Tag: breakfast

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

A Day That Sparkled

Joanne11 Comments

About a week ago we had a couple of days when storms and blustering winds hit us each afternoon. We even lost power Saturday before last. During the chaotic weather, our palm trees took a bit of a battering, and since then we have lost a few of the lower leaves. Where once I had palm leaves dancing in the foreground as I took photos of the mountain, now all I have are tall, bare palm trunks. The leaves are still growing in the lofty heights of the tree, they just don’t appear in my photos any more.

So today, the first photo I took of the mountain features a cluster of palm trees, just for something different.

There was some rain about this morning, not much, but just enough to make the valley sparkle. Some days, rain can have the opposite effect, making the valley appear dull and lifeless under a veil of grey mist. Today, the valley looked magnificent.

I had the usual morning crew here for breakfast, and if kookaburras are not photogenic enough, the light of the day added extra pizzazz to their appearance.

Here they are, getting stuck into some beef pieces for breakfast. They always dominate the feeding table, even though I assure them there is plenty of food for everyone.

Little baby magpie has become a regular visitor every morning too. He/she usually visits with both his/her parents now, but I’ve noticed the father usually feeds baby.

Later this afternoon, I went for a walk down the back to admire everything we achieved during the weekend in the garden. After putting the cut branches of our fruit trees through the hired mulching machine, we have several large piles of mulch which will come in very handy around the garden.

I took my iPhone with me down the back, and just for fun I thought I’d take a photo of the valley from our rear boundary, just to see if the quality of the camera is okay. I rarely think to take photos with my phone camera, so it was an experiment for me. This is the result –

Between the fantastic light of the day, and the magnificent cloud formations, it was probably a safe bet that the photo wouldn’t look too bad. 🙂

Australia · birds · in my garden · Mount Warning · palm trees · photography · Tweed Valley · winter

Another Gorgeous Misty Morning

Joanne4 Comments

Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul. ~~ Alice Walker.

When I read this quote from Alice Walker it resonated with me. I love having beautiful things around me, and when I see Mount Warning rising above a valley filled with fluffy white mist before sunrise, it makes my heart sing. Even though I didn’t “create” this beauty, I can take photos to virtually make the beauty last longer than nature intends it to.

When the sun shone on the mountain it glowed and glistened in the sunlight. The photo doesn’t do it justice. I’ve seen this glowing effect before when there’s mist in the valley, so I suspect it has something to do with the sun’s rays reflecting – or deflecting? – on both the mountain and the mist. Or maybe the clouds play a part in creating the glow. I’m not sure.

While the mountain and mist created their magic this morning, a pair of Figbirds feasted on the red palm berries. The early morning light of the day made it possible for me to take a cute silhouette photo of a Figbird with one of the berries.

This last photo of four kookaburras is from yesterday morning. I know there are about one dozen Kookaburras in my area, but only four are visiting regularly just now. I’m hoping that means the mama birds are busily tending their nests. If that’s the case, I may have some fluffy young Kookaburras visiting my garden by summer. I hope so.

So that was my “soul restoring” activity for this morning, taking photos of the beautiful view from my garden to share with my bloggy friends. No wonder I enjoy blogging so much and miss it when I’m away from it for too long. 🙂