Boomer and orange juice

 We had a late afternoon visitor to our backyard yesterday.  Just a grey blob from our back door so Bill needed to use his camera to zoom in. A big fellow but strangely all by himself. 

We watched him for ages happily grazing on all the lovely green growth out there.
 From our discoveries this morning he obviously came right in to the rose garden for a better look when we closed the curtains!

Thank you Cheryl. You are very kind. We will get something special to put in our garden.

Up until recently we have struggled to reach a final tally of burnt trees, shrubs and plants that have not survived, because we were always hopeful that much of our garden would eventually come back to life. And it has. But there are still many plants and trees that haven't had the energy to revive and flourish and we needed to make an inventory of these.
It is only when you visit the nurseries to price the cost of replacing them all, that you realise how much money our gardens are worth in monetary terms......all of our gardens not just ours. And of course it's the years of growing that are priceless, especially 27 years of growth in many of our boundary trees.
 No wonder the garden is often a deal breaker in the sale or purchase of many country properties. All those huge established gums that you see on old farms that provide shelter and beauty to a property.

Many of those gum trees around the fence line are not there anymore and it seems as though most of our orchard is not going to recover either. I think the new growth I discovered  straight after the fire was all part of their shock mode.

I just need a bit more red.....is what I told Bill on my way to the patchwork shop. Well that was never going to happen was it? As if I could come out of there with just red!!

I need to finish off the blocks for my granny squares quilt. so I can get started on something else

Thank goodness for Face time.
 We talk/watch/ listen to this little boy every week, sometimes twice, sometimes three times. He is learning his colours. He calls orange .....orange juice! Bless him. (How long 'til Christmas????)