Category: Changes

Australia · Changes · daughter · family · flowers · granddaughter · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · palm trees · realities · spring · subtropical weather · Tweed Valley

No Mountain Today …

Joanne15 Comments

Today I haven’t seen Mount Warning at all, not even for a second. There is no rain about, so I can’t blame the whiteness on distant rain. The day has been warm, dull, and humid, so perhaps it is heat-haze. It has also been extremely windy all day, so my granddaughter and I couldn’t even enjoy some time in the garden today while she was visiting. So indoors we remained, playing with farm animals, reading books, and watching some cartoons on TV. It is easy to keep Aurora occupied, both indoors and outside, and she is wonderful company. I must admit to being a tad tired tonight though after a whole day with my lovely little visitor.

Considering the lack of an interesting mountain photo today, it is a good opportunity to share a couple of photos taken during the past week. First I have a photo of a cute little Honeyeater who visited my back garden recently. If it wasn’t for the rustling of the palm leaves, I wouldn’t have known he was there.

The gum tree the trio of Kookaburras are perched in is right down the back of our garden. I realised these three were there when they had a laughing competition with another group of distant kookaburras. I’d love to know what they were saying to each other.

The last photo is from May. I came across this photo when looking for flower photos for The Week of Flowers posts, so saved it as an extra to share this week. It is a beautiful bunch of flowers my daughter – Aurora’s mummy – gave me for my birthday.

So here we are, the 30th of November, the last day of spring. It is with a touch of trepidation that I will turn the page of my calendar tomorrow morning to the first day of summer. Every year, I try to find positive aspects of my least favoured season of the year, and by the end of summer I always look back and think the heat wasn’t as difficult to cope with as I imagined it would be. It’s a bit like a visit to the dentist really, an unpleasant thought until it’s over. Once again, I have my fingers crossed that we will have rain without floods and heat without melting! I learned many years ago that when living in a subtropical climate, it’s useless wishing for no extreme heat and no cyclonic rain. Mother Nature will do as she does regardless. 🙂

 

Australia · Changes · flowers · Mount Warning · renovations · seasons · son · spring · subtropical weather · Tweed Valley

A Week of Flowers – Day 3

Joanne20 Comments

We had another dull, but warm weather day today as spring winds down for another year. We usually have several storms during our subtropical summer, and just as I began to type this post, I heard the first clap of thunder rolling around the night skies.

For Day 3 of Cathy’s Week of Flowers, I looked back on photos I had taken earlier this year and found several I had taken in May. My youngest son gave me a huge bunch of flowers for my birthday, and he had chosen some stunning flowers to include. He called the photo above a “Cabbage Rose”. Whether or not that is what this unusual flower is called I really don’t know, but the description certainly suits the flower.

The three photos above were all the same bunch of flowers – such variety!  🙂

If you look carefully at the last photo you will see the faintest outline of Mount Warning. I took this photo quite early in the day, and the view of the mountain became even fainter, if that’s possible, this afternoon. Perhaps tonight’s rain will wash away the haze and I will have a clearer image of the mountain to share tomorrow.

As for the new floor, it’s getting there. There’s just a few details that need finishing tomorrow, but hopefully by Thursday I will be able to clean up the dusty layer covering every surface of the house and turn the room back into my own.

I just love the new floor! It’s so lovely to walk on and it will be easier to clean than carpet.

I think the poor man laying the floor for us hadn’t planned on returning for a third day, but he’d worked a long day and thinks he’ll have the job finished within a couple of hours. Husband and I both agree he’s done a wonderful job for us and has taken great care to give the floor a smooth finish, which we appreciate very much.

It will be interesting to see how the rooms comes together now. I’m on a decluttering spree – which has lasted, so far, about a year, but that’s another story for another day – so I don’t intend taking anything back into the area unless I am sure I will use it.

 

Australia · Changes · garden flowers · in my garden · In My World · Mount Warning · renovations · spring · sugar cane · sunrise · Tweed Valley

A Week of Flowers

Joanne20 Comments
Pierre de Ronsard rose

I spent most of the day in my office at the computer today, keeping out of the way of the lovely man who arrived first thing this morning to replace the floor coverings in my main living area. It’s been a massive job dismantling the room, emptying cupboards, removing old skirting boards, taking down the curtains, moving most of the furniture into another room, but we finally got there at around midnight last night.

Hydrangeas

I planned to spend the day reading through blog posts, which I mostly did, aside from the times when I was needed for something else. I had so much catching up to do! And now I have ideas whirling around in my mind about blog posts I must write. But where to begin?

Cathy, at Words and Herbs has invited us to join her in posting A Week of Flowers, which I thought would be a great place to start. I have spent way too much time indoors this past week, so any excuse to go outdoors is a good excuse. Plus, who doesn’t love flowers? I know I certainly do, and as Cathy said, flowers are sure to brighten the days of people in lockdown.

Evening Primrose

I missed Day 1 of Cathy’s week, so today is Day 2, for those who would like to join Cathy in sharing some floral happiness around the blogging world. 🙂

A touch of morning mist

First thing this morning, the valley looked sparkly and clear, with just a touch of overnight mist lingering at around 6:15am. Sunrise is at around 5:45am these days as we approach summer, and so far I haven’t managed to get up early enough to see the first rays of morning sunlight touch the top of Mount Warning. Too many late nights, I think!

Steam from the sugar mill

The sugar cane harvesting season is nearing the end, but the mill was still pumping out steam in the early daylight hours of this morning.

A work in progress

So now, as the day draws to an end, my family room has half a floor. We waved goodbye to our faithful twenty-six-year-old carpet this afternoon as the floor man drove up the hill with a neatly bundled stack of carpet in his trailer, which has served us well, but has definitely seen one too many teenagers’ party! Our floor man will return tomorrow morning to finish the job, which is very exciting. I’m looking forward to arranging all of our uptuned and askew furniture into its correct position again. 🙂

Australia · Changes · clouds · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · spring · Tweed Valley

A day of this and that

Joanne2 Comments

It feels strange not having a committment to do something specific every day since semester 2 ended two days ago. I still feel as if I am reintroducing myself to my “other life” – the uni free life!

Today I spent the day tidying, and cleaning, and sorting, and throwing things out, and cleaning the fridge …

I also looked outside a lot, to see if the weather had improved – it didn’t – so this is tonight’s sunset. The clouds are very different today, streaky rather than balls of cotton wool, which is nice for a change.

The birds were quieter today than they have been lately. I can always count on a visit from a noisy miner though, and my old faithful magpie mother. 🙂

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

All in a day

Joanne4 Comments

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.