Deirdre

Overhead view of a bush with lots of long stems with small leaves along their entire length and round puffballs of tiny pink blossoms on the end of each stem

Pimelea looking lovely

A plant with broad furry leaves growing wide from its base with a short stalk wide from its base with a short stock studded with light magenta, bell shaped flowers

I planted a packet of ~12 foxglove seeds. Result: one plant. At least it’s pretty #gardening #bloomscrolling

Small Lego scene of a band of minifigs playing music

A minifig upside down in a water tank above a bright marquee saying T HE GREAT LINGUINIS Tonight ! A DAZZLING DISPLAY OF MAGICAL ARTS

View into a narrow window in a brick building to the face of a minifig with curly hair and a mustache and short beard

A group of four minifigs in barbershop quartet outfits doing some choreography on the street, or possibly tripping and about to fall, watched by others

More from Relics, the #lego installation at the #australianmuseum :
88th Street, the performing arts district built into an upright piano: a jazz club, a group of street performers, an escapologist hanging upside down in a water tank and… wait, is that Bob Ross? (yes he has a paint palette in hand)

Entry to the Relics exhibition with a giant minifig silhouetted against a yellow circle

Poster for the exhibition with a cassette tape. Two minifigs are on top of it making music while one down below in overalls hard hat and ear protection examined a pulled out section of tape. Label on the cassette reads Starring at the Australian Museum

The front of an old Volkswagen Beetle with a Lego community built inside

An old secretary desk with a manual upright typewriter and other objects, colonized by a minifig newspaper office

If you’re a #lego fan of any age anywhere near Sydney, you will enjoy this!

Closeup of a bloom with many spiky pink petals and a yellow center

Native everlasting daisy #bloomscrolling #gardening

Close view of a many petalled flower with a bright orange center, petals shading cream to peach at their tips

Calendula “Sunset Buff” #bloomscrolling #gardening

View of a massive plant throwing branches up into the sky, all covered in brilliant magenta-red bracts

Another view

View from underneath at branches of blooms against the blue sky

Our bougainvillea is stunning this year. Not sure why we’re getting so much more bloom than the previous two years, maybe it’s finally fully recovered from the moonflower vine attack.

YouTube video by The Midnight Special Political Science - Randy Newman | The Midnight Special

On current trends… youtu.be/olOk5cK4lqQ?...

Text from my California prop 50 ballot reading Alert! The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) has discontinued their service of faxing military and overseas voters' election materials to county election officials. What this means: you can no longer send your voted ballot to fax@fvap.gov. If you wish to return your voted ballot by fax, you must send it directly to your county elections official

This service made it very easy for me to vote last year from Australia. No longer, because God forbid we should make it easy for overseas (or any citizens) citizens to vote. What was that about “no taxation without representation “?

A variety of pig face with small narrow fleshy leaves and lots of pale pink daisy like flowers with yellow centers. It’s now a mass of pale pink flowers with yellow centers

The pigface has come into its full glory #GardeningAustralia #bloomscrolling #gardening

Bright yellow orange flowers with dark orange highlights

Pale peach blossoms with orange striations and dark red centers

Very bright vermilion flowers

Same nasturtiums that I photographed a few days ago, but here they glow in the last of the evening light. Not sure my iPhone captured what I was seeing. Varieties are: random from a mixed packet, Peach Melba, and Empress of India #garden #bloomscrolling

A female brush turkey - larger than a chicken, all black except for a bare red head and neck and yellow wattle collar, with a vertical fan of black tail feathers - walking along the edge of a gently sloping corrugated roof

I heard a thump and scratch-scretch-scratch outside. Went to look and… I didn’t know brush turkeys had made it this far south in Sydney.

Close up of a round head of tiny pink flowers

From further away you can see that these pink puffs grow at the end of long stalks covered in small leaves

Pimelea ferruginea aka rice flower starting to bloom. Australian plants have interesting growing styles #GardeningAustralia

A variety of pig face with small narrow fleshy leaves and lots of pale pink daisy like flowers with yellow centers. Some bright orange nasturtiums blooming among it

Pigface (yes, that’s what it’s called) spreading nicely and now in full flower. I don’t like the orange nasturtium among the pale pink pigface flowers, but oh well - they’re both happy

Bright yellow orange flowers with dark orange highlights

Pale peach blossoms with orange striations and dark red centers

Very bright vermilion flowers

Nasturtiums do well here anytime except summer. Here are three examples from my garden: random color from a mixed packet, Peach Melba, and Empress of India

A dozen freshly baked muffins oozing blueberry goodness, still in the muffin tray

Blueberries are in season here, so it’s muffin time!

Me holding a plastic container full of birdseed, king parrot perched on the other end eating

Side view of the parrot perched on the tray so you can see his blue tail and a flash of pale green on his wing

Top view of parrot with his head down in the seed tray so his beautiful scarlet blue and green plumage is visible

This king parrot has become markedly less shy with us (photos from several angles so you can see how beautiful he is)

New in the garden: ixia. Planted last year and probably bloomed while I was out of town. This year I get to enjoy it.

Ceremonial marching with high kicks, dance like steps, and fierce faces made at the Pakistanis across the gate

Hindustani haka: part of the beating the retreat ceremony at the India-Pakistan border

A strip of roadside shops with barrel shaped clay vessels, some inside stainless steel cylinders. Two feathery trees shade the scene

Tandoori oven makers in Amritsar

View from a ferry of the Sydney opera house glowing in late afternoon sun against a bright blue sky and dark blue water

A perfect spring day in Sydney

A wall of identical parts in white ceramics, possibly electric wiring insulators

wall of clay water pots stacked in columns

sunken pit with colorful tile fragments

Then there are walls of… electric insulators? And clay pots. Sunken pits or (dry) pools mosaiced with ceramic fragments

curving shelf of concrete with a low wall behind, covered in multicolored ceramic mosaic

A wall with a low archway, also mosaic

The journey through the garden begins with these enigmatic shapes formed in concrete, set on walls covered in fragments of ceramic bathroom fixtures.

A rough concrete wall with two small ticket windows about 1 meter from the ground

If you ever find yourself in Chandigarh, DO NOT MISS Nek Chand’s Rock Garden. The very low ticket windows are the first sign that you’re about to see something unusual

A carved stone screen in a pattern of stars and hexagons

Carved stone screen in a complex pattern

A red stone column carved with zigzag patterns

Inlaid stone floor with stars and octagons

Geometric motifs at Humayun’s tomb

A toilet stall lined in ochre stone with a clean toilet and even toilet paper!

Traveling in India is increasingly comfortable and easy. One simple but crucial element: lots of roadside establishments offering good food and clean toilets (decades ago a classmate took a photo of me squatting in a field when there was no other option!) #travel #india

Netflix branded popcorn snacks being sold in India

Brand extension

Me overwhelmed by choice in front of a wall of folded fabrics - only a small fraction of what was on offer!

HP Singh fabrics - 4 or 5 floors of beautiful fabrics. A scion of the Singh dynasty told me he studied at RMIT and plans to open an "experience center" in Melbourne where you will ge able to touch and see samples of fabrics that you can then order, shipped from India in a week

Woman in red salwar kameez in front of a shop hung with artificial flower garlands in white red pink gold and orange

Favorite photo that I took in Old Delhi in the galli (lane) where wedding and worship decorations are sold