Yvonne Perkins

Writer (technical writing, blogging at stumblingpast.com), digital history, owner of #OfficeKitty (see profile pic). Enjoys gardening in #Melbourne #Australia

Interests: #GardeningAU #StreetGardening, #OfficeKitty, #OzHist #DigitalHumanities #documentation #WriteTheDocs, watching cricket, #Bahai.

Banner pic: Light fog with glorious sun rays shining through and lighting up trees.
Profile pic: Our cat sniffing flowers in a vase

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npub1a9lfh28qgm75whjwdnncqdqqydthjmwk3lfs6440xp7rn835emvsyrjzz6

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perkinsy_at_aus.social@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2026-05-08 04:16:12 UTC

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Thank you. I loved my mother's witty reply. It shows that the knock on her head has not affected her cognitively too badly. Another reason for me to be cheerier.

2026-05-08 03:14:36 UTC

Started the day a miserable person. My mother is in hospital after a fall and in good nick all considering. But she posted a selfie of her with her massive black eye to the family and said she can't see out of one eye.
I burst into random tears with my brother on the phone, but had a good conversation about how to handle medical professionals and Mum's return to home. We are going to push for her to go to respite care because she is not safe to go home with compromised eyesight and not knowing what caused the fall.
But then Mum accidentally lifted my spirits. Both she and my brother are quite hard of hearing. They take all their calls on LOUD speaker phone. Mum had been given an ice pack for her eye which reduced swelling so she could now see out of both eyes. Amazing! Now she reckoned she was ready to go home. My brother said he didn't think so, but she disagreed. They had an argument which ended up with my brother telling her the incredibly strict conditions of her going home - basically you are not allowed to move out of your lounge chair. My brother conveyed that message in our family chat, with me gently questioning why Mum was going home, and my brother explained in a more private channel that she was placating Mum but our original plan was still the way to go.
The nursing staff overheard my brother and mother arguing. A doctor and nurse came in and made it VERY CLEAR (and probably that loudly) that she was staying in hospital for a few days for further tests etc. My brother then apologised to Mum online for having that loud argument with Mum - because he is a good son. But he had accidentally ensured that the medical staff now were aware of the situation and Mum's unreasonable expectations of going home.
When I was seeing my mother's and brother's various messages come through depicting the scenario I saw the funny side of them both being oblivious to how everyone hears their phone conversations whether they want to or not. I laughed and coughed and laughed some more.
Then minutes later I got a message from Mum, "How are you feeling. It sounds like a nasty bug. LOL❤️"
I laughed so hard I started coughing and coughed stuff up which I have been struggling to do.
I thanked my mother for the message and said that I really appreciated her sentiments. I also gently explained what LOL means and how I had laughed at the original message. I had some trepidation at hurting her feelings so was careful with the wording and ready to phone her if she took it the wrong way. But I know my mother and thought it would be OK.
My mother replied, "I'm glad my error made you LOL".
I am feeling much better now.

2026-03-10 11:09:45 UTC

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I kind of like that there are no photos. I like the fact that you were so busy being friends in real life your didn't feel the need to prove it.
Old-style friendship in a lovely way.

2026-03-07 10:46:59 UTC

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Thank you everyone for your responses about my question about when to pick a capsicum (see above).
We had the big moment tonight. Our six year old grandson is here for a sleepover and loves picking fruit. He picked the small, green capsicum, we divided it into quarters and each of us ate a piece. The skin was quite thin and it definitely could have lasted longer on the bush (yes, they do go red after a while) but there is nothing like sharing a piece of home grown produce with a child.
Thank you @npub1emv…wnhu for your responses. We don't get frosts here - inner Melbourne no longer seems to get them, so would the plant be OK to sit outside during winter? Our biggest problem is that during winter our tiny backyard only gets about an hour of sunlight.
@npub1axa…nud5 - you left a capsicum on a bush for 8 months here in Melbourne! Interesting to know for the future. There are a couple of flowers on the plant currently so maybe I will have the opportunity to let the fruit ripen slowly for that long.
@npub1mqa…pr2c Stuffed capsicums - yum!
I live in Melbourne, Australia so we are entering autumn and despite warm and hot days next week, temperatures are on the way down.
I am not sure what words Europeans use for capsicum, including the English. To Australians the word is used for sweet capsicums which are never spicy like chillies.
That, and the confusion over season shows why country-based gardening hashtags can be useful. I also add the hashtag for our city as our country has hot, dry deserts, tropics, sub-tropics, temperate and in a few places, alpine climates. Gardening is very different around the country. I like the way the US has very clear climate zones that people use. I know that kind of thing exists here but not so widely used. I should look up my Australian climate zone and use it in posts.
#GardeningAU #gardening #Melbourne

2026-03-06 20:56:57 UTC

We inherited a capsicum plant recently. It is a low height bush so I suspect it grows miniature capsicums. Tomatoes are late this year in Melbourne - probably due to our late start to summer. Over the next 7 days we are going to have warm weather - around 27-29 degrees with one hot 35 degree day expected on Wednesday.
I have never successfully grown capsicums before. When do I know that they are ready to pick? I am guessing this one is ready to pick now.
#Melbourne #GardeningAU #Gardening #capsicum
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2026-02-23 20:41:50 UTC

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This is such a mood-lifter. Thank you for sharing.

2026-01-24 04:12:38 UTC

This morning I managed to purchase a whole box of passionfruit for $15 at the market! We estimate that there were over 100 passionfruit in the box. It is a hot day here and the seller had sold most of his food and just wanted to get rid of the last couple of boxes of passionfruit so he could go home.
This afternoon we cut and scooped the pulp out of all the passionfruit. We filled the bin pictured twice.
The container full of pulp on the right is 17cm high of pulp ( I don't know how to word that better).
We are going to freeze a lot of the pulp. We will also make some passionfruit yoghurt. I am sitting down now and having passionfruit with muesli.
What other ideas do you have for how we can use this passionfruit?
#passionfruit
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2026-01-13 02:17:22 UTC

Important news for those travelling from overseas to the UK: People with dual citizenship that includes UK or Irish citizenship will have to enter Britain on a British or Irish passport from 25th February. British and Irish citizens will no longer be allowed to enter the UK with a foreign passport.
Other travellers will need a UK Certificate of Entitlement to enter the UK
#Passports #Australia #Travel #UKtravel #UnitedKingdom
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-13/australian-dual-citizens-bear-costly-brunt-of-uk-passport-change/106221062

2025-12-04 06:23:57 UTC

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The number pad looks to me like it is on the left side

2025-11-30 06:05:02 UTC

I am really happy to see that this Lotus Berthelotii has recovered after it nearly died during to lack of water. The walls that it is hanging next to face the south and the west which are the directions that most rain comes from here. We have had a couple of months of good rain so I thought that I didn't need to water the plants. However, this poor plant does not get the rain and nearly died.
A few weeks ago I noticed and brought it down to the ground in an area where it would get rain. I also trimmed it substantially. I planted the cuttings that were actually green. Many were dead. The cuttings have also taken. I will plant one in my mother's garden to replace one of hers which has died.
Now we have returned it to its wall, but today we made sure to give it a good water despite the rain we have had today.
#GardeningAU #Melbourne
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2025-11-29 22:46:32 UTC

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Oooh! That sounds like a handy thing for a cold, wet climate!
LOL - You have expanded my knowledge of this wonderful, diverse world with a simple photo and a couple of sentences.

2025-11-29 22:35:44 UTC

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Austtalian here: what is a boot dryer? Can you share a photo of it? I am picturing a stand off the floor where you test your boots and they can get air on their soles. But I may be completely wrong.

2025-11-29 08:17:47 UTC

TIL: My word of the day is Tsundoku. It is a succinct way of describing the process of acquiring books, then letting them pile up unread:
#TBR #Reading #books
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku

2025-11-28 20:25:33 UTC

Between a quarter and a third of waste is food waste. When it breaks down in landfill it produces methane, a greenhouse gas much worse than carbon dioxide.
Maggot farming is proving a good solution for dealing with food waste!
#environment #FoodWaste
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast-episode/how-olympias-maggot-farms-are-helping-to-tackle-a-36-billion-problem/slatxh81t

2025-11-25 23:02:58 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina/115612238411849980
Cat Hicks is a psychologist who knows her stuff re technology workers and workplaces. Read this thread and banish forever the thought that 'women are not good at maths' or technology. She cuts through the baseless arguments that people use to support these stereotypes and points out that it is the social environment that causes differences in abilities. If you are surrounded by adults that tell you that girls are not as good at maths as boys, where women avoid maths and laugh about how bad at it they are, where schools actively encourage boys in maths but not girls, then it is no surprise that the learning girl will conclude that maths is not for them.
And don't for a minute think that women are immune from these stereotypes about women! I have had female teachers explaining to me and their students that girls are bad at maths like we were living in the 1950s. It was the 21st century by the way. Women perpetuate these negative stereotypes as much as men.
#discrimination #STEMwomen #WomenInSTEAM
#note1jmd…qle7

2025-11-24 03:55:22 UTC

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That's tough! I hope that you have a nice dark room to sleep it off in (if you can sleep with it)

2025-11-16 11:08:49 UTC

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Wow - that is infuriating!

2025-11-12 10:18:32 UTC

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That is a great initiative of your council!

2025-11-10 06:37:10 UTC

Stop everything and watch these highlights of the most incredible soccer final you have ever seen!!! It is Snowball! No, it is BlizzardBall!!!
The Canadian Premier League final was played in a blizzard. Even though they played with an orange ball, it was still hard to see it. They had to stop play 5 times to shovel snow. At one point one of the players shovelled snow while the game was playing.
Before extra time they stopped to allow snow ploughs to clear the pitch!
The players did not hold back through all this. The intensity of their play was incredible to behold. They slid through the snow, they tackled hard, and the goal saves were incredible. The star of the blizzard game was Rodriguez, a Mexican. He got one goal with a bicycle kick while it was snowing.
Thank you Chris @npub1e9x…msz2 for your hilarious commentary that alerted me to this game - Chris's posts are worth reading.
And here are the highlights - albeit missing the snow shovelling and snow ploughs: https://youtu.be/O56wF0Sf4DU?si=hHe28PuRs2IoMvWj
#football #Snow #CPL #Canada #soccer #BlizzardBall #SnowBall #blizzard

2025-11-07 12:07:21 UTC

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Yes, I draft my opinion and fairly often delete it for the reasons you have given. It was during the dark lockdowns of the pandemic with the outpourings of grief and misery that I reconsidered my sharing. I still sometimes share about the unsatisfactory condition of things, but I also make sure to look for uplifting things to share, even if it is something simple like strangers stopping to chat on the street.

2025-11-02 04:35:55 UTC

It is 30 degrees in Melbourne and the sun is shining brightly in the blue sky.
We took ourselves off to the local lawn bowls club this afternoon to see approximately 80 plants our gardening group donated and planted a few weeks ago. There have been two big dumps of rain since then interspersed with glorious spring weather so the plants are looking great. We have plans to do some more volunteer gardening stuff and will chat with people in the coming week about it.
This morning at home we started with reflecting on life, the universe and everything, then did repotting and gurneying the mould off a shade patch of concrete.
I did some emergency pruning of our lime tree. We are in a multi-year project to do strategic pruning of our lemon and lime trees to help them become better balanced. When we moved in a large, unpruned bougainvillea on the lefthand side fence shaded the lime tree (the tree on the left in the photo) so the lime tree leaned over to the right towards the lemon tree trying to find some sun (and didn't bear any fruit).
The previous owners pruned the lemon tree on one side only, away from the fence so it had more branches, leaves and fruit on the front of it than behind. It was also growing to the right to avoid the shade caused by the lime tree. When we moved in we nearly lost the lemon tree because it was so unbalanced it nearly fell over. We shoved a heavy outdoor table against it and then pruned it substantially.
We also chopped down the bougainvillea and regularly poisoned it so it didn't grow back. The lime tree then flourished and bore fruit for the first time. Last autumn we pruned the lime tree substantially because it too had grown so much away from the fence and had developed a dangerous lean. Now we are harvesting a lot of limes from it which we are giving away to neighbours.
This morning's prune of the lime tree on its right side will hopefully encourage the lemon tree to grow on the left and rebalance itself. We are getting fewer fruit on the lemon tree at the moment, largely because it needs to recover from the substantial prune of a couple of years ago.
While looking at the photos I took to accompany this post I spotted a tall branch on the lime tree sticking above the rest of the tree and leaning over the front of it. I think I should cut this branch too to make it better balanced. It is also too high to pick fruit from.
Moral of the story: Writing up one's gardening exploits for others and taking photos of them actually helps one notice more things to be done!
#LemonTree #GardeningAU #Melbourne
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2025-10-31 23:39:32 UTC

My mother's garden is looking wonderful now it is Spring. We didn't need to add mulch again this year. Last year we laid down 2 layers of brown packing paper that you get in deliveries, then laid pine bark mulch above that. We watered thoroughly before doing that. This method is great for weed suppression and lasts a long time.
#Melbourne #GardeningAU #BloomScrolling
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2025-10-31 10:52:04 UTC

Halloween update for our inner urban area:
Nothing is happening. The streets are empty.
I was not home earlier but apparently the first trick or treater in 3 years knocked on the door. This is not a safe area so our adult daughter's first response was not to answer it because it might be dodgy. But eventually she did. It was one young teen girl. At least it was daylight when she knocked, but this is not a good area to let kids wander on the street by themselves at night.
Safety issues would be a big reason for not celebrating Halloween around here even if people are interested (which I don't think people generally are). This is quite a multicultural area and some have limited English. Lunar New Year is the biggest festivity we have here.
#Halloween #Australia

2025-10-30 05:50:35 UTC

Well. Whadayaknow*
I arranged for a lunch on the bay with a family member today. It turns out that it was their Retrenchment Day. As I arrived they received a phone call from their employer (on their day off) to tell them that they were retrenched and that yesterday was their last workday. Others were retrenched this morning too.
So I turned the day into a Retrenchment Day where the retrenched person gets to do whatever they like. It turns out our lunch plans at Port Melbourne were perfect for the occasion followed by short walks and sits and chats.
This person had given me a similar Retrenchment Day on my last day of work a couple of months ago. The idea of the day is that "it is nothing to feel ashamed of" and "we did what we could and gave the best that we could". The retrenched person gets to talk as much and as little as they want on whatever topic they want. The point is that the other person is there for them and wants to make this day as pleasant as it is possible in the circumstances. The other person affirms that the retrenched person is a great person.
If you know someone who is being retrenched, give them a Retrenchment Day. It is good for the soul.
* What do you know
#RetrenchmentDay #Retrenchment #Redundancy #Melbourne
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2025-10-30 00:55:19 UTC

Study shows that the reason why the east coast of the United States has not risen in temperature during the 20th century like the rest of the world is because of a sustained, large-scale reforestation effort.
#ClimateChange #GoodNews
https://news.agu.org/press-release/a-century-of-reforestation-helped-keep-the-eastern-us-cool/

2025-10-29 00:10:59 UTC

Another gorgeous day in Melbourne today! I have opened up the bifold doors to enjoy the day while applying for jobs.
Our backyard is so much emptier after the local lawn bowls club took around 60 cuttings we were nurturing in our backyard. We can now move around a lot easier.
Note the leaves on the bamboo on the fence line. It was so dry for so long that the bamboo lost nearly every leaf. It is reviving after we had a couple of good dumps of rain. It is also covered in brown flowers. I would not have been sad to lose it because it is really a weed and has spread to under our house. We did not plant it. The fact that it survived the dryness shows how difficult it is to get rid of it.
#GardeningAU #OfficeKitty #Melbourne
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2025-10-28 05:20:10 UTC

I am so excited about gardening now that we have finally had a couple of decent dumps of rain. I planted some seeds I found loose in a container just a day before the big dump of rain on Sunday. They are already germinating. I wonder what they are? I suspect they are Cosmos.
I have also planted the ends of spring onions in a damp pot of soil. I have been meaning to do this for some time. All you need to do is buy a bunch of spring onions from the supermarket, use up all the green part, then plant the remaining white stump and root. It will grow into a new spring onion. When it comes time to harvest, leave the plant in the ground and cut off the green bit to use. It will grow another one. This is much more convenient and cheaper than going to the supermarket every time you want spring onions.
My daughter experimented by doing the same with the ends of bok choy after she had used the green leaves - the same thing happens. I haven't got room at the moment to try this, but I should try it some day.
#GardeningAU

2025-10-25 05:58:16 UTC

The recent rain has been good for our street garden. The nasturtiums have come on nicely. The small snapdragon seedlings I planted a couple of weeks ago are looking good (not in photo). A couple of weeks ago I planted some unidentified seeds that I saved maybe a year ago. I have no idea if they will germinate.
How long can this last before the brutal summer heat starts? It is easy to garden in mild weather conditions. My goal is to establish a garden that is resilient during summer.
#StreetGardening #GardeningAU
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2025-10-24 06:05:50 UTC

A more comfortable and healthier bicycle saddle - who wouldn't want that? The bicycle manufacturing industry does not seem too keen on it.
I wonder if they could successfully market these seats direct to consumers?
#bicycling #bicycles #cycling
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-24/innovative-bike-seat-designs-to-combat-cycling-saddle-pain/105898628

2025-10-20 11:47:50 UTC

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I enjoyed taking stacks of photos and stopping along the Great Ocean Road. It was good that we did it in a couple of short trips on different days rather than trying to cram it in all on one day. It was also great travelling at a non-peak time. I drove this road in summer years ago and swore that I would never do it again. There is so much traffic in summer which makes for stressful driving, particularly as you inevitably encounter caravans and people who are inexperienced driving in Australia and who are taking in the scenery instead of concentrating on the road.
I was rather surprised at the condition of the road given it is an international attraction and we are coming into peak tourist season. It has pot holes and other bits which are sure to become pot holes with the increased traffic of summer. Add to this the presence of wallabies and this road becomes a tricky place to drive. There were a lot of signs all along the way telling drivers that in Australia we drive on the left. Honestly, I think it would be best for international tourists to take a bus tour of the road. We saw many international tourists who were doing exactly that today.
I also think that it is disappointing that there is no dedicated cycle path. Surely this should be a priority as it would make a wonderful cycling trip. We saw some cyclists. There is no verge, so they have to cycle in the road with cars. It just takes one driver who is distracted by the scenery to create an awful accident.
#GreatOceanRoad

2025-10-19 08:53:28 UTC

Over the last few days I have been sharing about the landscape of western Victoria which is covered with volcanos, some of which erupted comparatively recently, as little as 10,000 years ago. The Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland also has quite a few volcanos of a similar age.
The eruptions of both the western Victorian and Far North Queensland volcanos have been remembered by the Aboriginal peoples of the respective regions. They have carefully passed on this history in their oral storytelling traditions for thousands of years.
Today the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) has published some of these indigenous histories. Read these stories about the creation of landscape that includes the stories about the volcanos: https://www.abc.net.au/news/deeptime/topic/landscape-change/
#volcanos #WesternDistrict #AthertonTablelands #TowerHill #Warrnambool #OzHist

2025-10-19 06:52:16 UTC

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Here is the koala!
#TowerHill #koala
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2025-10-19 06:50:30 UTC

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Have a close look at this photo. Can you see the koala in the tree?
#TowerHill #koala
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2025-10-19 06:47:58 UTC

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Where there are animals, there is poo. This is emu poo. Note the red berry-like things in the poo. Emus are really important dispersers of seeds through their poo.
Unfortunately there are also a lot of weeds on Tower Hill. Birds generally can help disperse seeds of weeds. Weed seeds can also disperse through animal fur as well as wind etc.
The yellow daisy-like flower next to the poo is one of the types of weeds in the area. It is not native.
#Emu #TowerHill
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2025-10-19 06:42:01 UTC

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Please never, ever feed emus of kangaroos. It encourages them to depend on humans for food and they can get quite aggressive if humans don't give them food.
#Emu #kangaroo
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2025-10-19 06:37:46 UTC

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There were emus. Unfortunately these emus are not afraid of cars. I saw them go right up to a car.
I am very wary of emus because they can be aggressive. These were OK, but I used the zoom to capture these photos.
#Warrnambool #TowerHill #Emu
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2025-10-19 06:33:47 UTC

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I was disappointed the information centre was not open. The building was designed by Robin Boyd - a famous mid-twentieth century Australian architect. There was a sign proclaiming that it was being renovated and would re-open in 2023, but it was closed. Looking through the windows showed it was completely empty inside.
#Warrnambool #TowerHill
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2025-10-19 06:29:12 UTC

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You should definitely try to visit Tower Hill if you are in the Warrnambool area. There is a short circuit drive that meant my elderly mother could enjoy the scenes.
#Warrnambool #TowerHill
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2025-10-19 06:24:22 UTC

We visited Tower Hill, near Warrnambool for a drive this afternoon. It is the site of a volcano that last exploded about 35,000 years ago.
#Warrnambool #TowerHill
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2025-10-17 11:17:06 UTC

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At our last stop we saw this view looking west in the late afternoon. We were thoroughly windblown by now so decided to drive straight through to Warrnambool.
We had a very full day considering my elderly mother. But she thoroughly enjoyed it and walked over a kilometre on gravel to see some of these views. Her walker does not have suspension so her arms ended up absorbing the vibration from the gravel. Champion effort!
#GreatOceanRoad
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2025-10-17 11:11:30 UTC

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As it is Spring, many native flowers are out. These photos are of some of the coastal flora featuring Leptospermum or native tea tree.
#GreatOceanRoad #GardeningAU #Botany
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2025-10-17 11:05:11 UTC

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We drove to Port Campbell on the coast and then headed west along the Great Ocean Road, stopping frequently along the way to see the views. Yes, we got the photos and there were a good number of overseas tourists. However, it is great travelling at this time of the year when school is in and it is not summer. The traffic along the road this afternoon was very light compared to during summer.
This photo is of the 'London Bridge'. The gap is where an arch of rock stood until it spectacularly fell into the sea a few years ago. 'London Bridge' has indeed fallen down.
#GreatOceanRoad
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2025-10-17 10:56:43 UTC

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When my great-grandfather was living in Timboon prior to WWI, Timboon was a timber felling town in the beautiful Otway Ranges of south-western Victoria. A quick look at historic newspapers on Trove last night showed that he really enjoyed playing sport. I found articles and score cards showing that he played competitive tennis, cricket, wood chopping and rifle shooting. I have not looked up football bit I would not be surprised if he played that as well.
He would not recognise the town now. With the forests cleared and converted to farmland, the town is now renowned as a tourist town for foodies. We drove slowly through the town but aside from the railway area and a few old buildings, could find little to indicate the story of its past.
We enjoyed our time in the town and made sure to have some Timboon Fine Ice-cream - nom nom nom!
#Timboon #Otways
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2025-10-17 10:48:02 UTC

Today we left Camperdown, did a quick drive past the house and farm where my mother's grandparents used to live in Chocolyn, then headed for Timboon where her father was born. His father was killed in WWI. His mother moved her young family to Camperdown, travelling there by train.
The train from Timboon to Camperdown no longer exists, but they have converted the place where the train line ran to a cycling path. This is an old train shed at the start of the path in Timboon.
#Timboon #Otways
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2025-10-15 06:51:35 UTC

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There is a small wildflower garden at the base of Mount Leura. In it is a knitted art installation by Nicky Schonkler. It recognises the current season called Petyan by the First Nations people in this area. Petyan stretches from late August to mid November and is a period when a lot of wildflowers are blooming. The textiles represent the colours of the flowers.
#CamperdownVic #WesternDistrict #knitting #YarnArt
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2025-10-15 06:41:37 UTC

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There were a lot of indigenous peoples living in this area when the European settlers arrived. Sadly, many were driven out by the invaders very early on. This map shows some of the language groups in the state of Victoria.
#Camperdown #WesternDistrict #OzHist
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2025-10-15 06:35:25 UTC

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The farmers created dry stone walls like this with the volcanic rocks they removed to make their farms. My mother's family were hired from Scotland in the 19th century to build some of these walls in western Victoria.
#CamperdownVic #WesternDistrict
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2025-10-15 06:31:49 UTC

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You may notice that there is very little native vegetation in this area. The volcanic soils, relatively high rainfall and moderate temperatures made the Western District a bountiful farming area since Euripean settlement. The farmers removed the local vegetation and a lot of volcanic rocks while establishing their farms.
The Friends of the Forgotten Woodlands are now working to re-establish native vegetation in the area. It is an enormous undertaking - credit for their initiative: https://www.friendsoftheforgottenwoodlands.org.au/
#CamperdownVic #WesternDistrict #environment

2025-10-15 06:22:47 UTC

Today in Camperdown we drove to the top of the dormant volcano overlooking the town. There are interesting signs about the geology, culture and plants of the area. This view from the top shows the volcanic plain in the area. There are lots of rows of mature Cyprus trees planted by farmers in the past as wind breaks.
These volcanic plains stretch from Mount Gambier in South Australia to Melbourne. They are the 3rd largest volcanic plains on the world. They have found around 700 eruption points in the area. The last eruption was a geologically recent 16,000 years ago.
#CamperdownVic #WesternDistrict
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2025-10-14 09:02:25 UTC

I wandered into the office of the publishers of the Camperdown Chronicle today and saw this ode to printers on the wall. They gave their permission for me to share this with you.
#Newspapers #PrintingOffice #CamperdownChronicle #CamperdownVic
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2025-10-13 02:08:22 UTC

Today I am madly preparing before going away for a week to take Mum to visit family in Western Victoria.
This morning I finished mulching the street garden. I have now finished preparing it for summer. This photograph shows the view from the footpath. The part of the garden in the foreground gets some shade from the small tree so it has been easier to establish plants here. I have planted a couple of baby snapdragons here as an experiment to see if the established plants give enough shelter to help them thrive.
A number of people stopped to admire it and have a chat. Our volunteer gardening group who planted this garden wants the gardening to help lift social isolation as well as reduce rubbish dumping and improve the environment more generally. It is a small thing, but exchanging pleasantries and talking about the garden like this lifts my day. I feel that the people who stop to chat also feel good from the exchange.
It is interesting that people with limited English are more likely to stop and chat - not so much native English speakers. We do most of our gardening on the weekends and live in an area that is quite multicultural, including inner-urban native English speaking professionals and younger people.
On second thoughts, most of the people who stop to chat are older people. Is this one of those intersectional things? Maybe it is the age of a person that makes them more inclined to stop and chat?
#StreetGarden #GardeningAU #Melbourne
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2025-10-13 00:34:06 UTC

Can anyone identify this bird? I suspect it is quite young. It was chirping away for quite some time in this spot without flying away. It seemed quite discombobulated (another way of spelling confused :-).
#Twitchers #Melbourne #BirdsOfMastodon
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2025-10-12 00:01:04 UTC

I was up early this morning. After watering last night and overnight rain, the street garden is nicely damp. I used the remainder of our pea-straw mulch on the hottest part of the garden which faces the road. I then gave it some more water to damp down the mulch so it does not fly around in the breeze.
Aside from finishing the mulching I think I have done as much as I can to prepare for a hot, dry summer. It is looking good at the moment but it will be interesting to see how much survives the summer and people/animals treading on plants.
I think we are no longer having problems with people stealing plants (crossing fingers). An elderly Greek woman with little English has caught some people digging up plants and told them to stop doing it. She told me this via her grandson who translated. I suspect that her limited English made her message to the plant stealers rather blunt! Guarding the garden in this way is her contribution to maintaining it. She has lived in the street for over 40 years and loves the garden very much.
#StreetGarden #GardeningAU
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2025-10-11 19:55:50 UTC

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What is the pelletised lime for?

2025-10-11 07:08:56 UTC

After slouching on the couch watching TV this afternoon, I got out onto the street garden and planted a couple of snap dragons. In keeping with the principle of spending nothing on plants for that garden, the snap dragons are plants that had self-seeded in pots in our backyard. I have pot some more pots under the flowering snap dragons to catch any seeds.
I also transplanted a succulent that was getting crowded out by other flourishing plants in the back of our street garden to the front part. The front part faces the road and gets brutally jot and dry during summer. It is hard work establishing plants there. The back part seems to now be well-established. This means that I can have a go at growing more sensitive plants as the established plants provide some shelter and generally help to lower the temperature.
Tomorrow I need to mulch it thoroughly. Then it will be hopefully ready for summer.
#StreetGarden #GardeningAU #Melbourne

2025-10-11 02:09:33 UTC

Our gardening group contributed all the plants pictured (up to the man standing in the background) and more to a lawn bowls club this morning. At a working bee at the bowls club we and lots of club volunteers cleared this patch and planted all these plants.
I am relieved. I was looking after these plants in pots in our tiny backyard. A lot of them needed repotting so it was good to get them planted out in a garden where they were needed.
The plants are geraniums of various sorts grown by our group from cuttings from my mother's garden, from our garden and succulents donated by our friendly meter reader as well as my mother. We potted them up in March and nurtured them since then. We now have some welcome space in our backyard!
I thoroughly enjoyed working bees!
#GardeningAU
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2025-10-10 05:34:22 UTC

I managed to get 1 nasturtium flower out of our hot, dry street garden! @npub1cz3…a4zk
I am celebrating a very small thing. 😁
#StreetGarden #GardeningAU
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2025-10-08 10:38:26 UTC

Next week I am taking my elderly mother for a holiday to Camperdown and Warrnambool to visit family and give her some R&R after a rough 6 months during which she had to endure 3 operations.
I think we will also stop by Timboon. I know she is going to want to see the ocean crashing along the coast so we will probably do a bit of the Great Ocean Road too.
Feel free to share your suggestions of other things we can do.
#Victoria #Warrnambool

2025-10-04 08:53:03 UTC

I can't get over what a glorious day it has been. This afternoon I planted an additional plant in our street garden. Last weekend I spread the hydroponic tiny clay balls that someone had dumped on our garden. Our soil is sandy and denuded of organic matter so I feel that adding the clay pellets helps us. I dumped some down the bottom of the hole that I dug for the new plant. Then I did my usual thing of adding lots of water in the hole prior to putting the plant in.
The street garden is a great place for conversations. An elderly Greek woman who lives near us stopped with her grandson who she is very proud of. She is not confident with English but through her grandson she told me how she had stopped someone from digging a plant out of our garden. This is an ongoing issue but we have found that people are less likely to want to steal plants we have grown from cuttings.
Tonight I gave the garden a good long soaking water. I must get some mulch on the garden soon.
I also planted some cosmos seeds in our backyard where it is more sheltered. Let's see if they come up.
#Melbourne #StreetGardening #GardeningAU
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2025-10-04 03:20:58 UTC

It is a glorious day in Melbourne today! The birds are singing and people are out and about.
#Melbourne
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2025-10-04 01:07:02 UTC

It is going to be a warm day in Melbourne for this time of the year - currently 20 degrees and climbing. It will get hot on this concrete ledge for the new-born falcon chicks so the parent bird is focussed on providing shade rather than warmth to them this morning.
Watch the live feed here: https://www.youtube.com/live/oibsohQ14cY?si=HZ2DnImyBgxZ72LE
#Melbourne #CollinsStFalcons
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2025-10-02 04:59:08 UTC

"The aim of science is to illuminate the mysteries of nature and discover the elemental truths pulsating sublime and indifferent beneath the starry skin of the universe. The aim of art is to give us a language for wresting meaning from the truth and living with the mystery. Creativity in both is a style of noticing, of attending to the world more closely in order to love it more deeply, of seeing everything more and more whole — a word that shares its Latin root with “holy.”
This is why the greatest visionaries bend their gaze beyond the horizon of their discipline and of their era’s givens to take in the vista of life as a totality of being."
- Maria Popova, https://www.themarginalian.org/2025/10/01/jane-goodall-letters-art/
With this introduction, Maria Popova expresses the essence of Jane Goodall's contribution to the world.
#JaneGoodall #Creativity #Science

2025-09-30 07:33:06 UTC

Listening to the lovely sound of fat raindrops hitting the windows and ground. We are so behind on rainfall for the last 18 months. The garden will appreciate water from the sky instead of water from the tap - when I remember!
#Melbourne #GardeningAU

2025-09-28 08:36:24 UTC

An overview of the great scenic train trips that are on offer in Australia:
#TrainTravel #trains #Australia
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-28/great-train-rides-rail-journeys-holidays-australia/105808486

2025-09-27 00:51:26 UTC

Someone has done their annual dump on something on our street garden. It has weeds and I found a couple of worms when I spread it around. Last year I spread it around the garden and it seems to have disintegrated into the soil - no sign of it now.
The latest dump has been on the garden for about a week so it is definitely not fertiliser as this much fertiliser would have killed the plants it touched and squashed. My guess is that it is hydroponics mix?
What do you think it is?
#Gardening #StreetGarden
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2025-09-26 01:42:21 UTC

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The maple tree in Mum's garden looks spectacular in its fresh, light green spring foliage. We nearly lost this tree a few years ago dur to lack of water. I now give it a deep water every couple of weeks and it looks healthy now.
#Gardening #GardeningAU
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2025-09-26 01:38:05 UTC

Spring has sprung into Melbourne! Over the last few years we have planted cuttings from my mother's crowded garden along this path - orange flowered clivea on the left and red geraniums on the right.
We are really happy with the result. Each year it is going to look better and better. This morning I planted a few more geranium cuttings further down the path.
#Melbourne #GardeningAU #Gardening
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2025-09-20 07:02:29 UTC

We have numerous plants that have had big parts of their leaves eaten by something. While gardening today I saw several earwigs. It has been years since I have dealt with earwigs in the garden.
What should I do to deal with earwigs?
#Gardening #GardeningAU #Melbourne

2025-09-20 05:09:33 UTC

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4/ It is Spring so the Clivea are flowering in a very narrow garden bed that gets no sun at all. In front is fake lawn that I hate. It has weeds growing in it. I lifted it up and found clivea roots are growing under the fake lawn.
I am hoping to get rid of the fake lawn somehow or other in the next 12 months.
In front is my potting area with several of the Jasmine cuttings that I repotted this morning. I also potted up some Lotus bertholotti plants after I pruned one this morning. They grow from cuttings if you look after them.
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2025-09-20 05:02:54 UTC

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3/ Here are my snap dragons that I planted last year and are flourishing. I only like white snapdragons. Next to them are the long, wide leaves of Scarborough Lily plants that my mother gave me. In front are some plants I repotted and took cuttings of this morning.
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2025-09-20 04:56:30 UTC

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2/ I planted this geranium from a cutting I took from a street garden in North Fitzroy. The colour looks awful in the photo. It is a brilliant dark pink. Unfortunately it clashes with the red of the bricks, but hey, it grows in a west-gacing garden surrounded by hard surfaces that get very hot in summer. Any plant that grows will do a little bit to reduce heat in summer.
Next to it you can see the branches of jasmine which is about to flower. I have discovered that jasmine grows easily from cuttings. I have around 7 cuttings that I did not look after at all in the back yard. They were in pots that were way too tiny but despite their maltreatment they flourished with months of dryness. I repotted them this morning.
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2025-09-20 04:44:36 UTC

1/ This year I am not putting too much effort in the garden as I have so much going on with my life. I am focusing instead on maintenance.
This is my Lotus berthelotii that I planted a couple of years ago. I planted one in each pot. One died in the ferocious summers er get in this west facing garden. The one with more shelter from the fence survived and I managed to revive it into a flourishing plant.
#Gardening #GardeningAU
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2025-09-16 12:12:54 UTC

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That is really impressive. What was the air temperature when you took the video?

2025-09-14 03:12:37 UTC

People call it growing weeds. I call it growing grass for my cat.
#FediCats #Gardening
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2025-09-13 10:35:32 UTC

On a walk in the Toolangi State Forest, east of Melbourne today, we saw lots of small holes in the ground on the path.
Does anyone know what would have made these holes?
#Melbourne #VictoriaAU #Environment #ToolangiForest
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2025-09-13 10:19:59 UTC

If you live in an Australian city, get out into the bush this weekend. It is Spring and the bush is full of growth and happy birds.
Today we did some short walks in the Toolangi State Forest and a drive on a dirt road out the back of Warbuton. It was glorious! There were explosions of yellow wattle throughout with luscious tree ferns at the base of magnificent Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans).
We heard kookaburras, saw rosellas and breathed in fresh, cool air.
#Melbourne #bush #VictoriaAU
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2025-08-31 07:13:07 UTC

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4/ Now that it is Spring, I want to organise a social thing for the residents on our street. The point of the street garden is to help us all enjoy our area better and get to know each other. Our gardening group has excess plants to give away. Other people in our street may also have things they want to contribute.
However, I am overloaded with looking after my mother, trying to find a new job or start a business (probably the latter) and organise renovations to fix numerous problems with our house including a leaking balcony. So I need to think of the easiest way to organise a street get together for our neighbours. We don't have a park to meet in. Our houses are very small. If we do it on the street I will have to get the council involved to close the street which is more bother.
I am thinking I need to get some neighbours enthused about the idea and hopefully they can do the leg-work. The ideal date for this is the public holiday for the Grand Final parade.
If anyone has some thoughts about how I can make this happen, please comment!
#Melbourne #StreetGardening

2025-08-31 07:03:32 UTC

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3/ The gardens next to our garage have flourished over the last year. I grew the geranium in the photo from a cutting taken from a Fitzroy North street garden. Geraniums need regular pruning. They flourish with regular pruning. No-one was pruning the geraniums in the Fitzroy North street garden so I took some cuttings knowing that it would be good for the plant.
It is always good to look at other street gardens and see what grows well in them. Street gardens might take a bit to establish but they should be self-sufficient. We need to work to make ours self-sufficient. I think that once we have the first lot of plants established, they will develop a better eco-system for other plants so over time it will become easier to look after.
Today I pruned a branch of the geranium that is growing next to our garage and planted the cutting in our street garden. It is free so it does not matter if the cutting does not take.
#Melbourne #StreetGardening #GardeningAU
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2025-08-31 06:49:19 UTC

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2/ This photo shows the most difficult part of our street garden. It gets the westerly sun every afternoon and the ambient heat from the road surface and bluestone border. It also gets trodden on by workers loading trucks. I don't get cranky about them treading on it. We live opposite a business that uses the street to load trucks with forklifts etc. They were there before us so we should share nicely. We get on well with the workers and they always take care to clean up anything they drop on the street. Our gardening group grew some cuttings for one of the workers to share with his neighbours. They live in a similar place to us - rubbish dumping etc. A year later the worker is really happy because his plants are flourishing. He loves his flowers.
We are experimenting with what grows in this part of the garden. We planted common mint in the area that gets trodden on. I think it will be sturdy enough for the odd footstep, and the person treading might get a nice whiff of mint to remind him that this is a nice garden.
I scattered some seeds that I collected from a hardy plant last year - can't remember what it was. A couple of pigeons watched me sowing. Let's see if any sprout.
We planted more gazanias along the borders of this section and some more succulents. We just have to keep trying plants to see what survives.
Whenever we plant we first dig deep and mix in a lot of water with the soil. This takes time when the soil is so dry it repels water. Then we plant and water some more. We will water this garden regularly with our hose to try to give the newly planted plants a helping hand before summer hits.
#Melbourne #StreetGardening #GardeningAU
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2025-08-31 06:32:02 UTC

1/ I did a bit more street gardening today. This is what it looks like now. Yesterday I removed excess gazanias from around the tree and we planted them along gaps in the borders of the garden. These gazanias were originally planted by the council and have yellow flowers. They are about all that are capable of growing along the very hot and dry bluestone borders of the garden. They can sometimes spill over the border, thus reducing the stored heat of the stones leaking into the rest of the garden.
The soil repels water again. At the moment we are having a 'green drought'. After about 18 months of very low rainfall, the recent rain we have had is dampening the top couple of centimetres of soi butl leaving the rest bone dry. We need a lot more rain.
Today I filled some gaps with cuttings that our gardening group potted up in Autumn and some succulents donated to the garden by our friendly water meter reader. We met when he was reading our meter and I was in the garden possibly a year ago. Every now and then he pops in with some more succulents. He loves the community building nature of our street garden.
#Melbourne #GardeningAu #StreetGardening
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2025-08-30 08:00:03 UTC

I felt like sitting on the couch. Again. But I was good and decided to start my spring gardening in the winter cold in Melbourne today.
I planted out a geranium that had been in a pot too long. To my delight I found the soil in my inner urban garden had worms and the softness of a good amount of disintegrating vegetarian matter. When we moved in the soil was thin, like sand. It had been gardened for probably over 100 years and was totally spent. For the last 3 years I have been adding coffee grounds, leaves and mulch. It looks like it has turned the corner and is healthy again.
Then I encouraged my husband to come out with me and tend our street garden. A couple years ago it was a public rubbish dumping site. We formed a local gardening group who helped us plant our stacks of cuttings. We watered the garden over dry winters and summers. We replaced plants that were stolen from the garden. We have made friends with people who have stopped by to have a chat, happy that in so much asphalt, graffiti and rubbish there is a humble effort to turn things around.
I didn't take a photo of what we did today. I am inside with Office Kitty on my lap so I will post a photo of our handiwork tomorrow. But here is a photo of the street garden that I took a couple of days ago.
In some parts of Melbourne, this garden would not be noticed because there are lots of good gardens. In our area, this is celebrated.
#Melbourne #GardeningAU #StreetGardening
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2025-08-30 05:20:00 UTC

Office Kitty was waiting by the back door. I opened it twice to let her in, but she continued to sit outside...
Until I sat down on the couch in front of this door, then she waited until I got really nice and comfortable THEN she asked to be let in.
#Saturday #OfficeKitty
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2025-08-25 10:34:29 UTC

Film about a substantial, multi-year tree-planting project in Columbia:
"Unlike conventional large-scale planting efforts, the initiative emphasizes long-term stewardship of nature. Participants are encouraged to make a personal commitment to nurture each tree over the years, seeing the project as more than just a planting exercise."
Our very small street-planting group has also realised that without locals taking responsibility to nurture the plants, street gardens are likely to fail. We always try to find custodians for the plants before we start a new project.
#gardening #StreetGardening
https://news.bahai.org/story/1811/colombia-new-film-highlights-efforts-toward-environmental-restoration

2025-08-09 22:29:04 UTC

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I love the joy you are sharing about your gardening and produce. What an uplifting post!

2025-08-03 21:59:51 UTC

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I am so sorry to hear that Womderdog has passed. We are blessed to have some special pets in our lives, whose legend lives way longer in stories we tell of them. When you arr ready, I would happily read any Tales of Wonderdog you care to share here with Womderdog's special hashtag.

2025-07-30 22:31:14 UTC

Feeling good this morning. Yesterday was my last day in the office before I get retrenched next Wednesday. I curated the day, catching up with some wonderful people who have brought joy to my time in the organisation, then I left really early.
For the next few days I am making use of the training material the organisation provides before returning my equipment for final sign out next Wednesday.
I don't have a new job, but am applying for roles and am working on a possible business idea that seems to have legs. Over the last 3 years I have been networking and doing the right things so I feel something will turn up. Importantly, I have a plan of action.
The most important thing is that I keep my mood up. 100% remote work just doesn't work for me - I get mouldy sitting by myself in a home office all the time. So I have found a cafe that has lots of space and not enough customers where I can work for an hour or so each day. I also have allowed myself a daily coffee budget.
If you know of any #TechnicalWriting, general management and user experience or customer success roles going in #Melbourne, feel free to let me know. I am open to contract or permanent, full-time or part-time.

2025-06-29 06:52:26 UTC

New owners of a home in Melbourne discover an extensive model train set-up under the floor when they move in.
#Melbourne #ModelTrain
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/i-was-shocked-melbourne-mans-unbelievable-find-after-buying-house/m4sksfer8

2025-06-27 09:04:19 UTC

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By the way - I have been sitting here thinking how much I like your end of week question. It makes one feel less alone while struggling. Thank you.

2025-06-27 08:15:31 UTC

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Still working on a job application after I lost all hope of securing the internal role that I successfully interviewed for - a hiring freeze put paid to that. Some significant higher ups got a taste of what us lowly ones too often get. In a remarkable coincidence a number of them, some younger than me, all decided to retire in the same week!

2025-06-10 09:56:30 UTC

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I got my first bout of hayfever after my nose realignment surgery. I followed the post-surgical sneezing instructions (let it all out, don't hold it in) and did not suffer any bad effects.
I also had what turned out to be a job interview. It seemed to go well. Will hear from them by the end of the week. Totally exhausted by it and trembling. Doing job interviews when not 100% is hard, but hopefully it will be worth it.

2025-06-02 11:04:23 UTC

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Day 3 post surgery and as well as expected. Bonus washed my hair after taking painkillers. Enjoyed your message about growing and processing vanilla beans. Checked my work messages and found that I may have an unexpected job interview - I am on the retrenchment list so that is needed, but wondering how to do an interview with my trademark enthusiasm while my nose is rather sorry for itself - good problem to have though!

2025-05-31 02:30:00 UTC

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Do you have the family crystal to deal with? My grandfather made a crystal cabinet as a wedding gift for his bride, my grandmother. Then every wedding anniversary he bought a piece of crystal to put in it. It is such a romantic story but the crystal is stuff one never uses nowadays. It is small and dainty.
None of my children want it. In despair I discussed it with my brother and found that he did not know the story. He has agreed to take it. We just need to ship it to Tasmania once Mum passes away. If he didn't want it I don't know what I would have done with it.

2025-05-31 01:18:50 UTC

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I am looking after my family collection of handmade furniture by my father and grandfather. It is beautiful furniture but there is a lot of it. Both died young so there is a lot of emotion wrapped up in it. Mum also has some of their furniture including the last piece my father made before he died - a massive wall unit made out of black bean (his favourite wood). No idea who in the family could fit that in their place.

2025-05-31 01:06:18 UTC

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I can relate to this - I don't know how I am going to manage Mum's huge pile.of stuff when she passes. I did a huge sale of stuff online when two children left home and we were moving overseas. Felt good.
We also have a large number of books. Periodically I go through them asking "do you deserve to take space on my shelves?". I also do that assessment after I have read a book for the first time.
I currently have a pile of books waiting to go to the op shop

2025-05-26 22:50:40 UTC

We have done our annual pruning of our lime tree and picked a lot of lemons and limes from our trees. Hubble has squeezed so many lemons over the last couple of days. There are still more lemons and limes (some pictured below) to be squeezed.
We have a litre of lemon juice in the fridge and are gradually freezing it in ice cube trays to tide us over winter.
We did a heavy prune of our lime tree. It was tilting over with the weight of branches and fruit. Now we have a lot more light in our small backyard which will be great over winter. The tree is upright now! Last year we gave our lemon tree a heavy prune for the same reason - it was in danger of falling because it was weighed down on one side with branches and fruit. The previous owners had only pruned the trees along the fence which caused the trees to become unbalanced over the years.
#GardeningAU #Melbourne
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/114/576/543/046/386/252/original/bc2f1f394769bcf3.jpg
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/114/576/568/003/962/881/original/fe768331d5f4b7f8.jpg

2025-05-20 12:49:03 UTC

We are at the time of year where our backyard only gets 2 hours of sunshine a day. Not great for plants. All my sprouting seeds died before these cold mornings.
We have a very small east facing backyard. Our house is 2 storeys so that blocks sun from the west. The low angle of the sun and high fences produce lots of shade in the mornings.
#GardeningAU #Melbourne

2025-05-17 10:48:54 UTC

Australian companies and farmers experiment with using crushed basalt on farms instead of fertilisers - with promising results.
I wonder if I could find some crushed basalt for my depleted soil in inner- suburban Melbourne?
#GardeningAU #Melbourne #agriculture #SoilCarbon #fertilizer
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-17/basalt-rock-fertiliser-carbon-trials-queensland/105299634

2025-04-29 22:19:10 UTC

"Since February 2024, Adelaide has only received around 300 millimetres of rain — the driest it's been since the city's weather records began in 1839.
During the same period, Sydney has been drenched by more than 2,000mm, nearly 500mm above average, and is facing possibly another 50mm during the coming week."
The cause of this? Uncharacteristically, Tasmania has had a lot of high pressure systems sitting over the state causing easterly winds over the south of mainland Australia bring rain to the east coast and stopping the westerly winds that typically bring rain to South Australia and much of Victoria.
Not good for gardening!
#Melbourne #Adelaide #Sydney #GardeningAU
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-30/weather-australia-east-coast-drenched-drought-sa-and-vic/105230430

2025-04-26 08:26:41 UTC

Valerie the Daschund went on holidays to Kangaroo Island and decided she wanted to extend her stay. After 529 days on the run, she has finally been captured.
#Australia
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/25/valerie-the-dachshund-is-found-safe-and-well-after-529-days-on-the-run-on-south-australian-island

2025-04-26 07:46:40 UTC

Today I parked in front of a pub in Hawthorn and noticed this 'mosaic' where there was a gap in the concrete render.
I looked closer and saw the bottom of the wall - the ' mosaic' was built from Lego!
#Lego #Melbourne
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/114/403/123/308/828/420/original/a9fc0d545b6995bc.jpg
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/114/403/136/660/999/639/original/f637c367fa1bd5ff.jpg