Drifting through life

A few days ago, my friend Susan, who writes at I think, Therefore I Yam, posted about a visit to a car show. Her first image was this car.... and she asked us "dontcha just love this car?" Well, I didn't and told her so, you know, because I'm honest and stuff. Anyway, karma bit me and the car popped up in my dreams later that night. But it wasn't a car anymore. In my dream it was an automatic lawn mower that tootled about cutting all the grass, then mowing down the flower beds before heading for the veggie patch. You see, it had been programmed to cut down everything over three inches tall......and clearly couldn't tell the difference between the grass and everything else. That's creepy!

Welcome back to Sunday Selections! This once-a- week-meme was originally begun by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, as a way to showcase some of the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs. The rules are very simple:- 1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title 2. link back to me, River , somewhere in your post 3. leave me a comment so that I know you've joined in and can come over and see what you've posted. I usually go with a theme for my Sunday Selections and this week I'm continuing with some photos of the gardens surrounding these flats I live in. The Trees. We have a wonderful variety of trees here. Fruit trees.... At least four Loquat trees (more of a shrub really) filled with fat golden fruits. The birds love these, so if you want some for yourself you'd better get in quick! There's a Nectarine tree quite some distance away from any flat, so I'm not sure if it be...

Welcome back to Sunday Selections! Begun almost two years ago by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, as a way to showcase photos that you may have forgotten were in your files. Now continued by me, River and The Elephant's Child.  New photos are also acceptable. The rules are very simple:- 1. post photos under the Sunday Selections title 2. link back to me somewhere in your post 3. leave me a comment so that I know you've joined us, and we can hop over to see what you've posted. I usually have a theme to my Sunday Selections and this week I have more photos of the gardens surrounding the flats I live in. Three potted Cyclamens for Andrew, who sadly had to part with his own Cyclamen recently. Daisies for everyone! Have you ever looked closely at a daisy centre? Enlarge that last one and see the tiny rings of flowerets within the larger petals.  Another one of the rose beds , this one is now in full bloom.  One of many paths bordered by flowe...

Welcome back to Sunday Selections! Sunday Selections was begun by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock as a way to showcase old photos that have never been seen. It's moved away from that a little bit as I sometimes show much newer photos. The rules are very simple: 1. post photos of your choice under the Sunday Selections title 2. link back to me, River, somewhere in your post 3. leave me a comment so that I know you've joined in. This week, I have photos of the gardens here that I took last week. "they're ba-a-a-a-ck"  (name that movie) The roses that is. A while ago, (not on a Sunday), I showed the rose bushes in their winter mode . Bare branches as far as the eyes could see. Today, just a few short weeks later, everything is coming up roses! Remember this? And this? Well, look at them now! all colours, all sizes, from one end of the complex to the other, the gardens here are ablaze with flowers of a...

Up near the front of the flats, there is a clump of leaves resembling aloe. Really big leaves. A large plant. Yesterday, I noticed the flower head developing from the centre on a long thick stalk. Expand the photo, then tell me.....does that flower head vaguely resemble a dragon? With two tiny arms just below it?  It's what I saw when I first looked at it. here is a side view. there are similar, smaller heads growing around the plant, from the base. This is one of the unopened flower heads. the lower end of the big stalk has smaller flowers also. it looks a little like a banana plant from this view, with the unfolding leaves showing the developing bananas. Of course this isn't bananas, I've grown those and know what a banana palm looks like. looking directly into the face of the "dragon", which doesn't look at all like a dragon from this close. I don't have a clue what this is, but I think I'll take another photo or two...

Last Friday was Daffodil Day here in Australia and of course "my" store got right into the spirit of things, with a sausage sizzle to raise funds, a raffle, yellow daffodil stickers on the window and all of us in bright yellow t-shirts. The supervisors had yellow caps and the bakery boys got yellow jackets to wear instead of the regular white ones, the service deli and fresh produce folk had bright yellow aprons. Things were so bright we almost needed shades! My friend J has collected multiple daffodil day badges over the years and last Friday she wore every one of them.  She even had a couple of them as earrings! I wish I'd thought of that. As it is, I had a couple of badges on my cardigan, but with J shining like a star, I felt I hadn't done enough. Even working on my day off didn't seem like enough.  So I took one of the bright yellow paper napkins off the lunch table and fashioned a paper daffodil to clip into my hair. It didn't look much...