Wandering Amongst Australian Natives

This morning I woke up with three goals in my mind, take Gizmo the amazing puppy for a walk, take some photos and visit the Arboretum at Lake Burrendong. I managed to do all three things. First I had to find out if the Arboretum would like Gizmo to visit, so I rang and the nice man said he'd love for Giz to frolic in the flowers as long as she had her lead on. Burrendong Botanic Garden and Arboretum is about 50km from home, so Gizmo and I jumped into the car and headed out there armed with plenty of water and a loaded camera.

Be warned, this is going to be a photo heavy post, I took plenty of pics and it was hard deciding which ones I liked the most, I've narrowed it down as much as I could. I know the names of some of the plants I took photos of, so I'll label those but there were a few that I have no idea what they are, some of them could even be weeds for all I know .. doesn't matter they made great photos!

This is the scene that greeted us when we first got out of the car.

We wandered over to a little information centre and picked up a few leaflets about the walks on offer here, then we started just walking and looking at stuff.

This is a Pear-fruited Mallee - Eucalyptus pyroformis

Most of the flowers are gone now, but there's a lot of seed pods about.

This plant facinated me, the leaves look almost painted white. It's a Western Australian Eucalypt called Mottlecah - Eucalyptus macrocarpa

 Apparently the Mottlecah had the largest of the Eucalyptus flowers, I'll have to go back earlier next year to see that.

As Giz and I wandered we spotted a lot of these delicate little flowers along the path, not sure what they are or if they were just a weed, but they were pretty.

These tiny pink flowers were definitely some kind of native, just not sure what one.

I don't even remember taking this photo, so I was delighted to find it on my camera.

Another one of those unknown flowers. Giz and I were now making our way back to the car as we'd realised just how big this place was.

What Terry calls a Spider Flower, it's some kind of Grevillea. We have a couple in our garden and just love them.

 After getting the car we made our way towards the Hakea walk. After parking the car I stopped to take a photo of the view, our first glimpse of the lake. There were to be more tantalising glimpses like this all day.

 We found the Hakea walk. Hakeas are members of the Proteaceae family, a family of flowers that I love, they always produce such interesting shapes and colors.

 
Banksia's are a part of the same family, this isn't a banksia but it has very similar seed pods. They reminded me of the Banksia Men from 'Snugglepot and Cuddlepie' tho the Banksia Men were much hairier and scarier.

We found our way out of that twisted little grove full of it's twisted little plants and found a path that had more flowers ... Late flowering Wattle.

 No idea what this is, but it's a pretty picture.

By now Giz was getting the hang of standing round waiting for me to finish snapping. But when we were moving it was Giz's choice, she led the way all day so we headed further away from the car going down hill with no idea what we were headed for.

She even stood still while we were surrounded by bees so that I could get this shot.

 The bees were hungry for these little beauties.

 We came out of the bush to see this in front of us. At the same time that we spotted this obviously man made structure, we heard a thumping sound in the bush to the right of the path. We had no idea what either thing was, Giz was keen to go explore the man made structure in front of us.

 After twisting down the hill on a winding little path, and only getting lost once. We discovered that the roof was covering a fernery. The temperature cooled as soon as we stepped under the man made canopy.

 There were all sorts of paths carved into the rock, bridges to cross little waterways. It smelt fresh and almost reminded of a rainforest. Considering we are in a more desert type of location out here, I'm pretty impressed that they managed to do this.

It was about here that Giz and I heard two more thumps, and saw a grey shape bounce out of our view in the bush above us. We think it was probably a Wallaby or Kangaroo, the thump being it's tail hitting the ground. I was disappointed that I didn't get a better look at it, but kinda glad cause I'm not sure what Giz would do if she was confronted by wildlife like that.

 More tiny flowers to line our path.

They provided a nice little place to sit and take in the surroundings.

 

 And wooden stepping stones over a tiny waterway.

More seed pods.

 After making it back up the hill to the car, and getting the car up the hill (that was a bit touch and go) we decided to find the Lookout that was marked on our map.

More flowers, I think these are a type of Grevillea, but could be wrong.

 

  It was getting late, I knew we would never get to see everything in one day, so we just went for a quick walk round at the top. 

 Found some more fascinating seed pods.

 Gizmo enjoyed the view as much as I did.

 Looking back up at the lookout, there were a lot of winding paths here, and Giz was keen to explore a bit here.

 

 I found more interesting delicate little flowers.

 

 With seed pods.

 

 This pretty little flower was the last one on the tree, I'm not sure what it is but the flowers look like they would normally cover it when it's in full bloom.

 That was all we had time to do, there is so much more to see, and I could have taken so many more photos. I know it's going to become one of my favourite places and be assured you will see more of it here. These plants change all the time, sometimes they are flowering, sometimes they are just sticks and leaves, even the seed pods are fascinating. I cant wait to see what is here next month!

And They Gave Me Flowers

Where do I start?

    Last weekend was a huge milestone in my life, it really shouldn't have been that big I guess, but it was, on a lot of different levels. They gave me flowers!

    I guess I should start at the start. If you are following my other blog then you know that recently Terry and I put on a bit of a weekend do for a bunch of riders that we talk to on a forum. It was exciting but also extremely scary for me. I'm not good at people ... I'm specially not good at large groups of people. I get shy and hide myself away in the background if I can, if I cant hide I become loud and say the first things that come into my head, that are normally terribly inappropriate and that just embarrasses me more. So what on earth was I doing organising a whole weekend event for 20 plus people, most of whom I've never met before?

     It started last Friday, I was waiting for people to arrive from all over Australia, we had two of them staying with us, the rest of them were staying at a local caravan and camping park where the first meeting was taking place in the form of a Barbecue. I was gonna cook for them. Hmmm I made salads and some munchie platters that morning then sat around waiting. The nerves built up. I did keep myself busy doing little errands, getting things I'd forgotten like gravy and buns. I was a bundle of nervous energy by the time I got the text message that said 'we are all here and there are bikes everywhere' ... eeek 'Terry are you ready?' 'Nope' Oh no! I have to go over, get everything set up ready and meet people .. I have to host .. I need you for backup!! Terry was busy finishing up things so that he could enjoy the weekend too. I had to go over and meet all these men on my own. OK .. breath slowly, get the stuff in the car and just go.

    I got there and was greeted by the sight of a couple of Shadows parked near the entrance. This has to be people that I am to meet. I introduced myself to the only man standing nearby and got a kind of reserved greeting. Oh .. I started to get butterflies. Then I spotted a couple coming towards me, a man and a woman. I've met a couple of these people on a trip Terry and I did north last year and even though there was a full beard I recognised the man, the woman must be his wife ... yay someone I know and then the enthusiastic greeting, hugs all round ... oh this is better!! I introduced myself to the other couple who came out of the reception next .. right I can do this.

     I got back in the car after telling them where the barbecue was going to be then headed over to see who was there. No one. Hmmm I sat round a bit thinking someone might turn up soon, then I decided that maybe they were at the other barbecue area .. ring someone. Sheesh this was nerve racking. Finally someone was coming towards me, but it still wasn't anyone I recognised. OK my nerves were getting me, but so far I was managing to bluff my way through it, cuddles and enthusiastic greetings. It was pretty nice to finally put faces to people who I had only ever known as an avatar on a forum, and eventually I found some people I recognised. Even though one of them didn't even know who I was, I'd only met him once before and I looked pretty different then, I'd shaved all my hair off last time I met him, today I have curls :) He got a huge cuddle anyway and soon worked out who I was.

    Rusty was the guy who had organised this shebang, and he was the one I was most looking forward to meeting. And I wasn't disappointed when I did meet him, he was just as sweet as I thought he would be .. it was wonderful to finally meet him!

    We sat around and chatted about the journey to get there. Well they chatted, I sat back and listened and started to relax. More people started turning up, and the boys showed how well trained they were when a couple of them started cooking the BBQ for me. We were still waiting for one rider to turn up. Louie had been riding for the last week to get here from Western Australia and he was late. Rusty showed his caring nature once again by being worried about him and going out to find him. I started to worry too, but to tell the truth I was kinda useless .. there were still nerves there and I was having trouble concentrating on any one thing. Eventually we were all there, we were eating and everyone was getting along wonderfully.

    The atmosphere was electric. There was so much fun and excitement going on. People were having fun and I was feeling such a mixed bag of emotions .. worry, stress, excitement, shyness, and just pure happiness. It was fantastic!!

    That evening set the tone for the rest of the weekend. There were times of stress for me but honestly this was such a great bunch of people that there was no way anything could go wrong. There were a couple of times that the plan didn't go exactly the way it should have but, as Terry stated, it had all been so well organised that even changes didn't spoil the fun. But it wasn't just the planning, it was the people there, they were all so wonderful that anything that didn't go exactly as stated didn't faze them, they just went with the flow. I had so much help from everyone all weekend, it wasn't hard at all. A lot of the time things just seemed to happen around me and I was wondering how it happened.

     Yes Terry said that it was because I'd planned it all so well but I don't quite believe that. Terry helped me so much with that planning, Rusty was always there to help and the rest of the guys and girls were keen to step up and help with anything they could. I was exhausted but it wasn't from work, it was from stress and the release of that stress, then there was the excitement, I didn't think I'd ever come down off that high .. actually I'm still buzzing now. I didn't sleep well and I just couldn't eat so I'm sure that didn't help. I was living on pure adrenaline. I felt as though I was surrounded all weekend with the best big brothers any girl could ever wish for. Considering my own brother left home before I was 10 years old, I'd never had a feeling like that before ... I could grow to like this :)

    By Sunday afternoon I was pretty relaxed, I got to sit down and really chat with people, and I was looking forward to seeing what presentations and prizes Rusty had planned for after lunch. I knew it was on the agenda and I had a feeling I knew what some of the awards would be for. You know longest journey here, that sort of thing. I also had a feeling I would get a mention and I started to plan a response involving a huge thanks to Rusty for starting the group and helping to get it where it is today, none of us would be here today without him .. you know all that sort of stuff. When he said "for the woman who I think we've all fallen in love with on the forums .." and looked at me I was kinda stunned. Everything I'd planned to say left my head when he asked me to come up there .. eek I have to stand in front of people, I'm not into that!! Then he picked up flowers .. he gave me flowers!!

    I was speechless, this was one of those moments when I just couldn't think, I was so caught out by the gifts and the words .. everything I'd planned to say just left me. I said thank you to everyone for something or another, I don't remember what I said .. oh yeah I said "don't leave just yet cause there's desert" .. huh?? Why the hell did I just say that. Oh I had to sit down!!

    They were such a great bunch of people I just wanted to do more with them. We didn't get to see much more of them though, I had dinner and got to know a few more of them that night, and I was finally starting to really be able to be myself but this was the last get together. We all said our 'seeya laters' that night, lined up and shaking hands and for me .. cuddles all round! Oh I was going to miss them! What a turn around, from the shy wall flower who would do anything to avoid being in a group of people to a cuddle hungry beast!!

    I waited all week before I decided to sit down and write about my feelings here not just because I've been busy writing posts for the white shadow diary, but also because I was still so pumped up from the weekend that I didn't think I could get it all straight in my head. I've been bouncing all over the place in my head just remembering wonderful things that happened, how everyone kept telling me how much they were enjoying the weekend and what a good job I had done. Oh I'm not used to that sort of compliment, I'm not really used to any compliment though Terry has got me a bit used to it cause he keeps telling me I'm beautiful :)

The flowers went straight into a vase and are still sitting beside my desk where I can marvel at them, the chocolates they also gave me are gone .. I can't make chocolates last! The card is in front of me and I can't help picking it up to read the wonderful things they wrote for me in it :) The gift voucher .. wow I'm just such a lucky girl .. that's waiting til I can think straight then I'm going shopping!


The wonderful memories will stay with me forever.

About Us

I was chatting with Terry just now as I was checking out what was happening in the bloggin' world, I noticed I now have a follower here and told him excitedly just that ..

"ooh I have a follower on my other blog!!"

Terry: "How many blogs do you have now?"

"Only two, what do you think I am a blog addict?"

"Right ... who owns the thingy that you use to blog with?"

I have learnt a few things from this moment. One: my husband knows when to change a subject, I am not a blog addict .. yet. Then he told me how to find out all about who owns the thingy I have my blogs on, "type who is 'blogger.com' in the search bar' he says and when I did that I got a result that told me all about who they are. Interesting, I'll use that 'who is ...' thingy heaps I reckon.

The next thing I learnt was who Blogger really is ...

To paraphrase ...'Blogger was started by a tiny company in San Francisco called Pyra Labs in August of 1999.' and 'We were three friends, funded by doing annoying contract web projects for big companies, .... But while doing it, we created Blogger, more or less on a whim and thought — Hmmm...this is interesting.' You can find out what I found out here. It's pretty interesting that they started out so small and that Blogger wasn't what they set out to do from the start, it was kind of a sideline. And now look what it is. I'm sure I'm like a lot of other bloggers out there who get annoyed at the little bugs and mishaps that happen with blogger at times, but now that I've found out a bit about who they actually are I feel a bit more forgiving towards them. It's good to realise that the computer programs that we use are made and controlled by people too and that those people are human like the rest of us, sometimes things just don't go perfectly. I think that blogger is awesome, it's opened up a whole new world to a lot of people.

Right, so now that I've extolled all the virtues of Blogger (I wonder if they'll be nice to me now :-D) I'll just add a few photos that I took today with the new camera. I've been busy learning new stuff about it, one of the best things that I learnt today was all about the Dioptric Adjustment. This little wonder adjusts the view finder so I can look through it without my glasses and focus. Makes life so much easier!

I won!! And now there's a chance I might be addicted.

Yep I know this blog has been sitting dormant for a pretty long time. It's not that I haven't been doing things, it's more that I just haven't had either the time or the inclination to write about it here.

Christmas got pretty busy, as it does, so I didn't really post on either blog over that period. Then when it all settled down I found myself pretty busy still for the next couple of weeks. I made the time to post a few times on the White Shadow Diary cause I was doing stuff with the bike and wanted to record it. But as far as normal stuff goes ... well I just wasn't feeling like sharing. The reason .. I felt like I was in a huge pit of despair that I just couldn't drag myself out of. But I did get out of it, there didn't seem to be any reason for it, but I honestly couldn't laugh, I would go off crying for no reasons or even find myself in fits of anger that scared me. After feeling all of this I really empathise with anyone who has depression, I don't think that anyone can truly know what you are going through, even if they have been there themselves, it's a totally personal way to be and honestly there's nothing that anyone can say to make it better. What can you do about it, well seek professional help.

I didn't. I thought about when it all started and I came up with the same answer every time. I started sinking into that pit at the same time that the medication that I was on to help me quit smoking stopped. It's a course that you take to stop exactly the feelings that I was suffering from. I've given up smoking a few times before this attempt, once for about 8 months, I have never had these side effects before. So the medication made feel great for the 3 months that the course lasted then ... I fell towards the gaping maw of depression. I honestly believe that the reason I fell and fell so hard was a side effect of stopping that medication suddenly. The last thing I wanted to do was go to the doctor who would put me on anti-depressants, side effect of those is depression believe it or not. Nope not doing it, so the first thing I thought of to try to put a stop to the downwards spiral I was experiencing was to take up smoking again. I did that about three weeks ago and immediately felt better.

Almost instantly I found things funny again, my moods calmed down and I didn't feel like crying or shouting for no reason anymore. Go figure, nicotine is an anti-depressant. I'll take it! I may die young but at least I'll have had a good life. I could think of nothing worse then dying miserable. God it feels good to laugh again!!

I started reading other blogs and checking out the forums again, I also started joining in conversations at work again and talking to my husband. I started having ideas for things to write about here again, and even though it's taken me longer to actually do it, I've written a few things in my head and actually felt the impulse to do it. It's kinda been slow, I've sort of eased myself back into the world by commenting on other blogs and started posting stuff on the forums again. I also got my enthusiasm for the bike back and did some things with her that had been languishing during my brown period. I was getting excited about life again ... oh it feels good!!

I've had a few ideas about some things that I'd like to try to do this year. Well one of them was something that had been planned for a long time, the Annual Meet of the Shadow Riders  who are all meeting in my home town. I'd already committed to helping out, it only made sense that Terry and I helped out cause we lived here. When I first started doing some serious planning for it though it was Terry who pushed me to start, and I got aggressive with him at almost every turn. I wasn't looking forward to it at all. Once I got over my hump I started getting excited about it again, planning and meeting people, and even putting in a couple of extra events and surprises. So that one was forced on me while I was moody, but now I'm just so excited about it that I've taken the lead and run with it!

I want more, I spotted a post by Moto Blogger Trobairitz about a bunch of 'Do it up yourself' bikes for sale on their local bike sales web site. It got me thinking of something I've thought about for a long time, doing a motorcycle mechanic course. I have even gone so far as to look at the local Technical College for courses to do. I don't think they run one but I still have a few avenues to check out before I give up on this, I might even just buy a clunker bike that I can do up for myself and use an online course. It's something I'll have to put a bit more thought into, but it's something I'm excited about again and that's awesome!!

I just noticed the pattern of exclamation marks happening at the end of each thought ... told you I was excited :-)

Now that things are feeling better in my mind and my heart I am even starting to do some things that I've never done before, I am opening myself up to other people. Normally I'm a very private person who doesn't say much (in the fear that others will judge me) or give much of myself away, I've always liked my privacy and made friends slowly. I value friendship highly but I don't have a lot of people in my life who I would call a friend. I want to fix that so I've started giving out my phone number where normally I'd stand back and not volunteer that information, I'm trying to give people the chance to get to know me before I decide that they really don't want to be around me (this has been the way I've thought for most of my lifetime). Who knows I may even make some precious friends, and even if I don't I'm determined to have some fun being with other people!

By now I can feel you asking 'so what did you win woman!?' and if you've got this far into my epic ramblings then I guess you deserve to know. But first let me just give you a bit of background .... I can hear that groan ya know .. bear with me.

When I was a toddler, still stumbling around holding up a sagging nappy with one hand and passing my dummy to the little boy next door through the chain link fence to share ... oh really I'll skip the intervening years I promise, you aren't going to get my life story. I remember getting hold of my mothers brand new Polaroid camera .. remember those, you took the picture and pulled out the photo and stuck it under your arm while you counted til it was processed, then peeled the backing off to reveal magically the picture you'd just taken slowly appearing. It was instant and I was fascinated by it! Mum held it under her arm for me and counted, but I got the end result and I loved it. It wasn't until I was about 7 years old that I got my very own Brownie camera, I took photos of everything even going so far as to set up little scenes with my Barbie dolls. I still have those photos somewhere. Since then I've never been without a camera, it's always an instant point and click one. I took photography in high school for a while but I never went anywhere with it. To this day I just snap whatever catches my eye and hope for the best. I've wanted an SLR camera for years but never been able to justify the cost of them. Today that has changed.

Four days ago I decided to sell my desk on Ebay, this is the first time I've ever sold anything on Ebay and I was nervous. I kept going back and logging in to see if anyone was bidding on it ... I would hang around for a bit and look at random stuff ... you know shiny stuff for the bike, clothes, jewellery .. just random stuff that I'm not really going to buy, I was just trying to stay online so I could watch what was happening with my auction. I decided to look at camera, my old point and click has been playing up for a while, it still works but it does annoying things. I'd been thinking that maybe it was time for me to save up my pennies and fork out for that DSLR, just keep the old one for when I was playing around, so I looked at cameras on Ebay. I soon homed in on the Cannons, I've used Cannon for a few years and like them. I read some reviews about Cannon DSLR's, they seem to be good a starters/amateur camera. Hmm .... I found a few on Ebay for auction that weren't very expensive, actually they were downright cheap. I put them in a little watch folder and kept an eye on them. I decided on one that seemed to be a great deal and two days ago I found the courage to bid on it!

That bid stayed as the top bid for ages .. hours!! Then I saw the little email that said .. 'you have been outbid' ... oh :(

I went back to Ebay and looked at it, oh well there would be other cameras, I had others in my little list, I didn't have to buy this one. It was a good deal, there were lots of extras with it even the original manual, the others in my list didn't have half as much stuff and they were going up in price too.

Hmmm I put in another bid .... it didn't take long for that one to get overbid too. Oh well I'll just watch it a bit longer, see what it goes for so I can have an idea how much I should pay for something like this.

I got up this morning and there were no further bids on it, it seemed to be just me and one other person bidding on it now. Hmmm, I thought about it, Terry mentioned that if I went and bought another point and click the same as the one I now have would probably cost at least twice as much as the DSLR was going for now, maybe even three times as much. Right I put an amount in my head that was the top I would pay for it and made another bid, almost immediately I was outbid .. sheesh.

I watched it for a while then couldn't stop myself, I tried again .. 'you have the winning bid!' Yay!! 'You have been outbid'    oh :(

.. Now I just want to win .. it's not even that it's a good deal, it's the thought that I can win this thing!! I waited a bit longer and just to get the feel for it with an hour to go I bid again ... hmm he was still winning but the amount of his bid gave me an idea that this was his top bid so far.

I waited until there was only about 15 minutes left on it then put in another bid ... and waited .. and waited ... one minute to go .. oh my god I've won this thing!! 'You have been outbid' .. what?!?!?

No way this thing is mine!!! So I opened the new bid box ... 50 seconds to go .. I quick as a flash put in a bid .. not a winning bid .... I open the bidding box again ... 'Firefox cannot open the page you are looking for ..' .. are you kidding me!?!?!? Refresh ... 30 seconds to go .. Terry talking to me from the kitchen .. fumbling fingers put in a bid that's not high enough, the next fumbling attempt I noticed that I'd forgotten the decimal point and was bidding thousands ..  one more attempt ... hit the place bid button .... 8 seconds left ... 'you have won!!'

Wheeeee!!!!! Wow what an adrenaline rush ... I won!!! Hey Terry I won!!!! 'What?' (he was still talking to me about his brother) 'Oh sorry babe, what's happening with your brother again?'

Wait ... I won!!! Well I am now the proud owner of a second hand DSLR, it may end up being a lemon or it may be the start a brand new exciting endeavour for me. Whatever it ends up I had so much fun buying it that I may just have to see what else I can buy on Ebay. Be prepared to see a bunch of new posts here about the exciting stuff I get up to this year. Whether it's learning to use my new camera (pics galore!) or learning to fix up a bike or making new friends, I just know it's going to be wonderful fun, and I cant wait to start the rest of my life.