This is October 2022

Another month of rainy days, at one point it rained every day for just over a week. I did manage to get out and grab a few photos but most are from home. There is quite a number as I just couldn’t whittle it down any more.

A it is Spring there are lots of flowers and of course the birds are coming into the warmth of the North Coast. There has been a few new sightings, some of which have been posted already like the Masked Bee. I had a bit of trouble finding the names of a lot of the new things I found but will name the ones I know.

I hope you enjoy your October song to listen to while you scroll through my October

As the month went on, clouds appeared. This one is a great one for those of us who see shapes and faces

Sometimes when the sky was clear and blue I walked about always looking around when the resident Square-tailed Kite was circling over my place

As the month went on the clouds increased making wonderful shapes against the blue sky

When the rain came there was always the opportunity for rain drop photos

Spider webs with tiny water drops is always a favourite

I love the perfectness of webs. This one had a rainbow effect which is only faintly seen in the photo. All of the following spiders are about 20mm in size so no need to be frightened of their beauty.

Sometimes the spiders just seemed to hang in space with no visible support

Just as I took this photo that small brown leaf, at the bottom of the photo, dropped onto the web. The speed in which the spider went to investigate was amazing

I found this weird little lump scuttling around the plants leaves in the garden, hence the blurriness of the photo. A spider with a unique defence mechanism to deter predators, he is called a Bird-dropping Spider. When I went to find the actual name I put in Bird Poo Spider which I think is more fun.

I think may be the first time I have photographed a butterfly from underneath with the sun behind. It is a Brown Ringlet which when view from above is a dark brown with two yellow spots on the edge of the wings

Another new insect in my garden. A Colourful Broad-headed Bug which are sort of related to Assassin Bugs

A Dingy Skipper Butterfly hanging around on a Hoya flower

Even though it had rained in the morning, when the rain stopped the bees came out for a quick flower investigation. This bee disappeared right up into the Salvia flower and I waited for ages for it to back out.

The Bottlebrush trees have been continuously flowering for a lot of this year. I actually found new flowers on another Bottlebrush this morning. The bees were a loud buzz around the garden when the sun was out

Of course the Honeyeaters love Bottlebrush nectare as well. The little Yellow-faced Honeyeaters have been around the garden for most of this year

Of course when I was wanting a photo of a bird on the Lilli Pilli flowers I couldn’t get one. Then the Brown Honeyeaters arrived in October and found the Lilli Pilli flowers

The Scarlet Honeyeaters have been here since September and this was their favourite Bottlebrush tree. This shows the size of the Scarlet Honeyeater compared to the size of the Bottlebrush flowers

Leaden Flycatchers are a common Springtime visitor to the garden

Laughing Kookaburras are always here with their waking up and end of day calls. I love how this one is just sitting on the post. Judging by the full looking crop, I would say he has had a good feed and it letting the food settle before going on the hunt again.

A pair of Spangled Drongos arrived for their Spring residence. I hope they found a good nesting spot this year

You can see why the are Spangled Drongos, such beautiful feathers

The number of Red-Necked Wallabies in the garden has declined over the years. This female seems to be one who stays around in the bush and visits often. I suspect the neighbours next door are feeding the Wallabies hence their lack of coming here.

I am sure this is her mother with the damaged ear who also hangs around

Enough of my place. We found this bull just resting in the front paddock of a house. At first we thought it was a big dog as we drove past. Isn’t he handsome

Spring time brings new leaves. These ones unfurl with a light pink and then turn bright red before becoming green

The Dendrobium Yukidaruma Orchid looked lovely cascading down the pot on the front verandah

The Daisies lit up the garden

As did the Gerberas

The scent of Jasmin filled the air

I bought a selection of miniature Geraniums for the garden. I have to be quick to see the flowers as either Wallabies or Possums like them as well. It looks like they will need little fences.

This year the tiny Drimiopsis maculata, a bulb from South Africa. I had a few in a pot and when I re-potted some of the small outer bulbs dropped off and now I have a few patches of plants in the garden. I can see why it is sometimes called Little White Soldiers

This has been the finest year for the Canna Lillies. Most of the plants are taller than me this year.

All of the Bromiliads flowers this Spring as well. This is probably a Neoregelia compacta Bromiliad

The Common Hovea have appeared for the first time in the garden although they are in the bush around the house.

The Tree Bauhinias flowers are quite spectacular this Spring. The plant has more flowers than before

There is a little pond at the Grafton Art Gallery and the Cape Water Lillies are starting to flower.
This is a phone photo

I love the White Dogwood flowers, sometimes called Rice Flower. The road to my place is lined with lots of white flowers. I have a few growing on my place

Another Dogwood, this time a Yellow Dogwood or Jacksonia scoparia. Another favourite tree which is covered in yellow flowers in Spring

I found this flower growing on the side of the road. I don’t know what it is called but it is quite pretty with its composite flowers. Must be small spiders in there as well with haphazard webs

I love Yellow Buttons as well. They are growing all over my place and I am yet to try and transplant some into my garden. I didn’t notice this one had some sort of insect on it. The yellow ball flowers are about 5mm in diametre so whatever that insect is, is rather tiny as well.

I did mention that it is Jacaranda time in Grafton, my nearest town. The streets are lined in purple and the grouns will be covered in a carpet of purple as well soon.

The red of Flame Tree flower look rather spectacular against the purple of Jacarandas

I love the purple against the blue sky

Did you know there are White Jacarandas as well. There are a few planted around town

While out spotting White Jacarandas, I saw a Magpie gathering nesting materials

Native Frangipani, Hymenosporum flavum, flowers have different stages. They are a greenish at first, then turn white and then yellow. They are small flowers and what the have in common with other Frangipanis is their scent.

The flowers also do water drops quite well

Another plant that has great water drop potential are Elkhorn Ferns. Their strap like leaves are perfect for holding water drops

One afternoon there was an orange glow shining into the house. I grabbed my camera and went to see what the sky was doing. I managed to get a bit of the sky and clouds and then had to turn around because

behind me the sky was purple and I could see a faint rainbow through the trees. Not long after the rain came pelting down again.

I see you are still with me. I hope you enjoyed a scroll through my October. As always, I like to know if you had 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.

Last on the Card – December 2021

Last Photo for December 2021

Here I am at the end of 2021 just about to start the third year of Last on the Card. I cannot believe how you have taken this random thought in January 2020 to heart and making it a photo challenge which is mainly for fun. Yes I do love the dud photos, those that you would never want to show anyone but have the bravery of not being precious about what you do to show us your photos. I would like to thank you ever so much for your support no matter if you post every month or when you can.

Like a lot of people I forget and am surprised at what was the last photo on the three devices I use to take photos. I went from –

  • finding lots of frogs
  • to getting a bit too close
  • to a bit of focus would be better

So let’s see what you have for December 2021

The rules are simple:
1. Post the last photo on your SD card or last photo on your phone for the 31st December.
2. No editing – who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like or the subject matter didn’t cooperate.
3. You don’t have to have any explanations, just the photo will do
4. Create a Pingback to this post or link in the comments
5. Tag “The Last Photo”

Here’s mine

From my Samsung Galaxy S9

From my Canon PowerShot A1200

From my Canon PowerShot SX70HS

What’s in a name

The Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: Magnificent

My besties small property is surrounded by a cattle farm. Many of my cattle photos are of the farmer next doors cattle. We were always in awe of a large black bull who sauntered around the paddocks, the other bull never seemed to mind or want to have anything to with him.

His ear tags have a lot of information coded into them. The numbers may mean the year of birth, a farm number some are herd identifiers as well as regulation ear tags. Well this big black bull has an ear tag with MM on it on one side. We wondered what name this magnificent creature had; that’s it! Mr Magnificent.

Here is Mr Magnificent just chilling in the warm sunshine on top of the hill. The MM is on the other side of the 2

One day the farmer was out walking the paddocks with a dog or two just checking on fences and going to move the temporary electric fence so the cows had a new pasture before calving. Of course we had a good old chat with Julie and I mentioned the big black bull as he was waiting first in line to get onto the fresh grass. I said we called him Mr Magnificent. Julie told us that he had been castrated because she fell in love with him and wanted to keep him but he was surplus to the herd. It was then she told us of his name. The big black bull’s name is Moo Moo.

I’ll just leave that there…..OK?