Springtime

Okay today it's officially Spring - which brings me to quote Shakespeare from As You Like It

'In springtime, the only pretty ring time,
 When birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding;
 Sweet lovers love the spring.'

Well I don't know about all that 'hey ding a ding ding' stuff but for the past three nights starting at about 10:00 PM the park magpies have settled in the tree outside my bedroom window carolling and it's lovely. There isn't a much more glorious sound than a clan of Australian magpies in full voice in my opinion and as far as I'm concerned they are welcome to keep doing it for as long as they want.

This is a pale version of what I've been hearing because there are only three of them but you can perhaps imagine how lovely it is on a night when ten or more are singing in a full moon. This video does not do magpies justice as regards to appearance either as they are soaked and looking seriously bedraggled. Actually they are very handsome birds as you can see here. This fellow is having a lot to say for himself, not only singing but also squawking and chatting unlike my nightly visitors who are simply carolling.

Of Spring and Other Things.

As usual Spring is working its usual magic - make that pain. As anyone who knows me can tell you I suffer badly from hay fever. The trouble is it looks so lovely outside - and it's warm and sunny. Unfortunately about half an hour outside is as much as I can take. So the garden is suffering from the explosion of weed growth that always comes at this time of year while I race out pull, out the the most obvious offenders and race back in again.

Still at least I can look at my garden from inside the house - and it is really pretty. Rampaging nasturtiums everywhere, some glorious clusters of Dutch irises - a mix of white through soft mauves and blues to royal blue and purple, a bed of crimson and scarlet poppies and the first roses. One sad thing is the decline in bird numbers. Usually by now there are flocks of New Holland honeyeaters, singing honeyeaters and others sharing the space with the resident wattle birds but not this year. Our new back fence neighbours have stripped their yard of everything except one tree and while I know they had to take drastic action (the previous owners had let it become over-grown to the point of being impenetrable) it means the birds which have taken advantage of the food sources and nesting sites for years have nowhere to go and the bird bath which is usually in great demand is hardly used.

To more pleasant subjects and they are the ever increasing number of publications my fellow Clarionites are achieving. There are so many now that I can't list every one every time. How's that for a bunch of high achievers? As we discussed at the KSP Mini Con a couple of weeks ago Clarions can have unpredictable effects and some attendees, I'm told, never write again. Obviously not what's happening to this group. I've linked to all those of us who have blogs so please drop in on them sometimes and find out what they are doing.