Summer Light

                                                 You come each

                                                    morning in 

                                                    summer to

                                                    embrace the boughs

                                                    of the Eucalypts

                                                    with your golden light

                                                    save some

                                                    for me

                                                

                              

Fascinating Bird Lives

 

For the last few days, this pair of Wood duck have flown into the pond and after swimming around and finding stuff to eat among the water lilies climb out and start preening themselves. The female seems to like sitting on the little girl statue while the male prefers wider slate slabs to stand on and straighten his feathers out.

I have no idea if they bred this season as I have not seen any ducklings at all. The pair come in quite regularly, are quite tame now and don't mind me sitting on the verandah with them while I have my evening drink.

The interesting fact about the Bronze Wing Pigeon is, they always land well away from the pond and then walk in for quite a distance to have their drink.

Perhaps it is a survival tactic as there could be predators on the edge of the water perhaps? They are very shy and do not like to stay if I am out on the verandah and they spot me.

This morning while I was boiling the kettle to make my early morning pot of tea and watching the sun brightening the day out of my kitchen window, I was fascinated to see  a male Crested Pigeon doing circles around a female pigeon which sat at the ready to receive him....but he went round and around and round her again , when another female came over and was also ready to receive him...finally he made the move and hopped on...totally ignoring the other female which walked away in the opposite direction...such goings on so early in the morning....

Also this morning, there were three little Willy Wagtail chicks squeaking away for food...
This is the third brood the parents have hatched in the Holm oak this Spring and this lot have just fledged this morning...there must be plenty of insects for them to be breeding so often. There have only been three chicks each time, they used to have four in a batch a year or so ago.

Talking about insects.... the holes in my Silverbeet are unbelievable and even my Geraniums are being chewed to bits and I cannot see what insect is doing that...even the Tomato dust isn't deterring them....

Amazing news: Frogmouth Chicks Fledged Today

This morning when I went to greet the Tawny Frogmouths , I found the nest empty....

After the fierce winds we have had, it seemed possible the chicks had been blown out of the nest, but no! with a little searching I found the whole family, which included Mother, sitting comfortably on a limb not far away. This is really amazing that they have fledged after only a week since we first saw the one chick. They are excellent parents as you can see, they all sit companionably together and this is how it will be for quite some time

 They will come and sit on our patio vines during the hot weather and not take any notice of us as we go about our gardening work....

They are such Zen birds, beautiful in their ugliness....they inspire such calm in our lives......We love them to bits...

Two Tawny Chicks Discovered in the Nest....

Such excitement this afternoon when I went to say "G'Day to the Tawny family and find two little faces peering at me with Dad in the back ground....

You wonder how they all fit in the very modest nest made of a few twigs and grasses and I do hope one isn't going to fall out onto the little shed roof...

At present I am writing this during wild winds and lashing rain so I do hope they will all survive this night of thunder and lightening..

Yesterday I took photos of the paddock to the west of the house. My share farmer gave up using the three acres I have here, as he had to come from quite a long way to bring his machinery. So he organized for another bloke to come in and plant a crop. Sadly this man has let me down rather badly and the paddock has become a great mess of weeds, the tall, yellow flowering plant is mustard weed and all sorts of weeds have come up. A lot of the usual wild oats of course but also dock, which is a deep rooted plant hard to get rid of.

So this morning I had another local man come in and he slashed the paddock for me.

You can see the difference and I will be able to walk over to the shed where the little old truck and the ancient tractor now live and check to see they are OK.

Next season I hope to have someone plant pasture, so it will be ready when the horses come over from Western Australia.

 The Tan Iris has produced another bloom which is a wonderful surprise too....

What with the twin Tawnies and double Tan iris blooms...life can be full of surprises

It is raining cats and dogs outside now, do hope my feathered friends will keep dry somehow....

Tawny Chick and Catkins

The Tawny Frogmouth chick is growing at an enormous rate as you can see by the latest photo taken this morning three days after the last one was taken. It is actually looking at us now and very aware of what we are doing.

The little white plumed honey eaters come along in a noisy little mob and sit in the tree higher up swearing at them, but Dad sits firm and just makes this soft throaty noise to warn them off.

At right is a photo of one of the Holm oaks which is flowering prolifically with these wonderful catkins and the tree is full of bees....it is so good to see so many bees this year, the lavender bushes too, are full of them..

The photos don't really show up the lovely pale yellow colour of the catkins, the sun seems to bleach them out. It will produce a host of acorns this autumn which will mostly fall into the pond,sadly and make a mess. The Holm oak is an evergreen tree and in America they call it the live oak.I think they originate in the Middle eastern countries, correct me if I am wrong.... They give wonderful shade in our hot climate and I now wished we had planted a lot more. They are slow growers of course....

On the right is a close up of the catkins 

The catkins below are on the Walnut tree and the bees were busy in them also. It will mean Walnuts this autumn ....if we can keep the Sulphur Crested Cockatoos off, the blighters sneak in early in the morning and can do a lot of damage and reduce the already meager crop to barely a couple of kilos...

 The walnut tree has also developed die back , sadly, it does have to compete with all the gumtrees it is in close proximity of......and we all know gumtrees suck everything dry.....

Tawny Frogmouth and Chick as well as Bear Facts

It is a great delight to tell you , the Tawny Frogmouth chick has hatched at last and it is sitting comfortably under Dad's chest. they are sitting in a good sheltered position in the Ash tree above the little work shed.It is not easy to photograph them as the tree limb gets in the way but if you click on the photo you will get a better view. The chick follows Dad's idea that if he closes its eyes and holds its beak in the air to pretend he cannot see you.. you are not there to disturb its' Zen attitude...

On the right it is a great pleasure and relief to show a photo of the tan-brown Iris that I have managed to save after years of thinking I had lost it. The rhizome  was given to me back in 1989 by a friend who lived in Tasmania and had collected a huge variety of irises, some coming from America.

The tan-brown is very rare, I have not seen another one in South Australia.

The yellow ones on the left were also a gift  from her and they make a splendid display with their flamboyant butter yellow falls.

The garden this year has been amazingly colourful as we have had a lot of rain and constant little showers every few days. I have lost a lot of other coloured irises over the drought years sadly but may find some others a bit later in the season.

 On the right are a collection of knitted bears which have found homes as far away as Western Australia.It has been fun making them and it is lovely to know they are being treasured by some very caring little people....

Covid has not affected them fortunately and we too, are getting through this pandemic soon......

Waking Up...

                                             The Bronze-wing Pigeon

                                               Booms Day into Existence

                                               Red the Morning Sun 

Return of the Tawney Frogmouth

It is with great pleasure that I can report the fact that the Tawney Frogmouth has returned to build and use a nest in the big Ashtree above the little workshop. They used that site for several years but a couple of years ago the limb they had chosen to build on was brought down in a huge storm. They then built a nest not far away in a gumtree and raised a couple of chicks there for a couple of seasons. Then last year they went elsewhere and we did not see them for a while. So I was delighted to see on Friday when I was hanging out the washing, to see he was making a nest and yesterday he was sitting on it.

Underneath the tree is the little work shop which

has been humming with activity as the restoration of a 1923 Chevie little truck is in full swing. Two mates are busy now wondering why the motor just won't fully engage.....Is it the carburettor or the distributor which is at fault.....

Me thinks the dear little truck has been asleep for so long it doesn't want to wake up and face this modern technical world with its shiny gadgets and fast pace.....    Endless fun and a great therapeutic exercise for warding off depressions....

Is the next photo a representation of a Covid cluster? Let me know what you think it may be....and remember to click on the photos to get a closer look....        

 

Is Winter Waning?

                                             Winter Holds Open

                                               The Door for Spring who Pauses

                                                Plum Blossom Does Not 

Haiku for Those in Lock Down

                                             Receive this Image

                                                As a Gift to Reverse the 

                                                Covid of this Day

Haiku for Monday and All Those in Lock Down

                                             Calmness of the Morn

                                                Reflects Sensuous Tree Limbs

                                                Bronze wing Booms Loudly

Haiku for Robyn in Melbourne Lock Down

                                             Ready to Explode

                                             White Faced Heron Intense

                                               Frogs Know How to Hide....

Juvenile Brown Snakes and Other Surprises

Last Sunday, the first of August, which  also happens to be the Race Horses' Birthday, we had a family lunch at our place.

In between courses, some of us wandered outside to look at the garden while it wasn't raining...what a surprise to see a young juvenile Brown snake wriggling along in the meager  sunshine. I suppose having dispatched two adult snakes early in the year which had entangled themselves in the Grannie Smith apple tree nets, I guess they have left a batch of eggs somewhere and one has hatched....will there be more soon?

Life will be interesting this coming summer...

Yesterday I decided to start clearing out some of my craft books and in among them was a magazine with patterns for making Teddy Bears....I made a couple some years ago and remembered I had some of the fabric left....but where had I seen that last? Was it here? was it there? Rummaging through other cupboards and finding bags with "stuff" I suddenly found one with Greg's little Teddy bear dating back to 1963...Now I thought I had sent it with his brother Gordon's Teddy, to Gidgegannup which of course got burnt in the bushfire there on the 1st of February this year...so what joy to find it and not only that but my little celluloid baby doll which came with us from Holland in 1952....Plus Harry's school cap which Gordon thought he had also lost in the fire. The school cap goes back to 1917 or there about. Harry was sent to this posh Grosvener House prep school in Harrogate England......

The photo of Greg and Gordon with the little lamb was taken at Hughes Park around 1966. Sadly Greg was killed on his motorbike Easter Sunday 1980 so it is doubly pleasing to find his little bear.

In the back ground of the photo you can just see the roof of the meat shed above Gordon's head. It was where the wethers were slaughtered and the meat hung overnight to be cut down and delivered to every one on the station each Thursday...I had to cut up half the carcass allotted to us all, make mince with the hand mincer etc etc....

Where has the time gone????
 

Haiku for Covid Lock down

Rain pours,Iron roof

Covid lock down made bearable

Inside a warm Book

 

Haiku for Saturday Morning

                                             Magpies's soft murmur

                                               Rolls forth into joyful song

                                                Lights the dark grey morn 

Wet Weather & Another Covid Lock Down

Here we are in another Covid lock down and obliged to stay at home... The weather is quite conducive to being inside as it is very cold and very wet... the rain falling in lusty and enthusiastic showers ... the ducks just loving it as I watch them through the warm kitchen window frolicking  in our pond, making ducklings... which will be hatched in the hollow of the Sugargum tree by the gate...I hope this year that there will be more than three of them that survived last year...

My friends think that I have acquired a number of very useful males around me who will perform those jobs so necessary to keep a place going.....Kym our gardener-handyman, Kevin our builder-carpenter and fixer of roof leaks...Trevor our erstwhile share farmer now our firewood supplier and lately Gordon, my son and heir who is very handy with a chainsaw and fixer of old machinery ....the tractor used to run on kerosene and is his pride and joy having been able to prod it into life after 30 years in my shed..it now runs on unleaded fuel...and is 79 years old....

Last week during one of our huge winter storms a Lhemanii was split in two and half fell on the fence.

Yesterday was the first dry day we have had in weeks (it seems that way) so we decided to cut up the two trunks and clear away all the branches as well.This tree produces a lot of heavy seed pods which are also excellent to burn in the fire as they stay as hot coals  and enable you to re-start the fire in the morning.

 So there is quite a box full of them. The seed pods come after a beautiful round flower of a lime green colour. When they finish the pod has lovely red finger- like spikes which were at one stage used to make attractive necklaces when threaded on cords.

They were all the rage in the 1970ies.....

Showering with Scolopendromorpha or Bark Centipede

So, stepping into the shower this morning and adjusting the hot water and getting thoroughly soaped, I happened to look down and there, shock horror, was what I call a Chinese Dragon. It seemed glued to the corner and keeping a close eye on it after that, finished my ablutions...

It is a Bark centipede with a very vicious bite and looking it up it belongs to the Scolopendromorpha group and is found all over the world in different colours...Later I removed it by my usual method of putting a plastic food container over it and then sliding a sturdy piece of cardboard under it and encouraging it to move onto that. Then it gets carried out to the garden and released to do its duty there by eating other bugs.

The other creature I had to deal with this week a few

days ago, was a Shag sitting by the pond with the Wood ducks and eyeing off

the Goldfish, which are already being reduced in

number by the White faced Heron.

It did get the message it wasn't

 welcome and has not been back since I last told it to go elsewhere ...

 And so life in the garden is romping ahead with the little white snails ( where do they suddenly come from??) eating the cabbages , slugs in the silverbeet, and an unidentifiable bug eating huge holes in everything except weeds....

 

Not an Haiku this Time....

Listen to the Magpie's song

So early in the morning

Waking up the world with song

So early in the morning

Greeting with such massive joy

The blessed day with trees so tall

so early in the morning

Showing us a different way

So early in the morning

Of joy and life and such delight 

As sunrise in the morning

The sky is red and pink and blue

So early in the morning

And I will go the whole day through

 Heart ablaze with Magpie song

So early in the morning....

 

A True Garden of Eden...a Snake and Apples

This morning we thought harvesting the Grannie Smith apples as well as the rest of the quinces, would be an excellent idea.

Kym was on the other side of the apple tree and I was just starting to lift the net up over the branches when I noticed part of a brown snake. For a moment I thought it was a left over from the snake I found entangled in the net at the beginning of the season.When Kym came to have a look we realized it was very much alive but totally tangled up in the net.

We could not see its little head so Kym uncovered as much as he could and severed its tail end from where it was sticking out of the net.

We got the net off the tree and dragged it well away. We could not disentangle the poor creature at all so we left it to make sure it really was dead.

We harvested the apples and left the little ones for the birds....when I started thinking about the whole situation it made me smile ....the snake did not say a word....

Later in the afternoon, I carefully cut the net away from the snake and it took some doing as it was tangled up right to its gills, though I don't think snakes have gills do they?

You can see the length of it, spread out on the net after I cut it free, it measured 41 inches which is 3feet 5inches or 104 cm. I gave it a christian burial by the Walnut tree.....

 The apples are stored in layers between newspapers in the bath ( I shower in the en suite so don't freak out, no need to stand upwind from me next time we meet...)

 The apples keep very well this way. The quinces I store in the fridge and they too, store quite well.

 The vegetable garden is starting to look presentable again, the seeds have all sprouted now, it did take nearly three weeks for some of the seeds to emerge, the onion tribe especially. The garlic though is doing brilliantly.

So far I can't say that burying a tin of sardines under a silverbeet plant has had dramatic effects on it...its control plant is further ahead ,I hate to admit...

Sequel to the Micro Bat rescue

It is some weeks now that I wrote about the little bat which found its way into our house.

After we rescued it I kept it safe in a dark shoe box for the day and when it was dark I had been told, it was the best time to let it go.

So come evening, I took it out and put it on the potting table under the Ash tree.

When I went to check it in the morning, to my horror it was still in the same place....

So I thought I would take photos of the poor little creature and as you can see it is quite detailed and you can see it's tiny little sharp feet.

I went to turn it over with my gloved hand( it is important to wear gloves when handling bats)when, with a shock I realized it was still alive as it wriggled when I touched it. So carefully I transported it to the rough bark of a Eucalyptus tree which has a Carob tree for company. So it was a lovely dark, sheltered place for it to hang out.

 It hung there all day and when I went to check on it the next morning it was gone....no bat body under the tree so I can only assume it recovered from its traumatic experience and went back to its clan...it is a Lesser long eared Bat, Nyelophilus geoffroyi

The grapevines have all turned a lovely autumn colour....winter is on its way......log fires...mulled wine.....good books....contentment....