Tag: magpie

Australia · clouds · garden flowers · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · native Australian plants · new beginnings · photography · summer · sunset · Tweed Valley

Contemplating the New Year

Joanne23 Comments

The afternoon sun hid behind a cloud today, so the sky colours are far more subtle than they have been recently at sunset.

For the last couple of days, the light hasn’t been wonderful for taking photos. I think we have a bit of glare from the brightness of the sky, so none of the photos I have taken look all that wonderful.

But not to worry, I have a few photos, taken a couple of weeks ago, which didn’t make it to a blog post for whatever reason, so I will share those today.

Did I mention we have two baby Butcher Birds this year? I don’t believe I did. They are still a tad shy, but visit the garden occasionally. One day, both visited at the same time.

They seem to like perching on the trampoline I have in the yard for my grandchildren.

Since I added a few seedlings to some empty plant pots I had in the garden, the birds seem to enjoy rummaging around in the dirt, for reasons only known to them. Even the little Noisy Miners have taken a liking to the new pots.

Clearly it was raining the day I took this photo of a few of my regular visitors. I complained no end about the rain causing clouds and mist which hid Mount Warning, but after having so much rain that the area flooded, it hasn’t rained since! We could do with a touch of rain for the garden, just not so much that it causes a flood again!

And finally, here are a couple of flowering plants in my back garden. The first flower is probably the most recognisable – a hibiscus. A tiny Ladybird insect had taken a fancy to the stunning orange flower too. 🙂

The last flower is an Australian Native, whose name escapes me!

There’s a few more photos on my desktop waiting to be added to a blog post, so if the dud light continues, I have a few more photos to go on with tomorrow. It’s convenient timing too, I’m using up all of my December photos before we begin the New Year.

How is everyone feeling about a new year beginning – are you ready to launch into 2021 with gusto, shouting good riddance to the old year? Or do you feel wary of the new year, planning on tippy-toeing forward after the trials of 2020?

Australia · gardening · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · spring · subtropical weather · sunset · Tweed Valley

Unseasonal Heat

Joanne10 Comments

For the third day in a row we have had a high temperature of around thirty degrees Celsius – or 86°F. It could be worse though. The highest temperature recorded for this day was back in 1996 at 34°C, and chances are there have been hotter November days before temperature recordings were kept. Tomorrow is predicted to be around the same temperature, but after tomorrow it should drop back down to the mid-twenties.

Thank goodness! It’s difficult to get motivated to go out into the garden when it’s that hot, but with only six weekend between now and Christmas, during the weekend, outside we went. I think I mentioned before that this time last year we hardly spent any time at home, due to helping my inlaws to transition into aged care. So the catching up around our own house and garden continues. With plans for the family to all spend Christmas at our place, we are trying to get everything organised, both indoors and outside, and what a job it’s turning out to be!

The heat certainly isn’t helping any. The northerly winds are really messing with the mountain view, which has been hidden behind heat haze for most of the past three days. The only time it is slightly visible is at sunset, and the amazing sunset skies have well and truly made up for the dismal days.

Tonight when I went outside to take some sunset photos, Mrs. Magpie landed nearby. She posed beautifully for me too, turning her head this way and that, as if posing for the photos. 🙂

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. 🙂

Australia · Changes · clouds · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · spring · Tweed Valley

A day of this and that

Joanne2 Comments

It feels strange not having a committment to do something specific every day since semester 2 ended two days ago. I still feel as if I am reintroducing myself to my “other life” – the uni free life!

Today I spent the day tidying, and cleaning, and sorting, and throwing things out, and cleaning the fridge …

I also looked outside a lot, to see if the weather had improved – it didn’t – so this is tonight’s sunset. The clouds are very different today, streaky rather than balls of cotton wool, which is nice for a change.

The birds were quieter today than they have been lately. I can always count on a visit from a noisy miner though, and my old faithful magpie mother. 🙂