Home again!

Within hours of arriving home (ie as soon as I put the first load of washing on) the holiday seemed like a distant memory. Two weeks of balmy bliss on the Sunshine Coast staying at my uncle's house (look for Noosa in Queensland on Google Maps all you overseas bloggers). We visited the beach, shopped at the Eumundi markets, checked out the Big Pineapple and spent hours watching migrating Humpback Whales frolicking in the water just offshore. I also squeezed in a visit to some local garden centres and walked around the neighbourhood to see what people plant in their gardens in such a benign climate.

The pandanus or screw palm was very popular (Pandanus tectorius) and in almost every garden. The huge prop roots startled my kids who thought they looked kinda creepy. They wanted to try eating the fruit but I believe it is inedible although I will do some research into that. Of course there were palms everywhere - it would be a good business to get into up Noosa way - collecting palm fronds because they are very hard to dispose of and take up a lot of room in the average garden. I saw huge cycads in many gardens (they made me green with envy) and lots of crotons, Agave attenuata, bouganvilleas, ardisias with their crops of red berries and lots of lillypillys (Syzygium or Waterhousia or Acmena) commonly used as hedging. They've had a very dry winter on the Sunshine Coast so consequently the countryside was looking quite dry and brown. Quite a change when we finally arrived home (3 days and 1800kms later!) to find that we've had quite a bit of rain while we were away and its really green here! Best winter/spring rain we've had in over a decade.

Have had a quick walk around the garden to marvel at the amount of growth in 2 weeks but haven't had a chance to look closely. More on that in future blogs!