Interesting Bird of Paradise flower.

Bird of paradise plants are native to South Africa but are now found in mild climates everywhere. This plant provides dramatic blooms that resemble a bird with a crown. It is also known as the crane flower. The true leaves on the bird of paradise so closely resemble those of a banana plant that the bird of paradise was once classified in the same family. It now has its own classification: Strelitzia reginae.

Bird of Paradise flower in our garden.

A view from the top shows the beautiful purple or blue petals. These heart shapes are the female parts of the flower.

Note in the beginning it has 6 orange or yellow sepals and two of the purple petals.

Then a day later more sepals and petals come out of the flower bract. There are always sets of 3 orange sepals to 1 purple petal.

Source of information from http://www.ehow.com/facts_7221039_structure-bird-paradise-flower.html

Nikon Coolpix S6200 photos

I have been playing around with the new Nikon Coolpix camera and I have had quite a few disasters. I keep on cutting off the dogs ears as I press the button down the camera moves down and the poor dog is minus his ears :)

Here is one which worked out quite well. I was standing far away so this is a long distance shot.

I hope to get the hang of it soon.

I am happy with the macro photography.

Testing how close I can go :)

Enjoy your day.

Random stuff from the internet.

I did some chores early this morning and as you can see by this post I am taking a break.

Is this not cute?

It is difficult to describe my mood today.

Huh!?

Send text for safety tip.

Old Lady Apple.

Washing machine feeling ill.

Have a great day and be good.

Pink Flowers.

There are a lot of splashes of pink in our garden. I love planting pink and white together, I think they compliment each other well.

Clouds

   This photo was taken in March.

It was 30°C and extremely sticky and uncomfortable but beautiful clouds were in the sky  :)

This photo is unedited - the sky really is this blue.

 

Huge bud.

Bud ready to open.

... a few days later ...











































I don't know what it is called. 

 

Calliandra common names powderpuff and fairy duster.

This is still one of my favourite plants in the garden. On an overcast day it is most striking and beautiful. I love to see the round pink buds uncurl into those white dainty dusters.

When the boss is always right.

About a year ago WA my work colleague came to me and said that she was being moved from her office and would be sharing the office with me. She also said that the boss had discussed it with her a month earlier and that everyone knew about the move. Five days later two strong me came in and moved her desk and computer into the office with me. The boss not once came and spoke to me about it which made it clear to me that he was not prepared to give me a say in the matter.

The boss wants us to have a family atmosphere type of business so I also think that because of this he should have spoken to me even if it was just to explain that new staff members were joining us or whatever his reason was for making this decision.

I immediately made an effort to get along with WA although I have a long standing grudge against her. When I had a nervous breakdown I mentioned a harrowing meeting with the boss one day and she said “listen GB, I am not interested”. I never burden people with my problems and like I said I just mentioned the meeting I did not go into a word for word account of what had happened.

Yesterday I get to work and immediately with my lunch and keys still in my hands the boss, WA and another colleague all three wanted help and my attention immediately.

The boss gets priority and he gives me a task to do and I help the other colleague. I put my cell phone, keys and lunch away and WA immediately starts telling me about her son’s medical problem. She just assumes that it is a convenient time for me and she just assumes that I am interested in hearing about her son.

This also happened about six months ago and when I gave her a short remark to show her - now is not convenient - she went crying to the boss who called me into his office and said if I did not watch how I talked to fellow staff members that I would get a written warning.

So while WA is talking to me I am ignoring her and I am checking which orders need to go out on the first trip of deliveries and the boss comes charging into the office and says “GB, you can have your private chat on your own time, I told you the task I gave you is top priority and I want it done immediately”.

WA has always been someone who loves chatting more than working and it was his choice to put her in an office with me. WA does not give me a chance to get a word in and I have asked her before not to engage me in a conversation when I arrive at work we can have a chat later on in the day when she is on lunch. I work right through never taking lunch.

Yesterday WA chatted and interrupted every person at work with her personal discussions about her problems not only on the health of her son but also her financial problems and then the day ended. She had been away from work for two days and she made no attempt yesterday to catch up on any of her work.

She left the office every ten minutes to either go buy snacks or to take a break. I gobbled my sandwich in between phone calls etc and when I came home last night I was exhausted because I am not sleeping right through during the night.

Fun orange art.

For those of you who have not seen this on email or facebook. Enjoy :D

House cleaning in the middle of summer.

I got up at 6am this morning, the sunlight came streaming into the kitchen and the house already felt warm and stuffy, we started opening windows and doors to let the air circulate. The weatherman said it would reach 31°C today and tomorrow.

I have a few days left of my leave and am eager to do a few chores, the temptation to relax in this stuffy weather rather than work was extremely hard to resist.

I removed curtains and cleaned the windows while another family member kindly washed the curtains for me.

At 10am we decided that was enough physical labour and we are now taking a break before I tackle some chores which will keep me away from the heat of the sun.

I am not one to brag but today I am going to brag a little because the windows look sparkling, spotless and beautiful.

I hope the temperature drops a little on Saturday when it is our mother’s birthday.

Whatever you are doing today – enjoy it to the fullest.

                     
This image was taken from the internet.

Happy Bees.

They say a happy garden has bees ...

well the bees are happy in our garden this morning.

I hope you had a great sunday morning!

 

If only homework was this easy when I was at school!

When I was at school there wasn’t anything like computers. When I had to do a project I had two weeks in which I had to go to the library every afternoon, to copy by hand, as much information as possible about the topic and because it was 50c per A4 copy. I would only make a few copies of the pictures I needed and then I would go home and excitedly compose my project. Sadly my masterpieces would be considered dull in comparison with what can be done today.

The reason I have gone down this path of memories is of course my office mate WA. Her teenage daughter, SA needed some information for a school project. WA flatly refused to look up the information her daughter needed.

After school SA goes to the house of a friend. The friend’s mother keeps an eye on them until WA gets home in the evenings. The friend’s mother obviously started to get annoyed with the fact that every time a project had to be done not only did she have to assist her own child with the project but SA too. So this time the friend’s mother confronted WA and told her that the project was due the following day and wasn’t SA going to do anything?

WA made a feeble excuse and went to the manager at our work and asked him if he would look up the information. The manager who was quite busy at the time because of the backlog caused by WA’s frequent absences from work also thought it was a bit of a cheek and never looked up the information.

So what do you think WA did the next morning? She tells SA to stay at home and not go to school. When WA came to work she told us all how urgent it was that the project be done and it is all the manager's fault. Neither WA nor her daughter did it though. Eventually the poor girl had to go back to school and got 0% for that particular project.

Not only does WA have a computer at home but she also has one at work. She was able to find Facebook but not the information her child needed ...

Set fire to the rain - Adele

Today I am expected to act in a certain way and everyone will be watching me to see my reaction.

It is stressful and when I am under stress I usually get a song stuck in my mind. I heard this song on the radio earlier this week and now I can't get it out of my mind.

Hoping that this day will fly by and bring us one day closer to the weekend :)

Dangerous situations.

 

 

 

I saw Sunday - Vandalism.

It was Saturday, 2am and we were fast asleep. Suddenly in the silence the sound of shattering glass resounded through the house. We were dazed and unsure about what had happened.

I thought maybe it was in the street or across the road from us. As I reached the lounge window a family member yelled get away from that window. It was too late I had already stepped on a thick layer of glass which crunched under my slipper. I ignored the warning and drew back the curtain, the huge window had been smashed and a brick was lying 2 meters away from the window where it had landed after bouncing off the old glass pane.

A family member said we should phone the police. I was not sure what would that achieve. The woman across the road stood at her gate and called to our neighbour EH and asked him if it had happened on his property. I stuck my head through the hole and yelled it happened at this window. She had not seen me in the darkness and got a jolt when she heard my voice so close to her. She replied that she had seen a guy in a black hooded jacket walk away from our house after it happened. I asked her if it was a white guy and she replied yes. She said she was going to call the police I did not reply.

The phone rang, it was EH from next door. After confirming that it had happened at our house he asked if he could come over and help check if anyone was lurking in the shadows. We welcomed his generous offer. I changed into my clothes.

Suddenly I panicked. Our little black dog usually barks if there is any movement at the front door and I had not heard him make any sound. I rushed out of the back door checking in the darkness if I could see any lurking figures and suddenly the little sleepy head comes from his warm bed and snuggles his warm nose against my hand. I could cry with joy but I patted him gently and went into the house. I walked straight into EH who had arrived with his gun wearing shorts and no shoes in the bitter cold. EH helped check the whole property (with bare legs and feet), had a quick cup of coffee and then he rushed off home (I think to get some heat into his nether regions).

It is amazing how cold the house became. We went back to bed to get some heat into our bodies but I did not sleep again. I kept listening in case someone tried to get in through the window because it is very close to the road. The burglar bars were still intact.

I got up early and picked up the larger pieces of glass and then sat with a banister brush for about half an hour brushing all the glass splinters out of the carpet. No police arrived and at 8.30am we phoned the glass fitters to come and replace the pane. R650 later and 1.30pm we had the window repaired and cleaned up the mess.

I am convinced it was not an attempted robbery but an act of vandalism.

Thursday afternoon when I came to the stop street at the corner of our block I noticed a teenage boy forcefully throwing gravel at a good friend’s house on the corner. I watched the youth for about 2 minutes while he frantically threw the gravel from across the road trying to get it over a high wall and aiming at a window. Suddenly the youth spotted me and I drove into our driveway. I did not glare at him or confront him, I left it like that. While I was pondering in the dark about which enemies we might have who would want to do something like this I could only think of this chap. I will probably wonder forever who had done this and probably never know the answer.

Rue.

Everything in the garden is getting ready for spring which is still 3 weeks away.

The rue plant is flowering. Although rue has many medicinal uses I like planting it in flower beds because it is an excellent insect repellent.

Flowers remain beautiful and undamaged because the rue has a strong smell and bitter taste so insects like aphids avoid it completely.

You can't have my chocolate and don't call me ma'am!

It annoys me how reckless people drive in a subway.

Driving to work this morning a taxi driver decides it is safe to reverse in the subway! It amazes me how many people think it is ok to make u-turns or overtake dangerously while travelling through a subway.

Don’t talk about my food!

There might be some people who disagrees with me (it’s ok) but I personally cannot stand it when someone makes a comment about my food when I am eating. I’ll give examples, say you are eating a chocolate at work and a colleague says “that goes straight to the hips you know” or someone says “you have a chocolate everyday, can’t you bring me one too?” If people comment when I eat something my immediate opinion about them is that they are common.

Ma’am or Tannie

I think it is extremely rude when people assume that it is ok to call you “ma’am” or “Tannie". One can be respectful without calling anyone names.

Brrrr ... Winter

The beautiful coloured leaves announces the arrival of winter.

Young plants are covered by special fabric to protect against frost.

Frozen drops of water.

The dreaded school photo.

When I was still at school the worst day of the year was when someone from the medical profession visited the school. Either they would be there to do a general examination of all students or they were there to administer inoculations.

The second worst day of the school year was the day allocated for the taking of photographs. I remember in one particular year when I was in high school. It was August (which is of course the windiest month of the whole year). The staff summoned two classes at a time. Every class had to line up from the shortest student to the tallest. I remember this particular year because it felt like we waited an hour for the class preceding us to have their photo taken. When we were finally allowed into the hall being used for the taking of the photos my cheeks and lips were red and aching from the blast of the wind and my hair was in a mess.

The photographer was making all these stupid jokes to get the students in a pleasant relaxed mood but it did not work for me – it just irritated me because I wanted it over and done with. Now for the reason why I hated the photo taking so much (apart from the fact that I am not photogenic). The shortest students sat on chairs, then the next rows students would stand behind those sitting on the chairs, the next row of students would have to stand on a wooden bench, then because I was always the tallest in my class I would have to climb onto a bench place on top of another bench and then I must walk to the centre of the bench so that I would be in the middle back row of the photo. I dreaded this because as students climbed onto the stacked benches and walked along it the benches would rock and feel very unstable.

Then we had to look relaxed and comfortable and smile. The photographer said “say whiskey” and we said “whiskey” then he snapped the photo. Well the terror on my face was clearly visible and printed at the end of the year in our school year book.

Addiction to Pills.

About a year ago someone at work had a minor injury. We always have Disprins on hand but because this guy was in pain we got in stronger pain killers so that he could take medication and continue work without taking extra sick leave.

My office mate WA, who has a bit of a problem with medication, could not keep her hands off these white little beauties and one morning when I came to work I was told she was admitted to hospital during the early morning hours and was in a serious condition. Everyone at work suspected that she had overdosed.

WA rummages through the medicines and collects about five different tablets in the sticky palm of her hand and then swallows them all in one gulp.

A few weeks ago WA tells me that her son takes a fist full of vitamin tablets and she doesn’t mind because they are good for him. (He obviously sees this from his mom.) I was shocked and I informed her that vitamins should be taken as advised otherwise they could also be dangerous but she just laughed me off.

One month ago, we were all working in the office and I hear thud on WA’s desk, I look over and WA’s face is flat on the desk and she is snoring out loud. The temp helping me was horrified and urged me to do something because WA was obviously not well. I didn’t panic – it was not the first time I had seen WA react this way. Eventually the boss came into the office and ordered WA to go and sleep it off at home. WA sat up and said she was not sleeping and then drove home. I was shocked to think that anyone would consider allowing someone, who could not keep their eyes open, to drive.

Today WA demanded pain killers again. There weren’t any – simply because she had already taken them all. Annoyed WA ordered the temp to run to the corner shop to buy some tablets for her. WA walked out the office and when she returned 2 minutes later she grabbed the money from the temp and said “never mind, I’ll go myself”. The temp said she was busy with something and would have gone as soon as she had finished. I knew that, the problem is that WA needed it really urgently because she is addicted for sure!