www.orl.com.au but as is so often the way he never seemed to have the time for his own garden and so called in help to lay it out! And the results of the collaboration were terrific. As with Yallambie there were many sculptures dotted throughout the garden giving the eye a great focus.

I love these 'rustic' sculptures

I thought the summation by the judges when awarding this garden summed it up "WOW! This is an exceptional garden. The plants in this garden are the landscape. The existing trees have been made features in the overall landscape, and new plantings have been done to complement and further highlight the existing trees".

 

Every plant compliments the next

What fun I have had exploring two such different gardens. What I will take from them is that gardeners have such a passion for their surroundings and both have incorporated the garden features into their surroundings. It was wonderful to be able to share that passion - and their vision. 

There is a place for everything

(I'm hoping to get mine back as my bookend disasters at home are resolved and recover!)

I got a letter from the postman!

My home seems to be being hit both front and back at the moment!  Not only am I living in a back yard war zone - which I'm sure my readers are all tired of hearing about - I now have a war zone at the front of my home!

My beautiful pleached olive hedge

The postman wrote (twice) to tell me that I needed to prune my beautiful pleached olive trees on my boundary as he couldn't ride his bike down the footpath to deliver my letters! Not only were my olives encroaching on his riding space (I thought footpaths were for foot traffic not bikes!) but the no-standing sign in the footpath meant that neither he nor the handlebars could squeeze through the gap! 

Nice and private - but that sign meant Mr Postman couldn't ride between the sign and the hedge!

Well I decided to bite the bullet and have the olives pruned (although now that the deed is done I have been informed that the Postman has no legs to stand on - or bike on - regarding the request!) I had been loathe to prune them hard as the olives were green and I like to wait until they turn black. Still out of 'courtesy' to the postman we went ahead.

And this is the horror result - although my gardener assures me that they will come back. In the mean time everyone passing can see inside my home. The number of people stopping to look in horror is mounting daily. So much for a hedge for privacy! 

Ain't that gorgeous. I hope Mr Postman appreciates it 'cos I sure don't!

Interestingly as I was out frantically gathering the green olives before they went to the tip Mr Postman was seen riding down the road (where bikes should go) and mounting the curb further down the road where he had to compete with overhanging roses, fennel plants, creepers and more. Not surprisingly he averted his eyes from the carnage - and I was too angry to speak to him!

All the green olives I could save

Telling a friend of mine yesterday about 'the letter from the postman' she said she had also received one. At least after changing the letterbox location she got a letter from the postman (woman actually!) thanking her. I doubt very much that I will be so lucky. In the meantime I am feeding the olives frantically - and will remember that the postman/woman doesn't have a legal leg (or bike pedal!) to stand on. 

I'll sign off with the Elvis song - Return to Sender. 'Cos that's what I should have done with his letter!

I gave a letter to the postman,
He put it his sack.
Bright in early next morning,
He brought my letter back.

She wrote upon it:
Return to sender, address unknown.
No such number, no such zone.

We had a quarrel, a lovers' spat
I write I'm sorry but my letter keeps coming back.

So then I dropped it in the mailbox
And sent it special D.
Bright in early next morning
It came right back to me.

She wrote upon it:
Return to sender, address unknown.
No such person, no such zone.

This time I'm gonna take it myself
And put it right in her hand.
And if it comes back the very next day
Then I'll understand the writing on it

Return to sender, address unknown.
No such number, no such zone.

Return to sender
Return to sender
Return to sender
Return to sender