POPPIES

Who loves poppies?

Well, I do for one..

Nobody grows them around here; I don't think the climate is right.

I was so happy to find this bunch on sale for $5 ..

I love their colours: delicious combinations of orange, pink, and yellow, blended like silk in those crinkly petals

Bought this painting years ago, to enjoy the idea of these happy flowers, 

even if I rarely see the real thing.

Yesterday we took my Dad to a Cafe/Art Gallery

I think he enjoyed the sculpture gardens

Choose your nude: long and slender?

or rather more robust?

Dad enjoys his coffee with a decadent dessert:

I don't think this is on the menu at his Retirement Home

Dad is 92, and grew up in the Australian bush ..

We took him for a drive on a rough bush track..

A last look back to the plateau, where we had been in the Cafe.

Note: UFO? smoke signals?

  er, no, somebody didn't notice a mark on her camera lens...

Wishing you a great week, hot or cold, wherever you are!

XXXXX

WINTER WARMING

As the biting winds and chill cold of winter bite into Brisbane's West,

I seek that most humble of vegetables, the Pumpkin!

Pumpkin soup, warm and golden ...

Pumpkin mashed, baked, turned into scones or breads ..

The weekend skies were that brilliant blue rarely seen in our hazy summer ..

the blue which comes as the sun warms up a morning of low, single digit temperatures ..

The Cardinals flew off for a hot chocolate fix at this popular spot upstream on the Brisbane River, known as College's Crossing.

Those people down there are fishing -

Poor College's has been inundated by very bad flooding twice in the past two years, and the evidence is still there - fenced off for safety...

The kiosk, happily renovated in its high vantage point, was basking in the winter sunshine and doing a roaring trade -

The Brisbane River, rendered in stone as part of a large paved area..

We popped into a local plant nursery on the way home

and spent the rest of the day 'improving' the Garden of Neglect ..

You know how much I like a bird: behold the new white lorikeet which has mysteriously appeared among my milk glass collection - who, me?

Found this blue pansy ring holder in Canada - 
note the pansies I planted two weeks ago are flowering prolifically already -
pansies are tough little friends..

What can I say?
I love the cooler weather 

Have a lovely cosy week

XXXX