This is what is flowering in my garden today
The opal mining town of Andamooka,
South Australia at dawn
The first rays of the sun kissing the mullock heaps
A small flowering almond in it's second year
covered in blossom
The seasons are awry. This flowering cherry, for
Malus floribunds, a haven for bees and Blue Wrens
The tree tops swaying
the hens start laying
there is no gainsaying
the call to go forth
The meadows are calling
and cats caterwauling
lambs prancing and frolicking
in grass to their knees
Life now is beginning
the frosty nights thinning
the dance of the seasons
is stepping in tune.
Shortly after we bought the third part of the farm
we had this pond dug. Twice in the last 15 years
it has overflowed. Last summer it was dry.
This little tortoise was wandering along our dry
and dusty road, when one of my granddaughters
spotted it and put it on the grass. Oddly, it has one brown
and one gold rimmed eye for easy identification
I helped it to the pond and with it's dry, mud caked
shell lapped by water
It decided that the pond was a good place to be
A pair of Wood Ducks, Chenonnetta jubata territorially
protecting their pond from a pair of thirsty Galahs
Electing to take to the water
please excuse the quality , I only had a fleeting chance.
The Bandstand in the heart of Goulbourn.
Goulbourn is situated between Sydney and
Canberra, yet surprisingly has retained the character
of a real country town with friendly people caring
for the land and each other.
The journey frm Sydney to home base was roughly
1,800km. We chose a more scenic route through
the foothills of the Snowy Mountains.
Australia is famed for it's blue hills above
and good ski fields in the alps below
The green countryside was balm to our eyes
coupled with abounding blossoming wild plums
This settler's cottage from the 1940's though in
bad repair was charming amogst it's blossom trees
Crossing the Murray near Jingellic also crossed
the state line from New South Wales to Victoria
I particularly chose this route since I remembered
another spring when I had seen this glorious Magnolia
in a farmhouse garden far from the madding crowd
A black swan ignominously sharing a duck pond
And last but not least to show you all how dire
the droght situation here is, this is the Hume Weir,
Southern Australia's largest dam, where the
cattle peacefully graze. In normal years, the
pylons of the old railway bridge are under water.
It was still 3 day's drive to get home, just didn't
want to tax your patience too far.
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