Silent Sunday
Category: Changes
On a hot summer’s day.
It really felt like summer weather today.
I awoke to a bright sunny day and a clear mountain, so took my first photo at 7:12am. You never know how long the mountain will remain clear on a subtropical summer’s day.
By 11:18am the valley was at its magical best. No clouds hampered the clarity of Mount Warning or the ranges, so it was time to take another photo.
While we were eating lunch, my husband noticed a change in the weather, so checked the Bureau of Meterology website. He discovered that there were three storms heading our way, although he thought that perhaps we would only feel the tail-end effects of the combined storms.
Thunder rolled in the distance, light rain began to fall, and within half an hour the ‘storm’ was over. All that remained was the intensity of summer humidity, leaving the air so heavy you felt you could reach out and touch it. The heat this afternoon was the kind that makes me dread summer, every year. I loathe breathing in hot air and feeling as if there are a thousand spiders crawling across my skin!
The striking changes in the valley after the storm had passed soon took my mind off the heat. I took the photo above at 6:00pm. The mono tone is the actual colour of the valley at that time. The next photo shows the changes in the valley and the sky just half an hour later …
The swirl of misty clouds in the valley were replaced by a brilliant sunlit sky.
Beyond the yellow and orange, a patch of blue and cloudy sky continued down to the horizon.
This is how I cope with summer! Summer is the only season when the weather can change the appearance of the mountain and valley so drastically.
What an absolute blessing of contrasts nature provides. ❤
Patchy Blue Sky Amid Patchy Rain
Between the unexpected rain showers we are having each day, occasionally we will see patches of blue sky. I will have to get used to this strange weather we are having. It is apparently due to the current La Niña weather pattern, which is far too complex for my un-scientific brain to understand, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
Today, once again, I hardly saw Mount Warning. There were some interesting cloud pattern and colours though, and even a few patches of blue sky, so I took a few photos while the mountain wasn’t completely hidden.
Twenty minutes later, this was the resulting change the sunset made …
Who would think that during just twenty minutes, there would be so much difference to the sky? 😮
Goodbye, 2020.
Words seem to escape me tonight. What does one say as the year 2020 draws to a close?
I could state the obvious, that this year has been an extremely difficult year for many people, but we all know that. It’s hardly a profound statement.
It has definitely been a year of change – we all know that as well.
So I will tell you all some new news, about my day filled with magical moments. 🙂
It rained overnight, washing away the dusty air in the valley. I awoke to a crystal clear – picture perfect, I would say – scene of Mount Warning.
As always, when Forrest and Brontë enjoyed some time in the sun, it was my Labrador, Brontë, who kept watch.
Raindrops from our overnight shower clung to my potted Petunias. I love these colours so much! Pink and purple flowers in my garden make my heart sing!
Inside the house, Bowie boy posed beautifully for the camera. ❤
And when my little granddaughter came to visit, she was very excited to finally try a piece of the Christmas cake she has been eyeing off every time she has visited since Christmas Day.
While I had my camera out, Aurora told her Mummy and Daddy to say “cheese,” then she took her own photo. Don’t you just love the imagination of children? And Aurora’s curls? ❤
Miss Tibbs prefers to hide when visitors arrive. I found her after my visitors had left, in her usual place on my sewing table.
Around sunset, a sudden noise alerted me to a change in the weather. It had remained sunny most of the day – the sun was still shining – but a sudden gush of rain fell from a huge unexpected cloud that had rolled in from the coast.
We had the most spectacular sunshower. I took a few photos from my veranda, as the rain really was quite heavy, and had whipped up a windy squall from the south.
So the day that began crystal-clear-perfect ended with a brilliant sunshower. Two incredibly stunning, yet totally different views of Mount Warning. What a way to end the year!
I feel a tad sorry for the year 2020. It has taken a bad rap, particularly since March. But was it the fault of the year that so many things went awry? I don’t believe it was. Every year, we experience the good and the bad situations that life offers, and we can’t claim 2020 to be all “bad” can we?
For me, 2020 was the year my grandson, Eli, was born. It is also the year I learned that I have two more grandsons on the way. The units I completed at university were two of my most enjoyable units so far, and I was graded with a high distinction for both units. I have had the opportunity to spend more time at home, therefore more time in my garden. Since July, I have blogged every day and made more friends in the blogging community.
No, 2020 wasn’t all bad, not for me at least.
As we welcome in the New Year of 2021, we are presented with a brand new opportunity to begin again, with a clean slate. No mistakes, no problems, just a choice of how we will react to the good moments, and the bad, that 2021 presents us with. ❤
The Summer
If I could bottle up the sea breeze I would take it over to your house
And pour it loose through your garden
So the hinges on your windows would rust and colour
Like the boats pulled up on the sand for the summer
And your sweet clean clothes would go stiff on the line
And there’d be sand in your pockets and nothing on your mind ~ Josh Pyke.
Summer wasn’t shy today about letting us know it had arrived. At 31°C and 88 percent humidity, it felt like the middle of summer and not the first day. Tomorrow’s prediction is for 35°C (95°F).
Regardless of the weather, I had a very special visitor today, my daughter Emma and her three-and-a-half month old son, Eli. Today, Emma turned 28. I apologise profusely every year for having her at such a hot time of year, which also happens to be the month of Christmas so her birthday can easily be overshadowed by another significant event. This birthday though, as Emma is now a mother herself and realises the futility of my tongue-in-cheek comment, we agreed that babies usually arrive on the day of their choice.
After Emma and Eli headed home, I spent some time Christmas gift shopping online. Even though Australia is travelling incredibly well Covid-wise, I’m still a bit of a scaredy-cat about spending time in crowds. Perhaps more to the point, it saves me time to shop online when I’m still sorting, cleaning, tidying and decluttering my house.
During the afternoon I heard a commotion out in the front garden. Noisy Miner birds – who are named “noisy” for a reason! – were kicking up a ruckus in the tree at the top of our garden, their squawks intermittently interrupted by the sound of a distressed Magpie.
I tried to ignore the noise, but it got the better of me. Even the two dogs sprawled out beside me got up and peered out the door, as if investigating the situation. The dogs know, just as I do, that magpies and miners are friends. If a miner carries on a treat as they were doing today, there’s a threat. I imagined one of the neighbours cats may be lurking around the tree.
Ignoring the noise wasn’t working for me, so I ignored the heat instead, and trudged to the top of the hill to investigate. Whatever the threat was, it seemed to be in the tree, which meant it could be a snake wrapped around a high branch sheltering from the heat of the day.
This is what I found –
We occasionally see Magpie Larks in the garden, and I have noticed recently we have one dropping into the back garden each morning after the other birds have finished eating the food I give them. Magpie Larks are another native Australian bird, affectionately known as Pee Wees. They have a very pretty song and seem completely harmless, so goodness knows why the magpies objected so much to the visit. Maybe the magpie family feel that they “own” my yard, and the tree being in our yard belongs to them.
Satisfied that one tiny pee wee posed no threat to my lovely magpie family, I paused to take a photo of Mount Warning, which could be seen today, although not as clearly visible as it could be (first photo).
Later tonight at around sunset, I took another photo of the mountain. Dark patches of cloud had rolled in, and we didn’t see the beautiful orange sunset sky we have had lately.
The opening words of today’s post are song lyrics from Josh Pyke, an Australian singer, whose creativity with words conjures images of immense beauty when describing the most mundane moments of everyday life. This song is called The Summer, so very appropriate for today. I love this song as the words romanticise the one season of the year that I struggle to cope with. For anyone interested, here’s the rest of the lyrics to The Summer ~
But every year it gets a little bit harder
To get back to the feeling of when we were fifteen
And we could jump in the river upstream
And let the current carry us to the beginning where
The river met the sea again
And all our days were a sun-drenched haze
While the salt spray crusted on the window panesWe should be living like we lived that summer
I wanna live like we live in the summer
We should be living like we lived that summer
I wanna live like we live in the summer
We should be living like we lived that summer
I wanna live like we live in the summerAnd I’ll remember that summer as the right one
The storms made the pavement steam like a kettle
And our first goodbye always seemed like hours
In the car park in between my house and yours
And if the summer holds a song we might sing forever
The winter holds a bite we’d never felt beforeBut time is like the ocean
You can only hold a little in your hands
So we swim before we’re broken
Before our bones become
Black coral on the sandWe should be living like we lived that summer
I wanna live like we live in the summer
We should be living like we lived that summer
I wanna live like we live in the summer
We should be living like we lived that summer
I wanna live like we live in the summer
So if I could bottle up the sea breeze I would take it over to your house
And pour it loose through your garden ~ Josh Pyke.
In My World 