The Tawney Frogmouths are back!!

What a splendid surprise on Friday morning while I was talking to my son in WA and idly looking out of the window, to see three Tawney Frogmouths huddled together on a vine branch sheltering from the rain under the patio roof!!
They are such calm birds as we had been in and out of the patio door walking almost underneath them for quite a while and they let me photograph them from a few different angles. Unfortunately I have not been able to remove the red eye effect.

They usually sit on gumtree branches or in the pepper tree on the north side of the garden as that has the warmer sun in the colder weather.
Today I did notice that the blackbirds are busy squabbling in the Holm Oak tree , surely they are not thinking of nesting now? The Wattle birds too are making mating noises but winter has only just started!!
All the seedlings are well established now and today we had our first feed of Bok choi which was lovely. The Rhubarb too, has taken well from all the plant splitting we did.

My brother put two different zygo cacti in the same basket and they are doing so well and make a splendid show of flowers. I have a zygo cactus which is now twenty seven years old which is amazing. It was given to me when I lived in Inman Valley in 1985 and has traveled from there to Watervale and in 1991 came here to Willunga.

I have been able to burn a few heaps of bark and leaves before the rain came but now all that will be on hold till it all dries out again. I am really ambivalent about this as I don't know how many little creatures home I may be destroying but the bark and leaf litter was so thick this year we felt we had to reduce the fuel load. Even though we live surrounded by vineyards if a fire starts in the hills on a blazing hot day with a fierce northerly wind an ember could easily be blown from miles away and start a fire here.One can only do one's best.....