Everything but the birds

After a week or so of lovely, mild, summer days, the solstice has brought us a blast of heat; 39 ° yesterday and the same again today. Days for getting up early to do whatever needs to be done outside, then retreat into the ‘relative’ cool of the house until dusk.

We are lucky to have the Silk and Tallow trees in the backyard, as they protect the house and garden from the worst of the western sun. Both trees are flowering, the Silk tree still and the Tallow again, as are the mistletoe anchored high up in the Silk tree, and all the spent flowers and petals, make cleaning the bird bath a daily job. 

Always busy, the bird bath and terracotta dishes I fill with water, attract a constant stream of visitors on these hottest of summer days. The bees and the resident paper wasps, seem to know as soon as it's done; that the water is now fresh and cool. 

 

 

Paper wasps drink and skate across the surface, but bees don’t like to get wet, hence the brick and pieces of rock. The rough surfaces enables them to drink without slipping in (most of time anyway). Other creatures as well, make use of the water on offer. 

 

These little black wasps? are regular visitors.

The occasional grasshopper hops in for a drink.

As do the snails. In fact, just about every creature that visits the garden, except for the birds, enjoys a drink from the bird bath. And the reason for that is....

Bertie and Indi don’t mind a drop of bird bath water either.