Winter Solstice: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday

Moth at Arkaroola colour board at Clever Chameleon

Desert winters are nothing if not unpredictable

Winter is a funny thing in the desert. The nights are mostly bitterly cold, while the days are pleasantly warm. But very occasionally we get a wind blowing in with heat from somewhere, and the night can stay ‘balmy’ for many hours after sunset. We had one of those evenings on Friday night. While the freezing cold nights (think frozen water pipes) are bug-free, warmer evenings bring small collections of brave new winter visitor species we haven’t seen before. Mostly lazy moths decorated in interesting patterns, like this pretty little thing that reminds me of a seventies carpet rug.

On a tree or a bush, I reckon this little guy could teach the Chameleon a thing or two about camouflage. Instead he seemed to be taking lessons from the Chameleon on standing out. Why let all that wonderful patterning go to waste?

What a load of……

Ummmm….. Ox?

Year of the Ox that is. I’m halfway through the sewing of the Lunarcy quilt and still accelerating. You will have to forgive me if next week is a bust though, as the kids have an itinerant teacher visit for the next few days. All bets are off as to what will or won’t get done.

Lunarcy Quilt at Clever Chameleon

But, as promised, the top half of the Lunarcy quilt is done this week (except the flower centres). Also, another promise: I am not going to beguile you further with insect stories today. Ok, maybe one butterfly birth. But nothing scary or creepy. How about a short walk around the southern side of Griselda Hill into a slightly damp microclimate instead?

The southern side of Griselda Hill

A little while ago I took you up the tourist track of Griselda Hill. However, Griselda Hill has many faces. The southern side in particular is very steep and protected from heat, and any water that finds its way there lasts longer than in other places. So it’s quite different to the northern side with the walking track. A few days ago we explored this area a little – it is quite rough going, but the discoveries were worth it.

First, as we walked up the footslopes, we looked back across to our house, only to see two emus. We know these guys have been around the village, thanks to their large and distinctive calling cards. But we rarely see them, and certainly not within 30 metres of our back door. It makes you wonder though…. our big windows face the other direction and the emus could be sauntering past our back door regularly for all we might notice.

Emus at Arkaroola

Turning back to Griselda Hill, the footslopes are covered in native pines and shrubs that are a bit worse for wear from the drought. The landscape is fascinating even so, with lots of colours and textures.

Griselda Hill Arkaroola southern slopes

Native pines are not actually true pines at all, even though they look a lot like cypress pines. They are a family of species called Callitris. One of their special properties is termite-resistance, an important quality for wood up here indeed.

Callitris tree Arkaroola
Callitris tree detail, Arkaroola

A tiny microclimate

Up against the southern rock face of Griselda Hill, the drought has been less effective. The trees are in better shape. And under them we found native mistletoe still in flower.

native mistletoe at Arkaroola

And there are yakkas all up the rock wall.

yakkas at Arkaroola

Some of the yakkas even have fresh flower spikes. This one actually reminded me of Frédérique’s Australis quilt in last week’s features, with all the little quilted stars in her Milky Way.

Like a lot of arid plants, the yakka has many small flowers in a cluster (in this case on a spike) rather than single showy blooms.

There was also this interesting plant below, which I have no idea what it is… my gut says it’s a weed, but then my gut is often wrong out here. It has the most curious seed pods.

climbing plant

Heading home

On the way back down the scree, we noticed a native orange tree (not related to citrus (or pines) at all btw).

newly hatched caper white butterfly at Arkaroola

And pausing to inspect it revealed a newly hatched Caper White Butterfly and the shell of its chrysalis. It wasn’t able to fly yet, and it had a great deal more black on the underwings than I have ever observed before.

Caper white butterfly on native orange

Caper Whites are quite polymorphic in colouration, so I don’t know whether this was just going to be a particularly dark one, or whether the wings lighten some as they finish maturing. Below is a much older specimen in a very light version of the more common pattern for you to compare. It was quite clear that native orange is a local host plant, so we’ll have to keep an eye out for caterpillars (no touching – they have little hairs with poison apparently!). When I got home and looked into it more, I also discovered that native orange is also known as the Tree Caper (Capparis mitchellii), and hence the butterfly’s name in the first place.

Caper white butterfly on native orange

While I was inspecting the newly hatched butterfly, there was a sudden loud outbreak of notes and song in the dead tree behind me. The culprit of the pleasant but considerable racket was this. Another new to me bird.

Singing Honeyeater at Arkaroola

The internet says it is a Singing Honeyeater, a very apt name, if not lacking a little in imagination.

So with all those pleasant little surprises, we called it a day. I hope you enjoyed another taste of Griselda Hill.

Year of the Ox Lunarcy Block

As promised I have six of twelve blocks done. This quilt is going to be as least as loud as that Singing Honeyeater!

Lunarcy Quilt at Clever Chameleon

Disclaimer: Island Batik supplied these fabrics to me free of charge to create the prototype Lunarcy BOM available here soon at Clever Chameleon for the remainder of 2020.

Chinese lantern appliqué at Clever Chameleon

As promised, the latest block is the Year of the Ox.

Ox Appliqué from the Lunarcy quilt at Clever Chameleon
Year of the Ox appliqué block for the Lunarcy quilt at Clever Chameleon

The next row has the Dragon, the Snake and the Horse. Two of my favourite blocks in the next three. 🙂

Party features perfect for midwinter

Like a campfire on a cold evening, here are our Winter Solstice features to brighten your day and warm your heart.

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Sandra at mmm quilts is back with a re-run of her amazing quilt and pattern “Grace”. This time in the blues of Island Batik’s Faded Blue Jeans line. The story of this quilt is heartbreaking and heartwarming, poignant and thoughtfully written. A “read-this-post” recommendation on this one.

Grace quilt at mmm! quilts
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Maggie at Making a Lather is working on her Old World Fantasy mystery in the warm colours of a fireside cuddle. The quilt pattern is designed by Becky of quilted twins. If you want to see where Maggie is headed, and don’t need the mystery to remain, you can see the whole design here.

mystery quilt progress at Making a Lather
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Nancy at Grace and Peace Quilting continues to show how amazing her quilting skills are on another of Bonnie’s superb piecings. This is a wall hanging in Indigo batiks. Gorgeous! Great design, especially if you are looking for something that would work for a male recipient.

quilt at Grace and Peace quilting

Visit the links for more information in each featured project.

And a shoutout to Jean of All Points of the Compass to Get Well Soon! Jean has been so kind and encouraging here over the years, and on other quilt blogs too, but now could do with some support in kind. If you haven’t caught Jean’s news, she had a stent inserted at short notice, and hubby Hugh had a mishap of his own. Heal well, both of you, and hope to see you up and sewing again before too long Jean. xx

And now show us what you are working on….

Because it’s Party Time again!

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What are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room? We want to know so we can visit and be inspired. Link up a blog post, an IG post or simply a photo from your computer.  See if you can get the Chameleon to turn quilted with happiness. We’d love to see your quilting colours!

  • Link up your latest or recent quilt/sewing excitement. All quilt construction stages welcome – finished quilts, quilt blocks – even fabric pulls! Or inspiration sources!
  • You have 50 characters in the link description…. tell us who you are and what your fantastic project is.
  • URL links are not necessary to link up…. non-bloggers 100% welcome! If you don’t have a URL, you can link up with just a photo.
  • Take a moment to visit some friends who came to the party – leave a little love and make their day. And a link back to Clever Chameleon is always appreciated.
  • Do it now……. before you forget!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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The Chameleon turns rainbow with pleasure when he hears from you. Now that it’s your turn…. Scroll to the end and tell me what you think. Thanks for connecting!

Would you like to keep in touch with Clever Chameleon and the fun quilty ideas I design as well as find all over the internet? You can follow directly for email updates, or through Bloglovin’, Pinterest, IG or FB. All your follow options can be found here. Don’t forget to link up all your current quilting projects on Tuesdays at our Colour & Inspiration Linky parties!

14 Replies to “Winter Solstice: Colour & Inspiration Tuesday”

  1. I thoroughly enjoy these posts! So fun to learn about the habitat around you, and see the progress on your quilt, which looks like a ton of work! In the wild, are the emu aggressive? I suppose yes, if they are cornered, otherwise they just wander through?

  2. I love seeing all of these ‘new to you’ creatures, and the landscapes they live in. It’s a fascinating world we live in – we should all appreciate it more.

  3. Thank you for taking us on another tour of Griselda Hill. I really enjoy learning and seeing the plants and animals there.
    Your quilt is so pretty. It is coming along nicely.

  4. Hi,
    Love your Lunacy Quilt…those colors are awesome…thanks for sharing your walk…what amazing country side to walk in. Have a great day!

  5. Lovely! Your kids are lucky yo be able to explore and learn so much about your environment.

  6. I love the quilt information and the look at nature so far from me in upstate NY USA. I don’t often comment but I follow your posts regularly.

  7. I’m finding out so much about the area you are living in. I appreciate all the information you provide on the plants, insects and animals. You are learning a lot yourself so you can teach us. Your quilt is coming along and is a project not to be rushed too much. Where does the itinerant teacher stay? Are you mostly home schooling the kids?

  8. Hi Dione! Very cool butterfly and songbird. It sounds like it can get quite chilly there at night. Lunarcy is really coming along nicely. I think I would be quite tempted to skip the centers for all of those flowers. That looks like a TON of work that just isn’t necessary. Good luck with the itinerant teacher’s visit! ~smile~ Roseanne

  9. Dione, your words are so heartwarming, and I truly am so thankful for all my dear blog friends, near and far, who have sent loving words. I am recovering slowly, Hugh is going to be a long time, after his sudden fall. Maybe due to me, he caught his foot on my wheelchair, as I was waiting to go via ambulance to the airport to fly to Wellington. Huge bruising, muscle sprains, but with online messages, we are so cared for world wide. Love your desert stories, those cold nights would be something different to adjust to, and the wildlife and bush colour is delightful. Yes, I hope to be sewing again soon. Fond greetings to all at Arkaroola, where Google tells me you have 5.5C now, ( feels like 2.2C) and will be a very cold 3C tonight.

  10. I love seeing all your native critters!! That moth looks similar to one here in the States, but who knows? This weekend we’re supposed to have a lot of dust from the Sahara Desert. We’ll see what that brings! Have a great week!

  11. Hi Dione, I finally got a chance to read your post – those were wonderful discoveries. Love the new butterfly! Thanks for the mention but it was Frederique who quilted the Australis quilt 🙂
    Glad you’re doing well. Take care and good luck next week.

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