Colour

This week I decorated 'Charlie's Place' (now fernery, was an aviary) with some colourful fabric that I got dirt cheap.
You may need the sunnies........it is BRIGHT...I love it.

From the back of the fernery...looking into 'Charlie's Place'. (it is in a covered area)

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From the front looking at the fernery.


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From the side...I am hoping this azalea will have plenty of flowers to 'pick up' the colour of my fabric.



All a bit of fun, to brighten up the day.

You sure have the knack Fay, looks great

Oh that is really nice Fay and so pretty, as Cheryl wrote you certainly have a knack for it.
That Azalea will pick up the colour no problem is that zygo cactus the pinky/purple one.
Fay what is that spiky plant behind the azalea flower in the last pic..

Thanks Cheryl and Mary-Anne. MA the plant that has a tall flower forming, top of which is in line with the brown hanging pot is Kalanchoe gastonis-bonnieri ....AKA ..'Donkeys ears'... other long leafed plant is some sort of epiphyllum. The darn thing throws out long leaves but no flower as yet. I wasn't sure which plant you meant..so I have guessed.
I bought the Donkey plant when we had a brief holiday prior to my cancer treatment. It wasn't labelled but I had someone ID it. Originally it looked like this..


Then those little plantlets (inset) got fuzzy pink 'flower like' things. Now It has a tall flower stem forming.. so it is all rather strange.

Looks great K... love the colour!

I've always wondered how long the material would last in the weather. We'd only get less than 12mths here so never worried about doing something similar.

Yes that's the one Fay gee I would never had guessed it was a Kalanchoe and as you say a little strange, interesting all the same..Thanks for that..

And speaking of them my on the ground yellow ones have heaps of buds on them so they will be in flower very soon, and the flowers last for months, then comes the red ones I have a very bright and colourful garden in the Winter..

Gail wrote:

Looks great K... love the colour!

I've always wondered how long the material would last in the weather. We'd only get less than 12mths here so never worried about doing something similar.

Thanks Gail, oddly enough I have had fabric fabric hanging the front door of that area for over two years.
I figure if it is lightweight is dries very quickly...plus we don't get as much rain down this way. Plus the fabric worked out to be 36.36 cents per metre....so it's a cheapo renovation.
Sometimes I wonder if I am losing the plot with my harebrained schemes.. ...Ross says life is never dull in this house, I have to agree with him.
I love zany ideas and funky looks....it keeps me young at heart.

Kalachoe .thats an interesting plant . Love the outdoor colour.

It looks quite exotic and beautiful, Fay, very good with the type of plants you have there. Could imagine if I tried that here I would have shelties playing tug of war around the garden with the material.

ooh I love it K! so lush and pretty, now, who is charlie?

otamot wrote:

ooh I love it K! so lush and pretty, now, who is charlie?

Originally this was an aviary and Charlie (the galah) was 'kibg of the castle' so to speak. We had to find new homes for the birds after Ross was diagnosed with Cryptococcal meningitis in late 2006. We were very attached to the birds, but common sense prevailed. I named the (now) fernery area after Charlie.
On an aside...we had an Eastern Rosella (male) who got out of the aviary through a hole (this was in 2004) and he continued visiting Mrs Rosella even feeding her through the wire.
To this day he still visits our trees and whistles for her. The cheeky devil even brings his 'new' wife.

awww that's so sweet about the rosella! did the meningitis come from the birds?

love what you've done with the area though, it looks fabulous

otamot wrote:

did the meningitis come from the birds?

The form of C. meningitis that Ross had was from the inhalation of the 'bug' (for want of a better word) found in bird faeces. Ross had a low immune system at the time from his cancer. The low immune system made him more susceptible to the C. meningitis and he now takes a strong drug to prevent a recurrence. As to which bird droppings were responsible, we will never know, but the immunologist thought it would be wise to find the birds a new home.
Over time we had Eastern Rosellas (one hand reared), the Galah, Superb parrots, King parrots some Quails and a lot of Cockatiels. The Cockatiels breed like rabbits..Ross took a lot of them down to the pet shop, as we couldn't find homes for them. He placed them in a box with holes for air ....he said all the way down the road little heads kept popping through the holes and cheeping... the story reminds me of 'Four and Twenty Blackbirds'.
Another amusing tale... Billy (the hand reared Rosella) kept getting out of the aviary and then coming back into the aviary... we thought we were going mad. This continued for a week or more...he was in...he was out...and so forth. After much searching we found a small hole (darn Charlie would chew holes) and covered it over. Billy sulked for weeks.

poor Billy

Oh that is so sad Fay, for you all

that's really sad that you had to get rid of them, but it sounds like you had no other choice really.

I still feel guilty about sending them to new homes...I know that is ridiculous, but I can't help it.
Here is a photo from 2001 of Ross with 'Little Bird' and our gentle old dog Middie. He is looking out of curiosity and would never harm the bird...rather he was puzzled. That bird was the funniest little thing, she would fly onto your shoulder and natter at you as though she was telling you all her troubles. She now lives with my brother in Canberra...when we were last there I stood at the back door and whistled and she responded instantly.
Over the years I have learnt to whistle really well, thanks to all the animals....even the cat would come when I whistled...lol.. and if he was being disdainful and wouldn't come, I would rub two sharp knives together as though I was sharpening them and he would come at a rapid pace...he thought there may be possible meat scraps...lol...

Such wonderful memories Fay...

Karingal wrote:

I still feel guilty about sending them to new homes...I know that is ridiculous, but I can't help it.
Here is a photo from 2001 of Ross with 'Little Bird' and our gentle old dog Middie. He is looking out of curiosity and would never harm the bird...rather he was puzzled. That bird was the funniest little thing, she would fly onto your shoulder and natter at you as though she was telling you all her troubles. She now lives with my brother in Canberra...when we were last there I stood at the back door and whistled and she responded instantly.
Over the years I have learnt to whistle really well, thanks to all the animals....even the cat would come when I whistled...lol.. and if he was being disdainful and wouldn't come, I would rub two sharp knives together as though I was sharpening them and he would come at a rapid pace...he thought there may be possible meat scraps...lol...

That photo reminds me of my SIL's Tenterfield Terrier. They have one remaining chook and the dog's very interested in her. Last time I was there he raced up and stood nose to beak with her. Neither moved for a good 30 seconds and then she delivered one good hard peck fair on his nose and then wandered away. It was really very comical to watch. No question of whose the boss, she's bigger than him too.

Keeping birds can have more health issues than most people are aware of. I knew a prominent bugdie and finch judge who eventually died of lung disease caused by years of spending all his spare time in the backyard aviary.

His was an extreme case though. His aviary was a small brick building that also contained his bird related office and such and it was where he could usually be found. So he had much more exposure in a contained area than your average bird keeper.

That would have taught the dog a lesson.