Once more it`s been a few days since my last post. No excuse really but i`ve been busy as usual. Yesterday was too hot for comfort but we didn`t get to 42 like further inland, boy was it good to feel the cool change come in. The lawn is very crunchy to walk on now, and the twisted willow is dropping its leaves again.
Friday was a good day for my gardening obsession. For a while now I`ve been on the lookout for a Leucospermum Firewheel Protea. On Friday we visited a local Art gallery, and they had a couple of these planted by the entrance gate. So I asked the owner of the gallery where he got them from. He directed us to a nursery just a little way off which was closing down and having a massive sale. WELL did I have a good time or what ???
We came home with 18 plants, all in 6" pots or larger. For $35.
4 Pittosporums
2 Proteas
2 Scaevolias
1 Blue Eye Grass
1 leucodendron
1 Grevillea
1 Pimelea
3 Basil ( lime, cinnamon and another unlabelled)
1 bronze fennel
1 red Californian Poppy
1 Mystery
None of them have been planted yet because of the heat but will do it soon.

My other big news is that I have a new budgie. I took Oscar the Grump back to the breeder on Sunday as we were incompatible !
Oscar had his Christmas day when he realised he was back with his own kind - he went mad with excitement. I had 6 baby birds to choose from and it wasn`t easy. It was down to the last 3 and a little yellow one just sat and looked at me with dark baby eyes so I chose him. He`s absolutely gorgeous and quite different to Oscar. He listens when you speak to him, climbs trustingly on your finger and is quite active and funny. I hung lace curtains at the windows today so that he could try to fly around the room without crashing into the windows thinking he was going outside.
He managed quite well and flew back and forth from window to shelf to window without any mishap. went back into his cage with no trouble. He`s so pretty too, like a little yellow powder puff. Naming him is hard but i keep calling him Sunbeam as a nickname so he might be stuck with Sunny
The lettuce is doing really well at the moment, I have Red velvet (pictured), Brown Cos, Green Cos, Endive and Radicchio.
The Satsuma Plum has quite a few plump fruit on it turning colour so must net that soon.
I have 2 indoor orchids at the moment, a Cattleya and a Laelia. both have new shoots growing and hopefully will flower next season.
Today i noticed that the tuberous Begonias have tiny leaves showing at last, I thought they weren`t going to so hooray.