Admiralty and Kirrabilli Houses

Have you ever been to Sydney and caught the ferry across to Manly? You pass the Opera House on your right and the on the left is a fabulous sandstone building with an expanse of lawn out the front.  When Mr R first arrived in Sydney his first question was 'Who lives in that house'?

I of course got it wrong and said it is the house the Prime Minister uses when he/she is in town.  It is actually used by the Governor-General (who is appointed by the Queen on the advise of the Prime Minister to represent Her Majesty in the Commonwealth of Australia).  She has the power to dismiss the PM if he/she has lost confidence (such as poor ol Gough Whitlam found out the hard way).  But this is about the house and grounds rather than politics.

the front entrance

I couldn't get photos inside I did get some of the garden and views out.  I have to confess I was hoping to see a weed or two in the garden just to make me not feel so bad I wasn't out there in my garden on such a fine day.

Sydney rock orchids, Dendrobium speciosum happily growing on the rocks

Admiralty House on a splendid spring day

This must be a tough view to get used to everyday

I like the fact that in the front of the house (which is really the rear) they have used mostly natives.  While Mr R and friends joked that the huge Morton Bay Fig should go so they have a better view, I think it does a perfect job frame the vista.

So around the corner the plant varieties change to drought tolerant

To shade lovers.

Then you walk a little further and you get to Kirrabilli House which is where the Prime Minister stays while they are in Sydney.  It is a small three bedroom place (and when I say small, it is in relation to Admiralty House).  The view is not quite as stunning but the lawn sweeps down encouraging quite a number of children to partake in a good rolling down the slope.  

It is a tempting slope

The Echiums sure do add colour to the entrance

And with a slight bit of surprise we came across the vegetable patch.  But don't get yourselves too excited here as I can say there is much much more in my vegetable garden and I have been empting it out so it can have a refit.

Yeap a few chillis, broccoli, chervil and a curry plant that might not be used a great deal . 

I did say...  Do you ever use Curry plant?  I know it smells of curry but I am not sure it should be given space in a produce garden.

Anyway there were a few more pretties about the place.  And looking at the plant choices I expect it gets quite hot in this garden.  What do you think?

The walkway looks like it might be covered with wisteria but nothing in sight at the moment

Loving the Loropetalum and Euphorbia combination

A great day and so happy to have finally had a visit to such an iconic house of Sydney at last.

Terrorist in the garden

Here is a picture (copied from google, thanks google) of a look-a-like 'Bob the Bush Turkey' as i didn't quite manage to get one myself.  He has been hard at work on a clients garden this week.  And not work that is particularly helpful to all of the work I have put in!  For those who don't know of the work 'Bob' or his bush turkey mates do in spring let me explain...

It would seem in the world of bush turkey the male is responsible for looking after the eggs and young turkeys.  So they spend quite some effort scraping general bush debris into an enormous big pile that they turn (a bit like we do with the compost heap) and get nice and hot.  Then they go off to find 'Bernadette' so she can decide if the said pile is worthy of her eggs and potentially mating with 'Bob'.  If 'Bob' is successful he helps create some eggs that he carefully places in his hot pile to keep them warm.  'Bernadette' who has finished her work gets to go back to eating and cruising the bush. Poor ol 'Bob' has to keep the pile turning so that the micro-organisms that do a fabulous job breaking down our composts get all worked up and carry on keeping those eggs warm until they are hatched.

Now that is all very well and good I am all for nature doing it's thing but 'Bob' never bothers to spread that lovely compost around in the appropriate spots.  And to make matters worse he decided that the vegetable patch was where he would start his pile.  See Exhibit A:

Bob's ramp into the vegie patch

And now he starts with the mulch

So not only has he dug soil from the other 2 beds next to this one to start his pile he dug up all of these gorgeous carrots!

Got a great range of colours with this lot

It took me a while as I had tomatoes to protect and a bean frame to create but I am ever hopeful I have 'Bob' proofed the vegie patches.  

Fingers crossed all that wire netting, pots and almost every tool in the place might just stop those turkey legs 

The tomatoes might well be safe now with the bird netting

I am crossing fingers and toes all those new seeds I have planted are safe and that 'Bernadette' finds love with 'Bruce' who has a better pile down the road.

Biennale of Sydney

I love living in Sydney for lots of reasons and today is no exception.  Biennale of Sydney is on at the moment which is basically a free art show at five locations around Sydney.  We choose Cockatoo Island which is in the middle of the harbour and in the past has been a convict prison and old shipyard.  There are heaps of great things to see and do without having the art show as a bonus.

So armed with picnic basket we caught the free ferry at 9.30. It was a gorgeous day out there but then we are now out of winter and into spring so things will be warming up.  Here are some of the things we found

And old crane to help build big ships

the cafe decorated the tables/ pallets with a cute succulent

smile and the world smiles with you

a screen of feathers

Love old draws

birds always get the good views

These were paper guns and and bullets that opened out to make great displays 

old Convict Chapel

Echium looking fabulous

Ark in progress?

Fake mist was quite cool

What have you done on the first weekend of the season?
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orange and pink

They say "blue and green should never be seen unless there's something in between".  Personally I think "they" got it wrong, what I have issues with is orange and pink.  I can't help but recoil when I see it them together not really.  I have to admit if they are both lovely bright colours it is ok but I just see so many around the place currently that makes me want to run and get my hedging shears to simply prune of the offending colours.

Here is an example in my own garden.  Eek, yes i am moving plants around as we speak.

Clivea and Cercis (kill me now)

It is azalea season (I spit out that word, NOT a fan) which mean pinks of all varieties as well as some quite nice whites and reds. And none of those pink go with any of the bright late winter early spring colours.  Is it just me or do you think there is something strange going on in the botanical world at the moment that is encouraging these colours together?

Right I must dash to the garden and move those clivias....  In the meantime here are some orange things up close but not pink I would cry

Pyrostegia Venusta or orange trumpet vine

Tropaelum majus or Nasturtium

Clivia minata

oh look at all the precious things this week

I know I forgot to post the plant that made me squeak with delight last week. But fear not I have a number of beauties for you this week which I have been grabbing all over the place.

First is the Chaenomeles, cool name huh?  Ok you might know it as the flowering quince or japonica (which at least gives you the origin of where it came from, although to be fair it is also from China as well as Japan). As a kid we had one of these in the corner of the front garden.  Whenever I use to jump the wall (fastest route to the door) I always got gabbed by the mean sharp spurs.  So one weekend when the folks were away my brother and I cut it to the ground.  My parents were not pleased at all but it was a lot easier to jump the wall.  It of course came back thicker and stronger.

I am afraid although I have seen at least 3 colours I just managed to snap the pink but the red and white are also pretty.

Flower is quite beautiful but those thorns are lethal!

I expect this could be  Prunus sargentii or sargent cherry again native to Japan it is part of a group of trees at the front of one of my clients.  It has burgundy leaves that I have seen lots of people take branches I guess for flower arranging. Having been a florist in the past I too have found free flower and foliage handy on the sides of the road.

 

So I have taken a trip out to Alpine Nursery in Dural to grab plants and potting mixes for work last week and came across a new Michelia called 'Fairy'.  It is a fairly open shrub/small tree that is laden in flower. Michelia is related to Magnolia, but generally have smaller leaves and flower up and down the branches rather than on the tips like it's bigger cousins.  I know it is also pink but I think it is just what happens at this time of year.  Each season has its colour.

Such a pretty colour

A view of Alpine Nursery

Finally just one last plant which I am not entirely sure what it is, hoping you might help.  It is a bit of a scrappy think.  It grows by the road and in rockeries with no water, full baking sun and no attention.  In fact the foliage is quite ordinary but the flower is quite lovely and reminds be a little of Christmas bell.  If you know what it it I would be most grateful.

The foliage is this on tall sticky growth

Garden Bloggers Bloom day - August

When I was small my Nana used to grow snowdrops in the lawn in the far corner of her garden.  They were spectacular and everyone always came around to admire there bright white heads (and have a feed of pikelets which were her speciality).  Of course they were finished by September. By November they would be really yellow and the bulb would have absorbed all those nutrients ready to repeat the following winter.

However by October, my Pop would start pestering her as he wanted to mow the grass and have it neat and tidy.  I guess he didn't care for a mess. She would always say he would have to wait another month so the bulb would benefit with the extra time.  As you can imagine he would wait until she was out so he could quickly mow them down long before they were really ready.  He no doubt had to go without the pikelets.  But they still did always flower again the following year.

So of course now I have my own place I have to a small section to remind me of Nana.  Here they are:

I am not sure if you are all out there missing the Olympics (like Mr R) but if you are I have a little red, white and blue to celebrate the fantastic job the Poms did in London.

Pieris japonica a bit of red and white

Have to confess I am not really sure what this bulb is....

Akebia quinata (chocolate vine) well it is the most red I have for you today

And here are a few other things that are flowering around the garden today

Cercis "Forest Pansy" I love how the branches look like they have a pink hairy growth

Helleborus.  Eek I have 3 colours now

Magnolia stellata I am growing over a drain to deter people falling down the easement behind.  It's only a year old so still has some growing to do

Dendrobium sp. with a Cymbidum in the back ground

If you are curious to know what other people are growing in their gardens all around the world you can at  maydreamsgardens. See ya next time

Winter holiday

Mr R and I decided we would take a week off work. Of course when you are both self-employed the best laid plans don't always go to schedule.  When I was desperate to take that break Mr R had to go and build a deck that he had agreed to start quite a few months ago, sigh.

Finally it was finished and now for the decision of where to go.  We really thought a warm and sunny break would be good but soon discovered that the best deals are out of the country and as my passport expired in May it was time to consider something else.....

I thought about Orange, which is about 5 hrs drive over the mountains west of Sydney and much much colder about 9 degrees at this time of year.  Most of our stone fruits are grown in Orange but it is too cold for oranges. There are also a number of vineyards which seemed another good reason to go.  It is a large country town which has a university and a population of 40 000.  I don't really know why I am even giving you this information as we decided to stay home instead.

I know why would you stay at home?  Well here are a few reasons that made us stay home:

* Olympics are one of Mr R favourite things to watch so he has camped in the lounge every evening to really enjoy them

* My garden finally got worked on! Of course I think a month would be better for me but I took a few days and we are both much happier

* Playing tourist.  I love Sydney so we found a few walks that we hadn't done before

* Sleeping in, reading books and wearing your pyjamas till 9am and played for hours on the internet

* Made stuff from scratch

It really was great to relax and here are some of the photos to show what fun we had

Waters edge near Cammeray

Notice the wildlife?

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Maggie enjoys the suns warmth

Angophoras are one of my favourite

The camp to watch Olympics

I made butter (and buttermilk)

Mr R is proud of his homemade tortillas 

So back at work this week I feel quite rested.  Sometimes it is really nice taking a break.

I guess all those jobs that need to be done around the house will have to wait until the weekends again