Good morning everyone. Hope you are all well.
Elaine, you have a talent with the mosaicing, and I look forward to seeing more.
Colleen, glad your grandson has improved.
Anthony, hope you don't have further problems with your seeds. Customs have gone crazy. I know we need to protect our country but sometimes I wonder if they are protecting us the right way and from the right things.
Chrissy, wish I had a greenhouse here. 100 feet might cover 3 backyards though. I know what you mean about having the energy though. Some thief has stolen mine too.
Teresa, I am glad you are keeping us up to date with what is happening there. The news doesn't follow up much because it prefers sensationalism. I'm glad too that you are safe where you are.
I have some plants that need potting, just small ones, and can do that. It helps to work with my plants, very therapautic. I am figuring out ways to best display my tillandsias. Some are just single plants while others are older and now bunching up. I really like them, they are small and fun to find new ways to display them.
I see the ants are out in force again today. More rain? Our tropical coast is going through a dreadful time with floods again. Surely this will be over soon?
Karen
TEA ROOM # 84
Good Morning everyone. In a rush today as hubby said we are off to Mt Gambier for the day. I like going over there as there is a lot to look at. Interesting shops and lots of lovely public gardens around the town. If the weather is fine, we often have lunch in one of the large parks around the Crater Lakes. Very pretty.
Colleen , I will be looking at the Cacti garden again. I always think of Brian when I go there. He would have loved them.
There is one shop I really like going into for a wander. Hubby likes looking in there too. It has shelves and counters of glassware, ornaments and knick knacks of all sorts, but what makes it like Aladdins Cave is that each section is done in one particular color. My favorite is the purple section. There must be about 10 different colors, greens , silver, reds, burgundy. Beautiful. I usually try to find a small frog to bring home.
Hello Charleen, I see you are up an drunning again with your computer.
Hello Louise, hug those girls for me.
Hello Colleen, Chrissy, Karen, Dianne, Pam, Teresa, Elaine and Anthony.
I'd better get out to the kitchen and see what goodies I can put out for you all.
Try an old favorite, Raspberry Coconut Slice.
Enjoy the day and stay safe.
Jean.
This message was edited Mar 11, 2011 7:40 AM
Morning all. I miss popping in for ONE day, and there is just so much that has happened!
Colleen, I am glad Cameren is feeling a little better. Here's hoping he won't find the next visit too traumatic. It's a shame that the dentist he went to was a bit clueless, as the whole thing would be over for him now.
I used to do a lot of overseas seed trading a number of years ago and found that aqis can indeed be a bit pedantic at times, but it can be the same with any bureaucracy - there are always the individuals who are on a power trip and will nit pick just because they can. One lot of seeds, when they arrived I nearly died of shock. On the declaration form, the woman had put that the package contained a necklace! Good grief! There was no reason that I couldn't import the particular seeds or I wouldn't have been doing it. How on earth they got through is totally beyond me.
Elaine, your artistic flair always amazes me. You're very clever.
Will pop back in later, have a house full of rumbling dogs, baby and other assorted people ... too much for the brain to work as well. lol
Catch you all later
Pam
Good morning everyone. Well I switched my computer off last night and went to start it up this morning and no go. I fiddled around for a while but couldn't find any leads off so have now taken my old one back from the boys. They will not be happy when they come home. But what's a person supposed to do? I have to have my daily fix or else I'll go bonkers. lol I'm back to XP again for the time being. Brian where are you? I need your computer expertise. He's probably looking on saying silly woman. I've got no camera and no puter now and still haven't picked my sewing machines up either. Oh well, I'll get there. Have some lovely brugs out at the moment. Have shifted them out into the back yard so that I can see them more. We have a long weekend here this weekend for Adelaide Cup Day. Not too long til school holidays will be here again. 13/4 they start this year and will have Easter and Anzac Day all rolled into one. The boys had a road safety night at cubs last night and then next week they are going to the skate park. Can you imagine the scraped elbows and knees. They have to take their helmets so that's one good thing. Well must go. Hope everyone is well and I'll be back later. Colleen
The longears were running in the pasture this morning. I had to go out and calm them down. Didn't want them to knock any thing down and escape. Charley was so beautiful in his running mode. He has a beautiful gail, I think his mama must have been a walkinghorse. I got the computer back and I am so glad to be back with you all my Mates. Have missed you greatly. so has Charley. I got a package other day and guess who had a present in it?? charley, a nice Red Deliscious apple, ready for him.
Colleen, it sounds weird, I know, but try simply unplugging the power lead from the back of your computer (simply turning it off isn't enough) for about 10 seconds and then reinsert it. simply turning it off isn't enough. Mine has been refusing to start occasionally of late, and this tends to get it going.
Sometimes these puters can drive you mad!
I love my new one though.
I wonder how long before windows 7 will be ''old".
I quite liked the previous one until it failed to support some things any longer.
When it died I just went without.
Hubby surprised me with this one (he knows nothing about them ).
I am a happy camper with it so far even if I do have a problem with the pics sometimes.
Charleen I can just imagine the long ears frolicking in anticipation of Spring.
We feel that way about Autumn here.
Jean what did you bring home?
Ladies and Anthony hope you are all getting ready for a nice weekend.
Around here it's busy but we get a break from all things medical (revolving door sometimes for my brother).
Easter is on the way, wasn't that just 5 mins ago????
Time moves too fast.
Here is the close up of Star Dancer seedling bloom with the Star Dancer "cuts" in the skirt.
Hello all..Yippeee! It's Friday!!! Had a migraine all week so just came home each day and collapsed with my friendly Panadol. I hadn't been in to the Tea Room so have been catching up. It's still hot here... the school had its cross country today and again I was a bollard out in the bush in Toohey Forest. It's right between the two campuses of Griffith uni and you may as well be out in the bush as far as isolation etc. I guess I'm a sacrificial lamb/mutton? Mostly they sent out male staff members but I quite enjoy it. I took a brolly this time as I thought if someone comes riding through on a motorbike like last year and tries to skittle the runners, I'd whack him off his balance! Lol! I figure it's a very nice way to spend an hour or two..far busier when I got back to the starting point as I had teenagers with asthma and twisted ankle to deal with. The official first aid person was handing out bandaids somewhere else and I just happened to be the one on the spot! so I raided her ice supply and did the RICE thing till she returned.
My gingers and heliconias are getting lovely big tropical leaves.and I have bought more exciting ones to plant. I always grow them in enormous water wise pots as they retain moisture then and live longer than in the ground near the fence....We had to trim a lot of things that had grown up through the gutters. Always wary going over that side of the house now. Both lots of testy neighbours were away at same time for a day or two. I always think of "Malcolm in the Middle" when Malcolm's family has to return early from annual holidays and discovers that every year their neighbours have a wing ding street party to celebrate their absence. Thank goodness we have great young people renting as a share house on the other side of us as well as in the other house over the road.
Can I send some heat down south where you obviously need it? Hopefully I will get some gardening done this weekend but I have brought loads of work home :( Have a wonderful weekend. As I am on my new laptop (which has three times the RAM (6G) of the desktop, LOL) there is nowhere for the chicken to sit so she is on the backrest of the chair and occasionally pokes me with her beak etc.
Happy gardening wherever you are. Hugs to Charley and friends.
OMG! Following 8.8 magnitude earthquake and 4.4m tsunami in Japan on twitter! The Earth is restless! The Pacific Ring of Fire!
My thoughts go out to them. The urgent tweets telling people to run to high ground!
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foxtokimekitonight
10 m tsunami hit Japan and there is a warning out for the Pacific..even Tasmania, Anthony..at 5:56am
This message was edited Mar 11, 2011 3:57 AM
they won!
Shocking events and they just keep continuing. My prayers to the latest affected in Japan. I have a friend there who teaches, and have just heard that she is safe, thank goodness. Tsunami warnings in the Phillipines, India, Malaya, etc have me concerned as my daughter is over there on a holiday. At the moment she is in Vietnam. Hope she stays safe too.
Karen
Chrissy, I am so pleased your nephew is OK. I hear mobile phones are down, so contact would be difficult for many. Just praying that the death toll is absolutely minimal.
Karen
So sad. Prayers for all.
At this point in Sendai they have already said the death toll is over 300. Thoughts and prayers for them all.
Good morning everyone.. Not a good morning for those affected by the earthquake. Mother Nature is certainly showing her temper at the moment. All our sympathies are with the people in those areas.
It would be terrifying to see that water surging on no matter what. One can put out a fire but there is no stopping water.
Hello Kat, nice to see you back again. I had a smile at the picture of you as a bollard out in the bush. I could see you standing in solitary splendour holding your brolly. Shades of Mary Poppins ??
Hello everyone else. I am going out this morning to put out all my goodies from yesterday.
It was a warm day in Mt Gambier and lovely to walk around without a jumper.
The only plants I bought were a tube of a very pretty burgundy colored grass and a lovely miniature brom . but, wait theres more..... There was a large pallet filled with items having yellow stickers. Now we all know , yellow stickers mean bargains, so I just had to look through it all.
I bought home a large frog and a gnome (about 10"high) $2 each. 3 ornaments to poke into pots, frog, bird and ladybug.. $0.79 ea.
3 colored ceramic plant pots , $2 ea..a large ladybug (about 6"across) $4...even a small container of bonsai fertiliser for $0.50..
I also found my favorite orchid mix of plain composted pine bark which seems to be always sold out when I am over there.
We had lunch in a different restaurant . We are trying out others when we go to Mt Gambier each time as our usual one has changed hands and is no longer as good . The new one was very good and will be on our list for a return feed. We were met at the door by a lovely young lady who gave us menus and showed us to a table. The food was delicious. We both had foccacias with beef , cheese, leaf salad, bacon and a yummy bar b q sauce. The girl kept a good eye on her tables and asked if we were enjoying the meal. Service in the old style.
Better get moving. Hubby said I have as many ornaments as plants . Maybe I do , but I like collecting knick knacks along with the plants..
I will leave you all something nice and hope you all enjoy the weekend.
Here we are , lovely Chocolate Almond Torte.
Jean.
We were watching live footage from Japan at work last night, even the rabid rugby fans turned away from the game & there was stunned silence at the sheer ferocity of the tsunami.
After the earthquakes here it just hit a nerve & I felt sick & saddened to the core.
This morning they are suggesting 1000 dead, but that may rise.
We have Japanese Urban Search & Rescue personnel here in ChCh & I am sure our Govt will be working to get them home as fast as possible along with teams from other nations who have been helping us.
China also suffered an earth quake that has done significant damage.
Take care everyone
My nephew is in Sendai (one of the Language teachers) ...hence the anxiety.
One of the survivers thankfully.
But as someone once said
"Oh the humanity of it all"
Can't wrap our minds around such destruction and loss.
What can any one say?
All we can do is pray and hope it all ends soon.
Then hope the powers that be help all effected swiftly..
Hi to all of our Aussie Mates! I too was watching as the EQ and Tsunami hit Japan in the night. It was devastating. My thoughts and prayers to all of you who have had devastation recently. It makes our damage from IKE looking minimal. Hope you are all OK!
If anyone hears news about the Marshal Islands.....esp Kwajelin (sp?) as that is where IslandShari was. I have contacted LouC, but haven't heard anything back yet. Still praying for Shari, Jen and Carol in Hawaii.
Love and Prayers,
Jeanne
hello Jeanne,
Hugs my friend.
Scary times.
Shari is in the USA ...she is on face book so don't worry she is ok.
I hope you and everyone are ok ...will let you know as we find out about the other places.
So far not awful damage other than Japan but it isn't over yet.
NZ is still suffering aftershocks after their terrible Earthquake weeks ago, so what will happen in this situation is any one's guess.
Loss of life and Industry/ Food Production on top of the tragic loss of life does not bear thinking about.
We can reach out to comfort and be comforted by each other across the globe.
Just as you have just done.
Love chrissy x x
Thanks Chrissy! Hugs to you too my friend! It sure is scary times!!!!
Now if we could just hear from Jen in Maui, then I'll feel better.
Dearest granddaughter is here so I need to go spend some time with her.
Everyone take care of yourselves! God bless all of you!
Jeanne
LOL! I sure will. Dave from the Big Island says
"O'ahu had waves of three feet, so no damage there.
Maui's coastal roads from Kihei to Lahaina were flooded. Airports closed. Hotels lower floors flooded. Kahului Bay had waves go inland 1/3 mile; a few buildings flooded.
Kona coast had the worst damage in Hawai'i.
A hui hou, Dave"
Thanks to Dave for this valuable info. So Jen may have some flooding either at her work or home. Hope she is OK.
Have a great weekend!
Jeanne
Dreadful to watch the people in cars trying to escape the rushing waves.....It didn't seem real....
If Japan is the best prepared for earthquake and tsunami, what hope do the rest of us have......
Best to live on a high hill away from the coast and not on a fault line...
The news will be full of sadness again tonight......2011.... when will Mother Nature calm down.
Just a note.....Braveheart'smom posted over on Tropical Zone Gardening! They are OK! You can go over there and read Jen's post!
It is scary! So many places are not as prepared as Japan was. So many do not have the building codes they have or the warning systems in place. There are so many faults everywhere.....we even have them here in Texas. We spent almost 3 yrs on Oahu and went up and sat on the side of the mountain more than once for a "tidal wave" warning! I definately can remember those days.
It is definately a time to be prepared physically, mentally, and spiritually. A time to stay prayed up, packed up, and ready to go! You never know when it might be your time!
God bless all of you and keep you safe in His loving arms! We need to continue to pray for all of the areas that were hit, for strength for their recovery!
Jeanne
Good evening everyone!
Cloudy here all day but a perfect day to do some gardening.
Tomorrow I am going to an Australian Open Garden that is about a half hour drive from here.
I just don't know what to say to those who are suffering from these earthquakes and tsunami.
Would one have the strength to start again even if the spirit was willing. All I can do is pray for you all.
This little hoya Obscura has bloomed, like a tiny ray of hope amid all the devastation going on in this world. Nature can be so horrific and cruel, yet here she shows her nurturing side.
My prayers, and this tiny ray of hope to all who are affected by disasters, natural or otherwise.
Karen
Hey...I like that one Karen!
Japan does indeed have one of the best warning systems...and it worked...but they had less than 10 minutes from quake to tsunami....just no time to react to the warning. That wave was moving at 804.6 KPH (500mph) and the quake was 128 KM from Sendai. There just wasn't any time to move to higher ground between quake and tsunami.
It would seem that the Earth is not at all happy. There have been a number of quakes since the Honshu quake in Japan....China and the Myanmar border, Taiwan, Vanuatu, India....and I do believe there was a 7.0 near Christchurch...
Honshu moved the Japanese coast 8 feet and shifted the earth on its axis....
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/
Good morning everyone. Not good news elsewhere though. Its looking terrible in Japan. Whole towns and villages just gone.
Warnings are helpful but how can you give a warning in enough time for people to react and move so quickly ? Its impossible to ever predict what Mother Nature will do in a given time frame. All we can do is offer our sympathies and help.
I am not watching any of the news for a while. Its far too sad.
I am going out in the garden where one can feel a little at peace with our part of Mother Nature's world.
Have a safe day and plant something pretty for the memories of all those lost .
Have some Blueberry Coffee Cake with your cuppa, out in the peaceful contemplation garden.
Jean.
PRAYERS FOR THEM ALL, MATES. WE LOVE YOU.
Good morning everyone. Just popping in to make sure there is some cake for you all. Busy, busy, this morning. I may pop back in later.
enjoy the start of the new week.
Have some Lace Cookies with your cuppa.
Jean.
Good morning everyone. Warm and overcast here today. We had a little rain yesterday . Have been moving some of my softer ferns, begonias, etc out under the car port. They will only get a little sun about midday so should be okay. I had geraniums down there but they weren't doing any good as there's not enough sun for them. The Ivy geraniums were getting very leggy but flowering okay. I'll move them to where they can get more sun. I have been using Branden's camera but it's not as good as mine was. The pics are not as good but it will do until I decide what to do with mine. I'm guessing that it will cost too much to repair so I'm hoping to get a new one . Will just have to go on the waiting list though. Terrible things going on in the world at the moment. Poor QLD is copping it again. I do hope that everyone is okay. The earth is sure in a turmoil. Dalfyre stay safe. I hope the tablets start to work for Cooper. Must be terrible for all the animals. My thoughts are with everyone. I'll be back later. Colleen
It's Grey and muggy here ...waiting for some cooler temps *sigh*
Jean your beautiful Iochromas ...oh how I remember when we talked about "baby angels", we called them cherubs.
Look at what you have now ...congratulations!
You need to post them in the flowers thread for the World to look at.
It's hard to be bubbly when there is so much suffering and anxiety so I will just wish everyone a gentle day.
I think we all need one.
.
The situation in Japan is going from bad to worse, and there's little any of us outside of there can do. I'd thought to offer someone a home until it's over, but the poor people cannot even get out of there. It's frightening to think what can happen if the nuclear reactors go. It's a really good illustration of why we should never even consider having them here.
You're right Chrissy, it's very hard to be bubbly with so many catastrophes happening in so many places of late. Stay safe all, and give someone a hug today.
Pam
Yes, my thoughts and prayers are with those caught up in this latest horrific tragedy. I hope those reactors hold. Just too awful to contemplate.
So yes, gentle, caring thoughts to everyone here today. Thanks for what we still have and for the genuine caring that people have for others not so fortunate.
Karen
nostradamus:the world will cease to exist early into 2012,.,.my next door neighbor brian has heeded this and cancelled his new concrete driveway,.,.our superannuation will now take a death dive,..,,.doesnt really matter,unless you are going to retire b4 2012!!!,.i dont think i'll seed up any more species liliums,because they take a few years to bloom,.,.''optomist or pessamist?''