two birds and a bone

On the left, a Pied Butcherbird and his rival for the bone, an Australian Magpie, size each other up...

the magpie is definitely bigger but the butcherbird more determined and he wins the bone - luckily the dog is asleep.

pink sky morning

Just before sunrise the sky was like this in the east and the western sky had a double rainbow, the outer rainbow is very feint but it is there. As I set off for work I had to do something very usual - put the windscreen wipers on to clear away raindrops - only on intermittent but it was actual rain.

I would have taken photos of the puddles when I got home but it was a bit dark. We had 63 points of rain today (63/100ths of an inch or 15.75mm).

drought casualties

Now all I have to do is drag the chainsawed trees away to the winter bonfire site then find some frost and drought tolerant trees replacements that like living in sand.

a storm

It just passed us by, again. The rain fell to the south of us while we had interesting clouds formations and dramatic lighting.

At last, the hardy roses that have survived on minimal watering have produced a few flowers, this yellow one is Friesia - and I realise that I miss the rose perfume in the garden we used to have when we had masses of roses flowering.

shady characters

Two bulls in the paddock next to the house keeping cool in the Rosewood tree shade, close to water in the trough. The tree has a level 'bottom' because the bulls keep it trimmed and there is another flat bottomed Rosewood in the distance on the right of photo. But the cattle below, agisted on a farm where Pepper trees are planted along a track, enjoy the shade but don't eat the trees at all. I've seen Pepper tree avenues trimmed up as though a full time gardener is constantly clipping (but is actually cattle trimmed). Our cattle haven't acquired the taste or learned to eat pepper trees - yet.

Rosewoods are native trees, botanical name recently changed to Alectryon oleifolius, which I've been told are remnant rainforest trees - it's hard to imagine this was ever a rainforest but could be the reason they flower well but don't seem to produce seed, just grow from suckers particularly when a root is damaged.

catheads cleanup

They are known round here as catheads, also bindiis or caltrop (like medieval anti horse weapons) and thrive in hot weather with just a whiff of rain - a couple of drops and they germinate like lightning, flower (innocent looking pretty yellow buttercup like flowers) almost immediately and set seed the next day.... and the seedheads impale themselves in whatever walks or rolls across them thanks to very fine hard points.So we have been trying to get rid of some, the seeds that fall off ensure that there will be another bumper crop next summer when the conditions are right for them.
The green looking seedhead above is fresh and the points not so hard as the dried out darker seeds. In the past I have had trouble with catheads - bicycles round here need to have extra thick 'thornproof' innertubes and flatproof goop for added protection.

pineapple

In the first 25 years of my life (in the UK) pineapple came out of a tin - it might have been possible to get a fresh pineapple like this one I bought yesterday, but we were a tinned pineapple sort of family. It was amazing to see them growing during a trip to Queensland. They looked a bit like a triffid nursery.

Glass House Mountains, Queensland, June 2007.