After the wind and rain of the last few weeks
The sun came out, we came out and this blue tongue lizard came to enjoy a little sunshine.
Posts
A Season of Abundance
This season seems to offer a abundance of life.The flowers have been stunning. The chestnuts are heavy in flower and their scent permeates the whole area.Clouds of common brown butterflies form wavers as they emerge from the cover of the grass to feed on the nectar , chestnuts,buddleias and bottlebrushes are on the top of their menu.The bees are also busy around the same flowers along with hoverflies,wasps and other beneficial insects. All the fruit trees are laden with fruit which really needs thinning if I could muster the time as the berries are keeping us busy, a bumper crop. A bit of a shock after a number of drought years but 2 average winters have now produced abundance.The Christmas customers will be happy as we can fill all their orders and more. The sugar plum in the goose pen was groaning under the weight of the crop but the rainbow lorikeets are stripping it , the geese,chooks and dogs compete for the fallen ones but I still cant find one ripe enough to ...
Small Encounters
....are what makes working with nature all the more special. As well as encountering protective(not aggressive) goose parents and their fluff ball yet fast growing offspring’s ,a day in the gardens can bring many often interesting surprises. The other day while weeding with Ting we met one of these. Large & beautifully coloured but would give you a nasty bite if you upset it. Just before lunch a decided I needed to visit the outside dunny. Hebe beat me in as she new the resident ring tail possum was sleeping in the basket there. All curled up looking very cute. Latter on, the air was alive with swarming bees, such energy as they move along! Back at the tasks at hand i.e. weeding the currants, I noticed that a blue wren family had become very noisy and excited, Frank had noticed as well and had gone over to investigate, he barked once so I went to investigate and sure enough there was a beautiful red bellied black snake. We left it to get on and went back to weeding. Today another i...
You know it's Spring when
These guys appear I have noticed that the flowering bushes and trees are especially vibrant and abundant this year. Have you ever noticed that in some years the different qualities of the plant world seem to be accentuated? Like a year of blossoms, a year of leaves, good cabbages, a year of fruit, when pumpkins and cucumbers grow to profusion. Or a good root year when the parsnips and carrots grow to perfection. Do these phenomena follow a rhythm? Is it the rhythm of the sun from year to year that influence the plants? What do you think?