Australia · clouds · in my garden · Mount Warning · summer · Tweed Valley

Between Showers of Rain

The rain barely let up again today. Early this afternoon, however, there was a short break between showers, so I took the opportunity to dash outside with my camera.

The weeds are growing … like weeds!! They’re growing everywhere, in the garden beds, between the pebbles on the stairs, amid the grass … I had to pause to pull out a few. In doing that though, I disturbed a very extensive mosquito population, undoubtedly multiplying in small hollows where rain is captured in the garden rocks, so my weeding didn’t last too long.

From my front door, I have had my eye on my magnolia tree this week. It’s a fairly new tree, and I could see an open flower which needed closer inspection. The flower has taken a battering from the wind and rain, yet the petals are serving as dainty cups to catch the fallen carpels.

More rain is predicted. but I see a prediction for a sunny day on Monday! 🙂

Australia · clouds · garden flowers · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · native Australian plants · rain · summer · Tweed Valley

More rain …

When the rain bucketed down at 7am this morning, there was no sign of Mount Warning. Ignoring the inclement weather, two little Magpie Larks, or Pee Wees as they are affectionately called in Australia, arrived first for breakfast at my back door.

The first photo is a little lady pee wee, with verticle lines of black feathers through both eyes, and white around her beak.

Nearby, another pee wee waited, a male, with a horizontal black “mask” across his eyes, and more black feathers around his beak than his little lady friend. My photos would have been clearer if it wasn’t for the dreary weather, but with such shy flitting birds, I take what I can get.

Later in the afternoon, the mountain appeared from behind the veil of clouds which had hidden it all day.

For days now, I have been trying to take a photo of the new Lilly pilly flowers appearing on some of my potted plants. They will eventually form a hedge in the garden, but for now, I am keeping them near to the house where they can be watered every day – manually, with a hose, (was the plan) although I have rarely used the hose this summer due to our excessive rainfall! Lilly pillys are usually very hotogenic flowers, except on dull days, apparently. I will persevere though. They are very pretty Australian natives and I would like to document their growth more extensively, besides showing off their beauty. 🙂

 

Australia · clouds · family · grandchildren · in my garden · kitchen renovation · Mount Warning · subtropical weather · summer · Tweed Valley

More from Saturday …

… but first, here is the valley today – more rain, more clouds, another photo of a partially hidden mountain.

One huge bonus is the cooler weather we are enjoying lately. 🙂

On Saturday, my son and daughter-in-law invited a few friends around for a bar-be-que. Their back yard is quite small, so we are happy to share ours with our family and their friends.

All my grandchildren were here too, and I took a couple of photos of Braxton and Aurora that I rather like.

Aurora’s balloon escaped and ended up in the pool, so Poppy took her into the pool area to help her rescue it.

Aurora met puppy Summer for the first time too, and they discovered they were just the right size for one another. ❤ Aurora wasn’t about to let go of that balloon either.

Braxton didn’t realise how patient I could be when I planned on taking his photo. Hiding behind his hand wouldn’t deter me. 😉

Gotcha! 😛

Today I had the final detailed measure of my new kitchen, which will begin installation in the second week of February. Exciting times! 🙂