From the Botanic Gardens

Jock and I went walking in the Botanic Gardens yesterday.  This hibiscus insularis is flowering again - I think it is my favourite of all the hibiscus shrubs in the Gardens.  It is a native of Philip Island, a small island off Norfok Island and is critically endangered there.  We have them growing profusely in several spots here, so they obviously like our conditions.

These melaleuca flowers are so pretty, click on the images to see them in more detail.  They are local the the area around Mackay and have the red and green forms, as well as a pinkish form which is not yet in flower.

I don't know what order these photos will end up when the blog is published, but I wanted to show our overseas readers the start of the bark peeling away.  These trees have only been in the ground for a couple of years, so there is not a lot of paper bark yet, but as they mature, there are great slabs of bark peel off, it makes fabulous fibre to work with.

This pyrostegia grows in a garden we pass, it will keep its brilliant colour for a couple of months now, they are spectacular in sunny spots around Mackay all through the winter months, though you could hardly call our weather winter at present, maximums of around 22-23 degrees is definitely not cold.

I had better go, Bill has had his carpal tunnel surgery this morning and it is nearly time to collect him.  If it has gone as well as the previous one, he will come home, have some lunch and go straight back to work on the computer!! 

Flowers in my garden

Here are a couple of photos of the zygocactus which have been in full bloom in my garden.  I was sure I had taken a photo of the beautiful white one with just a hint of pink in the flowers, but I seem to have lost it and of course the plant has almost finished flowering now!

I can't resist showing you a few more photos from the stunning ArtUWear display at the Textile Art Festival.  The theme was Alice in Wonderland

This entry was by Anne Enscoll entitled Alice in Underland.  The detail below shows the ants as buttons! 

I don't know who made this but I loved it - lots of felting

This entry by Carol Wilkes won the first prize.  Click on the photos to enlarge them to see the huge amount of work they have put into their entries.  Dale has some more on her blog, do visit them as well.

Now we are off to have dinner with the grandkids.  The weather has fined up here after a couple of cloudy days with high humidity but no rain.  Seems to be cooling down a bit, but not like the southern parts of Australia.  I am glad to be here.

More from Textile Art Festival

Some of the crazy teacosies which were on display - lots of fun

These collections of quilts are explained on the website http://www.twelveby12.org/  Do check it out and read the story.  They all looked super

The Queensland Quilters' Association also had a lovely display of quilts

I really loved the colours in this quilt.  All of the photos should enlarge if you click on them.

Extra goodies for my stash

Dale was kind enough to give away a lovely bag of goodies to the first two people who knew the name of the NZ soccer team - All Whites of course.  This is the yummy bag I received - it also contained a copy of Quilting Arts Magazine and Cloth Paper Scissors.  Thank you so much.

Then in the mail today came this gorgeous pile of goodies - I won the draw for the prize for the June Technique of the month through 3 Creative Studios.  The generosity of these artists continues to overwhelm me.  Thank you so much.

Back from Brisbane

Well, I am back from Brisbane after an absolutely fabulous few days.  I came home very tired on course, so didn't get to post anything during yesterday - thought I would do it after we came home from an early evening drinks function.  There was some delicious tasting food there..........but, I came home with an awful case of food poisoning, so no posting, I spent the night trying to get past the cramps and vomiting, ugggh!

Dale and Jacinta had a fantastic artists at work area, always surrounded by lots of eager watchers.  They were both very happy to answer all our questions.  Jacinta is rolling one of her felted pieces here. 

And here it is unrolled, with some of the pieces on show, not quite felted yet.  If you click on the photos you should see a bit more.

There was just so much to see, I have heaps of photos which I haven't had time to edit yet, so over the next few days I will bore you with some of them. These bags are part  of a collection of bags in a challenge. I don't know who made most of them, I found it very hard to read the descriptions, they were on pages attched to the wall almost at floor level!

If this post is set out in a peculiar way it is because I am still trying to get used to the new blogger way of setting photos and text out - I am not sure I like it, stuff keeps showing up in the wrong place!

I need to do some shopping so more tomorrow.

Pictureless post

Sorry, I can't find where I have stored the photos I took of the roof work, but it is ALL FINISHED!!!!!!!  Jock is over the moon.  We have nearly gone demented keeping him inside, only taking him outside on the lead for toilet breaks - and making sure we go nowhere near any of the workers' lunch boxes.  Jock's neck has a very long reach.

The roof looks really good and it is so good to see the garden all clean and tidy again.

No posts for a few days, I am off to Brisbane tomorrow to see the Textile Art Fair.  My sister will meet me at the airport, then, as we have half a day spare, we are going to the Queensland Art Gallery to see the exhibition of hats which closes this Sunday.  Don't think I will be able to take photos, but I will get a postcard or two to scan - so many people have told us this exhibition is definitely not to be missed.

We are doing a couple of workshops at the Art Fair, in between seeing what is on offer at some of the stalls there, as well as watching Dale and Jacinta at work (alternately) in their artist's studio.  That should be a lot of fun and I know I am able to take photos there so lots to show you next week.  Of course, I had forgotten till I tested the links, Textile Tantrums will be on display as well - more photos.  Look at the link to Dale to see what I am talking about.  Cheers.

The Leichardt tree

This Leichardt tree has particular significance for Mackay, representing a very sad part of our history.  This is where the blackbirding ships brought the South Sea Islanders (from various Melanesian Islands).  They were then auctioned off to the local sugar cane plantation owners to work in the cane fields.  This happened over a period of about 30 years in the late 19th Century.  Some of the Islanders came voluntarily, but most were tricked into boarding the ships.  Most of them were repatriated to their homelands in the first years of the 20th Century - again, often against their will, as they had settled and married here by then.  Many managed to return over the next few years, but some have had lost relatives and family histories which have only been traced in the last twenty years or so.  Mackay has a large population of South Sea Islanders now, with a very proud history. 

This moving sculpture has been erected as a memorial to those early forced migrations.

 

Most of the Islanders could not read or write so they had to use thumb prints and these, along with the names they were given, are represented on one face of theboxes.

On the opposing face are the names of the many plantations in the Mackay district - altogether a very inspirational sculpture.

If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you will see part of a blue painted building with 'chandlery' painted on it - if I had been psychic I would have taken a photo of it, as it is a very old Mackay building which has been vacant for several months and was burned down in a very spectacular fire yesterday afternoon.  Two other old deserted buildings alongside were burned also.  Our local paper today had many photos of the fire and the carnage, but the most interesting were of a wedding group who were having their phots taken in the park where the sculpture stands.  I'll bet nobody else has wedding photos with a building catching fire behind them!  The police suspect arson as there have been problems with vagrants squatting in the buildings - such a waste.

Our place has been bedlam today, the plumbers arrived at 7 am and filled the garden with all their junk - photos and story tomorrow, time for bed now, it has been a very long day.  Jock was totally stir crazy by this afternoon so I had to go on an extra long walk with him.