Category: pets

Australia · blessings · cakes · Changes · clouds · farewell · garden flowers · granddaughter · gratitude · In My World · memories · Mount Warning · new beginnings · new year · pets · photography · rain · subtropical weather · summer · Tweed Valley

Goodbye, 2020.

Joanne17 Comments

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. ❤

Australia · Christmas · clouds · family · Mount Warning · pets · summer · sunset · Tweed Valley

What day is it?

Joanne18 Comments

It’s that time of year again, when one day blurs into the next and I forget what day of the week it is. Thank goodness for calendars!

So having discovered it is Saturday – not Silent Sunday – I can say a few words. 😉

Today I spent the day relaxing. Christmas is over, everyone enjoyed the food and gifts that were handed out, the kitchen looks liveable again, the fridge is stashed full of left-overs (so I don’t need to cook for a while) and the torn wrapping paper and curling ribbons are ready and waiting in the garbage for next week’s bin collection. With a contented sigh, after another Christmas well celebrated, life moves on.

This morning we had a sweet little visitor who arrived with her mummy and daddy.  After a swim in the pool, she enjoyed a gingerbread ice cream sandwich.

After they left, I spent over two hours on the phone to my sister, who lives about a six-hour drive away. After catching up on how each of us spent Christmas Day, my next visitors arrived.

This is the newest addition to the family – my fur-grand-baby, Summer.

Summer’s owner, my eldest son, stayed for dinner and helped us eat some Christmas left-overs while his wife was at work.

We have had some beautiful weather the past couple of days, with temperatures around the mid-twenties, and very little humidity. Perfect Boxing Day summer weather, accompanied by another beautiful sunset sky. 🙂

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

Saturday Afternoon in the Garden

Joanne15 Comments

After a dull weather morning, the light in the garden this afternoon had a magical quality that I couldn’t resist. Everywhere I looked, the birds, trees, flowers, valley, sky, just everything begged to have its photo taken. In all, I took eighty photos. Here are just a few …

A different view of the mountain, framed by surrounding trees.

 

First red frangipani.

I may have mentioned before that I have rather a lot of potted plants now, brought home from my inlaw’s garden after they both went into aged care last year. Some of the potted frangipani trees are so young that they didn’t flower last summer, so I have been waiting with bated breath to find out what colours I have. When I watered the pots this morning there were no flowers, but by this afternoon, one red flower had appeared!

Pink Allamanda.

 

Mature Farngipani.

My mature frangipani tree, which has been growing near the pool for several years, is now well covered in bunches of gorgeous blooms. Here is just half of the tree –

A well established frangipani tree is a beautiful addition to a subtropical garden, which is why I am looking forward to planting some of the small potted frangipani next winter. Hopefully by then I will know what colour the flowers will be on all of the trees which will help me to decide where to plant them in my garden.

Naughty Forrest!

Forrest took complete advantage of my lack of attention to her, taking the opportunity to chew up one of her toys while Bronte watched … look at that innocent face – butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth – right? 😉

Drama in the sunset sky.

 

Australia · books · in my garden · Mount Warning · pets · reading · spring · subtropical weather · Tweed Valley

A Happy Garden and a Day Spent Indoors

Joanne4 Comments

Not a happy gardener, because it’s too wet for me to do any gardening today. My garden is extremely happy though, due to a good, solid soaking of rain that has hardly let up all day.

When I saw a magpie, a currawong, and two kookaburras outside my kitchen window this morning, my first thought was one of amusement – they are social distancing! Then I thought, but this is the way birds always act. They never get into each other’s space, they wait patiently, distanced from one another. No, not social distancing at all. I believe birds understand – they have always known – that they each need their own “personal space”.

There’s nothing to see today where the mountain can usually be seen sitting in all her splendour. Nothing but mist and rain. I took all of my outdoors photos today from either inside, or standing on my back veranda. It’s too wet to venture any further.

I have spent most of today indoors, sorting through masses of papers which have littered my desk for the past three months while I have been engrosed in uni study and assignments. I plonked a grey blanket on top of my sewing table a few weeks ago, and Miss Tibbs seems so happy with it being there that I haven’t had the heart to move it. Now, she sleeps on the blanket, and when she’s not sleeping she’s kneading the blanket! That’s why one of her paws is blurred in the photo – up and down her little paws went, kneading away as happy as could be.

I’m pretty happy too – just look at my desk-top! No really, look at it, because you can! And I can too! This is a rare event! I usually have so many piles of this, that and the other on my desk, but today they have either been thrown in the recycle bin, or put away where they belong. Bliss! ❤

I have another blissful sight to share too – a pile of books that I have been collecting over the past months of uni. I’m reading two book now, and will work my way through these, and others, during the next few months.

In another week’s time, I think I might have my life sorted and back in order. 🙂