We had an extremely dry summer which has continued into autumn this year. It has been a real battle to keep plants going with a minimum amount of water. On the left you can see the bark and gum leaf litter which looks like the Australian bush but is actually part of our wild garden. It has even beaten the Blackbirds which normally love to scratch and carry on, they have moved into the vineyard next door which of course is irrigated and lends itself to scratching around in damper soil.
Large sheets of bark have been shed by the eucalyptus trees which in a way is quite useful for us as we gather it into the shed ready for lighting our winter fires. Some of the colours are so beautiful, soft greys and subtle reds you feel you would like to do something creative with them, but hey, there is only so much time in the day....A lot of the smaller bark is left behind as it is good cover for insects and little skinks which love to hide under it and sometimes gives you quite a start as they suddenly appear and hurry off to somewhere else....
Despite the extreme drought, we have bulbs suddenly appearing, first the Bella Donna or naked ladies lilies and then the very tall Candelabra lilies. This year though, the individual flowers of the lily are not as big or robust as other years when we have had some summer rains.
It never ceases to amaze me, to see them appear one morning without any fanfare, looking stunningly beautiful...
"Consider the lilies of the field" springs to mind...
The other flower which is a vivid red with golden stamens are the Blood lilies, these hug the ground on short stems and are very much loved by the New Holland honey eaters which descend on them in the late afternoon in sight of the verandah while we are having our end of the day drink....they are fun to watch as they also splash about in the birdbath and get the Willy wagtails all annoyed as they think it is their private bar and chase them off. Then Wattle birds may come and have a drink, imagine drinking someone else's bath water.....
The wood heap on the right will help to keep us warm for a little while this coming winter.
Some of that wood was brought in for us from another garden which was glad to get rid of it.
It breaks my heart though, as the colour is a beautiful deep red in some of that wood and would polish into something lovely
If only I was a wood worker....
Now this morning early, the birds were kicking up hell's delight and I wondered if the Koala had returned. I couldn't see anything in the trees at all but when I walked out to have a closer look and see what all the noise was about , there was a Tortoise all tucked in on itself when I got there.
Quickly got my camera but all you can see are his little claws and he was Not going to stick his neck out for me no matter how long I waited...
I turned him (was it a him?) upside down and we can see his lovely patterned underside....
The pointy end is his rear and the blunt end where he hides his head. He is the long necked native tortoise and wanders about a bit, he was probably heading for the ponds further up the road...
I turned him the right way up and a little later saw him walking away
The birds meanwhile got on with gathering their breakfasts ...we would be knee deep in insects if it wasn't for them....earwigs...pillbugs...millepedes....
