Wednesday 24 September 2014

Swamp Orchid

Having said there would be no photos in future on this blog, I am now posting a photo my daughter-in-law took last Saturday.


The photo does not do the orchid justice, the spikes are nearly 2 metres tall and are simply gorgeous. I have had the plants for about four years but could not persuade them to grow and flower till this year.  There is another plant outside which is still sending up its spikes.  The orchids were once common in swamp areas from Southern Queensland coast to Central NSW coast, but are very hard to find in the wild now.
I feel like I am getting back into harness, but the frustrating part is that I now have to catch up with all the book work for our self managed superannuation fund which I have let slip since the end of May!  At least the accountant understands it may take me a while and is not hounding us for our tax information.
All my sewing stuff and paints and textile books have gone off to new homes.  Thank goodness I was able to find people in the community who are really happy to have my stuff - much better than sending it to the op shop.  I still have a collection of containers to dispose of, but they can wait. I still have quite a few pieces of my work on display in our home so I can always look at them with many happy memories. 
 

Friday 19 September 2014

Returning to blogging - I hope

There will be no photos in this blog unfortunately, but at least should able to write about wehat is happening in my part of the world.
I have unfortunately had further disasters with my eye, ending with an evisceration aher the lens starting coming through the front of the eye.
However I have just returned from Brisbane with a wonderful artificial eye  which looks just like the other eye and moves with it as well.  The ocularist (a name I had never heard of) has a very interesting website showing the process he uses. Do watch the video, he painted my eye in about 25 minutes while I sat in a very bright natural light.
We  have acquired some wonderful electronic vision aids, a very high tech scanner reader which sits on my kitchen table.  We spent about two hours with the agent in Brisbane trying to learn how to use all the features and of course I can hardly remember anything now.  I will gradually learn , but it is a steep learning curve.  There are about a dozen colour combinations to use and then I can adjust for glare and contrast as well as magnification.  It will also read documents to me and many other features besides.
I also have a new computer with a 27 inch wide screen and a special piece of software called Magic which has just as many features as the scanner downstairs - and I am still trying to get my head
around them too!

After all the high tech stuff, I am wearing very low tech ugly night vision yellow glasses to cut down the glare and allow me to see what I am typing!
I spent ages getting Google to let me back in, I had to reset my password and then go through the hoops several times.  Hopefully this will publish .
Back soon.