Park Life

The local schools and park have still  a significant number of large gum trees despite many of the them being culled (they are considered a safety risk to children, falling gum tree boughs do occur frequently and unexpectedly). Anyway there is still enough to support a reasonable population of birds. It's a noisy  place at sunset, a hive of activity with feeding birds (if not disturbed by human foot traffic).
This raucous fella was most put out that I even dared approach at distance and put on quite a display so that I would not disturb his watering hole. The neighbours have left tubs of water out for the birds as there is a bought of early hot weather coming (well over 30) and it is only early spring,

I decided I should back off and hid behind this tree and noticed in the next tree some lorrikeets flitting in and out of the y shape in the tree. It appears there is a hollow which is a nest and  is occupied by more than 2 adult birds, -  3 that I could tell and I'm not even sure if they are the same breed - or maybe male and 2 females?

2 females?

1 male?

Around the corner and back on the ground a flock of galahs were very happily eating the grass seeds, not at all fussed by my presence.

Another and differing specimen of flowering eucalyptus...looking quite pretty in the fading sun

ET must have stopped by and left some hand prints

Back on the ground and still chewing

Hope you get your fill today, have a lovely one.

Baby Blues Quilt

 Yet another colleague and friend has fallen to the lifetime commitment of parenthood and is preparing to give birth any day now to a baby boy. This lovely lady is a joy to work with and so I said I would to love to make her baby a quilt. I had already made up a quilt top of crosses (look here) for her upon hearing of her pregnancy but later found out that she was having a boy, so I deemed it not suitable.

 Her theme to be for the baby room is Jungle and I had thought of doing a quilt with animals in bright primaries (which is probably what I should have done). But not having made a start on the quilt other than drawing the design (mainly due to illness and work) I have opted to utilise what I have.

Hand printed fabric ..hand carved lino print monkey

I've dragged out my hand printed fabrics with the view to utilising grey and blue colour scheme and the monkey print. I had thought of making chevrons in grey and blue interspersed with a monkey print here and there but gave up on that idea fairly quickly - another day when I have more time.
So a simple square framed by a border is an easy and quicker quilt to make.

The thistle print actually looks really effective cut up  in the quilt

Some left over lotus flower print

A naturally dyed square of grey material from eucalyptus leaves and iron

 Lotus flower print

So it is a little darker than I would have envisioned for a baby but I think  it would be utilised more of a lap quilt.

It certainly is unique and a one of a kind quilt.
I will grab a better photo  tomorrow in the daylight hours, once again doing my photography at night!

I've changed my mind

After looking at the photo of the baby blanket I've decided that I don't like the dark green edge of the blanket and that I should do what I originally planned and give a 3 coloured border. Jordana my daughter talked me  out of it saying to keep it simple, but it just doesn't appeal to me for a young baby to have dark green next to the skin. So I've opted for green pink and red, nice and vibrant in keeping with a rainbow of colours.

Of course I have run out of red wool and can't finish it until I purchase some more. I really liked the scalloped edge

I've picked out my next baby blanket pattern in pastel shade with lace work, for a little girl.

A quick walk on Saturday lead me to photograph the lovely blue green shades of the eucalyptus plants

Even though winter is supposed to be under way the region remains really dry and as you can see the grass is still dry. Waiting for some more good dousing rains to green up the vegetation. The weather is very conducive to walking at the moment, so I'm not really complaining about the lack of water.

Dont you love the sour green against the blue grey gum leaves?

And the lovely reds against the forest green colours of this eucalyptus.

Walkabout

Today I had quite an eventful day in the fact that I made it into town so that my daughter could busk playing violin and then returned home to go for a walk in the nature reserve not far from home.

 Jordy looked up on the internet the opening hours of the Adelaide City Council and assured me they would be open so that she could purchase a busking permit to play in the city mall. As it turns out they were not open and we wandered around town for a little while. We bought lunch at the central market (if I didn't have so many bags and cases to carry I might have taken some photos, it really is jam packed full of colour and activity) Then we took our lunch and sat in Victoria square to watch the traffic whizz by whilst  sitting on the green. I took these panoramic photos showing 2/3rds of the way round the square

After lunch I returned home and decided it was such a nice day that I would head up to the reserve to go for a walk and pick fennel leaves to make a dye bath. Dyeing has really captured my imagination but as usual I want every thing to happen now. Whilst out and about I took lots of photos, some quite interesting I think.

 Dried Fennel heads

Love the vibrancy of the eucalyptus gum below - leuchoxylon rosea (I think)

Dried thistle plants

 Big grubs getting bigger, love the colour of the caterpillar!

Same bush but orange bugs

 Dried gumnuts

Thistle mania

Salvation Jane, only a salvation in times of drought. The farmers used to allow their cattle to feed on this otherwise pesty weed. I've picked the flowers to do some solar dyeing.

 Look carefully at the picture below

This weed is rampant with those orange bugs I photgraphed before. Bugs having a picnic on the seed heads.

Salvation Jane on the path home

 Seed heads in the glowing rays of the sun.

Now to heat the cauldron and put on a brew of fennel for dyeing...