The start of a new year and my memories go back to happier 

times when my husband and I would take autumn trips to

the Victorian Hightlands and birds different from home

A King Parrot, nervously sizing up the feeder, 

not at all happy with my presence

taking heart and cautiously nibbling at a seed or two

finally he got quite used to me and gobbled up all the food.

I hope the coming year will be a better one than the last with the 

loss of my husband and two dear friends.

The older we get, the more we cherish the people who share 

our memories.

Wishing you all the Happiest of New Years!

Linking with Stewart's

Wild Bird Wednesday

PS . . . Oh, HAPPY DAY!!! The young pullets which have been
indeterminately sitting on a clutch of eggs gleaned from
my granddaughter's bantams that lay blue eggs,
have produced a chick.!!!!

I am ecstatic and live in hopes of more.

OUR WORLD & Nature Notes - The Intrepid Explorer

One of my friends sharing my garden and helping to control

the birth of too many snakes.

Snakes and lizards use the same breeding holes and in a dispute,

being equally matched, the snake will often back off.

Well, here is Bill, the Stumpy Tail, 

who likes to snack on my strawberries, 

if I have any,

ambling the whole length of the house on a swelteringly hot day.

Is he looking for a drink? I did put out a little milk for him 

but he wasn't interested

around the corner into the shade house

along the dry and unkempt floor

around the water tank and under the weeds,

singlemindedly toward his goal

ah, bliss! at last a good feed of my only plant of pink clover

which I had purposely left there.

Replete and happy, he turned  . . .

and smiled at me

before wending his weary way back to the other end of the  house.

Linking with 

OUR WORLD

and

Nature Notes

I Heart Macro - The Heart of the Forest

Wonders of an autumn forest floor

a mushroom heart and a pine cone angel's wing

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy NEW YEAR!!!

Linking with Laura's

I Heart Macro

SkyWatch Friday - Deceptive Skies

The western sky across the paddock behind my house 

as the day draws to a close

creating a make-believe lake beyond the line of the hill

even turning the tall grass into reeds at the edge.

Am I seeing things, is my imagination running riot

or is it just the after effect of the Christmas libations?

Hope you all had a good one!

Linking to 

 SkyWatch 

OUR WORLD, My LIfe - Christmas, the Happy and the Sad

The Advent wreath was sagging a little after four weeks but

the stars still gleamed in full splendour.

At our house we keep the old European tradition of

celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve.

The stars are all handmade by my daughter and granddaughters.

The tree is trimmed at dusk with both granddaughters on the job

decking it's full 15' height with traditional glass decorations, some 

over 60 years old, that I had shared with my daughter when she 

left home which preserved them from the As Wednesday 

bush fires that consumed our house a few months later.

 Everyone was happy, including the animals

The presents had to wait till after the Christmas feast 

of which this is just a small sample.

A gentle Christmas with everyone ecstatic about their 

presents and just glad to be together. The room was filled with 

love and laughter.

The one sad note was that my second chick, that was doing so well,

died in the afternoon and left me sad and bereft.

To all of you out there who celebrate Christmas, may this be one 

filled with love and the joy of togetherness!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

TODAY'S FLOWERS and I Heart Macro - Flawed Perfection

Nature can be a bit of a beast. To look at the perfection of an 

opening pristine waterlily, one could be forgiven for thinking 

all is well with the world . .

until you look more precisely into it's heart to find 

microscopic thrips crawling all over it and munching

away at it's beauty!

At times like these it pays to stand back and look at the bigger 

picture and disregard these  little imperfections.

I was just happy to find it blooming in my blue lily pot. Water 

at this season is too scarce to have a pond to replenish from our 

precious water tanks.

Happy last Advent Sunday Everyone!

Linking with Denise's

TODAY'S FLOWERS

and Laura's

I Heart Macro

SkyWatch - A Golden Pumpkin Moon

The night before last, the full moon rose as a majestic 

golden ball

with clouds about,

it was now you see it, now you don't

yet even with obscuring clouds, 

it glowed like a pumpkin in the sky.

When your heart beats like an erratic kettle drum, it is not

easy to keep the hands steady.

Do click on the link to see the magic of other skies.

Linking with SkyWatch

OUR WORLD & Nature Notes - The Chicken Saga Continues . . .

Second day and they are happy and healthy and fluffy

enjoying a little outdoor time

tiring themselves, doing a little preening and  settling 

down for a nap.

Two days later while I was away for a couple of hours,

fate stepped in again.

This time not to save them from a watery grave but

to take one that the goose had not managed to drown.

The silly little one had got itself soaked in the small water dish

with just a little water in it.

When I got back, at first I could not even find it, this tiny 

sodden bit of something in the bottom of the box on it's last 

few breaths. Hypothermia had taken it's toll.

It died peacefully being warmed my my Reki hands.

The other knows both my foot fall and voice and would 

love to nestle into my hair but will have to do with the two 

exchange blankets I knitted for it so one at least is clean while 

the other is being washed.

In five days it has grown little winglets that let it safely 

flutter to the ground.

Whichever sex it turns out to be, it will be a welcome addition 

to the chicken coop.

Hope you all have had a less traumatic week than mine.

Linking with

OUR WORLD

and Nature Notes

TODAY'S FLOWERS & I Heart Macro - "Raindrops on Rose" . . .

No wonder Julie Andrews sang about them,

I rather like them too.

Linking with Denise's 

TODAY'S FLOWERS 

and Laura's

I Heart Macro

Saturday's Critters - The Snail Patrol

O.K. Which way first?

Yeah, seems as good as any other . . .

watch out snails, here we come!

Linking with Eileen's

Saturday's Critters

Wild Bird Wednesday & SkyWatch - More of the Goldfinch

I was hoping to show this little songster on the other end of the 

house as well as he followed and serenaded me while I moved 

from back to front garden and back again.

No such luck, I just can't unfreeze the file.

Goldfinches were brought to this continent by homesick English 

immigrants early in the 19th century and are little charmers.

Looking down at me, looking up to check on the surroundings 

and going back to lifting his voice and trilling again

until it was time to turn in with the sun dropping below the 

skyline and washing gold up into the dark clouds.

Linking with 

Wild Bird Wednesday

&

SkyWatch

OUR WORLD & Nature Notes - Everyday Farmlife

A pea soup kind of summer morning

with sheep sheepishly wandering back and forth

in the holding paddock between the houses,

after having fly-strike attended to.

We have been beset with a new kind of maggot that is hairy 

and breeds both in wet wool as well as under the skin.

Very nasty!

Meanwhile, the goose who sat on her infertile eggs and 

had a couple of blue bantam eggs added to the mix, has 

brought forth two dear little chicks.

Unfortunately, a goose being a goose, gave them their first 

swimming lesson in the lily pond, from which two wet

and distressed shipwrecked chicks on a rock were rescued

by passing younger granddaughter.

Guess who looks after them now? Yup, they share by bed with 

the electric blanket on 1 on their side, snug and warm in their 

ice-cream container, tucked up in their fluffy blanked I hastily

knitted for them last night.

They feasted on boiled egg

and promptly went to sleep.

I do hope they are a pigeon pair so I get a rooster for my 

three hens and a chicken that lays blue eggs.

Isn't it lovely to be forever living in hope?

Linking with OUR WORLD

and Nature Notes

TODAY'S FLOWERS & I Heart Macro - White Roses for Mandela

Life is tenuous at best, hanging on by a thread

yet sometimes a man comes along with the strength to survive

through the toughest conditions

battered but not broken

through long years of shadows

to come out and shine in the sun and achieve the impossible

and go out as a shining beacon for the rest of the world.

Nelson Mandela has gone to his well deserved rest 

and we are all the poorer for the passing of this shining light.

Linking with

Denise's TODAY'S FLOWERS

and Laura's

I Heart Macro

SkyWatch - Sunrise, East, West & More

So nice to have a few clouds around, they do enhance a sunrise

East

West, can you see the full moon low in the sky?

NE

& back to the main event.

Another day to be thankful for . . .

Linking with SkyWatch Friday