Internet Friends

I was catching up on emails this morning and I realised that I had never met and maybe would never meet most of these people that I was sharing my life with and were sharing theirs with me .
I have met some amazing and wonderful people through the Internet, first when I became a member of the Chocolate Crow Trader collective, through my website and  through blogging. One in particular is probably one of my best friends. We chat for hours on the phone, send Birthday and Christmas gifts and know we will always be there for each other. Our friendship started over 5 years ago and we still haven't met! There are others who are almost as close living in different parts of Australia and one or two overseas that I would never have known existed if the Internet hadn't become a part of my life.
Jody of Re-Inventing fashion did a Christmas Op Shop Swap last year which was something different and lots of fun. Through it I have made another very good friend who I will probably never meet because we live a long way from each other and is young enough to be my daughter but shared interests has proven to us that distance and age really isn't a barrier to a good friendship.
Jody has just launched her Winter Op Shop Swap which you can find here.  If you have never done a Swap before why don't you join up with this one, It is fun and you might be lucky like me and make a new friend!

JaM-Something I noticed this week

This week I have noticed a very diverse and busy community living in my  Garden

Many species co-habiting relatively peacefully together.

 Hanging together, foraging for food and providing many hours of entertainment.

 These are just a few of the birds I have seen in the garden just in the last few days.

.Galahs have been toing and froing, Crows linger in the gum trees out the back

 Ibis fly over in a perfect V formation, ducks in pairs, Pee Wees alone or with their friends

Sparrows gather in the Banksia Rose chattering as they do.

 Small nectar eaters linger over the last of the Summer blooms and tree hoppers hide in the the Oak tree. The Swallows are back in the shed building their Winter nests. 

High above a pair of Wedge Tailed Eagles circle looking for their prey, as do two or three varieties of Hawks or Falcons.  Yesterday a Hawk flew over my head close enough to cause a breeze. Looking behind me he was on the ground with a small bird in his claws.
All day every day in the background there is birdsong. Some very melodic and some harsh and hard on the ears.
How many birds will you notice when you take the time to sit and see?
For more Bloggers taking Just a Moment to share a part of their week with you, visit Jody.

Sweet Little Things About Me-My Favourite 1990s movie

Lisa from Sweet Little Pretties is starting a new meme-Sweet Little things about me. Her first theme is 'My favourite 1990s movie. I thought I knew what I was going to pick but when I checked it was actually an 80's movie. Then I remembered this one.



The movie chronicles a woman's alcoholism and her husbands efforts to help her. Stars Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia.
Visit Lisa to join in or to go tripping down memory lane to see more movies from the 90's 

My Place & Yours - the last thing I bought .

Joining Cherie and My Place and yours, this week she asks us to show and tell the last thing we bought. 

I'm sure that groceries are nearly always the last thing I bought and yesterday I bought a magazine to curl up with while the world outside was wet and windy.

My last purchase of something that you don't buy every day was my external DVD Drive. I didn't realise how much I missed having a DVD drive on my computer until I got it a week ago. And it was much easier than buying and installing the new parts in my computer to get the DVD Drive I have, working again.

What is the last thing that you bought? Why not join Cherie and MPAY and tell us all about it.

My Place and Yours-Third drawer

I'm joining in with My Place and Yours which has had a brief holiday and moved home. The lovely Cherie has adopted MPAY and to start the ball rolling she is asking us to show you what is in your third drawer down. My drawer is the third one down on one side of my singer sewing machine. It has lots of original attachments and the original book that came with the sewing machine. I have no idea what most of the attachments do and something on my To Do list is.....Find out.  Thank you Deb  for giving MPAY a home at your place for a while and for passing it on to another good home. To join in with My Place and yours and to see other people's third drawer down head on over to Cherie's.

They really are Fairytale Toadstools

In my last post I had a photo of the fairytale toadstools that grow under the silver birch tree in my garden. I wandered around the internet and found quite a bit about it, most of it isn't that surprising. It is actually a very diverse little fungus when you start to read about it.

Silver Birch trees have a symbiotic relationship with the fly agaric fungus (Amanita muscaria) which produces its bright red toadstools in Autumn. The fungus helps soil nutrients to be absorbed by the tree's roots and it takes sugars from the tree in return. 

It is actually the Toadstool commonly depicted in children's books. It is an hallucinogenic and is used in religious rituals and recreational pursuits.I'm a bit worried about the fairies in the garden now, maybe all that dancing around the Daffodils has more to do with the Toadstools they live under rather than just the joy of living? In some parts of Europe it is used for insect control. It has medicinal properties and is also poisonous. This is just a very brief description of the little red toadstool. For a more detailed description go to http://www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Amanita-muscaria.htm

In my Garden...........

Our mornings are generally starting like this now. Fog that the sun determinedly tries to break through and if we are really lucky there will be a frost as well. Nothing like a brisk minus something degrees to start your day.

With the colder weather the trees are changing . It is unbelievable how many colours you can find on one Liquid Amber tree. Fom deep red (almost black) to the palest of yellow.

And in no time they are littering the lawns and paths!!

The fairies have been out and about building their toadstool houses to live in over the Winter.

And hidden in the garden I have found the first of the Winter Iris's.

What's happening in your garden this week?
More of my Autumn Garden in A Feast For Crows

Poor Justin

Now I suppose you are wondering why on earth I am putting an article about space on my Blog? My 70+ neighbour found this in the Age,  thought the  remark that I have highlighted was hilarious and he said I should put it on my Blog and share it. In an article about astronomy the reference to Justin Beiber is just so unexpected and really does stand out. What is it about this young man that causes so many derogatory remarks from so many people?

How Cold is it outside????????

You coming outside Baby?

Nup.

JaM-As a child

Thinking back to my childhood brings back memories of endless days of Summer spent at the beach where we ran wild for months on end.  I can also remember making dolls clothes from a very early age and I was making my own clothes when I was 12. All I wanted to be was a Teacher but that didn't happen and despite Maths being  my weakest subject at school I ended up in banking.

But sewing in one form or another has always been in my life, from making mine and my children's clothes, Quiltmaking, Dolls and lots of other things as well so I suppose having my Website and making everything I sell on it was my destiny really. I did manage to get the Teaching bit in too because I did teach  Patchwork and Dollmaking on and off for a few years at home and with the Community Centre.

 It was serendipity for this particular subject to come up right now because of what happened at Indoor bowls last night. We played the Team made up of employees of the  DSE. I hadn't met the man in the other  team that I was playing against (even though he has lived in Corryong for 6 years!) but after chatting for a few minutes we realised that we actually went to school together  at Orbost High School  in the early 70's. Our family moved here to Corryong half way through Form 3 (Year 9 nowadays).  Although neither of us remembered the other we had a lovely couple of hours 'Do you remembering' and there were so many people we both remembered. I dug out my Form 1 photo this morning and sure enough there he was up in the back row 5th from the end. (I'm somewhere in the middle)

Thank you Jody for your perfect timing so I can share  with you a night of Remembering.

For more Childhood reminiscing or to share your own ........visit Jody