52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 5

Week 5: Flower.

Gardenia from my garden, oil pastels on black paper.

Extended season

Trio of gardenias.

Lazy days photo catch-up

This has been a bumper year for gardenias, even if they don't last too long
in the intense heat. 17 January 2010.


It's re-alphabetising day for my DVD collection. 18 January 2010.


Ceramic "Looney Tunes" Marvin the Martian collectibles - the little one is a pepper and salt shaker set,
the large one a mug. 19 January 2010.


I'm still not sure if this is an actual sheep fleece, fallen from a truck near my house,
or simply the remnants of an insulation batt. 20 January 2010.

Bloodstains in the dark

The fourth season of JJ Abrams' "Lost" returned to Australian television this week, and I watched back the first episode on my DVD recorder this morning. I'd quite forgotten some of the ongoing threads over the show's hiatus but, in the opening moments, the director, editor and writers quickly got me up to speed.

Knowing that JJ Abrams is currently working on the new Star Trek film, it was exciting to see, anew, how well "Lost" is put together. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time catching up - and I still have no idea what's going to happen next.

My only eyebrow-raising moments: the camp of survivors split up into two search parties, both groups following what they believed to be a legitimate path of bloodstains.

At night time? By the light of flaming torches?

Mmmm. Okay.

Speaking of mysterious bloodstains in the dark: I managed to create my own wayward trail of blood spots last night, after cutting my finger with the newish kitchen scissors. I was harvesting what might turn out to be my last two gardenia blooms for the season. What a time to discover that the last dregs of Dettol antiseptic was used for whatever was the last local medical emergency...

And speaking of mysteries in the dark: last night, my house security system was insisting I had a window open. The main wooden doors were fine; the code was claiming it was a window. Or a glass door. I ran around the house, checking every window and glass door. The control panel was still insisting a window was open.

Then, Jack started barking at the front wooden door. I opened it, but he was still barking. Not out into the street, but at the door! I closed the door again and I realised the infamous ghostly fishy smell was back! Now, Jack was freaking out, and ran off to bed.

As the smell slowly dissipated, I glanced at the security control panel again. The ghost was gone, and lo! - the control panel had reset itself! No windows were open.

Next stop, "The Twilight Zone".

How does your garden grow?

It's a little bizarre that the grass is growing so wonderfully in the middle of a drought, but we've been getting a combination of frequent storms, that can dump a month's rainfall in ten minutes over parts of Sydney, followed by days of gorgeous sunshine. You can practically watch the blades of grass growing!

I'm particularly thrilled about my gardenia bushes, which are blooming extremely well this year. Gardenias were my paternal grandmother's much-treasured flowers, due to her daughter Elaine's fondness for them (Aunty Elaine died at age 17, although she has ben an influence over several generations who never met her). I once bought my grandmother a potted gardenia for her balcony as a gift and it was an annual celebration whenever that first fragrant bud burst open. When I bought my own flat in 1984, a gardenia for the balcony was one of my first purchases.



Since moving to the house in 2000, I've made a point of picking up a new greenhouse-reared, ready-to-bloom gardenia plant each year, mainly because they have had more promise of many blooms than the ones here, which have traditionally granted only about ten blooms each per season. The last few years, despite careful spraying for pests, some little caterpillar has been tunnelling through the tiny unopened gardenia buds and this either mutates each bud as it grows to full size, or causes it to not open at all.

This year, anticipating disaster again, I bought a new, ready-to-bloom gardenia plant - which has started performing well - but all of the other plants are covered with buds and flowers, too! Mind you, there've been some black caterpillars threatening to start munching but so far so good. (I squished one in the centre of his body the other day - and his brains shot right out of his head. If that's where a caterpillar keeps his brains.)

I'm also enjoying the development of this year's agapanthus blooms (but so far no action from my two Black Panthas), the gorgeous self-seeding portulacas, and the amazingly hardy pigfaces (first time this year) in their numerous colours.


Fingers crossed for a black pantha!


Sunday's magic number: 88.6 I'm so excited! It was a difficult week, watching a friend tuck into Krispy Kreme donuts when I had a skinny milkshake, and I even refused to partake of free Christmas cake at work. Sigh... I guess it's been worth it.