Junior Miss has been hanging out with us most days. My True Love takes her photo every day. She doesn’t mind. She was a quite a bit smaller when she first started sleeping over. Occasionally she is evicted by big mum and baby possume but we haven’t seen them for a while.
Junior Miss today.
This spot is quite close to the tin roof. It is 35c degrees today so she got quite warm.
So she found another spot closer to the ground.
Whatever works!
Here is a photo from a few days ago. She likes the oil drip tray so my True Love cleaned it up for her.
All is well. We are all tucked up inside in air-conditioned comfort, except for Junior Miss. It will be another hot day for her tomorrow. Hopefully she will cope.
Yuma from Ngunawal country. This week it was Landcare Week and to celebrate, Landcare ACT organised a conference for environmental volunteers. Our local government coughed up the money for the conference and many of their terrific parks and conservation staff, as well as a host of other experts, ensured it all went smoothly and shared their knowledge with us. A big thank you to everyone involved.
I particularly liked the field trips and the session on story telling, the latter being a subject very close to my heart. I haven’t written much about my garden conversion or landcare activities recently, so here is a quick and dirty update.
Above is a photo of my personal landcare project. Hasn’t it grown? I’ve had to fence it to keep the rabbits out. My True Love asked me whether I going to tell the story of how I came a gutser on the fence today? A passerby raced over to help me up. Some people are really kind. There’s not much more to tell. I’m fine. But that wasn’t quite what I had in mind.
Check out this Red-browed finch (below). These sassy little finches are becoming regular visitors to my yard. It is very difficult to photograph my little visitors with so much paraphernalia in the way. I digress.
Finally, there was much excitement today as my True Love photographed a Fuscous honeyeater at our official landcare session. Perhaps Fuscous honeyeaters visit a lot? It is hard to tell when we are normally heads-down, bums-up working. Anyway, it’s a great story. Can’t wait to share it with our whole team.
I told someone at the conference about my art and my website. I probably should have reviewed my website first. My stories have been a bit dreary lately and my artwork is hard to find. Hope I didn’t put them off. And my (3am) grammar is terrible! The moral of this story must be fewer words, right? Here goes.
Family Ties Fruits of our labour. Roll out the Welcome Matt. Your story of resilience and strength. Your vulnerability. The Difference you make. Our time to grow.
How was that?
More importantly, how’s my blog family going? I’ve been rather preoccupied lately, but that’s another story.
Remember when I used to write poetry? I am looking forward to visiting the National Folk Festival in Canberra this Easter. It’s been six years since I last attended. Makes me feel all nostalgic and poetic. Here’s a repeat of a poem from my early, hopeful days in this place.
The Womb. The GREAT MOTHER. The jewel in the crown. This place. Our world. Read more
My time flies when one becomes the latest keyboard warrior. More letters have flown off, winging on a slow breeze rather than darting quickly to strike their target. At the pace I’m keeping, the road will be built and trees chopped down before I strike my final cursive blow. Weeding also bounds along at a more rapid pace given the procrastination factor. Work on the home garden continues when the park care weeding does not provide sufficient distraction from the sardonic writing.
At one of my group weeding sessions, I had to flee due to a medical tech malfunction and in our haste to leave, my camera fell out of my tool bucket and smashed. My True Love made it up to me by buying me a new camera. Given I haven’t been quite in my right mind, I decided on a camera that I thought my True Love would like – you know, in the event that I drop off my perch, it wouldn’t be a waste of money.
Anyway, anyway, I’ve taken up backyard photography again while I work out how to operate this new camera. Also, my True Love tells me I am not allowed to put the new one in the tool bucket.
I’m using weedy native colonisers to enrich the soil in the backyard and as protection for some of the more difficult to establish local natives. I’ve discovered that it is far easier to establish new plants in soil that already has a good ground cover rather than in bare dirt. I suppose all you gardeners already knew that.
Phone photo.
The wrens like all the weedy colonisers, eg native cudweed and crumbweed.
New camera. It can take photos through lots of grass. Not brilliant but you get the idea of what these little birds like.
Anyway, anyway, anyway, gotta fly.
She’s off.
Take care, everyone, and see you again when next procrastination strikes.
Yuma, everyone. After months of no rain, the temperature and humidity is rising here in Canberra, Australia’s national capital. In West Belconnen, the rain often splits around us, a promise broken. For example, Canberra airport had over 30mm of rain today, while we had only 0.3mm. So when it rained in our patch recently, I draped my camera in bubble wrap and took to the street. I thought I would share a few photos of one of our Landcare sites.
The rain is magical, turning ugly duckling trees to swans.
The drain rapidly turns green.
We cut off the seedheads of the African Love Grass by hand. No electric tools allowed. And sneak in some carex and poa to hopefully out compete the ALG one day.
The casuarinas like wet feet.
Not sure about this magpie chick.
The new plantings are enjoying the rain. Newly arrived rabbits are enjoying the plants. We need a chicken wire fence around the bare patches to allow the winter-dormant redleg grass to re-emerge. But the wheels of bureaucratic approvals move slowly, if at all.
As for me, I’m feeling a bit flat. 600 trees nearby will be cut down for an “upgraded” road to a new sustainable housing development. I think people are oblivious to the irony. Or just oblivious. Or they don’t care or feel they can’t do anything about it. It certainly makes me kind of depressed. Same old, same old, eh?
Hug a tree, readers. Save a tree. You’ll feel much better.
It has been ages since I have taken part in the Lens Artists Photo Challenge, but since Ann-Christine asked this week “What’s in a garden?”, I thought, well, how hard can it be to take one photo that would suit? Fortunately, I took one photo yesterday that I quite liked but I had no one with whom to share it, so I thought why not share it with my lovely readers?
A place that I often visit when I am feeling untidy is our wonderful Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) here in Canberra. I have been feeling untidy for a while now so it was only a matter of time before I would find myself there again. As usual, I struggled getting a decent photo so I was absolutely stoked to come home with this nice bird photo that required no editing to make it look decent. The bird was in a garden so it met the criteria, don’t you agree?
I had to use Photoshop to brighten up the next two photos. The following plant was flowering in the rainforest garden. The rainforest garden was created completely from scratch when the ANBG was established. The rainforest is such a haven for birds, animals and people when city temperatures soar. It was a pleasant 17oC when we were there.
I think the plant in the next photo is Hardenbergia violacae. It was so lovely and delicate, glinting red where the sun fell on the twining stems. We saw many plants in bud, so if you happen to be in Canberra (Australia) over the next month, the floral displays at the ANBG are sure to be even more spectacular and well worth a visit. A tip – I much prefer the somewhat dishevelled, natural gardens up the hill rather than the more manicured, curated gardens that are on the lower levels.
Finally, a photo from today’s visit to my son’s house. This was the first day that all three dogs had visited him at the same time. They had fun and Ama tried to eat a lot of sticky weed. That, and the fake grass, has gotta go. I suspect there will also be some other modifications to make it more of a haven for small woodland birds. All in good time.
I hope you enjoyed my garden tour. Please visit Ann-Christine’s post here to see all the fabulous garden examples from her many contributors.
After much silence The twitteratee twitter. Is this my good side?
Perhaps I am anxious. The longer I stay away from this place, the harder it is to make an appearance. Start with something you love is good advice. Who doesn’t love little birds?
Canberra, Australia – Turns out we have our fair share of tools.
I downed gardening tools the other day to go for a short walk with my love. I’ve spent a lot of time looking down lately at the garden so it was a nice change to look up.
March got a little merry when I met up with Mary. Hairy Mary, aka Anthela varia, mistook me for a tree. It crawled up the inside of my trouser leg. It was a good photo opportunity. No nudity involved. Check it out.
Many of my readers know that I have been focussing on some landcare activities at my local park over the last year. I have met some wonderful people doing that, but every now and then, such as when people continue to illegally dump their garden and other household waste in the park, or when they pull out our plants, or they ignore our greetings, it is dispiriting. I am actually shocked by the mean and petty behaviour we have encountered. I would be really embarrassed if I have behaved like that. Anyway, if I have few words to say here on this space, that is the reason why.
So my sanity saving strategy is just to plug away, pick up their rubbish, plant our government-approved plants and complete the government-approved weeding. And hope like hell that the culprits’ dicks rot off. One can only hope.
Now, where was I? The small woodland birds have returned from their summer homes in the hills. Their migration through our woodland is proving unexpectedly challenging due to the increased presence of larger predators attracted by the increase in insect numbers. [L-R Grey Fantail chick, Spotted Pardalote]
I have learnt that there is a subtlety to an Australian autumn. How have I not appreciated this quite so much before?
Boisduval’s Autumn Moth waited for the cold front to arrive before she emerged.
G’day, Readers. I hope you are all well and keeping busy. It seems I have lost the ability and will to blog at 3am. These days, 5pm seems to be my bedtime. It is all a bit strange really. I’m sure I have mentioned this before but it has been a long time between blog posts and I am sure you would have forgotten.
I’ve been watching a doctor show on the tele. The head doc is rude and his offsiders are pretty FITH. But they know their stuff. Amyloidosis, anyone? Since I am a real hypochondriac, it passes the time pleasantly. When I take my long list of ailments to my doctor, I get sent home with a fact sheet on menopause. What a cheek! Despite this, I am happy. A sure sign that I have really lost it.
However, continuing with all things positive, I thought I would overshare my dogs first bath in about three years. I bitch about my phone camera, but it sure does take nice dog photos. Makea had her bath last week when I was sleeping, so it was just Fynnie and Ama that faced today’s particular torture.
Actually, Ama was a little champion. She always is.
Plus, a well placed distraction.
Say cheese.
Excuse me!
Hope your day brings you a little slice of happiness.
Reflections of An Untidy Mind 