More rain

It rained again today, but not quite as heavily as yesterday and not as persistently. We met a friend for lunch at the Columbus Coffee café in Mitre10 (NZ’s B&Q) and talked and talked and talked.  It was lovely to have the time to catch up on what she and we’d been doing, because usually she’s in a rush. Afterwards we went and picked Mum up and took her with us to gather up the open home signs.  It’s a good way of getting her out for an hour or so.  As we arrived back at Grace Joel one of my cousins was leaving the building having visited her mother.  It was really nice to have a quick chat with her too.

Whilst we were parked waiting for Mr MacD to gather up two of the signs I spotted the rather unusual plant by the large sign at the entrance to the car park.  Mr Google tells me that it is a gymea lily, which is endemic to coastal areas of New South Wales near Sydney. Aboriginal people roasted the young stems of gymea lily for eating. They also roasted the roots to make a kind of cake. Fibres from the leaves were used for making brushes and matting.