Unusual Flowers in Spring at Willunga

 It was  lovely day today and to see the flowers now, after such a long and drawn out,wet spring
gave the urge to get out the camera and shoot away....
I think the water lilies have escaped their pots and consequently they are thriving with big leaves and stunning flowers. The goldfish are in droves too even though I found one of the big parent fish floating dead in the pond.I fished it out and buried it near a plant....

The bearded iris on the right is a tanny brown colour with a golden throat. It was given to me 30 years ago when I moved into my cottage at Watervale  by a friend from Tasmania. I have never seen another one of that colour. It is also inclined to flower in March as well as in October.I nearly lost it when the water restrictions came in but I managed to save it and will propagate it from now on.

The long wet spell we have had has encouraged a host of insects to breed up in large numbers.
Especially the earwigs which are such sneaky creatures as they eat voraciously at night when no one is watching and you find your plants full of holes and the roses damaged with the little buggers right inside the base of the bloom.
The next thing will be the caterpillars hatching after the lovely butterflies have laid their eggs on just about everything as well.....

Can you spot Mrs Tawney in our pepper tree?
She has been sitting on the same branch each morning for the past three weeks, so I greet her with "Good Morning Mrs Tawney" as I open the gate to go in and feed the chooks which is right there alongside the pepper tree. Mr Tawney is sitting on the nest in the Ash tree a few yards away and I noticed today his little chick is starting to poke its head out from under his Dad's chest.It is written in the bird books that the male sits on the nest, you wonder how someone found out that little fact......

All this Rain....

We are still having the most amazing cold and wet weather for September into  October this year. South Australia is usually the driest state in the driest continent, but this year it is making records in both rain and ferocity of winds. Last week our whole state was without power for anything of 12 hours to days on end for some of the outlying areas. Today again we are indoors as the winds blow and the rain comes lashing down. We are not as badly off as the poor  farmers in the Mid north and the vegetable growers on the Virginia plains which are flooded,or the Barossa valley, that wonderful wine growing area. The Onkaparinga river too, is flooding the lower areas and I am sure the bream are very happy if no one else is....
Sixty years ago in 1956, it was also a wet winter when my family lived on Anlaby sheep station and I was unable to cross the creeks to get to the school bus to go to Kapunda high. I missed so much schooling I failed my leaving certificate that year.

I did gain my certificate while studying for it when I was a lab technician at the Waite Institute the following year.
It is astounding that people still try to cross flooded roads not aware of the power of raging water and are left stranded in the middle of the creek, in their cars and have to be rescued.
 One year when we lived at Hughes Park, I watched from my kitchen window overlooking the Skillogalie creek which was a raging torrent after torrential rains and was tossing huge tree trunks around like matchsticks in the paddock. All the floodgates would have to be repaired as the debris would pile up against them and eventually drag them off the wires from which they hung.

The most useful thing I have done this week is make Quandong jam. They are such a lovely colour when ripe but it is lost when made into jam....such a shame.
This morning during a hailstorm, all the magpies and one young one sat on the Studio verandah taking shelter but the poor Tawney Frogmouth is stoically sitting on his nest while Mrs Tawney sits in the Pepper tree well sheltered under a bow near the chook yard....
There is a mangy fox lurking around too and kitten rabbits hopping around on the patio early in the morning.....their burrows flooded, pity they didn't drown......