Category: in my garden

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 · clouds · family · flowers · grandchildren · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · palm trees · spring · subtropical weather · sunset · Tweed Valley

Warmer Days Return

Joanne10 Comments

After a few days of spring-like weather, the warmer weather returned today. The chores we needed to get done were mostly inside the house – thankfully – where the ceiling fans kept us cool.

I’m glad every week is not as busy as the past week has been. Between one thing and the other I have hardly had a moment to spare, which has kept me from visiting my blogging friends. I keep thinking about you all, hoping you are well, wondering what you have been up to. I know tomorrow will be another busy day, but on Monday I will be couped up in my office all day …

Adult Honeyeater.

… couped up with my computer, that is, so I plan on having a blog visiting day then.

So why will I be couped up in my office? I’m glad you asked …

We are (finally) having the floor coverings replaced in the main living area and hallways of our house, so I will need to make myself scarce so as not to get in the way of the workers. This week preparations began, including emptying cupboards ready to be moved, and removing tired old skirting boards that we have decided to replace.

Also this week I minded little Aurora for two days, and have had two extra dogs here for four nights while my daughter and family took a few day’s holiday. Tomorrow I will have four-year-old Braxton here for half a day as well. It’s little wonder I nodded off at the computer the other night while posting my daily photo of Mount Warning – I’m feeling tired just writing about the week that was. 😉

The frangipani tree in full bloom.

Between the heat, the mess, and plain old tiredness, we had takeaway pizza for dinner tonight, which was very nice for a change. 🙂

 

Australia · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · photography · rivers · spring · subtropical weather · sugar cane · Tweed Valley

Friday Photography

Joanne9 Comments

The early morning valley looked clear and sunny, and based on the way the weather has changed suddenly by mid-morning the last few days, I went out early to take a few photos. Lucky I did, as by around 9:30am the clouds had rolled in. This afternoon, it rained.

I had several cheeky little noisy miners flitting around me. They don’t stay still for long, so I grab a photo when I can. The background of a grey fence isn’t ideal, but you’ve gotta love this “pigeon toed” stance. ❤

Here’s Mr. Magpie …

And Mrs. Magpie …

… and one of my regular butcher bird visitors. Like the noisy miners, butcher birds don’t stay still for long either!

A post of bird photos would not  be complete without one of our beautiful kookaburras!

Today I have something a little bit different to share. From my back garden I can see distant glimpses of the Tweed River, so I zoomed in on a couple of areas to see what’s happening down in the valley.

It looks like there are still a few unharvested sugar cane fields. It also looks like the farmers are busy working in the harvested fields with the heavy machinery, probably preparing them for next year’s crop.

Occasionally I see a houseboat down on the river, and there was one there today.

I’m not sure what the weekend will bring. We still have chores to complete in the garden, but our weather is predicted to reach around 30 degrees Celsius both Saturday and Sunday. That will limit the time we spend outdoors if the prediction is accurate.

Have a great weekend!

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

On Palms and Kookaburras

Joanne13 Comments

Today I made a point of taking a broader view photo of the mountain, showing the nearby palm trees. In yesterday’s post, I explained that we had lost a few lower leaves on our palms during the recent gusty storms. One significant leaf, which usually appears in my Mount Warning photos, is gone. Now when I take phtos of the mountain from this particular position in the garden, it feels like the photo isn’t complete – now I have to get used to a new normal!

The broad view photo adds context to the height of the palms, and why one very large drooping leaf always appeared in my camera lens. There is a bunch of seeds below the leaves on one palm, and the leaf that always appeared as an “extra” prop in my photos was growing between the leaves and the seed bunch.

This next photo shows a different cluster of palm trees. Most of these trees – except for the one on the far left of the photo – are growing near the pool. As the lower leaves drop, new leaves are forming above, and adding height to the tree. Along the trunk of the tree, as each leaf drops it leaves a ridge in the trunk of the palm where the leaf once grew.

Surprisingly, palm leaves are incredibly heavy! When they crash to the ground they make a very loud sound, almost like thunder. The palm on the far left in the photo above has two leaves which could fall at any time. As the trees grow taller and the dying leaves are higher, we simply can’t reach them to cut the leaves down, so until they drop they look a tad messy dangling from the tree.

Every morning around sunrise, the kookaburras wait in the palm trees, keeping a watchful eye on the back door, waiting for me to go out and feed them. They rarely wait around the garden at night, probably because they know I won’t feed them. Tonight, however, I spotted one kookaburra sitting on my clothesline, watching the back door. What really struck me was the position of the bird in front of a gorgeous orange sunset.

I rushed outside with my camera and took a few photos, and seeing as the kookie had been such a willing model, I made an exception and took a tiny treat out to him. I couldn’t decide which photo I liked best – the black silhouette, or the one that shows a glimpse of his features. So here are both photos. 🙂