This is March 2024

Published on by bushboy

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.

There are no fixed rules around post length or photo number — just a request that you respect your readers’ time and engagement.

Tags and ping-backs

Tag your photos with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them

Create a ping-back to Ju-Lyn at Touring My Backyard or this post, so that we can update it with links to all of yours.

50 thoughts on “This is March 2024”

  1. favourite photograph far too difficult to decide as you have some beauts, but if you were to make me narrow it down it would be one of the flora. Thinking flower rather than skeleton leaf!

    Sounds like you have had a good month despite the storm and power cut 😊

    Liked by 1 person

      1. errr no! However I did think it felt very squarey , and maybe that’s why I cannot decide on my favourite. My inner self was drawn to every square!! 🤗

        Liked by 1 person

  3. What a month yo’ve had. I was going to say the birds were my favourite(that yellow robin!) but then, what about those butterflies? And then the night of the power outage … Hope all is well now.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Gorgeous photographs Brian, I especially love the way you captured the butterflies and the dragonfly 💜

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Overall a great month for you! Hope April will be the same if not better. But not the storm of course. Love your bird and flower capture and the pink sky.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. I too, Brian, have had more than one causality in my garden of late. They (whoever they happen to be) ate their was through Peace Lilies, Anthuriums, Devil’s Ivy (more than one), but the saddest of all was a Monstera I had nursed back to life. All they left was the stem and the remains of the leaf stems and veins. Luckily, it has since sprouted a new leaf – albeit somewhat (and optimistically) quite small. 

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It is munch time. Some of the munchers I don’t mind as they will be beautiful butterflies. I can’t kill off my Monstera that enjoys life in a garden but does tend to be bossy

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I have quite a few, but only one Monstera planted in the garden – that’s the one they decided to eat. We went away for the weekend and came home to lots of things eaten. I nearly cried when I saw my Peace Lily – It will never be the same again.

        Liked by 1 person

  11. Sorry to hear you lost power- one of my least favorite things to have happen. However seeing Graham Nash would be a definite favorite thing. He’s just so great. Not a youngster but still going. I was drawn to watch the interviews he did after David Crosby died and their old videos in concert. Amazing voices together.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks Lisa 🥰 Being hot and humid as well made it difficult. Tried not to open the fridge too much and left the freezer shut. Everything survived.
      It was a good concert. I have an LP of Crosby and Nash, just love it. Southbound Train is a favourite

      Liked by 1 person

  14. Well, it’s difficult to pick a favorite here Brian. You have so many different butterflies – I like butterflies. The Australian Painted Lady Butterflies look similar to our Painted Lady, but I thought the Lemon Migrant on the dainty pink flower was my favorite photo. That butterfly’s wings resemble onion skin, almost transparent looking. For best caption I vote for “The Hydrangea is not sure if it wants to be pink or not.” 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

      1. I am in awe of all of them – their beauty and how resilient they are. I took photos of a Swallowtail last year and I have no idea how the poor thing was able to flit about – its wings were torn to shreds. Sometimes they catch on thorny rose bushes.

        Liked by 1 person

  15. Pingback: The Changing Seasons, March 2024 – Touring My Backyard
  18. Pingback: grateful – Touring My Backyard

Comments are closed.