Tuesday, August 24, 2021

When the World Goes to Pot I Look For Distractions

Here, in no particular order, are some I've found lately.


I love the bright splash of colour nasturtiums bring to the garden. These arrived uninvited about a year after we moved in here but they were so colourful I was happy to have them stay. Over the years they've colonised a number of shady spots and drape themselves over the garden walls. They sometimes get a little invasive but it's easy enough to pull out what I don't want - and the leaves and flowers make a tasty addition to a salad.

In just twenty minutes the birdbath, which is just outside my study window, has been visited by two ravens, a willy wagtail and two wattle birds. They've bathed so enthusiastically that I'll need to go out and refill it.

Over the last week the motorbike frogs have been having fierce vocal duels and occasionally resorting to physical violence, something I've never seen them do before. I suspect it's each wanting territorial and breeding rights. When Miss Five and Miss Nine visited over the weekend they were fascinated watching their antics as they splashed around in the frog pond.

The Spanish bluebells are in bud. Any time now the pots of them will be a mass of blue.

The coriander and spring onions are all coming up. I love fresh coriander leaves but the spring onions are for Pisces since I'm not a fan of raw onion.

I spent some time yesterday sorting my vegetable seeds and cleaning the seedling containers. The forecast for tomorrow is fine so I think it'll be a planting day. Yay!

Miss Five and I spent some time cleaning out the damaged fish pond last week. Now it only needs a new liner (bought today) for me to make it fish heaven - and it might take some of the pressure off the frog pond, too.

And last but by no means least the blueberries are a mass of flowers. Fingers crossed that this means a bumper crop.

What are your distractions? I'd love to know.



Wednesday, August 18, 2021

More Birds

It's nesting season for a lot of birds around here and so the bird population is more visible than usual as they go about collecting nesting materials and getting food for hatching chicks. As well Miss Five and I spent some time over the weekend scrubbing out the birdbath which is now attracting even more visitors. Sadly I have no photos with my phone being the only camera I have at the moment and any fast moving little brown birds are gone before I can even think about getting it out. So these are the birds visiting or otherwise seen in or from my garden in the last week. 

The willy wagtail is a frequent visitor - it nests in next door's hedge - and a constant delight. These handsome little birds (which look like they're wearing a tuxedo) will take on any comers that venture into their territory. This little fellow sits on the fence when I'm working in the garden jitty-jittying like crazy - unfortunately I don't understand willy wagtail so I'm not sure what it expects me to do. Their Noongar name is jitty jitty and it's certainly very apt.

The birdbath is very popular with the wattle birds - both red wattle birds and what I think is a Little wattlebird - which feast on nectar and insects. The red wattlebirds are quite aggressive towards other birds which wisely wait until they have finished bathing.

The New Holland honeyeaters like a bath, too, but I have yet to see the brown honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters there although I see them elsewhere in the garden. I'm torn about the singing honey eaters which are helpful as far as insect control but are far too fond of attacking the grapes just before they ripen. They can wipe out most of the crop if I'm not careful about covering the bunches up.

Although I know black swans frequent the wetlands close by I've never seen one in flight until the other day when one flew over here. 

Flocks of red-tailed black cockatoos have been flying over and feasting on my neighbour's Silver Princess eucalyptus. I'm not sure exactly what they are after - it's too far away to see - but they come at two different times of the year and fill the tree chattering loudly.

The southern boobook owl has been calling most nights of late. They sometimes come and sit on the arch over the steps in our garden and visit the huge marri tree in our front yard.

The ravens are always around, of course, and have now removed all loose coir from the yard.

We have a clan of Australian magpies which nest in the park we back on and they often visit. Magpies have a bad reputation as they can attack people - and do some serious damage - during nesting season but those near us are completely at ease with everyone and go about their business whoever is in the park. The theory is that the birds which attack have been interfered with or hurt in some way so as long as the local people behave well we're unlikely to have any trouble.

Pink and grey galahs also frequent the park and they call in here from time to time. Their antics are very entertaining as they amuse themselves on the TV antenna.

There are many other birds that I hear calling among the trees and plants but don't actually see so I can't identify them.

Along with the native species we have several exotic ones, some more welcome than others. 

Kookaburras (introduced here from the eastern states about a hundred years ago) find the garden arch a good vantage point to hunt from and prey on the frogs and many lizards we have here. I don't encourage them.

Rainbow lorikeets are beautiful but aggressive and have driven out the native ring neck parrots by taking over their nesting sites. I'm not a fan particularly as they can wipe out a fruit crop in next to no time.

Laughing doves and spotted doves were released in the early 1900s in South Perth and have spread widely. They cause no damage so we get along - and, as I once saw when a falcon shwooshed by my ear with one in its claws, they provide an additional food source for the birds of prey.

You can find out more about our local birds at the Lake Karrinyup website (Lake Karrinyup is about a five minute walk from here so the birds we see often come from the bushland there.)




Saturday, August 14, 2021

Magpie-larks

The GP sent Pisces for a scan yesterday. As COVID restrictions meant I couldn't wait for him in the building I stayed in the car with a book. I'd been sitting there for a while when I heard loud noises from the roof. We'd parked under a tree so my initial thought was something was falling from there. Then I saw this handsome fellow through the windscreen. The picture would have been better if I hadn't been afraid he would fly off and had waited until the car in the background had gone. But, hey, it's better than nothing. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.



 This is a magpie-lark otherwise known as a mudlark, peewee or peewit, proper name Grallina cyanoleuca.  They're very common over much of the country and not at all shy. They pair for life and it's not unusual for the males to attack their reflections in car side mirrors or windows as they are strongly territorial. You can tell this one is a male because of his black head and white eyebrow while the female has a white face and no marked eyebrow. 

The noises went on and when I got out to look his mate was up there pecking at the bases of the roof rack. With the roof of the car an area of mystery that I never visit I assume she was after spiders those being the only creatures I can imagine would set up home there. She was not all fazed by my attempts to get her to move on while he pottered around on the hood investigating the slots near the windscreen. The noise was irritating and as they do have a bad habit of pooping on cars I banged on the car windows for a while and eventually they decided enough was enough and flew off. It was an interesting interlude, though.

Friday, August 13, 2021

And Yet Another Cold Front

It's past now and it looks like we're going to have warmer and sunny days for a few days but as the front passed over there were ferocious winds, heavy rain and even some hail. It ripped the door of the garden shed loose at one point and it was sheer luck that I heard it happen and we were able to go out and secure it before we lost it altogether.

It did some damage in the garden, too. The snowflakes (the among the earliest of the bulbs to flower in the garden - only the common jonquils beat them coming out in June) which had only just opened are now battered to the ground and the bearded iris flowers have been shredded. On the other hand the pak choi and kale seedlings I planted in the vegetable garden a fortnight ago are looking very healthy as are the two kinds of parsley planted at the same time and the snow peas and sugar snap peas, which came up over a month or so ago and had been sitting looking sad ever since, have taken off after the sunny days. In a break in the rain  - the wind was still vicious - I scurried out to check them half expecting to find a wrecked tangle on the ground and was delighted to see they are climbing up the wire on the fence.

Along with the wind it's been chilly - very chilly  by our standards - to the point that we actually put the heater on during the day. This is something we rarely do preferring to layer up our clothing and keep warm by being active. I had a couple of days when I wasn't very well having overdone things of late. Long term chronic health issues mean I should know how to pace myself but every now and then I push myself too far and the consequence is I have to spend a day or two resting. In this case it's meant going to back to bed after I'd done the essential tasks where at least I was warm. Kitty likes these days I have to say and he curls up beside me purring like a tiny engine.


Wednesday, August 04, 2021

It's Djilba

 This is the Noongar season which coincides approximately with August to September - the Noongar are the First Nations people indigenous to this part of south western Australia. Djilba is a bit of a mixture with cold clear days and warmer rainy periods. There are six Noongar seasons which makes much more sense than attempting to shoehorn our weather into the traditional European pattern of only four seasons. In that system we'd be still be in winter with spring another month away. Now there's more recognition that this really doesn't work and it's becoming common for the Noongar seasons to be acknowledged.

This is the time when the wildflowers burst into bloom creating spectacular carpets of colour. Last weekend we visited family on a bush block north of here and along the way we could see they are just starting to come out. Then this morning I noticed the first of my kangaroo paws are open. 


As you can see from this not great photo those I grow are the red and green variety (Anigozanthos manglesii) which is our state's floral emblem. They tend to be less tough than than the hybrid varieties commonly found in gardens (they're very prone to a fungus called "ink spot" for a start) but I like their rich colours so I persist. There are still some places in the hills to the east of the city where they can be found en masse and it's a lovely sight. As I live close to the coast - not their preferred location - I settle for a few pots to give me a taste of the bush. I have to say that they aren't all that easy to come by with only a couple of nurseries producing them. Still I think they're worth the effort, don't you.