Thursday activities

I have been thinking of changing my Thursday activities.
When I first came to Toowoomba, it was a stay-at-home day, then in 2006 I started going to Tai Chi with Michael at the RSL. We went to Oxygen Cafe after this for morning tea together and it was a pleasant morning out.
I think it was mid 2008 when Ann asked me to come to Energise Fitball class at USQ which commenced at 11 am, so this cut into the morning tea section of my Tai chi activity. I found the fitball class with Natasha very enjoyable.
After visiting Andrew in Sydney in July 2009, I decided to get back into lap swimming and joined U3A to go to Harristown High pool with Ann at 7.45 am. It was a bit of a rush to go to Tai Chi after it, and now being a member of U3A, I decided to change to Scottish County Dancing in Hume Street at 9.30. From this I would rush off to USQ at 11, getting home around 12.30.
Eventually the council funding for Fitball ran out and classes stopped in mid 2010?
In May 2010,  I hurt my knee while bushwalking and had a couple of months break while I had it refurbished and regained my fitness, so dancing was put on hold. I was ready for a break anyway, so I was back to just swimming from 7.45 to 8.45 am on Thursdays.
My friends at Fitball and dancing had convinced me to try Energise yoga at the PCYC on Wednesdays until it also ran out in September 2011.
In February this year, my friend Neil offered a class in bird identification at U3A so I again deferred dancing while I did this for a term. I went back in term 3, having been away for much of term 2, and now feel that they do not need me to support numbers as the group is going well.
Judy and Graham have been going out to Crows Nest Nursery for the past couple of years as volunteers on Thursday mornings and she asked me if I could come as it is in need of more support. While I have always been interested in learning more of nursery work, it always seemed a long way to go and I had all the above activities, but in my current frame of mind, I decided to drop even my swimming [which would be more pleasant out of doors at this time of year] and go out, getting a lift with them this week.
I really enjoyed it. And I can bring home some plants for my efforts at potting and maintenance. So I will continue.
Now to find an alternate time for swimming.

A spring walk?

On Tuesday we walked near White Mountain on Sandstone. It was moist and green with purple Hovea and Hardenbergia flowers among yellow wattles and Daviesias. We walked up a dry creek with flat sandstone slabs and it was a most enjoyable morning out.
On Sunday we walked on flat sided basalt blocks up a creek among lantana and privet. It was interesting however to be in such a striking volcanic spot at Hell Hole in Ben Lomond Park, right on the edge of Toowoomba. We sat on a rough rock scree for morning tea then scrambled up a steep slope of loose dirt.

Butterflies and vines

Yesterday we attended a meeting/forum of the Richmond Birdwing Recovery Network in Toowoomba. It was a hot day but it was well worth going to, with an interesting display of visual material, update of activities, and a discussion of genetic issues for butterflies and their food plants, when restoring fragmented habitats. Some things to think about are - genotypes and phenotypic plasticity, the meaning of "local provenance", and outbreeding and inbreeding depression.

My vine is surviving while not thriving. I did plant it in the most favoured spot below the bubbler off the house roof, but there has been very little come out of that in recent years.

We are not in the habitat of this butterfly or vine, which extends only to the escarpment, from the coast, but I am interested in the project, and got a vine for Mum who is very much in the habitat on the Brunswick River. Are there implications in giving her a vine grown at Brookfield? The source of that seed may have been Mt Tambourine. I should check so we know the provenance.

I am hoping to discover vine and/or butterfly in the wild, while walking in this area. This is quite unlikely but perhaps it is possible.

Tuesday walk

I walk every Tuesday morning with a group called Over 50s Bushwalkers. We meet at 7.30 am and car pool, driving an hour or so in the local area to walk 5-10 km in the bush. We enjoy a smoko after walking about an hour, when we find a nice log perhaps, then eat a picnic lunch together after our walk. It is a wonderful formula and we enjoy each other's company as well as the environment and exercise. This week we walked in the Perseverance Creek area above the dam. The Callistemon viminalis were flowering vibrant red and the birds were busy. The creeks are dry but we saw a water dragon sunning on a log over a pool of water and a speedy marsupial flew by on our way out - it was small and fast - perhaps a rock wallaby but in open bushland. We also climbed to some good sandstone cliffs with some soft talc like sections as well as caves.