Winter Begins. SoS June 18, 2022

‘Winter is a season of recovery and preparation’ Paul Theroux. We are well into wintry weather now in the Central Tablelands of NSW, and it’s quite difficult to find six things of interest in the garden. Two tonnes of topsoil have been spread on various gardens and on part of the lawn, a massive effort…

Autumnal Beauties: SoS 28 May, 2022

Autumn is slowly coming to an end in these parts. Often the days are very warm, dry and cloudless at this time of the year, but because of our protracted La Niña event there has been a lot of cloud and sunsets have been magnificent. I’ve taken a number of photos of sunsets recently, but…

Last Light

The last rays of the setting sun catch the last leaves of the silver birch as the garden keeps on giving during the last days of Autumn.

Falling leaves drift by my window. SoS, May 14 2022.

There has been a great deal of rain in the Central Tablelands this year. Already, twelve month’s rain has fallen and we’re not halfway through the year. Our Mudgee garden is waterlogged and water from two days ago is still lying in the gutters around the edge of the garden beds. We’ve had nothing like…

Garden visitors #5

A colony of yellow-tailed black cockatoos lives in the hills behind our house. We often hear their high-pitched cries as they soar high above the house, but never before have any stopped in our garden. Squeals, presumably of delight, attracted us to the Hakea petiolaris which is in flower just now, boasting a decorative covering…

A Grey Day. SoS, November 13, 2021.

It’s a grey and windy day. Large amounts of rain have fallen in the last week or so, over 100 mm, the garden is saturated and today is a day to stay indoors. It’s much more like a winter’s day than a sunshiny spring one. The temperature was 10 degrees mid morning, when with the…

Showery, flowery, bowery.

‘Spring is showery, flowery, bowery’….the words of the old rhyme don’t always apply to spring in these parts, but this year, they’re particularly apt. More rain fell during the week and the back lawn is even spongier than ever. It has been cold as well, and cloudy, but that hasn’t stopped a massive growth spurt…

Of Showers and Flowers.

It’s a showery day here in the Central Tablelands of NSW following a week of wet weather. There has been a lot of rain, and even a tornado (about 100km from us) which destroyed several houses and caused much media interest as tornadoes do not happen often in this area. Fortunately it didn’t last long,…

Tragedy.

A neighbouring cat sidles amongst the front garden shrubs Eyes a-glow in the early morning sunshine. It slinks and stealthily twines amongst the twigs And pounces Successfully. Another bird dies. I have often written about the birds that visit our garden and how much pleasure they provide. This morning I was heartbroken to discover feathers…

Safety in Numbers

Red rumped parrots are common in these parts and groups of them are often seen on the back lawn feeding on something…I’m not quite sure what, as they get their beaks down amongst the roots and tug until they find what they want. It doesn’t always seem to be seeds they are interested in. It…