Pinch and a punch

For years now, on the first day of the month, I have taken a photograph of the ‘view’ from our kitchen window. 

Whilst these scenes sometimes vary dramatically month to month (the position of the kitchen actually moved when we renovated the house, so the view changed from being the vines on our boundary fence, to the backyard, which itself morphed from being a complete builder’s dumping ground one month, to one that is half landscaped), most of the time the changes are subtle – a pot will have moved or the something is flowering. Tiny changes we see, yet don’t really see every day. 

I once read that Laurie Lee had lived so long in his beloved Gloucestershire, that he was able to tell the date simply by looking at the quality of the light falling on the countryside around his home. Not sure I’ll be here long enough for that to happen, or for that matter whether I’d like to be, but do I love seasonal change even if it is almost indiscernible.   

Anyway, here’s how February 1^st, 2015 looked.

Summer Arrives

Although we have missed the early and stifling heat, the rest of the country seems to have had, the light through the kitchen window this morning has a bright summer sheen to it and the forecast for today is 35°.

Indi, our sweet grey tabby cat, has positioned herself in the garden bed along the back fence. This spot not only catches the early morning sun but is also partially shaded by the Tallow tree, allowing her to move into or out of the sun, depending on whether she wants to warm up or cool down. I have seen her move quite a few times this morning; the breeze is cool enough to warrant clasping your arms, but the sun has a definite sting to it. 

Summertime in this garden, and house I might add, means spiders. This one has woven a web across the tangle of jasmine and honeysuckle growing over one of our boundary fences. 

A Garden Orb Weaver, these spiders look scary, but are relatively harmless. Still as this web is at head height and positioned almost directly above the garden tap, I might start filling the watering can in the laundry.

Blue Banded Bee

The weather has been wonderful these past few days and the garden is becoming increasingly noisy. The cicadas have begun a symphony of tick, tick, ticking that will accompany us well into autumn, and the birds are making the most of the flowering callistemon that actually grows in our neighbour’s yard but hangs well into ours, arching gracefully over that back fence. This is a favourite spot for the cats most mornings, for although the flowering branches are well out of reach, they remain vigilant just in case…

I joined them outside this morning, fertilising the plants in pots and noticed  this little bee gathering nectar.  

She is a blue banded bee, one of Australia’s native bee species. Although they prefer, and are attracted to blue flowering plants, they will also feed on the flowers of tomato plants as this one was doing. These bees make their nest by burrowing into river banks, soft stone or mortar between bricks, and as we now have limestone retaining in the back garden, I’m hopeful of seeing a few more of these little guys.

A Visitor...

A young kookaburra has been visiting the garden of late. I spotted him on the woodshed late Friday evening but couldn't get a good shot of him through the kitchen window. Here's a not very clear one I took of him earlier, perched in the Chinese Silk tree, that shades the back garden.

I've seen him catching the big grasshoppers that have suddenly appeared in the garden from who knows where. Sometimes they are beaten on a tree branch and devoured straight away, whereas at other times, he flies off towards the river, gripping the grasshopper firmly in his beak. Kookaburras breed at this time of year, and as last years offspring help to nurture the latest family members, I'm guessing there's a nest in one of the hollows in the trees growing along the river's edge.
 

Just looking around...

And getting a feel for this place.