Deirdre

While wise men, long beset by doubt, Wander from pole to pole, The fool who knows his way about Is first to reach the goal.

“While wise men, long beset by doubt,
Wander from pole to pole,
The fool who knows his way about
Is first to reach the goal.”
This was taped into one of my high school diaries. I can’t find a source.

Home page of my dinner decision app

My new retirement hobby: I just built my first app, in less than a week
 www.beginningwithi.com/2026/03/03/r...

A brick wall with several plants as aforementioned, far left is a marigold that hasn’t bloomed yet

A recent project has been planting 20 or more native plants, many outside our boundary wall on the public verge. Here a young acacia terminalis is flanked by a teddy bear sunflower and a pink zinnia, which will both die out in winter #gardeningaustralia

A huge pot shaped clump of wormlike roots topped by numerous large buds with green leaves as well as dried stalks

This was the largest pot of cymbidium orchids inherited from the neighbor. Getting it out of the pot was very hard, involving a lot of surgery. Now to cut and tease apart the mass to try to get some buds out with roots

I was a child when that study was featured in NatGeo. It hit me very hard — too close to home.

I’d been wondering for years which neighborhood bird sings the opening bar of #themuppetshow theme song. Finally have the answer: the grey butcherbird

Stickers: one heart shaped with Sophie and Benedict, one with Sophie in her masquerade costume, and one K-Pop Demon Demon Hunters

When you still have friends at Netflix

Evening conclave on our deck #australianbirds

A large bottle brush tree with the sun’s raise coming from behind picking out the light pink blooms

Close-up of a pink bottlebrush bloom

Our pink bottlebrush blooms out of phase with the red one, to the delight of the local birds. #GardeningAustralia

Nothing like a freshly filled birdbath #australianbirds

A mid sized soft shrub with large leaves and midsized, bright orange blossoms with fuzzy yellow centers

Tithonia starting to bloom at a sensible time of year; in previous years, it was blooming in late fall to winter here in Australia, perhaps I thought it was still in Mexico. There are three or four more plants that I have transplanted to various parts of the garden #GardeningAustralia.

Family news: www.brendangregg.com/blog/2026-02...

pfishing email:
"Dear Deirdré,
At The Coca-Cola Company, innovation is our lifeblood, but a great product is only half the battle. We have world-class R&D, but we need a strategic leader to translate technical features into compelling consumer value propositions that win in the market."

Reviewing my website, I find pieces from 20+ years ago that I wish I had not got it right:

www.beginningwithi.com/2001/10/11/s...

www.beginningwithi.com/2004/02/02/g...

And one where I wish I’d known how to monetize the idea:

www.beginningwithi.com/2004/01/10/h...

It now requires a video to show the extent of the butternut plant, and this doesn’t show at least two other vines that are drooping over the edge of the terrace #gardening

Interesting magpie sounds - not the usual (beautiful) warble, she seems to be experimenting #australianbirds (excuse the weird camera work - iPhone decided I was filming the screen! Which shows the attentions of the cockatoos)

Lorikeets are small but aggressive. The king parrots are particularly timid, but all birds even cockatoos give way to the lorikeets #AustralianBirds #parrots

A bright red and green king parrots eating from a tray of seeds

His mate, olive green with red undercarriage

Female king from the back showing her lovely green plumage with dark blue trim

This morning’s visitors. I only bring out birdseed for the king parrots, then the lorikeet butted in #australianbirds

A young plant with large leaves

I’ve been planting tithonia aka red or Mexican sunflower for years. 1st & 2nd year it came up months after sowing, in autumn. Now 2 coming up, 1 I don’t remember planting, 1 self sown from last year’s plant. They should grow large, with brilliant orange-red flowers

Im going to try again with teddy bear sunflowers - when I grew them a few years back the birds left them alone. Maybe shorter, multi-bloom plants would also survive

A clump of zinnias in white, yellow, and various shades of pink

A flower with pointy white petals and feathery foliage

More zinnias, and a single nigella flower #GardeningAustralia

View of internal wood paneling

Close up view of the ivory and white tiles on the sails of the opera house

Concrete internal structure, windows, and internal wooden walls

Internal structure of a shell, in concrete

Took my friends on a tour of the #Sydney Opera House

And there go the sunflowers? :-)

Young kookaburras are not very good at making kookaburra noises. Once they get their act together the whole family will serenade us #australianwildlife #australianbirds #birds

A lizard with long slender toes, a long tail,spines on the back of its head and down its back, hanging onto a small tree

A Boyd’s forest dragon, which looks pretty exactly how I would imagine a “real” baby dragon to look #australianwildlife

So far, almost always.

A frog with a mottled pattern of shiny gold and bright green

Same species, closer view

Same species again

Green and gold bell frog - my iPhone doesn’t do justice to the golden shine of this creature #australianwildlife #frogs

Overhead view of the garden terrace below our deck, with two long arms of vine with big leaves, plus zinnias, roses, and more poking up among the butternut leaves

Here you can see almost the full extent of the butternut vines, except for the one hanging over the edge heading for the next terrace #gardening

Close up of a bright yellow sunflower with a pale green center

I have a sunflower, and the cockies have not yet decapitated it. Maybe because it’s in the front yard where they rarely go. #GardeningAustralia

A young ring tail possum perched on top of our awning frame

Christmas Eve gift: we discovered a couple of juvenile ring tailed possums in our rolled up awning. Not sure how long they had been there, we rarely extend it for fear the wind will snatch it away. #Australia #AustralianWildlife.