Here I am sitting wondering what happened in April. It rained enough to keep the garden watered without me having to do much. That reminds me, I have to start the House Dam pump to pump up to the garden water header tank, as last time I used a hose the water pressure wasn’t that great.

A song to scroll with. Not your average Deep Purple music. A mix of classical and soft rock using classical instrumentation. It is quiet and brilliant. I had never hear it before and was transfixed as I write

Did a couple of day trips. Went up the range to have a look about. It was a warm 24C when we left and I had shorts and T-shirt on. At the last minute I raced back inside and grabbed a long sleeved shirt. When we arrived at our favourite spot, The Raspberry Lookout, it was cold 14C and I was shivering.

As it was school holidays, the lookout had people there!! People in our what we thought was our secret spot. We still commandeered the picnic table and had a chilly but lovely picnic. I have been asked why it is called Raspberry Lookout and here’s a photo of the information board.

So now you know. The huge rain in March still had the gullies flowing with water from further up the mountains. The remains of the fire is still evident. The Grass Trees lining the gullies are flourishing with their blackened trunks and green skirts.

Wandering about the Lookout, going down below the viewing area (probably a bit naughty as no one else ventures down there but there isn’t any signs not allowing us to do so) to see how the recovery from the fires of December 2019 is going. The lovely red of the new growth of Eucalypts is stunning.

The overnight rain was still evident.

We continued to the top of the range, stopping off at another favourite place, The Granite, at the top of Washpool National Park. It has great views opposite to Raspberry. Here the Beaked Hakeas seed pods had already opened.

Then it was onto a great little spot, still recovering from fire, the Mitchell Park Reserve, where we had a walk around and rest before driving home. Again the place was full of people camping and some picnickers so it wasn’t as peaceful as the last time I was there. This is towards the start of the Mann River, which flows near my place, which was flowing and there were birds and dragonflies…..

….like this Brown Gerygone

I went for a photo walk around Grafton to look for things and some pinks for Jude’s Life in Colour for April. Here is a bit around town. The Post Office clock and palms

My favourite tree, A White Fig

A bit of artiness of shadows on the steps leading to the river.

I spotted a couple of large birds flying overhead. At first I thought they were Eagles as they were riding the air currents gaining altitude. I manged to get a less than good full telephoto image of what I found out was of a Great Cormorant.

While we are on birds, let’s have a quick look at some of the birds for April. This Australian Raven has taken to have a walk about the garden every morning looking for something to eat. It is quite casual as it strolls about.

A Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike keeps a lookout for food but from on high.

The ever present King Parrots in the my garden

A Kookaburra in the garden on a rainy morning waiting for some unsuspecting insect to move. Some of the trees in the background still have blackened trunks.

My bestie’s bird bath and two Rainbow Lorikeets discussing if the water is too cold to have a bath.

The waterhole on my place is slowly recovering and when I went to have a look, it had lots of birds hanging around like this Red-browed Firetail Finch.

The Wrens at my besties are so cute as they hop about her garden. The females are called Jenny Wrens

If not hopping about, they like to enjoy the morning sun.

We went to Rocky Creek Dam for the day. I had things falling on me and looking up there was a Sulpher-crested Cockatoo chewing on a stick.

White-headed pigeons are usually rainforest dwellers so this one must have been changing locations when I spotted it in my besties garden.

Other places we went to was a small town, Kyogle, to see what their Saturday market was like. We had lunch in our favourite cafe The Roxy which has some eclectic art.

And at The Channon Market the bubbles were in full swing

And an Elk Horn Fern, yes it is a fern – Platycerium bifurcatum is an epiphytic fern – growing on a Camphor Laurel tree in the market grounds.

I found lots of flowers and insects too although this is just a leaf

This year was a good year for Cats Whiskers in my garden.

My besties Crimson Bottlebrush is striking and the bees thought so too.

The Blue-banded Bees love Salvia flowers.

The Small Green-banded Line Blue Butterfly has quite plain but colourful inner wings

The almost iridescent outer wings attracted my attention to this tiny butterfly with a 32mm wingspan

I like finding interesting reflections. Late afternoon walk past Pelican Creek and the Casuarina cunninghamiana, commonly known as river oak or river she-oak tree, hanging over the water

The sun was setting while on the walk. The sun reflecting on one of the puddles along the road.

A flock of Cattle Egrets heading to their roost at sunset

Some had something to say as they flew overhead.

Meanwhile the Ibis flew in the opposite direction to their roost with the sunset glowing on their white wings.

It was a month for a Full Moon, called a Super Moon also a Pink Moon but wasn’t all that pink here. The closest to pink I posted in Becky’s Bright Square Challenge

Not quite pink but wonderful never-the-less. I love Our Moon.

Thanks for getting to the end. I hope you enjoyed my April. Did you have a favourite photo? I also like to link my monthly round ups to Su’s Changing Seasons