This morning I set off to walk down the road my road runs off. Sunday is good as there won’t be much traffic especially gravel truck and logging trucks plus folk going to and from town. I saw a few dark clouds gathering. I hoped it wasn’t going to rain as I intended walking as far as I could. There are a lot of photos, sorry, so I guess we better walk this way.
Looking down the road as I leave the gate, seeing the dark clouds of an overcast day. Undaunted I still head off
Of course a walk to the end of the road would require a few stops. These yellow native flowers grow out the front of my neighbours. Tiny about 10mm in diameter so how small is the grasshopper on the flower at the rear
These are popping up everywhere at the moment. I have some that appeared in my gardens
Have to love purple grass seed heads. A breeze blew up just I was about to take a photo. They just wavered about for ages and I have a fair bit of walking to do.
The tree on the left is the streets guardian tree. A huge Red Ironbark. The fence beside it is about four feet tall so you can do the calculations, I have walking to do.
Before leaving the street, I say goodbye to the old tree man, who keeps an eye on things. His weather worn face, tired eyes and bulbous nose with that crooked mouth has seen many things.
Not far around the corner is a cattle grid. The only tricky part of the walk. Look right to the end of what you can see. Yep, that’s where we’re heading
Here is the road block. An Eastern Grey Kangaroo. It’s a young male surveying the scene. He didn’t seen to care when I kept walking and he kept hopping up the road towards me. I stopped to see what he would do. I took a few steps scuffing my feet on the gravel and he looked up as though he had seen me for the first time, and he sped off into the bush. Last thing I needed today was to be attacked by a Kangaroo because we got too close to one another.
The floods and rain have caused a couple of deep erosion gullies. The old fence posts look like they didn’t stand a chance. The grass in the foreground is the edge of what’s left of the road.
An attempt at erosion repair work mainly to stop the head-cut eroding back and collapsing the road.
Well we’re at the top of the hill and I don’t want to go further so looking back at the road back home
The Spotted Gums are losing their bark, making shapes. You can see the dimples on the trunk that give it it’s name.
Looks like someone missed recycle bin day.
All the time I have been walking, I have heard a few birds, about six or seven different birds, have seen a couple of Noisy Friarbirds fly across the road but not any others. We are not far now. The turn-off to my road is at the end of the photo
I am not far from the turn-off and suddenly there are lots of butterflies. The sun has come out and it is warm. A Wanderer on a Lantana flower
A new butterfly for me. An Imperial Hairstreak. This one was so intent on grooming, it paid me no mind. If I was that butterfly, I wouldn’t mind the Imperial part but hairstreak. That’s almost as bad as a Dingy Ringlet
Almost to the front gate and there were a number of Australian Painted Lady Butterflies hovering and landing on the ground as they seem to like doing
OK have you got this far with a bit of a song to get through? Are you a bit weary after the hills? Well that was a four kilometre round trip almost exactly to the metre.
So far I have shown some white flowers, white fungi and some bits of silver. Now let see what whites I have that may not be all white but predominantly white which should fit the bill.
AS we near the end of this months Bright Squares I thought I would add a bit of the brightness around my place that makes me happy and I hope it does for you. Thanks Becky for a wonderful theme for the April Squares
Hi there, I found February to be a weird month. It rained for thirteen days with heavy rain at the end of the month filling dams and water tanks for the coming Winter. The rest of the time it was hot and humid so I have limited a lot of photos and might use as separate posts later.
The good news is at the end of the month the doctors looked at my latest EEG, this time I was tested for three hours. Well by tested I mean sleep for two and three-quarters of the three hours of the testing. So after almost eight months of not being allowed to drive, I have my drivers licence back with the only condition that I am not allowed to drive between sunset and sunrise. I better have a swag in the back of the ute just in case I’m heading home late from shopping!!!
Anyway, on with the bits and pieces I found in February. I found The Lumineers from a free CD that comes with a music magazine I get. Have a listen while you scroll
It’s morning already. Through the lifting fog, the morning sun kisses the tops of the eucalypts across the valley
High in the dead branches an Old Mans Beard, Tillandsia usneoides which is from Florida but it doesn’t grow meters long like the ones in the swamps, sway in the gentle morning breeze
The farm next door to my besties usually leave the paddock next to her fence as a last minute fattening paddock. They open the gate and the cattle run in to savour the sweet grass or like the bull does, make sue that everyone knows that this is his place.
Meanwhile atop the hillock, a cow wonders what all the fuss is down below while snacking on the long juicy grass.
Willie Wagtails use anything for a vantage spot; not even a sleeping cow is shown any dignity!
One of the downsides of growing grass for cattle to eat is that a lot of small seed eaters come in to feed in the mornings and afternoons. Wrens, Finches, Cisticolas and Chestnut-breasted Mannikins. It’s lucky that there is a lot of grasses along the road verges and fence lines so there is plenty to eat for everyone. This Chestnut-breasted Mannikin contemplates whether the seed head over there will be tastier than the one he’s sitting on.
The Willie Wagtail chicks are out of the nest but still as demanding as ever.
The Scaly-breasted Lorikeets come in for a breakfast of Mistletoe flowers and seeds. I love how they land on the branch on walk down head first, sampling food along the way. These Mistletoe hang down almost two meters from the tree branch. You can see the difference in the leaves. The Eucalypt on the right and Mistletoe on left, both have sickle leaf shapes.
In the garden, A Lewins Honeyeater and a Yellow Grevillea.
When out on a drive before I was allowed to, there was a Black Swan pair are setting up on a dam not far from my place. Now I can drive, I can go and see how they are going and hope they hung around. The property doesn’t have much vegetation and cattle. You can see the edge of the dam in the background.
While out on the drive, at the Raspberry Lookout while I was taking photos, a Wedged-tailed Eagle was watching me
After finding a safe spot to stop on a narrow road, I took the photo of the White-bellied Sea Eagle through the open car window. He was on the far side of the Nymboida River so I was amazed that I managed to get a photo on full telephoto without a tripod.
We went down to Ballina with some friends and on the entrance to the North Wall, a break-wall where the Richmond River meets the sea, on the Marine Rescues radio tower, an Osprey was having his lunch of fish. The young Osprey was sitting nearby and must have been fed as it was asleep.
Late afternoon, low light I came across a juvenile Black-necked Stork doing it’s stretches in preparation for take off from the intermittent wetlands on a farm, again not vegetation in or around the wetland. The next time I had to go to town, the Storks were gone so practice pays off.
While the youngster was flapping about, not far away one of the Black-necked Stork parents was keeping watch.
OK we are heading into the bugs. Nothing to be concerned about in this lot I can assure you. See, first off is the egg casing for Praying Mantis. I must go and try and find it to see if it’s still there.
This Dragonfly almost looks like a helicopter. Such beautiful markings and colours no wonder it is called an Australian Tiger.
A Blue Skimmer found his favourite stick. I was watching for a minute and noticed he would always come back to this stick after a bit of a fly around the river bank. Made for getting a good photo of his wings.
The Lemon Migrants have hung around my place and some are still here.
I have some old chook watering and feed bits and pieces I use when I want to give the birds a snack. I went down that way and noticed a weevil deciding he’d had enough grain for the moment and was off.
Another butterfly that has been around is a Common Albatross Butterfly. They are quite quick and don’t land for long.
The Blue-banded Bees are still hard at gathering pollen. This Salvia is a favourite. Blue-banded Bees are solitary bees and make their nest on the ground.
This year, the lovely pink flowers of the Crepe Myrtle looked stunning
The Cassia flowers are the main attraction for the Lemon Migrant Butterflies. I tried to get butterflies and flowers but the butterflies seem to disappear when the shutter button is pushed. Perhaps there is a lot of Lemon Migrants in there somewhere.
This Native Plant grows grows throughout the place. This is the first time one has grown in a garden bed.
The rain had sparked up the Hibiscus. The Miniature Red looks a treat covered in small red flowers…..
…..and there are many more on the way.
The red Salvia has so many flowers
Last month, the Ivory Curl flowers were just in the almost open stage. Now the Ivory Curl Bush is full of scented flowers and full of all manner if insects. Here a bee burrows down inside to get his pollen while the plant “paints” the bee with pollen from each of the tiny paint brushes.
Foxgloves, old and new, with water drops.
One of the weirdness of some Callistemon trees is the flowers come straight from the old growth branch. Here is a three stage of flower development in the one photo.
The tangerine flowers are stunning
The Champagne Pink Callistemon with yellow tips is so lovely.
The Roses are looking so good
I love the explosive effect you can get photographing Eucalypt flowers
A Lomandra flower and seed spear live up to their common name Spiky Club Rush, a waters edge plant that happily lives in garden and makes great borders.
Speaking of spiky, when out driving there always someone who says slow down, I’m sun-baking here mate. I had to get out of the car and almost touch the Bearded Dragon to get him to move off the road and find a safer spot to catch some rays.
I thought I would save the Yellow Paper Daisies so you could have a rest. I found these at the Raspberry Lookout. I had to clamber down the slope to get the photos. This is what I was concentrating on when the Wedge-tailed Eagle was watching me.
The rain and hot days have bought out some fungi. These dome shaped ones were found in a few places.
Some little ones were pushing from the soil and bark.
Instead of the usual sunset photo to finish off, here is a Green Tree Frog just sitting on the glass door. I guess hanging on with your chin helps.
Thanks for hanging around with me for a while. Hope you can come back next month too.
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