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Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #8

Welcome to Week 8 of my Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge.  Corvids are birds belonging to the Corvidae family, encompassing ravens, crows, magpies, jays and nutcrackers.  So peruse your corvid photo, poetry, music and story archives and join the challenge.

You can participate in the Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge by creating a pingback to this post (my pingback approval settings are set up for manual approval, so it may take a little while for your pingback to appear) and/or by leaving a hyperlink to your submission in the comments.   Tag your post Corvid-2020 or C20WC.  I really do hope you will join in.

My turn now. Read more

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My Day

As many of my regular readers will know, I am quite an introvert.  So you would think self-isolation would suit me well, but even I am struggling.  My True Love and I have had a few tense moments too.  As we have no known cases of active Covid-19 infections in my fair city, restrictions were eased somewhat last weekend.  It is a tricky time.   Physical-distancing fatigue is definitely an issue for a significant proportion of Aussies.  Needing to protect vulnerable family members, among others, our family took cautious advantage of the relaxation of the lockdown rules to catch up with family on Mothers Day. Read more

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Mother Knows Best

Welcome to my regular Friday song/tune day, ladies and gentlemen, where I pick a piece of music that reflects my mood or the times, to share with you.

I’m afraid none of my song choices have made it to the 21st Century yet.  Is that because there is nothing left to sing that hasn’t already been sung?  Let’s ask mother. Read more

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The Changing Seasons – April 2020

April 2020 (Autumn in Australia) — Canberra Walks Off The Covid-19 Crisis.

Never have so many Canberrans taken to the streets.  Not to protest, but to walk.

It rained.  The sun shone.  An urban forest revived after drought; too late for some trees.  Spring migrants like the Caper White butterfly feasted on autumn weeds.  Little dumpies (Diplodium truncatum) emerged from leaf litter to greet the day and would-be pollinators.  And the people came in their hundreds to traipse over woodland and reserve, grateful for the reprieve from summer’s hell, as they waited for the virus nightmare to end. Read more

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Take A Walk On The Re-Wild Side

Sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, my ambition gets the better of me.   I’ve always wanted to make a mosaic of a red-browed finch.  I tried, but it did not go well.  Perhaps I’m being too much of a perfectionist.  The finished product is a bit ragged because I de-constructed it a couple of times in a manner that was a touch violent.  Still, I got control of myself and made what repairs I could.  Read more

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The Early Bird

I’m not a morning (photography) person.  In the morning, I am usually pretending to be too busy doing stuff to be wasting my time taking photos.  So consequently when I checked my photo archive for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge — Morning, my morning photos were few and far between.  I normally start to take a few photos around midday, you know, to further avoid actually doing anything “productive”.  My photography tempo picks up early afternoon, peaking between 3.30pm and sunset.  That’s because by 3.30pm, I’ve convinced myself that it is now too late to actually do anything concrete, for example, like starting work on whatever art project I happen to be contemplating at the time.  Read more

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Bird Friend

My arm was twisted last year (not very hard) to make a mosaic for a blogger friend.  My friend’s property was burnt in Australia’s huge summer bush fires.  Fortunately, his house survived.  Some of my readers may know Brian from Bushboys World.  One of Brian’s favourite little birds is the Eastern Yellow Robin.  So that was the first mosaic that I made for him.  I’ve also made a second one of a Red-Browed Finch.  I had to make two mosaics otherwise the first one would be lonely.  Unfortunately I attacked the second with a sharp knife today because I didn’t like the shape of its head.  Not that anyone would have noticed the problem because it is not as though people will be looking at it close-up once its hung.  I would have known though, so it met its fate.  I’ll need to fix it, then I can share it with you.  Stand by for that one. Read more

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Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #3

Welcome to Week 3 of my Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge.  Corvids are birds belonging to the Corvidae family, encompassing ravens, crows, magpies, jays and nutcrackers.  So check out your corvid photo, poetry, music and story archives and join the challenge.

My son, the naturalist, tells me there are two types of corvids in Canberra, Australia —   the Australian Raven and the Little Raven.  He also tells me they are about the same size and he can’t tell them apart.  I don’t know about you, ladies and gentlemen, but I find that a tad confounding. Read more

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A Simple Rose

A simple poem to commemorate a beautiful rose and a month of contrasts.

A Simple Rose

in fading light
gossamer petals delight
ethereal bloom

gone on the morrow
fate and folklore entwined

rose

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Lens-Artists Weekly Challenge — Simplicity
Sunshine’s Macro Monday #36

 

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The Changing Seasons – March 2020

March — Australia creeps toward lockdown.  The weather is good but.
Warning:  this story contains many bird and nature photos.

It seems an age ago that the smoke of bushfires polluted my lungs and we hunkered down for the summer in our small abode.  Then the drought broke and the new corona virus reached our shores, causing chaos and disruption, and threatening to kill a generation.  I confess that my summer experience made me hyper-vigilant for danger. Like the virus, my preparations and anxieties gathered momentum as March marched in.  Read more