Northey street organic market.

Saturday mornings are probably a favourite time for most people.... time for a good walk before breakfast, an early start on a planned project or maybe just a well earned sleep in after a busy week. Talking about early morning walks, just about everyone you meet will say good morning if it's early. I've noticed later in the day people are more reticent to speak, has anyone else noticed that? It's as if the freshness of the dawn and the sound of the birds has a disarming effect on people. I always look to speak if I'm out walking later but generally speaking you don't get the same response.
We love to listen to garden talkback on the radio early on saturdays. Even though quite often the same questions come up, it's so nice to hear the interaction between the callers and the gardening expert, in our case thats Annette Mcfarlane. She's taking a group to the Chelsea flower show soon, the very name of this exhibition makes the gardener's mouth water.
Then it's time for the regular trip to the Northey st. organic fruit and veggie market. Lots and lots of farm fresh produce. The market is held every saturday morning in the car park of the Northey st. community garden. (pictured 3rd down) The garden is the initiative of the Brisbane City Council and run by volunteers. The markets have a great atmosphere, a place to let your braces dangle,(an english expression meaning to relax) and have a coffee and muffin. As you can see from the shot the coffee shop is pretty basic and laid back, cob oven and earth toilet etc.
Also on the site is the nursery Edible landscapes, they sell completely organic seedlings and fruit trees and a large range of herbs. If any bloggers would like to do a post describing their typical saturday morning it would be good to read. Enjoy your week.

Classic FM , cup of tea and a book.

This our favourite spot for doing a bit of relaxation, taken at midday. It's particularly pleasant in the early morning when the sun filters through the lattice on the right. The mornings have been fresh lately with autumn temperatures of 25-26 deg. high and low of 12-14 degrees. You might think we are a bit spoilt in the Sunshine State but we don't get the distinctive change of seasons that other latitudes get. I must confess to a craving for colder climates which is satisfied by a trip to Melbourne in August each year.

Shadows

Shadows..... they get a little taken for granted sometimes.
so I called them together to celebrate their beauty.

They were surprised and we were surprised

we sometimes have a torchlight walk through the garden to see what we can spot. we occasionally find the odd frog. So to our surprise and delight we spotted three within five minutes last night.
It was a particularly warm autumn evening just after dark, so I think we caught them just setting off. The first we came across was our little friend Litoria peronii (emerald spotted treefrog) who had just hopped out of the bromeliad on the verandah. Then we saw a little Litoria caerulea (green tree frog) looking like it's ready to leap. Then finally a small Litoria fallax (eastern sedgefrog) we havn't seen these for while so it was good to see one. Our neighbours recently spotted a tree snake which we think was a common tree snake from the description and being active in the day, so as sedgefrogs laze around in the day we wondered if they were being eaten. still thats nature I suppose, everyone has to have their dinner. So don't forget to take your torch out on a warm night you never know what you might see.

delicious bonza apples

Just as our garden friends in the northern hemisphere are seeing the apple blossoms appear, we down under have been enjoying different varieties of new seasons apples for a few weeks now. As we were doing our pre- easter trundle through the supermarket. We spotted them - BONZAS ! mounds of them. we just love these apples, they are described as having a sweet flavour with firm and juicy white flesh, they have a bold red blush overlaying green to yellow skin. They are quite a different taste to most of the other apples, well worth a try if you have access to them.
A little apple trivia to lighten our day

Did you know?
*There are 7000 varieties of apples grown worldwide.
*Apples float when dropped into water because the consist of 25% air.
* Over 2.6 billion apples are grown in australia each year
* Granny smith apples originated in australia. They were first grown
by Maria Anne Smith in Eastwood, Sydney in 1867.
*Apples have a dietary fibre called pectin which helps move food
through your body efficiently.
* Apples have a mineral called boron which is important to keep
your bones strong and healthy.
*Apples contain lots of antioxidents
* An apple supplies a quarter of your day's vitamin C needs.
* The longest continuous apple peel took 11 hours and 30 minutes to
remove and was 52.51 metres long!!

Happy gardening.

pathways

I've just discovered the joys of collaging on picasa

cosy and cute

I had a bit of a theory that these red centred neoregalias were quite attractive to the frogs after seeing the ones on the table taking it in turns. ( see previous post "popular spot"march archive) so we put another one on the verandah. sure enough this little froggy found a home there. It's starting to cool down at nights now so it may decide to hibernate in this spot or possibly look for somewhere more protected. Its worth a click for the larger image to see the emerald spots that give this little frog it's common name Emerald spotted treefrog. It also has a vertical line through it's pupil which is distinct from other frogs.

look at me

tillandsias are in the bromeliad family and most of them are totally ephiphytic. this one, tillandsia cyanea can also be grown in an orchid mix. I've got this one tied to the trunk of a ficus with a bit of spaghnum moss wrapped around. they prefer morning sun only or dappled sunlight. this one has just flowered, together with the beautifully coloured flowers and the heady perfume it's crying out to be admired.

cats whiskers

This is a native shrub orthosiphon aristatus common name cats whiskers. It likes a shady or semi-shady positions. I think it normally flowers spring/summer but ours is still flowering into autumn and still getting new buds on. They need a prune after flowering otherwise they get a bit leggy.

totem poles

this is hairsfoot fern growing in a series of seven pots called totem poles. They clip onto a metal strip on top of each other. In our case we've screwed the strip to the verandah post and the hairsfoot has grown so well it's given the effect of a huge clump. Whats so good about this design is when it rains the excess water from each pot drains into the one below