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.....