Close to Home

Yesterday I had a look around the Mullens picnic area. This is the closest part of the bay from where I live. The tide was good and high and there was almost no wind. It would have been a perfect day for a kayak. (Maybe sometime I will be able to get out there again!) The one thing I had forgotten was how bad the small biting insects are after some rain!
The sky was grey towards the east so the sea was also grey in that direction.

I went around to the boat ramp where the creek goes west and such a difference!

I hoped to see some birds in my own backyard but they were not around. I got up very early this morning hoping to catch some as they flew over at that time.
The light was beautiful and as the sun rose there were even more beautiful patterns on the palm leaves.

Unfortunately, this was one morning when the birds had decided to fly over elsewhere. The only ones I saw flocks of where Rainbow Lorikeets but they are too fast to get good in-flight photos I find. Some came down and roosted in the pine tree next door but I only got glimpses of the color up high.

This Kookaburra saved the morning for me. It sat up on the electricity wires and blinked at me but the early morning sun made its plumage very beautiful.

For more scenery  from around the world visit Our World Tuesday

and for more birds visit Wild Bird Wednesday.

Back to a Routine

Hopefully!
Before I start on my personal tale of woe I want to thank all of you who keep blogging and write such interesting posts! You are much appreciated even though I have not commented on your posts for quite a while 😊
It has been hot, hot, hot! I have lived up here for more than 13 years but I don't ever remember it being quite this hot before. It was often quite pleasant before sun-rise but soon after that even sitting at the computer would make the sweat start dipping and the clothes unpleasantly damp. I put in a couple of wall mounted air-conditioners when I had the house built but they are noisy and I found I could not live comfortably with them on all day. Added to all that I am still having trouble with my eyes. I am very grateful that my vision has been saved but constant head-aches are not easy to put up with! It has finally cooled down and we missed the extreme weather brought in by cyclone Debbie!
Here are some good things in my yard over the last couple of months. Some of the trees flowered more prolifically than they have for several years. This is an Ivory Curl Tree (Buckinghamia celissima). The flowers have quite a strong perfume.

This the top of my Leopard Tree(Caesalpinea ferrea).This year it had more flowers than it usually has and there must have been a  good amount of nectar because the birds came over in flocks and perched up in the top. Unfortunately the tree is now so tall that the birds up in the top are well hidden and I didn't get any good photos.

The flowers I am most pleased about are the Gymea Lilies. There are more of them flowering than ever before. However, they are very slow to come into flower and I have been waiting for months for some of them to come right out in flowers. This is one of the smaller plants and the flower stem is only a couple of meters tall. That green top will eventually come out in a spectacular red bloom.

The really tall ones are up in the tops of the palms - I am guessing 3-4 meters tall.This year the big flowers are not quite as red.

I wonder if they will get a darker color as they come out more.
There are always birds around somewhere. In the worst of the heat even the birds disappeared a couple of hours after sunrise. Crows can look quite beautiful against a bright sky.

I heard a bit of noise from the local birds one morning and counted 20 of these Common Myna. They are not native birds and are quite aggressive and can eventually displace many of the native species. I knew they had come into this district a couple of years ago and I have seen a couple at a time. But with a group this big they must have been breeding locally. 

For more scenery  from around the world visit Our World Tuesday

and for more birds visit Wild Bird Wednesday.