Flash Floods and Favorites for February...........!!

The weather is such a mystery so far this year....... extreme heat, bushfires, hail, cold wet days, lovely sunny days and then flash floods......I was caught up in this one last week ...took a picture of the water and landslide over the road on my way down the mountain from Emerald... the rain was absolutely torrential....!

Flash flooding on the road.

While gardening this little guy ran across my foot....gave me a bit of a fright but I dashed inside to get my phone to take his picture....it's not a good shot as he was rushing to get away from me ... he was way more scared of me than I had been of him....the colours were amazing so I did a google to see what kind of spider he was.... St Andrews Cross spider...really love the diversity of criters that live in our permaculture garden ...a call out to anyone using pesticides or chemicals in the garden...Please Don't !!

St Andrews Cross Spider in my garden

This is what they actually look like when photographed correctly !!! ..just sayin'..

Professional look at a St Andrews spider...amazing

A lovely bunch of flowers from my man ....... we don't really do Valentine's day but they were a lovely surprise.

Flowers from the Willow Branch....  lovely florist and we always try to support the locals.

Currently reading this book for the second time.... one of the ladies at bookclub mentioned it and I knew I owned a copy but read it so long ago forgot the storyline....loving it second time around...funny about that. 

My interest of late has been spiked by the use of medicinal herbs... I follow this lady on instragram and managed to get hold of her latest book..... it's a little out there but has definately encouraged me to look at Herbal Apothecary and growing more of my own herbs.

Marysia is a Green Witch... all about gardening, weeds and herbs.. don't be fooled by the title 

I took a quick trip to Korumburra to check out a couple of local stores... Grow Lightly is a great community produce store....all the veg are grown locally and chemically free... great price and to top it off they have milk in glass bottles for just $3.80...
.............so happy to support local farmers.

Milk in Glass !!    .... Hooray

Sunday was my birthday... had a beautiful day and as always received  loads of love and beautiful gifts... very thankful for my wonderful family and friends.

61 now...officially in my sixties.

The latest Green Tea pic ..from The Borough Dept Store cafe.....
had the most delicious Ginger cake... highly recommend it if you are ever down that way.

The obligatory green tea pic... they just keep getting more and more quirky.  

Here's hoping Autumn gives us the beautiful late summer weather that is my favourite time of year. 

Finding February ......!!!

Just when you think things are settling a little we get hit with cyclones, torrential rain and floods following our catastrophic bushfires .... personally we also suffered localised hail stones on Friday that pelted our caravan just as we were hitching up to go away for the weekend. ...lots of small dents peppering the roof and some on the sides... a call to the insurer is required, but after so much calamity already facing the country it could be a long wait.  .... We still took off for 3 nights to Stratford....the weather wasn't kind to us but we still had a lovely time....We took a quick trip in to Maffra and I fell in love with this gorgeous tree in the main street....it was incredible.!

Enormous tree in the main street of Maffra...I think it's a Morton Bay Fig.

The beautiful mass of huge branches forming the canopy

Full of all sorts of nooks & crannies

A different aspect from every angle....amazing

The exposed root system...such an incredible tree

We had a lovely visit from our G-Boy for a day during the school holidays....a trip out to a local cafe for lunch....Pancakes of course..... followed by a matinee session of Dr Dolittle remake....which I have to admit I totally enjoyed..
(I saw the original with Rex Harrison when I was 9 years old )......... but so much to love about  Robert Downey Junior !!

My G-boy tucking in to his pancakes

We've had a pair of blackbirds nest in our yard again this year and they've raised 3 different nests of eggs over a couple of months ...had no idea they could do this...twice in the same nest and then again in a new nest in the grapevine....the babies fledge very early and hop around the garden instead of flying off and the parents continue to feed them.... my furry girls were way too interested in the baby birds......eventually they have all managed to fly and feed themselves.

If you look closely you can see one of the baby birds in the bush waiting for a feed from mum or dad.

What would a post be without another quirky cup of geen tea !!

Loved this pottery teapot with the eclectic mix of crockery

Last night was a super Full Moon...unfortunately so overcast didn't even get a glimpse !!
I like to think it could have looked something like this. 

There is something so fantastic about the full moon.