Cabin fever and the Myponga reservoir!

We have had a weekend of ferocious winds and lashing rains, so we were unable to do anything outside much other than getting in wood to keep the fire going and to feed the chooks. The poor Tawny is sitting on his nest exposed to all the fierce winds and torrential rain. I hope he manages to save his eggs. I am astounded at the sense of duty( I know, it is instinct....) to sit on a few sticks with the eggs and nothing to shelter him. It would be tempting to put a little roof over his head.....

Today we thought we had better do Something or go quite mad, and this is after only a few days of house confinement!! no wonder Northern Europeans have cabinfever after a winter of being at home because of the freezing cold and snow. So after lunch we took our cameras and trotted off  (well... in the comfort of my Subaru)
through the water flowing on our road and elsewhere, and went to the Myponga reservoir to see if that was overflowing. The photo above was taken the last time we were at the Myponga
dam when it was full late July.

We have had over an inch of rain here but the Myponga catchment area is in a much higher rainfall area. So sure enough, when we got there
(with a few other people with the same idea) we saw the water pounding through the sluice gates and away down the gully which will run down to the sea. It is a stirring sight to see all that water rushing down the spillway. So good to think we will have good water for the coming summer.
The Myponga dam services most of the Fleurieu.

The photo of the close up of the foamy water looks just like lace. I took that with my Nikon D80 and the zoom lens. I still have a lot to learn about photography but I am plugging away at it.
Don't forget that you can click on the photos to enlarge them, for those who perhaps are not aware of this.
After we started to feel a bit frozen standing out in this cold wind having the cobwebs blown out of our heads, we went that little bit further and looked at Carrickalinga beach where the sea was pounding the beach.There was a little Kestrel hovering but by the time I got my camera out again he had drifted too far away.....We came home via the valley which has become a wetland and when we got home , the rain had stopped!!

Tawny Frogmouth Nesting!!

 Found the Tawny has rebuilt its nest on the same site as last year.. there he is, sitting on his untidy heap of twigs that constitutes the home for however many eggs they lay. We have seen them with three young ones in the past , so it will be interesting to see how many there will be in a few weeks time. The bird book says the eggs are a lustrous white but it does not say how long they take to hatch. Have made a note of the date I first saw it on the nest but of course, it may have been there for a few days already.

The wet weather has made a lot of difference to all the winter flowering plants. It has also stopped us from planting out our bare rooted roses unfortunately, the ground is so sodden it sticks to the spade. 
The lachenalias are flowering well but the wattle birds like them and are too heavy really to use the flowers for food and so the stems break and fall on the ground.For quite a while we couldn't make out how this was happening but then saw the wattle birds sticking their beaks in the tubular flowers.

 The shrimp plant is one of the most frustrating plants I have had to deal with. It is finally looking good and I love the interesting flowers but never know if it likes the sun or likes the shade, whether it likes to be wet or on the dry side... anyway it now has a northern position and that seems to suit it. My friend has hers in the garden in a fairly sunny position and it does well for her. I don't have a suitable place for it though I suppose I could try it in an east facing bed. However it would get all the fierce gully winds in the summer!!

 This female blackbird tumbled out of the Holm Oak the other morning and stayed in that position for quite a while. It didn't look ill so I left it alone and a little later it had flown off.
Was it drunk? The male black birds are having aerial combats at present which are quite fascinating to watch as they are performed with elegant precision. I think they too, are nesting now and they usually choose quite low positions for their nests or where we walk past them with out seeing them, the nests I mean.

Because I haven't been able to get into the garden much, I thought I better do something in the craft area.
So I have made a series of dilly bags with inner pockets to put a diary, mobile phone, glasses case, pen pocket, car keys, lip salve etc etc.
Have also made a batwing for myself but it hasn't turned out as well as I'd intended. I'll leave it for a while and see how I can improve it......

Is it an Early Spring?

This photo of the flowering Japonica was taken at the Myponga reservoir last Sunday. We had just picked up our bare rooted roses from the nursery and I wanted to see if the reservoir was overflowing. It had been announced on the news that the rains had been so good that several of the Adelaide reservoirs had opened their spillways as the rains had filled them to overflowing. Myponga was mentioned with several of the others so I was curious to see the overflow there.
Unfortunately it was not overflowing but I did take some good shots of the full dam.

The Japonica was there at the picnic area which is a great place to view both the reservoir and the steep gullies with the sea beyond to the west of it. So last Sunday was still July and while I can remember Japonicas flowering late August, it seemed very early for it to be flowering in July!!
The almond trees up the road are in full flower now which is not unusual really. In fact all the remaining almond trees in the area are putting on a splendid show of blossom. I just hope there are enough bees to fertilize them all for an excellent crop of almonds.

The interesting thing is that the vines in the much neglected vineyard is sprouting now and that indeed is early. The glory vine on our patio is also sprouting and suddenly all my snapdragons I planted willy nilly amongst everything else are flowering too....then this morning I heard a blackbird singing his melodious spring mating song and you start to wonder is it going to be an early spring??

It was certainly a beautiful day weather wise yesterday. Brian suggested we go and have lunch in Victor Harbor and then go whale watching.
I had been pruning the bedding roses on my knees (to save my back!!) so I was very happy to comply and off we trotted to Victor in my new Subaru of course...The Crown had very good specials so we had fish and chips there with a glass of reisling to put us in the mood for whale watching.

We drove to Pt Elliot first and while we could see a whale in the distance they were too far away to photograph. Instead I photographed the interesting sculpture that is in the middle of the  viewing platform. It is interesting because of the puzzle it presents to see how it could have been constructed with that huge lump of granite in the middle. Perhaps my friend Cher may be able to enlighten me and also tell me what it represents.
I also couldn't resist taking a photo of the willy wagtail busily demolishing a butterfly of some sort.

We then drove to Basham's Beach where there were several small groups of whales lazing about waving fins and generally entertaining the large crowd on shore.No leaping about though and no spouting much either. Still, Brian got a few photos and on the right the black line in the water I can assure you is a whale....next time we will take a tripod I think, and be part of the line of people intent on getting a good shot of whale antics.....