Revival

A message from Brigid ....

I have been a blogger since 2005. At the height of my blogging busy-ness, I had "a small stable" of blogs on different topics: social and political commentary; desert spirituality; food; waste and ....

A few years ago I called time and ceased blogging altogether - although there was an occasional post. I had called it quits. I am an aged woman these days with a couple of serious illnesses. I am not allowed to drive. I am no longer active in organisations. I think it fair to say that I am housebound. I am active on Facebook, although I am not there as often as once I was. I have decided to embark on a re-entry into the blogging world ... beginning with The Trad Pad and, possibly, a return to my food blog, Oz Tucker. I have always used a lot of photographs on my blogs ... and I miss not being out and about with my camera.

The Trad Pad has been my blog for the lovely things of life. The controversial or political has seldom intruded. Occasionally, the spiritual has found its way in, but I kept spirituality for the blog, Desert. I don't yet know if I will revive that. I will stick pretty much to food and the lovely things of life. If I have some regularity with those two categories, I feel that I will be doing well. I hope that, with this blog new friendships can be formed and old friendships renewed; new lovelies discovered; new reflections can enter into the meaning of modern life. I would love to hear from you - particularly if you have suggestions for new topics to enter into the conversation. So, it is a new year. Let's see what it has in store, what it can bring to us. And I hope that those who share the spirit of The Trad Pad can spread the message of a world of beauty, the creativity of humanity, and the joys of simplicity and tradition. ~~~ February, 2017

Saturday, December 15, 2007

How does my garden grow?

It has been raining at Upper Gully since early this morning...
...a soft gentle rain unlike the storm and flooding of nearly two weeks ago.

The temperature is now 15.4 degrees Celsius - on a December day in Summer!

We have had 7.6mm of rain - just over a quarter on an inch.

The wheelbarrow bunch are doing their own thing...

just going crazy.

These Romas Tomatoes may turn out to be the first of the crop. The Oregano sits in a tub in an old laundry trolley.

It is going crazy - trailing everywhere!

These are my pride and joy. The best of my Sugar Loaf Cabbages.

I can't buy sugar loafs in the supermarkets or markets in Melbourne.

I have never grown cabbages before...but, if it's the only way to have sugar loafs....

Sugar Loaf Cabbages are the most delightful, sweetest cabbages...

perfect for coleslaw.

The hanging baskets look sweet.



I am thrilled with my hydrangea.

I bought two teeny-weeny ones three years ago.

They have been in tubs....

until this summer when I have turned them loose.

They are rewarding me with flowers which are white, through pink, to mauve.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

A photographic walk

Upper Gully from Glenfern Road - home of The Trad Pad

Gina has posted on a recent walk. Set off on a l-o-n-g walk from The Trad Pad on Monday. I walked up Glenfern Road, turned into Ferndale Road, walked past the Sherbrooke Archers meeting ground, took a diversion along a creek, walked by Gilmour Park and its lake complete with ducks.
Then I came to the beginning of suburbia with lovely mountainside homes. I stopped to chat to a newer resident who had purchased a home with an overgrown garden and he was doing battle with rampant ivy over the rock wall. He was interesting - a retired horticulturalist with a penchant for cacti and succulents.

On my walk, I was able to feast upon wild apricots and plums. I took pictures of some beautiful "weeds": rampant convolvulus "Morning Glory" intermingled with agapanthus. Agapanthus is beautiful but it has found its way into our close-by national park. It does look beautiful - the mauve blossom against the grey eucalypt trunks - but it is indeed an interloper there.

And then it was down into Upper Gully village and home by a walking/bike path tucked away behind the main shopping roads. And then past the Neighbourhood House and School, across the park, along the creek and home. Two and half hours on the hoof and on the loose and here are the photographs:

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