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Deirdre

@dstraughan.bsky.social

190 followers 270 following 290 posts

Survived 40 years in tech, having opinions online even longer. Born in New Orleans, I've lived in Thailand, Bangladesh, India, 17 years in Italy. I now mostly post about living and gardening in Australia. She. Lots about me on my website beginningwithi.com

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Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 1d

I planted a packet of ~12 foxglove seeds. Result: one plant. At least it’s pretty #gardening #bloomscrolling

A plant with broad furry leaves growing wide from its base with a short stalk wide from its base with a short stock studded with light magenta, bell shaped flowers

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Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 2d

More from Relics, the #lego installation at the #australianmuseum : 88th Street, the performing arts district built into an upright piano: a jazz club, a group of street performers, an escapologist hanging upside down in a water tank and… wait, is that Bob Ross? (yes he has a paint palette in hand)

Small Lego scene of a band of minifigs playing music

A minifig upside down in a water tank above a bright marquee saying T HE GREAT LINGUINIS Tonight ! A DAZZLING DISPLAY OF MAGICAL ARTS

View into a narrow window in a brick building to the face of a minifig with curly hair and a mustache and short beard

A group of four minifigs in barbershop quartet outfits doing some choreography on the street, or possibly tripping and about to fall, watched by others

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 2d

If you’re a #lego fan of any age anywhere near Sydney, you will enjoy this!

Entry to the Relics exhibition with a giant minifig silhouetted against a yellow circle

Poster for the exhibition with a cassette tape. Two minifigs are on top of it making music while one down below in overalls hard hat and ear protection examined a pulled out section of tape. Label on the cassette reads Starring at the Australian Museum

The front of an old Volkswagen Beetle with a Lego community built inside

An old secretary desk with a manual upright typewriter and other objects, colonized by a minifig newspaper office

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 2d

Native everlasting daisy #bloomscrolling #gardening

Closeup of a bloom with many spiky pink petals and a yellow center

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Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 3d

Calendula “Sunset Buff” #bloomscrolling #gardening

Close view of a many petalled flower with a bright orange center, petals shading cream to peach at their tips

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Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 3d

Our bougainvillea is stunning this year. Not sure why we’re getting so much more bloom than the previous two years, maybe it’s finally fully recovered from the moonflower vine attack.

View of a massive plant throwing branches up into the sky, all covered in brilliant magenta-red bracts

View from underneath at branches of blooms against the blue sky

Reposted by Deirdre

Tori Foote @toriatheisttori.bsky.social · 4d

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Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 4d

On current trends… youtu.be/olOk5cK4lqQ?...

Political Science - Randy Newman | The Midnight Special

YouTube video by The Midnight Special

youtu.be

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 4d

This service made it very easy for me to vote last year from Australia. No longer, because God forbid we should make it easy for overseas (or any citizens) citizens to vote. What was that about “no taxation without representation “?

Text from my California prop 50 ballot reading Alert!
The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) has discontinued their service of faxing military and overseas voters' election materials to county election officials.
What this means: you can no longer send your voted ballot to fax@fvap.gov.
If you wish to return your voted ballot by fax, you must send it directly to your county elections official

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 4d

The pigface has come into its full glory #GardeningAustralia #bloomscrolling #gardening

A variety of pig face with small narrow fleshy leaves and lots of pale pink daisy like flowers with yellow centers. It’s now a mass of pale pink flowers with yellow centers

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 5d

Same nasturtiums that I photographed a few days ago, but here they glow in the last of the evening light. Not sure my iPhone captured what I was seeing. Varieties are: random from a mixed packet, Peach Melba, and Empress of India #garden #bloomscrolling

Bright yellow orange flowers with dark orange highlights

Pale peach blossoms with orange striations and dark red centers

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 6d

I heard a thump and scratch-scretch-scratch outside. Went to look and… I didn’t know brush turkeys had made it this far south in Sydney.

A female brush turkey - larger than a chicken, all black except for a bare red head and neck and yellow wattle collar, with a vertical fan of black tail feathers - walking along the edge of a gently sloping corrugated roof

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 8d

Pimelea ferruginea aka rice flower starting to bloom. Australian plants have interesting growing styles #GardeningAustralia

Close up of a round head of tiny pink flowers

From further away you can see that these pink puffs grow at the end of long stalks covered in small leaves

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 10d

Pigface (yes, that’s what it’s called) spreading nicely and now in full flower. I don’t like the orange nasturtium among the pale pink pigface flowers, but oh well - they’re both happy

A variety of pig face with small narrow fleshy leaves and lots of pale pink daisy like flowers with yellow centers. Some bright orange nasturtiums blooming among it

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 15d

Nasturtiums do well here anytime except summer. Here are three examples from my garden: random color from a mixed packet, Peach Melba, and Empress of India

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 15d

Blueberries are in season here, so it’s muffin time!

A dozen freshly baked muffins oozing blueberry goodness, still in the muffin tray

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 17d

This king parrot has become markedly less shy with us (photos from several angles so you can see how beautiful he is)

Me holding a plastic container full of birdseed, king parrot perched on the other end eating

Side view of the parrot perched on the tray so you can see his blue tail and a flash of pale green on his wing

Top view of parrot with his head down in the seed tray so his beautiful scarlet blue and green plumage is visible

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 17d

New in the garden: ixia. Planted last year and probably bloomed while I was out of town. This year I get to enjoy it.

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 19d

Hindustani haka: part of the beating the retreat ceremony at the India-Pakistan border

Ceremonial marching with high kicks, dance like steps, and fierce faces made at the Pakistanis across the gate

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 19d

Tandoori oven makers in Amritsar

A strip of roadside shops with barrel shaped clay vessels, some inside stainless steel cylinders. Two feathery trees shade the scene

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 19d

A perfect spring day in Sydney

View from a ferry of the Sydney opera house glowing in late afternoon sun against a bright blue sky and dark blue water

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 21d

Then there are walls of… electric insulators? And clay pots. Sunken pits or (dry) pools mosaiced with ceramic fragments

A wall of identical parts in white ceramics, possibly electric wiring insulators

wall of clay water pots stacked in columns

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 21d

The journey through the garden begins with these enigmatic shapes formed in concrete, set on walls covered in fragments of ceramic bathroom fixtures.

curving shelf of concrete with a low wall behind, covered in multicolored ceramic mosaic

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 21d

If you ever find yourself in Chandigarh, DO NOT MISS Nek Chand’s Rock Garden. The very low ticket windows are the first sign that you’re about to see something unusual

A rough concrete wall with two small ticket windows about 1 meter from the ground

Deirdre @dstraughan.bsky.social · 25d

Geometric motifs at Humayun’s tomb

A carved stone screen in a pattern of stars and hexagons

Carved stone screen in a complex pattern

A red stone column carved with zigzag patterns

Inlaid stone floor with stars and octagons