Tickletank

Last week on one of our regular Open Garden expeditions we went to a garden in Mt. Barker which was really quite extraordinary.  It's owned by an artist and is a converted water tank! Yep, a water tank, which once serviced the then very small town of Mt Barker.  It was installed in 1944 - 50,000 gallons which is really quite huge.  This artist bought the property in 1998, and converted it into the most eclectic home you could imagine.
Here are a few images I took on that day.  This property made an enormous impression on me.  It was charming, and the atmosphere was so serene.  The artist has done all the work on the garden herself, and she has saved up all manner of broken pieces of crockery and furnished the garden with some extraordinary mosaics.Some mosaics are actually on the wall of the main tank.  The whole effect is quite wacky but in a good way.

 THE TANK WALL

A SHELF DISPLAY INSIDE THE HOUSE

TEAPOT WATERFALL # 1

TEAPOT WATERFALL # 2

When you enter the garden, it's through an archway completely smothered in a Banksia rose - except for one small Cecile Brunner rose, climbing through it.

MOSAIC CHAIR SEAT

2 DANCING MAIDENS

A VIEW OF THE GARDEN THROUGH SOME WROUGHT IRON WORK, WITH A MOSAIC PART OF THE TANK WALL IN THE BACKGROUND.

MOSAIC TABLE TOP

Belair Park

Today we went for a walk around the lake at the Belair National Park.  An enormous amount of "stuff" as usual, and far too many photos to choose from.  I got this really cute image of a turtle which I liked a lot.

The funny thing is that although I've visited that lake numerous times, I've never noticed turtles before - and today we saw more than a dozen.

And here is the second portrait of a raven.  Black birds are not the easiest to photograph, and these ravens were in a terrible state about something.  There were quite as few people, including some rather noisy and disruptive children - so maybe the birds thought their nest was under attack or something.

Wayne saw a koala, which is his choice for a blip today - I mean what else could you choose!  It's such a treat to see this cuddly little creature in the wild, and even though they are quite common they are still very nice to see.

And finally here's a nice image of an Australian Wood Duck, complete with reflection.