Bernieh's Outbox

That's beautiful ... you do have quite a talent!

Would you believe it Neellan ... Dad did make a trip into town late yesterday afternoon (avoiding debris on the road on the way, of course!) to have a glass or two of the good stuff!! It takes a lot to shut down the pubs over here!!!!!

Anyway he's a lot happier now it's all over ... he's had his coffee and his soup ... what more could you ask?

I've seen the sunbirds here build nests on my hanging pots in the courtyard garden just outside my kitchen windows. That's why I thought this one might be a sunbird's nest as it looked so much like the one I had hanging outside my kitchen window ... it was really, really long too.

Actually Delonix ... I've been surprised at the almost total lack of snails this year. I mean we don't get many at all, but usually during the 'wet' I spot around ten or so. This year I've only spotted two! Maybe the kookaburras have been really honed their snail-catching skills!!

Thanks Pottygardener, Amy, BB, Delonix and Neellan ... thanks for your comments.
Neellan, it's hard to find out exactly where the common name originated ... but it's believed that the name refers to the spots this flower has ... it's spotted like a toad! I'm not sure which toad has lovely spots like this ... but hey! what do I know.

Thanks Mushy, BB and Neellan ... everything is fine now. The cyclone didn't affect us at all, but we're expecting rain this week as Ului deteriorated into a low and is moving across inland Queensland.
Dad is fine ... the roof will need to be checked, but he now has power. Apparently there's still around 50,000 homes and businesses without power in the Whitsunday area ... luckily Dad only had to do without it for around 20 hours!
My brother who lives a little further south than Dad ... and was a little closer to the 'eye' has checked in. He runs a caravan park and they only had minor damage ... a few windows blown in, a couple of caravans moved and there's some trees down.
All in all ... we've been lucky this time. Hopefully that's the end of the cyclones for this year.

He's far too busy restoring a Norton with a sidecar just for me, JJ ... yes that's right .. apparently he's doing this job just for me! Would absolutely love it if he could fix the pond out in the courtyard though!!!

Fabulous place ... wish I could visit! Nice to see you in person ... and how lovely that you met up with some fellow GOYers. Thanks for taking us along on your visit ... great photos. That water feature is something special!

Thanks for your comment Oldgunner ... it's definitely a new favourite of mine.

So full of colour.

You have a lovely garden. Welcome from me as well.

Gorgeous garden bed, Robgard. I do hope your spring is a terrific one for the garden.

A stunning sight!

Now that's a decent size!

So lovely.

I remember these ... they were in the backyards of both my grandmas down here. I can also remember vividly helping my Grandma Grace pull the washing out of the old copper, slapping it in the wicker laundry basket and then hanging it on the washing line when the prop had been lowered. You really don't see these much any more.

That's a gorgeous shot!

How beautiful!

Great view!

What a great sight!

Yes Sue, it finally made it's appearance ... missed it's movie debut though!

Hi Sueb ... this is my first toad lily and I'm so impressed with it that I think I'll be getting more now.

This one is definitely heat and humidity hardy over here, Bjs ... and as far as I know it is also cold hardy to temps. around -5 degrees F. Maybe others would know a bit more.

Thanks Sandra ... yes I've been waiting for a while to see this lovely bloom.

Thanks Mageth ... yes I think it should have been labelled as 'vanilla custard' not 'vanilla'!! But I do far prefer this colour over the orange ones.

Thanks BB and Neellan ... well 'Ului' (that was the cyclone's name) crossed our coast around 230 kilometres away from where I live. We have had very little rain and just a few patches of wind gusts ... so we got off scott-free! It's mostly been very, very still here ... which is what we expect when a cyclone is approaching, but not what we expect when it's close by. It's been a little strange!

Unfortunately Dad lives a little further south and was in the eye of the cyclone ... he lives only 50 kilometres away from where the centre of the cyclone hit .... so my hometown experienced wind gusts around 200 kilometres an hour.

Dad said he could hear the roof lifting in places ... they also lost power as soon as the 'eye' hit and it hasn't come back yet and it's 10 hours later! They got torrential rain and it's still raining ... lots of trees fallen down and powerlines are down, but luckily no deaths or casualties have been reported. They still can't leave their houses yet ... too much debris around.

All in all ... 'Ului' turned out to be a bit of a gentleman ... and behaved quite well - given the fact that he was a Category 3 cyclone when he crossed the coast! He only caused moderate damage ... well moderate damage for our corner of the world anyway! There are reports of homes damaged, boats washed ashore, trees down and 60,000 homes without power, but the Emergency Services and Disaster Relief Authorities credit the locals with being so well prepared and this helped immensely with the positive outcome of this event.

Well ... here I am ... finally able to catch up with your comments.

Pansypotter, Clarice, Donnah, BB, Lonegardener and Neellan ... they cyclone didn't go away ... we've been preparing for it all day today. It's expected to hit somewhere close to us at around 3.00 am in the morning and it's a Category 3 ... which is classed as Highly Destructive. So ... fingers crossed, all will be well. I'm also hoping my Dad will be OK .. at the moment he's closer to the eye of the cyclone than we are ... and he's getting very strong gale force winds already.

Wow ... that bird has been working hard! Looks a lot like the nests our sunbirds build.

It's just gorgeous ... such a lovely colour.

It's a beautiful garden view ... would love to while away an hour or two in that summerhouse. Welcome to GOY.