Today, I’m so excited to launch my new Patreon community offering membership for those of you who wish to explore various aspects of nature -based creative inspiration. My membership levels begin at AU$5 which includes a weekly Creative Prompt, a monthly wallpaper image for your phone, and more.
Category: Rural Life
Our Trust For Nature Covenant
Before you watch the video below, here is our journey: In August 2013 when we moved into our beautiful bushland property, I knew nothing about native flora and fauna. A new camera, the time to explore our bushland in detail and the curiosity to find out what I had photographed led to this blog. Over … Continue reading Our Trust For Nature Covenant
12 Months On
One of the things I most enjoy about my Fifteen Acres blog is the communication with people who are interested in nature and who enjoy sharing flora and fauna finds – both on my site, and on their own. For those long term followers who must wonder where I have been, I want to write … Continue reading 12 Months On
Goodbye to 2017
Happy new year to all of you who follow Fifteen Acres. I got quite a shock to realise I haven’t posted since May – 2017 has really been a strange year. I must admit to looking forward to a brand new beginning in 2018, and getting back into the swing of regular updates. There are … Continue reading Goodbye to 2017
For Those Who Sew!
Many of my friends and family are keen quilters, or sew clothing or items such as throw pillows and tote bags. At some point I noticed that most of the flowers on the floral fabrics were exotics, and I wondered if I could create fabric designs featuring our local wildflowers. The result is my … Continue reading For Those Who Sew!
Catching Up
Most of the time, confining this blog to what happens on our property of fifteen acres works well. There is certainly a lot to photograph and research. Over the past year I have been doing many more things which take my focus away: involvement in the community and trying to progress my artwork being two major focal … Continue reading Catching Up
Visitors in the Garden
The plants in our Honeyeater Garden are beginning to thicken up, and along with Crimson Rosella, Magpies and Kookaburras, it is now also attracting Red Wattlebirds, the odd Robin and some fast moving tiny birds that I haven’t been able to photograph yet. Also attracted to the garden is the young joey who spends a … Continue reading Visitors in the Garden
The Honeyeater Garden
I’ve mentioned our new honeyeater garden in a few recent posts, so I thought I would tell you a little more about it. The idea began approximately a year ago, when I noticed that all of the flowering plants in our garden were not visible from inside the house. We had plenty of honeyeaters on our … Continue reading The Honeyeater Garden
A New Artistic Venture
In recent months I’ve received quite a bit of support for my photographic work, including my recent post about tonal landscapes which was reposted by Ian Lundt on his Australia’s Best Ecology Blogs Facebook page (31 August). After much thought, I’ve decided to set up an online shop on Redbubble to make my photographs available all around the world in … Continue reading A New Artistic Venture
Ornamental Plum Blossom
We have so many eucalypts and native plants with unobtrusive flowers, it feels fantastic when the ornamental plum tree is in full blossom. A real burst of colour which attracts both birds and insects. This week, two Red Wattle Birds have been feeding from the blossoms every day. I’ll post the bird photos tomorrow. Today I … Continue reading Ornamental Plum Blossom
Mind Shifting Moments 1: Ecosystem
As we approach the two-year mark, I want to document some of the ‘mind shifting’ moments that have occurred since we moved in. I think I am substantially a different woman from the one who lived in the centre of the city two years ago. The topic I have selected for this first post is Ecosystem … Continue reading Mind Shifting Moments 1: Ecosystem
Bougainvillea
Just for the joy of the colour, here is a photograph of the Bougainvillea in our back yard. Most of the bracts have one or two white flowers, but this one has three.
Green Tomatoes
Over Summer and early Autumn, we had great success with the tomato plants in the greenhouse. We’ve eaten tomatoes most nights, given some away, frozen some for use in Winter casseroles and stews… and still there are more! At the end of the season, we couldn’t believe the number of green tomatoes hanging on the vines. … Continue reading Green Tomatoes
Fuchsia in the Fernery
Most of the plants in our fernery are non-flowering, so these bright Fuchsia flowers caught my attention this week. I couldn’t resist photographing them.
Bread and Butter Pickles
There hasn’t been any posts on self-sufficiency for ages, so I thought I would share my first attempt at pickling. I’ve tried sauces, butters and jams before, but never pickling. We had an excess of cucumbers, and the most common recipe in my cook books for using up cucumbers was ‘Bread and Butter Pickles”. Apparently the … Continue reading Bread and Butter Pickles
Digging up Spuds!
Months and months ago, I found an old bag of seed potatoes that looked past their best. They were all withered and sending out shoots into the air. Although I didn’t hope for much, I decided to put them in the ground to see what happened. Miracle of miracles, they grew! Yesterday, Richard dug … Continue reading Digging up Spuds!
Fruit!
In Australia it’s mid Summer and the fruit is beginning to ripen. We are not the only ones to notice. Swamp Wallabies and parrots also have their eye on the crop, and are much faster than we are at taking advantage of ready to eat fruit! Last year we had bountiful crops that seemed to … Continue reading Fruit!
Begining the Discussion: A Facebook Experiment
As my Fifteen Acres blog grows and changes, I’ve been thinking more about its central themes. I’ve settled on a couple of rules which shape my posts: Everything I write about happens on our fifteen acres of mostly bushland Through photographs and my thoughts, I’ll try to show you what I found interesting or unusual. … Continue reading Begining the Discussion: A Facebook Experiment
Familiar Faces: Wildlife, Home, and Making Contact
The first thing I do when I get out of bed each day is look out the window to see ‘who’ is there. We recognise individual birds and animals within a species because they seem to have made their regular patch of turf the land outside our windows. It is their home as much as … Continue reading Familiar Faces: Wildlife, Home, and Making Contact
Vegetable Tales
For those of you who have been following the vegetable garden and our attempts to grow our own food, I’m sorry for the long wait. The truth is, we’ve had more failure than success over the past year. Initially the vegetables planted in the greenhouse seemed to be doing very well. When Winter came, we … Continue reading Vegetable Tales
Our Spring Garden
Spring is almost here, and the garden is blooming! In this post, I just wanted to capture the form and colour of some of the flowers in our garden.
Lingering Moments
It is almost a year since we moved here. As I look back over the photos, I notice a number which were intended for posts, that never quite made it to the blog, so here they are. Each one lingering as a moment I remember clearly. They all resonate with me enough to share with … Continue reading Lingering Moments
Acacia Tree in Bloom
Our Acacia tree is in full bloom at the moment. This tree has obviously been planted by one of the previous owners, and the cheerful yellow blossom stands out against the grey-green eucalypts. I’m enjoying it immensely.
A Sourdough Fiasco
Over the last few months I have been valiantly attempting to make sourdough bread. I’ve spent days cultivating the starter culture, adding wholemeal rye flour and filtered water every six hours to feed it. After about a week, I had a lovely frothy starter, that looked just perfect. My bread, however, wasn’t perfect. Despite my … Continue reading A Sourdough Fiasco
Fifteen Acres 