Annie's Blog

The skies have been pretty variable this week...from clear blue and sunny to lovely rain! It has been 4 months that we have been without significant rain. But we were lucky to have some clear skies for playing tennis the other day! and this photo called to be taken on my way home! I was lucky to be able to see the moon and Jupiter (and four of it's moons) through a powerful telescope, thanks to a couple at our church. Of course, this is what I got through my camera, not the telescope! For more skies from contributors from around the world, please click on the SKYWATCH icon over in the sidebar...

Now I know I said before that the jacaranda is an introduced species...and that some people don't like them...for this reason...see above...but I am sure I wouldn't mind if I had one in my yard, and they did this all over the yard...and the footpath...I am sure!

Come and have a look around Toowong...an inner suburb of Brisbane the lovely church on the corner with great reflections in the building next door... there is a mix between the old and the new... even jacarandas, and poincianas down the main street... a very old hotel.... a traffic box, been painted by someone advertising the battle against depression... cafes on the corner... handy on the train line to the city... and on the banks of the lovely Brisbane River with views to the city (from the building I was in)...those funny white sail type things right in the middle of the photo is a new bridge that has just been built.... and outlook to the nearby Mt Cootha. life in the sub tropics... For more vews from contributors around the world, please click on the MY WORLD icon in the sidebar over there STOP PRESS...It is RAINING in South East Queensland tonight. This is the first rain we have had for four months. It has been so dry dry dry...with very stringent water restrictions....only water...

Ah, I finally got a photo of the view..as well as my spotty little jacaranda in bloom out there! the hibiscus continues to bloom away out in the front garden... I wish I could remember the name of this orange flower...it is on the tip of my tongue. I keep wanting to call it a bauhinia, but it isn't. But it grows everywhere...and oh so high..up through other trees if you let it! and I noticed my big beautiful Brush Box (Lophostemon confertus) is flowering out on the footpath too! I thought someone had identified it as a gum tree, but it is not, although it is closely related apparently. [Thanks to Arija for jolting me into going over to the herbarium to have it identified]. what a pretty little flower. I presume the lorikeets will be back to decimate the tree sometime soon. Hopefully I might be able to get a photo of the lorikeets as well maybe! and of course my pretty pink flowering tree down the back yard is powering on...and oh so pretty. Makes it almost worth putting up with th...

Only one sunset photo amongst my week's photos. Most unusual. The skies must have been just clear or smoggy, for there to be no sunset photos! Yesterday I had to go to Toowong. And managed to capture some sky pictures while attending to some chores. As I look at these pictures, I stop and suddenly wonder ...I wonder how the man is, who slept and lived here opposite this spot on the footpath for years and years, surrounded by his many bags of possessions. It seemed for a long time no-one was able to convince him to move on, but amazingly, after many years (I think at least fifteen?) they did. And now I wonder, where has he gone, and how is he? I hope he is well and happy. And maybe able to live a more normal life perhaps? Ziggy is the name I think they used to call him. People wandering along the street always used to stop and chat. Or ignore him. I was very surprised as I crossed the road to see a poinciana starting to flower. the seedpods from the jacaranda were quite startling in...

a quick trip to the airport..along the banks of the river... and up the mountain... a quick peep at the flowers in Queens Park again I just love the parterre garden.... a few shots around the town of Toowoomba... and some fun with the grandchildren...some of the dolls from my place decided to go visit the grandchildren too....so they brought them all out and dressed them up... a walk to the Japanese Gardens and to Grandparent's Day at school... and a Maypole Dance... love the bottle trees...they are an important emergency resource food in a drought...I wonder if there are any of them left in the outback in our recent long lived drought? back tot he big city, and a look at a recently renovated shopping center.... Don't you love the new trend of putting an eye-catching decoration on a building to distract the eye from other more boring aspects (like an ordinary car park) For more My World participants, please click on the My World icon over in the sidebar...