Australia · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · palm trees · photography · spring · Tweed Valley

Mist in the valley and birds in the palms

This morning I awoke to find the valley floor had disappeared beneath a beautiful layer of misty-ocean. This alternate view looked spectacular and even more so now the weather is warming. I know our misty valley mornings are limited this year.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun shone across the mountain, revealing nooks and crannies which could be seen from afar.

The greenery in my garden stood stark against the blueness of the sky and whiteness of the mist, like two different worlds melded into one.

Way across the other side of the valley, the only evidence of the sugar cane mill was the steam escaping from the mill chimney.

A few birds dropped by to admire the misty ocean too. This little guy in the palm tree is an adult honeyeater. Juvenile honeyeaters have yellow around their eyes which progressively turns bright blue by the time they are around eighteen-months old.

Just as the honeyeater flitted away, a kookaburra landed in the same place on the palm. Both rummaged around inside the cup-base of a partly fallen palm leaf, so I suspect they found water from our recent rain caught inside the leaf.

Shortly after the sun had burned away the mist, I looked out just in time to see two female figbirds munching on juicy red berries on a different palm tree. I couldn’t go too close to take the photo because figbirds are pretty shy little birds.

When I took a break from my assignment writing at around midday, I took a walk in my front garden, taking photos of new flowers as I walked around. When I downloaded the photos I was pretty surprised to find I’d taken over one-hundred photos! Hopefully I will have finished my assignment by late tomorrow, so I’ll choose my favourites from today and add them tomorrow.

My garden is looking really lovely just now. I need to finish my assignment so I can spend the weekend out doors! 🙂

Australia · Changes · clouds · Mount Warning · palm trees · photography · spring · Tweed Valley

All in a day

At 6:30 am today, the mist was so thick it had blocked the view of everything beyond the palm trees in my garden. And the mist appearing after another warmish night convinces me that what I am seeing must be some form of condensation vapours rising from the damp earth. I had to wait for almost an hour before the mist had cleared enough to take photos of the valley. By that time, the sun had risen, casting shadows across the large stems of the palms, yet the flimsy, misty clouds continued their dance below the mountain.

The sleeping giant, Mount Warning, caught a few dainty clouds too.

I sat at my computer the whole morning, continuing work on assignments, and when I paused for a break just after midday I saw that thick clouds had rolled in across the valley. The afternoon view looked so different to the morning, so it was time for another photo.

Tonight, as I closed the curtains, I noticed the sky had tuned a pretty orange colour. It’s quite a dark photo, but clearly shows the outline of the mountain and ranges against the tinted nighttime sky. And once again there were clouds lingering over the mountain, more than this morning, but less than at midday.

No wonder they call the Tweed Valley the Valley of Contrasts.

Australia · Mount Warning · spring · subtropical weather · Tweed Valley

Unexpected Mist

A beautiful sight welcomed me this morning when I looked out into the valley. After a relatively warm night I had not expected to see mist, but there it was, dancing ghost-like across the valley and looking spectacular.

We’ve had a fair bit of rain over the last few days, so my theory is that when the warmer air hit the cold earth, condensation rose in the form of mist. Does that sound logical? It’s the same when you get into a cold car with your warm body and breath, and the windows fog up and you have to put on the demister, I imagine.

Whatever caused the mist, I hope it happens again before summer arrives. 🙂