Category: clouds

Australia · Changes · clouds · colours · flowers · garden flowers · gardening · in my garden · Mount Warning · quotes · rain · summer · sunrise · Tweed Valley

Something Beautiful

Joanne16 Comments

When you do something beautiful and nobody notices, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle, and yet most of the audience still sleeps. ~~ John Lennon

When the early morning sun put on a beautiful specticle today, someone noticed. Luckily for me, I was awake to see the gentle, muted colours caught in interesting cloud patterns across the sky over Mount Warning.

Once, rising at 6:00 am seemed horrendous, yet now I look forward to seeing the changes in the sky, clouds and light as the earth awakens.

Lately, with all the rain and blustery weather we have had, there have been several mornings when the mountain hasn’t been visible at all, so I really appreciate the fine-weather mornings. The current La Niña weather pattern has sent parts of my garden into a tizz, with all the small green mango fruit blowing off the tree before it had a chance to mature, and we hardly have any frangipani flowers left. Only those flowers hidden among the leaves on the safer, northern side of the tree have survived.

Surprisingly, our hibiscus hedge is doing very well this year. We only bought one plant back in the days when we were establishing our new garden, and from that one plant, a creamy-peach colour, we grew more from cuttings. When a neighbour pruned their pink hibiscus, they were happy for us to take a few cuttings to strike for our garden, so our colour scheme was decided upon.

Some years, the excessive humidity and lack of rain bothers the hibiscus and we see few flowers. This year, the plants seem to be flourishing with the extra rain and we have a beautiful array of flowers.

Seeing the changes in the weather, which affects everything – the sky, the view, and especially the plants in the garden is what I enjoy most about spending time outdoors. In the garden, from season to season, you just never know which flowers and plants will be the star performers. And during summer, in the early morning, while much of the world still sleeps, it is the best time of day to spend time with nature. 🙂

Australia · birds · clouds · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · subtropical weather · summer · sunset · Tweed Valley

Soul-ties

Joanne9 Comments

This afternoon, I had another visitor in my front garden, right near the front door. Yesterday it was the Pee Wees and a Butcher Bird – today, a Kookaburra. It’s my guess that the birds enjoy the coolness of my front garden, which is why they have been spending time there during the afternoon of the past two days. The weather has warmed again, but the humidity isn’t too bad at all.

From the amount of brown dirt smeared on his beak and feathers, I’d say this beauty has been foraging for worms recently. He patiently posed for a close-up photo session though, so I had to reward him with a small morsel of food.

This boy features in a few of my photos. I recognise him because of the bare patch in his upper chest feathers. He’s fairly tame, but just a tad reluctant to take food from my hand.

He listened intently to every word I said to him though. Some birds look deep into your soul – this particular bird can definitely connect on a spiritual level.

Connections between humans can – and should – be the same. We are all human beings, and when I read the words of Maya Angelou today, her wise words seemed more profound that ever –

“It’s very hard to hate someone if you look them in the eye and recognize them as a human being.” ~~ Maya Angelou.

This afternoon as the sun was setting, I noticed a few interesting cloud formations. Rain is predicted overnight, so I’m hoping we have a dry day tomorrow. Who knows – I might get some early morning gardening done, before the heat sets in again. 🙂

This cloud looks to me like a dragon flying across the sky, its wings expanded to either side as it sours across the mountain. Does anyone else see that, or am I reading too much Harry Potter? 😉

Australia · Changes · clouds · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · summer · sunrise · Tweed Valley

Getting back into routine

Joanne5 Comments

Today is the first day since before Christmas that life feels like it has regained a touch of normality. Husband went to work, I fed the birds and indoor pets, then sat down to eat breakfast.

The phone rang as soon as I put milk on my cereal.

Of course it did! That’s normal in my house. 😉

Morning visitor.

There was still cloudy skies and rain about this morning. I’m loving the coolness of the last few days so much! I wish every summer day felt like it has recently, comfortably warm, with little humidity. After a coolish night, there was a hint of mist across the ranges and Mount Warning, which looked very pretty.

Later in the day the sun appeared for a while and the mountain looked extremely clear. I was a bit caught up in work related matters though, so didn’t pause to take any more photos after capturing this morning’s mist and layers of clouds.

Morning mist.

On the subject of Mount Warning, yesterday I read the sad news that the chains at the summit of the mountain, there to help hikers reach the top, have been removed. Apparently this is to discourage people from climbing the mountain, as the local indigenous people believe the mountain is a sacred site and don’t want people climbing the mountain. Needless to say, many locals are shocked by the news, as climbing the mountain has been enjoyed by people of all ethnicities for as long as anyone can remember, without a word of complaint.

Some cynics predict that in the near future, a fee will be charged for the pleasure of enjoying a hike that was once free. We will have to see what eventuates.

 

Australia · clouds · family · grandchildren · in my garden · kitchen renovation · Mount Warning · subtropical weather · summer · Tweed Valley

More from Saturday …

Joanne4 Comments

… but first, here is the valley today – more rain, more clouds, another photo of a partially hidden mountain.

One huge bonus is the cooler weather we are enjoying lately. 🙂

On Saturday, my son and daughter-in-law invited a few friends around for a bar-be-que. Their back yard is quite small, so we are happy to share ours with our family and their friends.

All my grandchildren were here too, and I took a couple of photos of Braxton and Aurora that I rather like.

Aurora’s balloon escaped and ended up in the pool, so Poppy took her into the pool area to help her rescue it.

Aurora met puppy Summer for the first time too, and they discovered they were just the right size for one another. ❤ Aurora wasn’t about to let go of that balloon either.

Braxton didn’t realise how patient I could be when I planned on taking his photo. Hiding behind his hand wouldn’t deter me. 😉

Gotcha! 😛

Today I had the final detailed measure of my new kitchen, which will begin installation in the second week of February. Exciting times! 🙂