Silent Sunday ~ Kookaburras in the Mist
Tag: kookaburras
Australian and New Zealand Native Plants
In previous posts, I have mentioned that during the past year, I have focused on revamping my garden, by removing plants that I wasn’t happy with and trying new plants in their place.
A new plant to me was ‘Metrosideros Little Ewan’, otherwise known as a dwarf New Zealand Christmas bush. I thought I’d give it a go, so bought three tube stock plants. Much to my delight, I noticed this week that I have my first Little Ewan flower.
The clusters of red spires look to be growing from a yellow base; also, there is the tiniest hint of yellow at the end of the soft spires. The plant is still tiny but grows to one metre in both width and height. It will be lovely to see the plant in flower when it reaches its full maturity.
Finger limes are native to Australia. Referred to as “bush tucker” by aboriginal people, the fruit, when cut open, has the appearance of caviar! My tree is young, and this is the first summer it has fruited. I have been lucky enough to try finger limes previously when my neighbour brought some off their tree for us to try. When I cut open my first lime, I will take photos to share here. 🙂
I am still learning the intricacies of finger lime tree growth, but I predict we may have a few more limes appearing before summer is over.
Also in bud is my native Australian Lilly Pilly shrub. This shrub is growing in a pot currently, but I have plans for it to become a feature plant in one of my newly renovated gardens.
A post of Australian natives wouldn’t be complete without a photo of kookaburras. As you can see, we have summer rain here which I am thankful for – it is keeping the temperatures lower each day, even if the humidity is a tad high! During the mid-month of summer, I am grateful for any reprieve I can get from the heat. 🙂
Wordless Wednesday
Approaching the middle of winter
It’s a glorious time of year in the subtropics! Each night is cool enough to warm the house with our fireplace, I can wear cosy winter clothes for a few weeks, and on Monday I spent the whole day gardening without breaking out in a sweat at all.
Today we had our third day of rain for the week, so gardening has been put on hold. It wasn’t too difficult to stay indoors to keep dry and warm though. The valley – and most of our garden – has been hidden by mist all day, so todays photo of Mount Warning is one I took last week.
It had been overcast weather all day, then as nightfall approached, in the distance, beyond the mountain and grey sky, a strip of light sky appeared. It was a stunning sight, and something a bit different to our usual sunsets.
“Life” has taken up more of my time than usual recently. What with final university assignment writing at the end of semester 1, and various family events, my blogging, and visiting blogger friends’ sites had to be put on hold. Also, my son, daughter-in-law and two of my grandsons have moved in recently. They sold their home, put a deposit on a new home, but when the building report on their prospective new home wasn’t up to par, they pulled out of the sale.
Meanwhile, houses in our area are in high demand. With more people buying than selling, house prices are on the rise, and Covid 19 is the culprit. People are selling up and leaving the capital cities, where covid “lock-downs” have become a regular occurance. Many people are relocating to areas such as ours where we have been virtually covid-free from the beginning of the pandemic, searching for freedom.
The changing market has forced many locals into a similar situation, so they simply have to be patient. The right house will become available for my son and his family eventually. In the meantime, I can enjoy grandson-cuddles every single day, which isn’t a bad thing at all! ❤
I have one last photo for today of a pair of kookaburras, taken last month, looking at something that obviously caught their eye. They are gorgeous characters, these birds. 🙂
Hopefully by tomorrow, the weather will have cleared and I will see the mountain again!
Golden Rain
The title of today’s post is referring to a large tree at the top of our garden, close to the street. It’s deciduous tree, and just before it loses its leaves it forms pretty yellow flowers, then these pink seed pods, as shown in the photo.
Husband curses this tree every year, as each seed has the potential to grow another tree, and they are rather large trees! We have two in the garden already – both of which we planted several years ago – so every year I go around pulling out the tiny trees as I see them taking root. Some people regard golden rain trees as a weed, but I quite like them, they are sturdy trees, and one of the few trees in our yard that change with each season.
There’s been plenty of the clear variety of rain falling from the sky today as well, which prevented me from taking my camera for a walk to the top of the garden to take a close-up photo of the tree. This photo was taken on full zoom from my front veranda. I spotted two kookaburras under the tree also, foraging for bugs in the wet earth.
For the next two day, fine weather is predicted! I’m sure you will forgive me for not holding my breath in anticipation of a dry day, but wouldn’t that be wonderful? Imagine, maybe I could do a few loads of washing, perhaps have a window or two open around the house, the dogs could spend some time out in the yard instead of indoors.
I might even see Mount Warning! We’ll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.
In My World 