Pastime for winter evenings
Finished! The blossom trees in the foreground took ages.
June 2018
Gardens in unusual places: in orbit
Veggie (Vegetable Production System). Photo NASA/ISS
A bit short on aesthetics, but last year, this garden produced the first fresh food grown in space to be actually eaten up there in the International Space Station. It was a welcome 3-lettuce salad, albeit lightly flavoured by the mandatory antibacterial/antimicrobial wipe. Ah, to be an astronaut.
June 2018
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…
…not if the name fitted as perfectly as Red Hot Pokers. And how about these Aussie ones: Flannel Flowers. Kangaroo Paws. Bottlebrushes. Christmas Bells. Fishbone Ferns. Paper Daisies. Birds Nest Ferns. Trigger Plants.
June 2018
Answer to QQ 8
Mr McGregor’s
Conversation over breakfast
B. There’s an article here about a Duchess in England who has planted a poison garden.
G. Does she want to murder someone? Like they murder those Russian spies over there?
B. No silly. As a tourist attraction. She lives in one of those grand estates that need money to upkeep.
G. But poison! She must be pretty desperate.
B. It’s actually not a bad idea. We could plant one ourselves.
G. What for? We don’t want to attract tourists.
B. As a DIY euthanasia plan for our old age.
G. Steady on. I don’t know how these ideas pop into your head.
B. We’ve got lots of poisonous plants here in Oz. I’d be perfectly legal.
G. You have to know what you’re doing with poisons. What if we did a botch job on ourselves and ended up twitching in the backyard for days?
B. We could Google the right doses. We’ve even got a starter up the back – the oleander.
G. Well that’d be your first botch job. The pink ones aren’t too poisonous. It’s the yellow sort you’d need.
B. We wouldn’t rush into it. It’d need research. Maybe the castor oil plant. Or the white cedar.
G. Would you mind not spoiling the rest of my breakfast with your wild ideas.
June 2018
Position, position….but which position?
Five years no flowers. Shifted to different spot. Two flowers. No discernible difference between the two spots.
June 2018
Back in action after leg collapse
Never underestimate the versatility of the milk crate.
June 2018
Amusing the grandkids: bottle magic
Directions:
Plant some zucchini seeds.
When mature, select a baby zucchini small enough to be inserted in the neck of a bottle similar to the one above.
Pluck off flower and insert zucchini, still attached to the plant, into the bottle.
Lie bottle in shade of the leaves until zucchini grows to fill the bottle (check daily).
Cut the stem.
When grandchild next visits, hide bottle behind back.
Produce it with a triumphant “abracadabra”.
May 2018
Unadorned
Our Australian outdoor chapels rival the grand cathedrals of Europe. This one high on a hilltop in northern New South Wales.
May 2018
Conversation over dinner
B. It sure is an uphill struggle trying to be politically correct…quite literally now.
G.You’re referring to our new water tank and the hose aren’t you?
B. I can’t believe I’ve always taken mains water pressure so much for granted.
G. Don’t worry. We’ll buy a little pump. That’ll do the trick.
B. That’s a black mark in itself. Electricity.
G. But we’ll still get brownie points for harvesting our rain water.
B. Not much longer for recycling though. That compost heap has to go. Fruit flies I can live with. But not rats!
G. We’ll easily get rid of the rats.
B. What if we poison the possum instead? That’d really blow our credibility rating.
G. At least we no longer have an incinerator. That gives us a big tick.
B. Ah, I miss that incinerator so much. The smoke billowing up each weekend. The flames licking. I loved chucking in the branches, tidying things up. A green bin’s just not the same.
G. Erase such thoughts from your mind. We’re politically correct now, remember.
May 2018
Lucky a wind didn’t come up
British artist James Brunt specialises in ephemeral outdoor arrangements
May 2018
Answer to QQ 7
Gregor Johann Mendel, the first geneticist