Spring in My New Home

This winter I had to move houses and leave behind the slightly wild garden that I had.

Garden in the Old House

The joys of that winter garden can be viewed with pictures at ‘Winter in My Garden’. In that home the spring continued to have the nasturtiums, morning glory, roses, daffs and snowdrops but brought in new flowers too like the wisteria and jasmine. The perfume of those two is heady and pervades everywhere. One evening I had forgotten to shut the back door and left just the grill shut and the jasmine scent was in every room in the house. Here are some of the photos of my old garden in spring.

 

Wisteria in the back garden

 

Wisteria over the fence and neighbour's garage

 

Wisteria over the shed in the back garden

 

Jasmine in full bloom

 

Dog Rose Bush

 

Creeper Roses

 

 Old Roses with very sweet perfume

 

 

 

Hardy Thistle that grew strong every year

 

Peruvian Lilies

 

Lavender starts to bloom

 

Gardenias

 

Paperbark tree flowering

 

Flowering Palm

Garden in the New House

My new home has a better established garden and from what I gather was with one family for a few decades. Only recently has it been put out to rent and had one previous tenant besides us. It appears that they were not gardeners for most of the trees and bushes were not pruned. There is affront and back garden. The front garden has palm trees, a gum tree of sorts and an orange tree.

 

 

Front Garden

There is ornamental grass, bougainvillea with orange flowers, a small rose plant that appeared when some of the overgrown grass and weeds were pulled up and one or two other plants which have yet to be identified. I am sure as flowers come out I shall be able to search the net for its identity. These are all in front of veranda. 

Ornamental Grass

 

Orange Tree

 

Last 2 oranges of last year's harvest

 

 

 Orange Blossoms

The back garden is also large with well-established trees – variety of palms, banksia and ferns. Some of them I believe are old species – there seem to be a New Zealand Fern and a couple of Staghorn ferns.

 

Back Garden

 

 Fruiting Palms

 

 

From the neighbour's garden

 

 Banskia and Palms

 

Cones new (above) and old (below)

 

 

Banksia Flowers

 

Sweet perfum in this yet unidentified flower

 

Stand alone fern (need to find its identity)

 

Staghorn Fern on an old tree in the back garden

 

 

 Winter flowers stilll going strong

There is a well planted border running along the drive that proved even more interesting. It started with some flowers coming over from the neighbour’s side. Then there is a big bush of parrot flowers and a long thick stem of a rose that had not been cut back. On cutting down the old stems of parrot flowers we discovered that someone had tried to kill of the rose. We chopped the stem right back and hoped it would revive itself. I am glad to say that after a few weeks I have seen new leaves sprouting from this near dead plant. Next there is a plant with tiny white flowers and spiny leaves that has spread along the fence a little. A number of spider flower trees planted along the border. In between there are a couple of vines which also had not been pruned in a while. 

 

Parrot Flowers and the Rose that got sever pruning after the photo was taken

Last year's final bunch of grapes

 

 Emerging vine leaves

 

 A hard prune works wonders

 

Spider Flowers

 

There is a bush that had few leaves but many tight buds. We were not sure what to make of this one but the buds uncurled into new leaves literally within a couple of days of spring. Then new buds appeared and lovely purple flowers of all shades emerged. Now we could look up the flowers on the net to identify the plant which is from the family of nightshades. 

 

Brunfelsia Australis - nightshade

 

Further along there is a lovely cover of wild strawberries among the weeds and grasses. The strawberries are deep red and lovely to look at but watery and tasteless. There are some weeds with pretty little flowers as well.

 

 First wild Strawberry

Nosiy Miners are full of beans

I Am My Brain

We talk about parallel universes with different realities existing out there

Little do we consider that differing perspectives and the different realities already exist here

Each reality is etched from the impulses firing in the heart of the brain

Our attitude, perspective and outlook to train

The network is formed by repetition of impulses

The network is strengthened by these repeating impulses

A pattern forms and a picture emerges

What we see is some highlights and memory merges

We are bombarded with so many stimuli and are sure we know what is

But are we really observing everything as it is?

The time lapse to register anything makes it already the past

And still we think it is here and now and not the past

The firing impulses across synapses can vary and change our views

But still we think we are in control of our views

Building memories and forgetting is also brain’s work

Learning and adapting is also brain’s work

Each sense of ours is only understood by the brain

In fact they are only understood because of the brain

Understanding of self and limits of my physical being

Recognising feeling of an emotional being

My thoughts and my moods are finely tuned by the impulses from the brain

The driver of the body is the brain

My hopes and dreams that drive me to achieve come from my brain

The language and emotions are they really just impulses in my brain?

The entire universe of my reality is just in my brain

All my joys and fears, love and hate, all those things that make me are just in my brain!

Now you know why it is not easy to understand another person

If he is an entirely different universe, it stands to reason.

Mr Stink by David Walliams

This is the second book by David Walliams and another good one for children. Set in the same town as The Boy in the Dress, this time the story is about a tramp and a little girl. The tramp is Mr Stink named by the local people, as he stank something awful. His dog Duchess was equally smelly. It appears they lived on the bench by the shops and did not get to even have a wash. People ignored them and even crossed the road to avoid them. 

Then one day, a little girl called Chloe stops and says hello. She is curious about Mr Stink – where did he come from? Why was he living on the bench? Did he ever have a home? And so on….. Chloe was interested in stories and thought Mr Stink would have an interesting tale. Chloe lived with her younger sister and parents. Her sister, Annabelle, was her mother’s favourite and so got most of her attention. Her mother was status conscious and constantly trying to ensure that she, her family and her home did not come across as anything but classy. Her father is her friend but he also keeps on the right side of his wife. She has no real friends at school either.

That one little hello leads to a timid conversation and start of a friendship between Mr Stink and Chloe. The story is full of lessons about being human, tolerant, non-judgemental, thoughtful, and courageous so that you can follow your dreams. The tramp finds a kind friend and a shelter. Cloe finds someone who she can talk to and who understands her, encourages her and advices her. 

The review of this story is hard to write as everything I want to praise or point out will give away the story. I was fascinated by the way it unfolded and where it led. It gives a view of lives and perspectives of ordinary people. When you read of the different characters they seem familiar as I am sure we have met each one sometime in our lives. What will be the impact of this friendship between Mr Stink and Chloe not only on Chloe but also her family, the local community and the wider society? Will they learn to be tolerant and not judge a book by its cover? 

This is a story that everyone should read for it hold lessons for the adults too. Reading the story to your kids will help open up conversations about human values and all the things you wish to teach them about.

The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams

For those of you who do not know David Walliams, I first came across him in comedy skits with Matt Lucas. There are some real gems in their series Little Britain. So when I heard about the books David began writing I thought I must read them as I am sure they would be fun. However it has been a long time since the first book that I got around to read it. Life just happened to interfere with my plans.

This is a book written for young people but can also be enjoyed by adults for it shows us life from the child’s perceptive, something that we forget once we grow up. This story is about Dennis, a 12 year old boy, who lives with his older brother John and his lorry driver dad. His mother had left them. Dennis remembers his parents fighting but also the love and care his mother had given him. There is only one slightly burnt at the edges photo he has of his mother with John and himself that was saved from the bonfire by a gust of wind.

Life was ordinary and so boring. He has a good friend, loves to play footie, watch daytime chat shows, and look at fashion magazines. He feels sad that his mum was not around and when he cries he gets told not to be a girl! His father catches him leafing through a Vogue magazine and throws it into the bin telling him boys should not be reading this girlie stuff. Of course he is teased about it by his brother. The book is telling us how we perpetuate the gender stereotypes.

At 12 he is just beginning to notice girls like Lisa who is in John’s year. He has the good fortune to spend some detention time with her. Seeing her doodling and sketching dresses like those in fashion magazines he gets talking to her. They find mutual interest in all kinds of fashion and its accessories. Dennis gets invited to spend a Saturday with Lisa and check out her stash of Vogue as well as he own design sketches. But there was more than just sketches as Lisa was good with her sewing and had turned some of her designs into dresses. Dennis’s eyes light up at all these beautiful clothes and as you can guess he gets persuaded to wear one of them. Lisa does a complete makeover on him and presents him in the mirror as Denise.

Will he be persuaded to wear the dress outside the house? Who all will think he is a beautiful girl? What will his father, brother, best friend, school mates, teachers and the head master think of him? It is a good tale about individuality, growing up, being non-judgemental and supportive as we are not defined by one single thing, least of all our fashion sense.

I could not put the book down as I wanted to know if there was a happy ending. You feel the emotions along with Dennis and want to jump in and tell the stuffy adults off. I would say it is a book to be read by all.