The Open Mind: The really big freaking spider

Australia has big spiders. The link above will take you to a post about how Johnno (who lives up in the Blue Mountains, NSW) got it out of his house without killing it. Shudder. Here's the photo, just to get you interested.

Today I went back to the Melbourne Museum to see a couple more exhibits, and couldn't resist the insect display, where they also have spiders in quarantine. There's even a tarantula webcam on that site. Click on it if you dare!

For a few years now I've been trying to get my husband (and sons when they still consented to come with us on country trips) to stop at the insectarium in Woodend. Nope, total lack of interest there.

Fisher cat and other feline photos

I mentioned recently that we have a fisher cat who prevents us from keeping fish in our pond for any length of time. While sorting through some photos today (an activity that has gripped our household lately) I came across this one of Chelsea, waiting patiently by the pond.

These photos were taken in 2001, the cats have really grown since, they can't both fit in the basket now. Especially Tintin, the one who always gets notches torn out of his ears in fights (see bottom photo), is now a rather large cat. They remain good friends.

Travelin' Dad

As in most years, Dad came to visit us for a couple of weeks this month, crossing the Pacific in his nomadic way, spending a couple of days in Sydney and Auckland, boomeranging back and forth between California and Hawaii. Every year I find out something new about him. To my utter amazement, I discovered that he read On the Road - Dad is not much of a reader, but that's one he did read. I have always got the impression that he would have been happy "on the road", and having been an airline pilot would have helped that along. I think he's doing that to this day, at 81, still flying around the Pacific. And his nomadic ways would have started when he was about 15 or 16, walking and hitchhiking from New York to Down South to work as a busboy on a cruise ship.

For this year's visit, Melbourne weather turned on the heat, and tropical rain and humidity levels seldom experienced here. This would seem to have less effect on him than us, as he's used to Hawaiian weather and loves the heat: he even went for a 3-hour bike ride on a day of 33 degrees! Dad has only recently had to give up surfing as he injured a shoulder rotator cuff (while surfing). I hope I have his longevity genes - his mother lived to 101.

Dad was an early personal computer user, and built his own computer in the 70s from a kit he ordered by mail. He's been tinkering with them ever since. But as he said when we saw a historical computer display at Melbourne Museum recently, "The fun went out of it when you didn't have to solder the parts together anymore".

Picnic lunch in the Wildlife Reserve at La Trobe.

Dinner at home on the veranda with Aussie Nana (husband's mom), Yankee Pappa (my dad).

Photo album of Dad's visit

Leaves of Grass: FLOWERS (by Sonia)

Well, this is an experiment, actually blogged something from someone else's blog, using the "Blog this" feature. Always wondered what that did...

If you'd like to see what you can do with a scanner and some fresh flowers to make stunning photos, do look over at Sonia's blog. It's like the modern day version of pressed flowers! Must go out and buy a scanner!

Update: today husband and son have done some research on the internet then looked at some all-in-one machines (scanner, fax, printer, copier) at Harvey Normans - looks like we'll be getting one of these beauties soon!

Crepe myrtles

Last year we had our two crepe myrtles pruned for the first time in the 11 years we've been in this house, and we were not expecting much in the way of flowers this year. So we are really happy to see so many blooms. The pruning allows more of the trunks to show (although not in my amateur photos), as well as the Japanese maple that is between them.






The bamboo lying in the courtyard is the result of a small cull I did. It is growing so well this year I'm beginning to think we should get rid of it (?!?!?). I would get some opposition from my sons who love the look of it from their bedroom windows. Like our ginger plants, we have taken bamboo with us to all our gardens from the 1970s onwards, and it's been so wonderful for instant screening and beauty without being a nuisance. But it has obviously found something very much to its liking, despite the long drought and we never water it.

The pond in the foreground is also in need of care, as lately it has taken to growing what I can only describe as a dark green "carpet" of gunk. I have removed it with a sieve, Mel has put some chemicals in it but after a while it comes back. The gunk doesn't smell, but sure looks weird. We should put fish in again, but one of our cats is an excellent fisher and they don't last long.

Coping with the heat

Yesterday's cinema visit turned out to be an idea that quite a few other people had to escape the heat. The air conditioning there was not exactly arctic, but enough and the film, "Memoirs of a geisha", was a nice diversion. For me it was wonderful to see the replica of the 1920's geisha district and gardens, the Japanese interiors, kimonos etc, but if you don't especially have an interest in that and haven't read the book, I'd say it was a film you could cross off your list of films to see.

My sons chose to stay home and watch our DVD of "Mon oncle", by the genius Jacques Tati. His films have been a family favorite for years, and we have often watched an old taped recording from the tv when the weather was too hot to do much else. But last year we bought the DVD edition of all his films, and this is a great improvement. It is so rewarding to see your children latch onto something that you yourself have cherished over the years, and something that few of their peers would have even heard of, at that. I love to see them together - they are such good friends, share interests, even though they are so very different from each other. Observing their closeness has been one of the big pluses of parenthood.

Hotter 'n Hades - Part Two

Melbourne is set to reach 43 today - yesterday was ONLY 40. (Here's a nifty unit converter for all sorts of measurements). I will be taking frequent dips in the pool and will go to see "Memoirs of a geisha" at the 1 p.m. showing in an air conditioned cinema. As I sit here typing, my fingers are sticking to the keyboard. Techie son, just now, has stopped at my study door to admonish me for having my computer on! And this from someone whose room is often 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the house because he leaves his computer on all day.

I'm turning off the computer now and heading for the pool. Haven't had a chance to make my usual round of blogs so there will be some catching up to do when the cool change comes through.

Ginger plant flowering

The ginger plants are now in flower and the scent is wafting onto the veranda. I wish there were a way to make a file of aromas so you could click on a link to smell the flowers, just like you can upload voice and video files to hear and watch...

These flowers are about 30 cm (12 in). We've had the plants for more than 30 years. They were in our first garden, and we brought rhizomes with us to each new garden. Gives a very tropical look. You can also see a birds nest fern on the left, and a (struggling) tree fern on the right. Too much competition from the 40 year old elm!

Virtual Japanese garden tour

Inspired by a recent post by Susan (Takoma Gardener), I thought I'd offer a link to another virtual garden tour that I enjoy so much. Given my interest in Japanese gardens, I often "visit" this one in Seattle and it also includes soothing Japanese music. You need a good internet connection.

You can find a lot of good sites (and spend much time) by googling "japanese gardens", but probably the best place to start out is to visit the excellent Japanese Garden Database. Although it doesn't seem to have been updated for a while, the links from its various pages are very useful. I also like the Bowdoin College website on Japanese gardens.

I also love Japanese interiors and furniture - this is a cabinet from the 1930s that we bought a couple of years ago.

Castlemaine Festival of Gardens

Every year at the beginning of November we go up to Castlemaine in the goldfields region for the garden festival. We try to visit as many gardens as we can in the 3 or 4 days we have off. 2005 was no exception.

I took a whole album of photos with the digital camera and the other day was wondering how I can turn it into something for the internet. Rather than posting them here, or alternatively in the photo gallery my ISP provides, I decided to play around with the features available through the free software Picasa2. If you have a digital camera and haven't downloaded Picasa2 yet, you are missing out on a great freebie. It allows you to organise your photos quickly and easily, create slideshows, screensavers, collages, even "movies", as well as websites. You can view all your photos in a timeline too which is quite interesting.

Anyway, back to the website I created. I haven't fiddled around with it too much, just added captions to most of them before uploading to the internet. I'd have to learn more about it to get it exactly the way I'd want it to look, but it's not bad for a few minutes' work. Click here!