When our bottle brush tree flowers it is a striking sight and obviously a nectar haven attracting birds large and small. The bright mass of native blooms are short lived which makes it all the more special. The aptly named Rainbow Lorikeets along with the tiny Silver birds and the resplendent Scarlet Honeyeaters each seem to take turns to hop from branch to branch, feasting all the way.
Early one morning I witnessed a small group of male and female Figbirds having a feeding frenzy on our neighbour's Orange Jasmine/Murraya tree. The berries/seeds soon dissapperaed - as indeed has most the tree as it has been lopped off below the foliage in a major gardening trimming since then.
Spring showers have brought welcome relief from a long, dry winter. Everywhere you look the grass and trees are vivd green. In fact the lawns need mowing every few days! We have poppies and other beautiful country classics filling our small garden patch with gorgeous dots of colour - much to the delight of myself and the bees!
Here and there I've taken a few minutes to continue stitching my Ice-cream Soda blocks with fabric choices reflecting the season. In fact there are definite hints of Christmas to be seen....
*** You may also enjoy my Instagram feed which I add to several times a week. You don't have to join Instagram to view either - just click on the little blue square camera logo under my blog profile (top right hand corner).
Every day we have the opportunity to choose a positive attitude, to be the change we want to see and to encourage ourselves and others to face the future with faith and hope. There is always something to be grateful for, always some grace and beauty to focus our attention on, always new dreams to dream and work towards. Life is an incredible gift. What I see and capture through my camera reminds me to focus on all that is beautiful, excellent and praiseworthy - and there is never any shortage of those things if I will but take the time to look.
(Details of each photo will appear as you hover over them with your mouse/touchpad)
Our intense summer heat gave way to cooler showery days this week - much to everyone's relief. The garden looks more vibrant and the surrounding dry countryside is looking fresh again, a pleasant break before things heat up again in the next few days.
Miss V spent most of this week in a nearby city (130km/80 miles away) for a cricket carnival. This was her first time away without any family. She managed very well and had some great successes in the field too. Some of us traveled up to watch her on two separate days. We enjoy the quiet back roads rather than our major coastal highway, especially during the busy summer holiday season. The Australian 'bush' is refreshing to the soul, especially when Master T drove the long home stretch of 100km from the next town to ours both days while I relaxed and took some photos.
After several false starts last year, I finally found inspiration for utilising the beautiful blue half square triangle off-cuts from a quilt I finished over a year ago. Hoping to share more of this one soon.
Signing off with a couple of kookaburras spotted on my neighbourhood walk late this afternoon. :)
With an ever changing mix of friendly familiar, new beginnings and fresh challenges, our Spring days are fast disappearing. We've not grown foxgloves before, as our climate is quite warm but when we saw some seedling at the nursery a few months ago we decided to give them a try. Only one has flowered, gradually opening and developing rich colours over the course of a couple of weeks. Quite a fascinating and beautiful flower, I hope to plant some again next year.
Cricket is a constant focus through the summer months for most of our children and now our youngest, Miss E (8) is also participating - and loving it!
The purple jacaranda trees bloom for a few short weeks each spring. Our town has hundreds of jacaranda trees and an annual week-long festival centred around them. They sure do make the town very pretty. Grace had opportunity to perform at three events during the week, enjoying each one.
I have made a selection of drawstring bags which I have added to my Etsy shop, along with optional sets of blank greeting cards which I've had professionally printed using my photos. A combination of sewing and photography which I have thoroughly enjoyed working on.
My birthday came and went in a blink - but I still have a little of the gifted artisan Cicada chocolate left to savour, chosen at a market in Circular Quay, Sydney, and hand delivered (thank you my older daughters!).
World War I was the focus for our homeschool History studies this term - making a visited to our local Memorial Park on Remembrance Day much more meaningful.
Last but not least - we caught sight of the supermoon late last night when the cloud cover cleared. It was noticeably brighter and whiter than usual. I find it quite interesting to notice the difference angle/terrain of moon photos taken from the northern as opposed to mine* in the southern hemisphere. We live in an amazing universe.
*Photographic Note: I used my DSLR with 55-250 kit lens. I was leaning the camera against a balcony post for stability, set to manual mode with ISO at 100, f/11, 1/125 speed. As I shoot in RAW I then edited as follows - Crop, sharpen, increase definition and contrast until I liked the result.
Sharing at Our World Tuesday.