Teddy bear bees and birthday pooches

Something else likes these white primulas just as much as me.
I think this might be a teddy bear bee....one of our 1,500 species of native bees. ( according to Mr Google! ) Apparently as they age, the hair on the top of their thorax becomes worn, leaving a black bald spot.
 Looks like a black, bald spot to me!

We have been loving the pops of yellow and cream around our garden at the moment.

And this little plant is about to burst into beautiful white dark-eyed daisies. 
It's another grey leafed plant that I had forgotten to include on my list.
It is called Rhodanthemum "African Eyes".
It propagates very easily from cuttings.
It only grows to about 40 cms high and the same across. It's outside the granny flat and gets full sun.

This is a favourite view for me at the moment.
I have mentioned the leucadendrons before but they really are the most striking plants at this time of the year and I'm so glad that this lot escaped the fire.
We have hardly bought any plants since the fire, keeping to our decision to wait and see what survived. 
But then I saw these in the nursery today, so thought it might be time to start replenishing the stocks. I 
should have bought them in multiples of three or five or seven  but I wanted one of everything and how was I going to choose!!!!
I am in seventh heaven.....

...and of course I was always going to include an Amy.
I adore them. In fact I am thinking of throwing caution to the wind and planting them across the front instead of the roses!!!! Might have to sleep on that.
Thank you Cheryl B for your help in purchasing them. 

Bill was able to zoom in on this pair of chestnut teal on the dam today. I mistakenly asked Bill which one was the male......

I was completely zig- zagged out, so this lot of half square triangles have become pinwheels instead. I really like them though.
Thank you Denise for your kind words.

Happy weekend birthdays to these darling little pooches.
 They didn't mind that their garden playground had turned black.

Beautiful little boys.....

Shed for Bill

It's been like Christmas here today for Bill.
The shed has arrived!

Yes, I know it doesn't look like much of a shed at the moment but we are still more than happy with that! ( Bill thinks they've forgotten something.....doesn't seem to be enough for two sheds ).

And as if that wasn't enough, this delivery also arrived today. The trailer attaches to the back of the ride-on mower ( yet to arrive). Talk about a kid in a candy store!

We love how the days are staying lighter for longer.
The sun has just poked through (5pm). We expect the western outlook will change when the shed is finally in place.

This section of our garden suffered badly in the fire. We still can't fathom how Amy's campervan didn't go up in flames or even the house for that matter. The fire must have been very intense here. The ground, fence and trees are still black.
We have removed those trees and shrubs that were too burnt to save and today Bill tackled the left over stumps with the crowbar.

It looks great. We are thinking of grassing it. But then again..... ????!!!!

I have been zigzagging my way to China and only have this many to go.

......except that I found these in my sewing cupboard today!
They are leftover bits from one of Flynn's quilts....and they are already in their triangles! 
I can't leave them like that.

And I know how to sew them in my sleep now!

Lemons and lemon scented gums

The zig zagging is finally happening, although I'm already thinking this could end up being a very small quilt. I still have a fair few blocks to go so I will wait and see........

When the calendar page was turned to August, I noticed a "note to self " for the end of the month. Mmmm, probably not!
No chance of recovery there.....

In fact, Bill told me when I got home today that he had removed it altogether! !

It was never the best lemon tree on the block but it still gave us plenty of lemons.
 *big sigh*

A walk around yesterday revealed that it's not only the lemon tree that won't  recover, but it appears as though neither will these.......

This looks promising though.....

And so does this little lemon scented gum. We have a few like this that are completely burnt on the top but are shooting new growth from the bottom. The frost has crinkled some of the new growth but they are still looking strong.

We visited Cruden Farm and adored the lemon scented gum driveway. On our way home from there we bought about 10 little tubes from a nursery nearby for next to nothing.

 The smell from crushing the leaves is beautiful and I can't walk past the leaves without doing just that....always!

Bill took this photo when we visited there in 2009.

Imagine driving up this driveway coming home from work each day.

Look what I found today....(fancy that!)

Now I have everyone covered! 

Happy flowers and birthdays

 You've got to love how Nature gives us sunny yellow daffodils to look at when we're all freezing our toes off! 
They even withstand the icy conditions that we've thrown at them over the last few days.

They really are the cheeriest of flowers at this time of the year. Amy picked some out of our garden for a friend today who said, " they are the happiest flowers I've ever seen! They're so smiley!"

We originally bought them by the hundreds and planted them around our dam, but I think they ended up drowning or drying up in the drought,  which seems a bit odd at the moment!

 And they look gorgeous in a bunch in a simple white jug.

At primary school this was one of the poems that we had to learn off by heart. I find myself still reciting it (well, the first verse anyway) as I walk past them even now.

I found this on Pinterest. I wish we had the original Grade Six reader ( we've got the Grade Five one) ....I'm sure that's where it is.


I really should be outside today but I seem to have the quilting bug at the moment with my whizz bang ruler and can't concentrate on anything else. 

Mmmm....what was I thinking????
But now that pile has started to turn into this....

Now the zigzag bit is happening. I have no idea how big this will be but I'll just keep sewing until it "looks right".

Flynn turned two on Saturday.
Happy Birthday little spunky monkey.
I made this quilt for him and couldn't resist the monkey.....

....a minimum of quilting  makes it nice and snuggly.
We can't wait to see him again.(Christmas )