Category: gardening

Australia · garden flowers · gardening · in my garden · Mount Warning · palm trees · photography · quotes · subtropical weather · summer · Tweed Valley

Nature Journaling

Joanne4 Comments

 

Hands-on experience at the critical time, not systematic knowledge, is what counts in the making of a naturalist. Better to be an untutored savage for a while, not to know the names or anatomical detail. Better to spend stretches of time just searching and dreaming. ~~ Edward O. Wilson.

My mind is not wired for science, and consequently the anotomical detail of plants has me bewildered. I’m more of a searcher and dreamer as I wander around my garden, taking photos, and I even feel completely comfortable if anyone wishes to regard me as an untutored savage. My garden brings me so much joy, and I love experimenting, wondering if plants will grow, and how they will grow if they survive my sometimes erratic subtropical climate. Will the new plant reach or exceed the suggested height on the label? Will they survive our dry, mild winters, or get ‘wet feet’ during our rainy season, summer?

Today when I walked around one of the first areas we established in the garden twenty-six years ago, admiring the plants we planted back then that have survived – and flourished – throughout the test of time and seasons, I realised just how little I know about these plants. The pink flower is a hibiscus, but what variety of hibiscus? I found plenty of weathered hibiscus flowers on the hedge, but do they always develop new buds in January? Perhaps the wind and rain, which has many of the flowers looking battle-weary, has encouraged the plants to bloom again. I’m not sure.

I must document these changes I see in my garden, for future reference. I noticed today that the western end of the hibiscus hedge still has a few unblemished flowers left. It is also on the western end – an area protected by a solid fence nearby – where more new buds are growing.

This is the eastern end, an area more exposed to the elements. Here I found unidentifiable dried debris, littered with fallen frangipani flowers, and even a small branch broken off the frangipani tree. This discovery led me to wondering if I will see a second burst of flowers blooming on the frangipani before the cooler weather arrives, seeing as the tree lost most of its flowers during the recent powerful gusty winds we had? So many questions …

My photos often feature the palm trees we planted many years ago as tiny saplings. Now their massive leaves tower above me when I stand beside the hibiscus hedge. I couldn’t tell anyone what variety of palms they are. I can safely say, however, that when the palms grow seeds, I see birds stopping by briefly each day to check the seeds. I assume the birds are waiting for the seeds to ripen, because eventually I see flocks of birds excitedly clamouring over one another, hopping from bunch to bunch, until they find seeds to their taste.

These days, when I plant something new, I try to remember to make a note of the name of the plant. I have contemplated the idea of nature journaling for several years, but I always hesitate at the thought of drawing pictures of my finds in the garden. Is my drawing ability up to scratch? I used to love drawing, but haven’t drawn anything since … I can’t remember when.

Maybe I could start by drawing something easy, like this plant that has sprouted out of a low rock retaining wall amid the moss. I wonder can anyone identify it for me? Is it a spaghorn? There are a few growing along the wall, and I wonder how big it will grow?

Before I went down the garden, I closed the gate on Brontë and Forrest, but not the gate Forrest is peeking at me through! That naughty dog must have climbed the chainwire fence near to the house, run along the outside of our garden and up through the broken fence at the bottom of our garden. The gate she is behind in the photo leads to the rear boundary of our yard, where the orchard is. She certainly knows how to get my attention, that girl!

I love looking across the valley from the lower end of our garden towards Mount Warning. Today the weather cleared again, and if we don’t get any rain overnight we will mow the lawns tomorrow morning. I told husband I will slash the edges while he does the main mowing with the ride-on mower. Even if my gardening chores take up all my time and I don’t have time to take photos, I have plenty more to share from today’s garden walk. 🙂

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 · garden flowers · gardening · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · summer · Tweed Valley

Around the Garden

Joanne8 Comments

Little Hoppy – of one gammy leg fame – stood nice and still on his healthy leg this morning while I took a photo of him. I had run out of fresh meat and had to thaw a batch from the freezer in the microwave, and he was very patient indeed.

Baby Magpie simply looked bewildered. If he could speak, I’m sure he would stamp his claw and demand his breakfast. 😉

The weather appeared to be threatening rain all day, but when no rain had fallen by this afternoon, I ventured outdoors to pull out a few weeds. All the rain we have been having has encouraged a new crop of weeds in several patches through my garden beds, so I’ve made a start on getting rid of a few. I also dead-headed my flowering plants. This rose bush still has several fresh roses on it, so nothing needed to be removed from this plant. 🙂

I had my iPhone in the garden, so took a photo of the valley from the top of the garden with my phone camera. There’s really nothing going on down in the valley today except heat haze or mist, but as always, I can’t complain when it is not an overly hot day.

We are having rather a mild summer this year! 🙂

Australia · birds · gardening · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · summer · Tweed Valley

Developing relationships – overcoming phobias.

Joanne11 Comments
The mountain is a tad dull today, more rain is predicted.

There’s something I have never shared before and it may surprise people who have known me online for some time.

Regularly, I share photos of birds. I feed some of the tamer wild birds by hand when they visit my garden. I worry if I don’t see my regulars for a while, and gush over them when they return.
For many years, however, I had a phobia of birds.

I don’t know to this day why they frightened me so much, they just did.

It wasn’t a phobia I could easily hide either. Every time a bird came near me, I panicked. I rarely shrieked – I’m not that vocal a person – but I would break out in a sweat and have to remove myself from the situation, wherever it was. It could be a friends home, a park, the beach, even in my own back yard. If a bird came near me, the sweats and shudders began.

Many well meaning people attempted to psychoanalyse me. I must have had a bad experience with a bird, or birds, as a child, I was told. Most ornithophobics can pinpoint their phobia to an incident. I couldn’t think of any traumatic incidences I had had as a child, so I asked my parents if they knew of anything. No, they said. They were as baffled as me.

Baby Magpie spotted me in the garden, so dropped by to say hello.

Had I watched the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds, I was asked. He’ll no! was my reply. I would like to get rid of my phobia, not exacerbate it.

Face your fears, I was advised. Have you tried hypnotherapy, I was asked. No – and no – I replied.

Eventually, I concluded that I would simply avoid places where there were likely to be birds. That seemed simple enough. I was determined not to pass my phobia onto my children, so tried to hide my fear of birds from them. I needn’t have bothered. Children can be surprisingly understanding, I discovered. The day we were picnicing in a National Park and I turned around to find a bush turkey standing right next to me, I jumped up on the picnic table to get away from it. My children chased it away, then they laughed and told me how silly I was to be afraid of birds.

The years passed by and I coped just fine with my phobia. It didn’t hinder my life too much, and I kept myself to myself while I was gardening. No birds came anywhere near me, until one day, a magpie dared to come within a couple of metres of where I was digging a garden bed.

I shrieked, the bird flapped and moved away from me, whilst eyeing me suspiciously. Didn’t that silly bird know who it was dealing with, I thought?

What’s up with her? the magpie’s expression seemed to suggest.

That was enough for me. I retreated indoors. My safe garden haven was no longer safe.

As I walked through the garden, Baby Magpie followed.

Something about that bird’s reaction stayed with me though. I realised a few things – firstly, the bird had not been afraid of me. Secondly, I had been more afraid of the bird. Most perplexing of all, the bird didn’t fly away when I reacted badly.

Finally, I concluded that the magpie had not meant to cause me any grief. It was as stunned by my reaction to it, as I had been in unexpectedly seeing a bird so close to me in the garden.

The magpie did not want to harm me! How amazing is that? That was my conclusion back then, and I was absolutely astounded by the realisation.

The next day I went out to the garden again. While digging and weeding, I kept a lookout for the magpie, and sure enough, it returned. The bird went about its business while I went about mine. When the magpie was ready to fly away, off it went. The magpie actually seemed to enjoy my company!

The next time I went into the garden, I took some food with me. When the magpie arrived, I threw a few scraps to it, and the bird seemed pleased with my meagre offerings.

Many generations of magpies have visited my garden since then, and over time I have discovered that birds have more to fear from people than we have from them.

The result of me beating my phobia of birds is well documented here on my blog. I never sought professional help to overcome my phobia, I simply learned to trust nature. I also learned to trust my own instincts, and my instincts nowadays always tell me that birds can be trusted. To clarify that point, if you treat birds well, they can be trusted. They react the same as most animals.

I still haven’t watched The Birds, and I never will. I haven’t had any nightmares about birds in several years either, so I do not intend tempting fate by putting myself in any position that will create doubt in my mind. I have many feathered friends now, and will do absolutely nothing that may compromise my freedom to love and enjoy them.

Clearly, this years baby magpie doesn’t know I’m a recovered ornithophobic, as that sweet little bird often tries to land on me! I must admit to some anxiety when he comes too close to my head, flapping his feathers, but I cope.

Baby Magpie continued to follow me, right down the back of the garden.

The photos in today’s post were taken about two weeks ago. It had been raining, and between showers I went outside to take a few photos. Baby magpie saw me, so followed me as I walked around the garden. When I stopped to take photos, he perched nearby and waited. When I moved on, he followed me. Like all the other generations of magpies before him, baby magpie enjoys my company. And I enjoy his company. It’s as simple as that.

I hope by telling my story, it might help someone who has a fear or even an unexplained phobia. I can’t offer any magical cure, all I can advise is to find another point of view to consider the problem from. Stay rational and calm, think the situation through with a clear mind, and go with the flow. Try not to fight your fear. It was when I decided to relax that I grew to love birds.

It’s difficult to describe the difference between a fear and a phobia, but there definitely is a difference. While both can be controlled by mind-power if we so choose, from my experience, fears can be faced and overcome. From my own experience, fear is more a state of mind where we imagine something is going to be worse than it actually is. Phobias are debilitating, and in my case, unexplainable.

I will be interested to hear your thoughts on the extent to which you believe a person can control a phobia through mind-power, or by using rationalisation. Do you believe it is possible, even easy, to overcome a life-long phobia, as I seem to have done? To this day, I cannot explain why my phobia of birds is gone!