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The Changing Seasons – July 2020

July casts a long shadow – Winter in the national capital (Canberra, Australia).

Contrary to photographic evidence, I spend much of the month hiding in my home or in my head. The disaster that is Covid-19 grips the nation. Covid-free Australian states shut their borders against those states battling virus spot fires or a full-on raging inferno. I’m all for border closures. Virus afflicted states are going to need all the help they can get from other states to subdue this contagion. Hate, bigotry and ignorance also corrode the social fabric. This too we can overcome provided we have the will to work together.

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The Changing Seasons – June 2020

Winter in the nation’s capital (Canberra, Australia) — A little chilly, sometimes grey, a few warming rays in the afternoon. The virus? An ominous breakout in one state to the south jerks people out of complacency. Canberra is virus-free for the moment. We wait. We take photos of birds. It keeps us sane.

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The Changing Seasons – May 2020

Canberra (Australia), May 2020 – Keeping mostly calm and Covid-wise in the national capital.

I’m joining the lovely Su from Zimmerbitch in The Changing Seasons challenge. As the weather turned cool for this last month of autumn, I have been slowing down like the season; not quite in hibernation mode yet, but needing a kick up the behind to keep moving.

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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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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

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The Changing Seasons – February 2020

February (Australia) – another month of what Tracy does best.  Catastrophising.  Still, I’ve included a few nice photos.

After so much stress last month, it was not surprising that I seemed to have more than my fair share of illness.  I started the month with a terrible head cold and I am finishing the month the same way.  Lucky me.  Many of my fellow Canberrans have been similarly affected by the strain. Read more

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In The Red

It’s summer in the southern hemisphere.  In southeast Australia, it has been a shocker.  In Canberra (the nation’s capital), we have had drought, a huge hailstorm and now fire in the Namadgi National Park to the south and west.

We also had a small colony of Little Red Flying Foxes take up residence in one of our town parks.  When we first discovered the colony, we asked our son whether we should report it in.  He told us that the ACT Government (that’s our local government) most likely already knew about it.  They didn’t.  Turns out the Little Reds haven’t been seen in Canberra for 23 years.  Imagine that! Read more

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The Changing Seasons – December 2019

December (Canberra summer) — Caught in transition.

I feel compelled to take photos, both of the mundane and the unusual, as if to bear witness that these places, things, people and creatures, once existed and that they mattered. Read more