Orchids

I have just come back from a wonderful display of Orchids at Mount Coot - tha Botanical Gardens from the West Brisbane Orchid Society.  The variety is impressive, the colours and aromas breathtaking and the shapes amazing.

Happy to share my amazement, starting with the strangest one I have ever seen called the Bat Flower and ending with the equally oddly named Dendrobius Bigibbum "Samford Vision."

Waterfalls - while we have the water

Queensland had some forceful weather fronts recently which meant a lot of rainfall to most parts of the state. So waterfalls are truly at their best and it is a good opportunity to visit them.The Kondalilla waterfalls are near Montville - a distance of about an hour and a half by car from Brisbane.

The waterfalls are down a valley which makes for a lovely walk, with tall gums, ferns and quadongs in abundance.The waterfalls were beautiful but it is my two pictures of a fly and the rock and the moss that took my breath away.

The biggest organ in the Southern Hemisphere

I have just attended an Organ concert at Brisbane City Hall.The Brisbane City Hall Organ is one of best preserved examples of a five-manual Father Henry Willis Organ anywhere in the world. The organ was built in 1892 by Henry Willis and Sons of London, for the Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association (QNA) at Bowen Hills.

In 1897, the QNA was declared bankrupt and several Brisbane musicians joined together to rescue the organ from the auctioneer's hammer by helping the Brisbane Municipal Council to raise funds to purchase the organ. In 1928, work began to enlarge and modernise the organ for its new home in Brisbane City Hall.The organ's first public recital was on 8 April 1930, the day City Hall officially opened.

In 2010 to 2013 Brisbane City Hall went through an extensive renovation as did the organ  - the way it is put together and what it takes to produce that beautiful music is a science on its own. I cannot even begin to explain it to you. Listening to organ music reminds me of the Wedding March and some terrifying moments from movies like Frankenstein. Today it was a real privilege to go to this free concert and listen to it being played in versatile tones, tunes, pitch and strength. 

Women take centre stage.

Women take centre stage - This one is called Nephila -from the Greek nema which means thread and philos which means friend, so friends of a thread-  a spinner. 

It is International Womens day on the 8^th of March and a special day of remembrance for me.

They have been gracing my entrance for a few weeks and taking over more and more of the space between my frangipani tree and a rose bush. Being respectful of nature I have let them take it over though not everyone would be comfortable with this.

Several golden orb spiders thought that this was an ideal open place where they could spin their elaborate webs and catch flying insects of their choice. They occasionally caught one of us as we did a bit of gardening.

The Webs were enormous – maybe two or three foot across – incredibly elaborate and in the sunlight gave off a golden sheen. My friend Zelinda came looking for butterflies but went off with lots of spider pictures which she has kindly agreed to share with you to show you how magnificent they are.The silk threads are so strong, that scientists are studying the way they are made.

The females can be quite large and silvery grey with brown yellow bandied legs. The males are smaller mainly reddish brown and can often be seen on the periphery of the webs. 

The Women take centre stage here.

They are clearly fascinating creatures so much so that an Argentinian artist Thomas Saraceno, studied them for years and years to understand how exactly they formed their webs and he reproduced them in his own way in the wonderful work that he exhibited a few months ago at the Gallery of Modern art in Brisbane. He created Biospheres which he suggested could sustain future life and took the spiders weaving as his starting point.

Zelinda’s pictures and Saraceno’s work belong side by side.  Today, though every day should be like that, think about those women in your lives spinning their webs and sustaining life for all those around them.

Springbrook National Park - a girls' day out on a hike.

This is made up of three areas, the Plateau which is what we explored on this trip, the Natural Bridge which I will blog about another time, and Mount Cougal which we have yet to visit. The plateau gives some staggering views of the Gold Coast and is full of beautiful trails, cascading waterfalls and fabulous flora.

It is an easy journey from Brisbane and can be done over a single day but overnight would allow you to explore more of the terrain. Rosellas at Canyon Lookout can offer rooms but also lunch, Devonshire scones and teas and is cozy and warm with a roaring fire which is welcome in the colder months.

We headed out from just by the café to do a circular walk of approximately 4 kms of the Twin Falls which were magnificent but not the only ones we saw on our walk. We must have come across three or four cascading waterfalls, bridges and rivers.

We initially thought this was a bit of plastic until we realised it was moving. These are the famous yabbies which are the local crayfish. 

One of the crows nest ferns growing out of a fallen bit of wood.

Clean up Australia day

This is the announcement that came in on one of the flyers from estate agents in the region where I live. 

Clean Up Australia Day

This Sunday 1^st of March marks 25 years of Clean Up Australia Day and what better way to celebrate than to participate in one of Australia’s biggest volunteer cause.  

Over the past 25 years Clean Up Australia has removed an estimated 288,650 tonnes of rubbish from across the country. Get behind this great cause and take pride in your suburb! To register as a volunteer or your own clean-up site click here.

Another reason for enjoying life here - the norms of a civilised and ordered society are there in people's lives and everyone abides by them. NO trash on the beaches- nothing- no trash in the forests- but none in the cities either. 

It's just as it is - and on the odd occasion when something has been left, another passer- by will often take the trouble to dispose of it in a nearby bin. 

Now all that needs to happen is for the next message to become part of the everyday - that food wastage is  enormous - nearly 40% of food produced is wasted and this must stop. It must become unacceptable in the same way as littering or anti social behaviour is treated in society and yet no one seems to be talking about this.  I have just reviewed a film called "Just Eat it!"

http://www.foodwastemovie.com

This film which has been written by Jenny Rustmeyer and Grant Baldwin.They decided to conduct an experiment and see if they could live for six months on food that has been dumped by supermarkets, farmers and restaurants. It wasn't easy but they survived and in the process of this exercise which they filmed they offer the viewer some sobering facts about the amount of food wasted.This has never become taboo, like littering or drunk driving and we all have to ask ourselves why, as the levels of obesity rise in the western world while populations are chronically malnourished in developing countries, as supermarkets conduct price wars on products and farmers and the consequences of all these actions are blatantly obvious but somehow the message has simply not taken off and it needs to. 

So I will get out there and clean up Australia, not just on Sunday but every day where I see any litter.  - But more importantly I will start to think about shopping and meals, I will plan more carefully so nothing goes to waste, I will compost scraps and I will eat imperfect vegetables and fruit because the goodness is in the content not the shape and I will play my small part in sharing their message, and telling you about this film, but also encouraging you, if you feel the same, to treat food wastage in the same as you would littering and make it part and parcel of your everyday. 

Nature's force

There can only be one blog post this week.

We have had two cyclones Marcia and Lars battering the Queensland coastline and while here in the city we have not had the damaging winds, yet,  we have had two full days of almost relentless rain. Rivers are bursting their banks, creeks are overflowing, storm drains are struggling to keep up with the flow. Suddenly you can see that nature here unfurls in a very strong and sometimes unpredictable way.

I was warned about the storm of 27^th November on my phone. I looked out the window and the skies were blue. By the time I had gone downstairs to shut the French doors the skies had turned within minutes and the most unbelievably ferocious storm was unleashing itself upon us.

Cyprus is frozen, I suspect for a short while and Niagara falls frozen for longer. But there is only one take home message from all of this.

From Maria Stylianou- Landscapes of Cyprus 

Respect what is out there and give it a wide berth. The Australian authorities have been proactive in preparing and averting any loss to human life. Property damage is almost inevitable at wind speeds of 250 kms an hour, so for the moment everyone I am staying put, with lots of rainy day projects,  hoping to God, the creek at the bottom of my road doesn’t  end up flowing through my living room.