Berry berry good

These are Australian berries whose name is not known to me, photographed in the garden of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra a few years ago.  They are dark blue in colour.

These are purple berries in Butchart Gardens, Canada.  On checking their list of plants I found out that this is Callicarpa Americana, and its berries can be used to make jelly.  The colour was very vivid against the more muted autumn colours in the gardens.

 My friend Lois held a spray of berries so I could take a close-up,  I have never seen those berries before.

Some plants have bright red berries in autumn, we saw those too in our wanderings in Canada.  We often tend to focus on flowers for garden colour, but berries can be just as pretty.  The berries on this bush were quite small, oval shaped, and very red.

The leaves were also very red - I think it is called Burning Bush because of its autumn colour.

Winter has well and truly arrived here at the Chateau des Wombats, yesterday and today have been quite cold.  Today has been overcast, chilly and dull with no sign of the sun until it finally peeked out from the clouds after 3pm.  Don't know why it bothered at all, there is no warmth in it.

A small project is being worked on in the sewing room as we speak, one bought last year in Canada.  Pics will be taken when it's done so you can all admire it.  After that, the black skirt will be made.

Uke group is on holidays for a few weeks, the local music school follows school terms for its teaching terms.  You will be pleased to know that 'Hotel California' is proceeding well, the fiendish chord changes are becoming easier, and my fingers are still firmly attached to my hands.  One of the teachers, Sam, has an interesting program on his electronic gadget pad thing that lets him slow music down, but it doesn't change the pitch at all.  Usually when you slow music down the pitch alters too, it becomes lower, but this doesn't happen with Sam's gadget.  It is much easier to play difficult chords at 80 % speed than at full speed.  It would be a very handy gadget to have, perhaps there could be one in my far-distant future.  On the other hand I have managed without it all my life, do I really need it now?

Probably not.

A few weeks ago I didn't use a mitt when taking a bowl which had been used for melting butter out of the microwave, because they usually don't get terribly hot - but this one did.  Burnt the side of the middle finger on my right hand and oh my, it hurt.  It was still hurting a few hours later, even though I held it under cold water for a while.  A blister came up and I was being super-dooper extra careful not to break it, but unfortunately a few days later it tangled in my wet hair in the shower and broke by itself.  I kept it covered for another week or so until it had dried out and new skin had grown; there is new pink skin there now but it still hurts if bumped.  It must have been quite a deep burn for its size.  The things we do to ourselves.......

"Burned eyebrows.
Five grains sulphate of quinine dissolved in an ounce of alcohol, will cause eyebrows to grow when burned off by the fire."

I suspect one would have to stand very close to a fire or do something very silly to burn off one's eyebrows.

Enjoy your days!