Silent Sunday
Tag: Noisy Miner
There’s been brighter days …
The rain continued today, in fact, I awoke to the sound of heavy rain which hardly let up all day. Husband tells me that according to his trusty rain guage we had two inches of rain overnight.
Given we have had another dismal day, therefore I don’t have a beautiful Mount Warning photo, I have looked through more unpublished photos taken in my garden.
The birds continue to visit every day, come rain hail or shine. I haven’t been keeping to my usual routine time-wise when feeding them breakfast recently though, as many mornings are completely filled with being on standby for tradesmen who are renovating my kitchen. The birds are extremely patient creatures though, and wait on the veranda for me.
I had the electrician here all day today, and he switched the power to the house off (obviously) to install my new range cooker, a single wall oven, the microwave, and various power points and lights. I couldn’t go outside into the garden because of the rain, and everything I thought of doing required power … typical.
After I had read through my three new appliance manuals, I decided to read some more of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I’m a late arrival to the Harry Potter series, and I have decided that if I had attempted to read the books when they were released, I would not have fully appreciated them. Reading the books now, however, I find them difficult to put down.
For a break from reading, I went onto Facebook occasionally to chat with my daughters on messenger. A quick scroll through Facebook, however, revealed quite an unusual situation, which has been thoroughly discussed on Facebook throughout the day. Tonight on television, the discussion continues, regarding Facebook’s decision to remove the content of several Australian pages from the website. Many Australians are considering, and have implimented today, alternative options to Facebook.
Again, I am considering the question – do I really want to remain on Facebook?
Contemplating the New Year
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?
A Week of Flower ~ Day 7
Oh no, it’s the last day of Cathy at Word and Herbs challenge, A Week of Flowers! I have enjoyed sharing my flower photos so much this week, although regular visitors know that I share garden photos often. Flowers seem to speak a Universal Language of Friendship and Caring, so I will continue to post photos of my garden often. I love Cathy’s suggestion that A Week of Flowers might become an annual event, so I will definitely participate in future years as well. 🙂
Today I am sharing two of my favourite Grevillea photos. Our Grevillea is a small native tree that we planted about 26 years ago, and every year, without fail, we have a mass of beautiful nectar-filled, pale yellow flowers emerging like delicate spiders legs. Our native birds love the Grevillea tree, especially Noisy Miners, with their yellow beaks and eyes. Don’t they colour-coordinate beautifully with the flowers?
Going from the extreme of a small tree to a ground cover, tiny Alyssum flowers are another success story in my subtropical garden. Technically an annual, Alyssums self-sow each year, so I never know where in the garden a new plant may pop up!
Husband and I went out shopping this afternoon as husband needed to go to our local hardware store, which just happens to have a plant nursery attached. 🙂 I came home with several pots of annual seedlings which I will be planting in the cool hours of tomorrow morning, mostly in large pots situated on our back patio. I bought a large tray of ten Alyssums, far too many for the pots, so I will plant the extras along the border of a garden bed in my front garden.
Tonight we had another strikingly gorgeous sunset-orange western sky over Mount Warning. It was another warm day today – parts of Australia are experiencing a heatwave – and as a result, the valley spent the day veiled by a misty heat-haze. Tonight, however, the sun’s rays burnt away the haze and shone brilliantly across the darkening sky.
Thank you so much, Cathy, for the opportunity to be challenged to share flower photos every day for a week. Searching through flower photos to share, and meeting more like-minded flower fanatics who also shared their glorious flower photos certainly brightened my days, and I hope my photos brought some joy to people as well. ❤
Friday Photography
The early morning valley looked clear and sunny, and based on the way the weather has changed suddenly by mid-morning the last few days, I went out early to take a few photos. Lucky I did, as by around 9:30am the clouds had rolled in. This afternoon, it rained.
I had several cheeky little noisy miners flitting around me. They don’t stay still for long, so I grab a photo when I can. The background of a grey fence isn’t ideal, but you’ve gotta love this “pigeon toed” stance. ❤
Here’s Mr. Magpie …
And Mrs. Magpie …
… and one of my regular butcher bird visitors. Like the noisy miners, butcher birds don’t stay still for long either!
A post of bird photos would not be complete without one of our beautiful kookaburras!
Today I have something a little bit different to share. From my back garden I can see distant glimpses of the Tweed River, so I zoomed in on a couple of areas to see what’s happening down in the valley.
It looks like there are still a few unharvested sugar cane fields. It also looks like the farmers are busy working in the harvested fields with the heavy machinery, probably preparing them for next year’s crop.
Occasionally I see a houseboat down on the river, and there was one there today.
I’m not sure what the weekend will bring. We still have chores to complete in the garden, but our weather is predicted to reach around 30 degrees Celsius both Saturday and Sunday. That will limit the time we spend outdoors if the prediction is accurate.
Have a great weekend!
In My World 