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The Changing Seasons – March 2019

Dear Readers, can you believe that it is already March?  So here I am, commencing my second year of The Changing Seasons challenge.  I’m feeling battered this month, like an incumbent government that is falling in the polls even though the economy is performing well.  Don’t the punters know that they have never had it so good?  I suppose that is because we don’t live in an economy; we live in a society, and there has been a fair bit of societal ugliness going round.  So yep, although I want to crawl under a rock or hide in my own little “Canberra bubble” (sorry. in joke), March was mostly good for me.

So, let’s get started. Read more

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No Ordinary Day

Happy National Eucalypt Day, everyone.  23 March is the national day for Australia’s iconic eucaplypt trees, of which there are around 900 species.  Eucalypts were known to have existed when Australia was still part of the super-continent Gondwana.  The oldest known eucaplypt fossil specimens (flowers, fruit and leaves) date back 52 millions years! Read more

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Sun Worshipper

As today’s Ragtag Daily Prompt is diurnal, I thought I would post a couple of photos of the eastern long-necked turtle.   The (Australian) eastern long-necked turtle is a sun-worshipper.  It is a cold-blooded, diurnal animal.  These small fresh-water turtles are most active mid-morning and afternoon once they have warmed up.      Read more

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The Silo On The Truck

I’m a big fan of road trips.  There is always something new and interesting to see on the journey.  Being stuck in slow moving traffic is no hassle, but instead a photo opportunity (provided one is not doing the driving).  Here is a photo I took a few years ago.  It is perfect for Frank’s Tuesday Photo Challenge — Round.  The silo on the truck goes round and round. Read more

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Return To Cooler Nights

The return to cooler nights and mornings heralds the turn of season.  Autumn is upon us.  The little birds, silver-eyes, are enjoying the cool mornings and evenings as they zip through the garden.  Some even stop off for a bite to eat.  Hey, little bird, that’s my fig! Read more

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My Precious

I would like to thank Margaret for the Ragtag Daily Prompt today.  Her prompt is iridescence.  She posted a lovely  photo of a beetle that looked very like the golden stag beetle.  So I thought I would join in with a couple of iridescent beetle photos of my own, as well as a bird photo for good measure. Read more

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The Changing Seasons – February (Part 2)

My February Changing Seasons post will be divided into two parts.  Part 1 contains the serious environmental message.  Part 2 is more lighthearted.

This post contains images that may distress some viewers. Read more

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Organ Pipes – Let The Music Play

I remember vividly that freezing cold day in 1991 when I went to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.  It was more than the cold that sent shivers down my spine.  There was no-one else there.  Just us.  We were so small next to that massive geological formation.  I thought I would never see anything like it again, especially not in my own country.

Smaller in scale, but just as awe-inpiring.  In Gamilaroi Country. Read more

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Animal Farm

Once upon a time, yellow box and red gum grassy woodlands stretched from Toowoomba to Victoria (Australia), providing a continuous wildlife corridor 100-150 kilometres in width and 1,500 km in length.  Since colonisation, vast swathes of grassy woodland have been cleared for agriculture.  Now there may be as little as 1-5 percent remaining. most of which has been modified in some way by grazing.  Many birds and animals have become trapped in isolated communities, reducing valuable genetic diversity and leaving them vulnerable to threats of local habitat loss.  It is not surprising then, that yellow box and red gum grassy woodlands have been declared a critically endangered ecological community. Read more

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Miracle Garden

In 2003, bush-fires ravaged the old Nil Desperandum homestead.  After the fires, the historic rammed-earth cottage was re-built to the original 1896 design.  Nil Desperandum forms part of the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve (near Canberra).   Amidst the devastation wrought by the fires, a part of a commercial camellia plantation somehow managed to survive.  Surrounded by dense bush on all sides, it truly is a miracle garden. Read more