Month: March 2024

Welcome to a rather wet, hot, cool, stormy March.

March started with a cracker of a storm that knocked the power out for two days. More about that later. In the window of opportunity I jumped on the ride-on mower and went for it, 5 hours over two days, did most of the front. From then on it has been an opportunistic mow but rain most days or overnight has made it almost impossible as the ground is so wet the wheels spin. Now the grass is long but that’s OK as a lot of the native grasses are seeding or have seeded.

A couple of days ago I went to Tweed Heads to see Graham Nash in concert. Was really good. Had multi instrumentalist, two guys who played everything from drums to mandolin with him. He looked a bit frail to me but boy he could still sing and had great stories for some songs.
He also played a Stephen Stills, David Crosby and Neil Young song, as well as some CSNY songs.

Not a CSN or Y song but something that is different from me for your scrolling song this month. Love the swing and the music. When I heard the Clarinet I thought of a good friend who plays Clarinet, it sounds so smooth. Enjoy

OK Lets get going with, luckily for me as I have mainly seen grey skies, this mornings sunrise

Even though decent sunrises have been far and few between, there are always the birds to wake me up. The constant chip chip chip of a Eastern Yellow Robin is unmistakeable. Even wet or dry they are cute.

Probably the loveliest call to hear is the Golden Whistlers song. Either a female or juvenile, I’m not sure

A morning constant call of Wonga Pigeons, actually most of the morning and afternoon, can get annoying. Luckily they aren’t close to the house and more in the bush. Every now and then, a Wonga will come for a wander down the front drive and either back up to the road or down into the garden.

Also walking down the drive have been Processional Caterpillars. They have stripped nearly every leaf of the Fringe Wattles, which isn’t too bad as there has been thousands pop up since that fire! Their seeds are triggered to sprout by fire, mainly the smoke.

Even on a wet day they just have to get somewhere the leader wants.

This is the only casualty in the garden that I have found. Well every leaf on every Cunji have been skeletonised

Last month the Golden Orb Weaver had a web across a path necessitating a detour through the garden. This month a Night Spider found what they thought was a good space. It was there every morning then one morning no web, no spider.

A rainy morning made it easy to see

I always worry about the little Native Stingless Bees as they forage in the garden. The love Blue Ginger flowers.

A wonderful tiny White Crab Spider (Thomisus spectabilis) inside a wonderful nest on my Dwarf Lemon Tree. Doesn’t do much of a job with Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly caterpillars. I have to pick them off and move them to a bush lemon tree where they can much to their hearts delight.

I just love this Dragonfly, a Fiery Skimmer, that just whizzed about me while I was in the garden. It would whizz off and them come back and look at me.

Hasn’t it got the prettiest face.

The Australian Painted Lady Butterflies arrived this week. They like to sit in the ground.

There are some Lemons Migrants still hanging around the garden. They love the Pentas flowers.

Orchard Swallowtail Butterflies also are partial to a Pentas as well.

The Cassia had a final fling at flowering, much to the delight of the Metallic Green Carpenter Bees

The Ornament Ginger looked rather fabulous

The Hydrangea is not sure if it wants to be pink or not

The purple Crucifix Orchard are flowering everywhere that I forgot some plants were.

Did a bit of a drive around one fine day to see what I could find. These are the cars that featured on a Monday Window.

Love the grill

The view from the hotel room the next morning after the concert. Our Moon just visible through the haze. It is a great place to stay and to get to the auditorium, you walk across a covered bridge, there are restaurants and bistros. The downside is the amount of space that is given to gambling machines with their lights and noises.

That’s right, the power story. I remember it well, the first two days of the month were hot. Late Saturday afternoon the storm broke and down pours ensued, ended up only 17mm but it was spectacular, so spectacular that lightning blew something very important up. From 5:30 my plans for the evening changed drastically.

I dragged out the candles and spread them about the house so I can move about from room to room in the gentle flicker of candle light.

Moving into improvisation mode, what better time to get out my camera and practise low light photography. Laziness made just go hand held. The light from the candle below on the dark wood Long Life Fisherman.

The candle lighting the stuff on top of the piano. Little glasses with a tea-light candle. I have lots of candles from old days with the cafe. These were very handy.

In the corner of the hallway was a great spot to light both ways

More hand held of Our Moon from early in the month when I was excited that there was moon light bathing the yard. I think I only had a couple of nights that weren’t cloudy

The Moon through the mist in the early morning at Tweed Heads

The view towards Surfers Paradise going from the clearish day when I arrived to the overcast fogginess of the next morning

I hope you enjoyed a look at my March, have a favourite photo?

About The Changing Seasons

The Changing Seasons is a monthly project where bloggers around the world share their thoughts and feelings about the month just gone. We all approach this slightly differently, though generally with an emphasis on the photos we’ve taken during the month.

For many of us, looking back over these photos provides the structure and narrative of our post, so each month is different. Some focus on documenting the changes in a particular project — such as a garden, an art or craft project, or a photographic diary of a familiar landscape.

But in the end, it is your changing season, and you should approach it however works for you.

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