Pet weather alert!

 The evening light as the sun went down - a long winter solstice night. 

(Strictly speaking I think tonight is 'the longest winter night' for us.)

I was down by the inlet at the other end of the night. 

Dawn light at the beginning of our shortest daylight.

There was no pretty sky to be seen this evening - the clear skies of this morning gave way to thick cloud, heavy rain and strong winds by midday. 

This morning's weather forecast warned to keep your pets inside.

We are more accustomed to sheep weather alerts, not pet weather alerts!

Miske thinks there should be a pet weather alert every day.

Three and one third by five

Or seeing the tiny up close. These are all plant parts, collected inland and pressed between glass in slide transparencies. The 'frame' is approximately 3 1/3 cm by 5 cm. 

  

From the top:

Pimelea flowers from the Hills

Red Velvet calyx near Sandstone

Ephemeral dancers near Paynes Find

Everlasting bracts near The Granites

Hair leaf in cross section near Paynes Find

Ptilotus flowers and granite sand near The Granites

Spinifex and dune sand near Virgin Springs

Lichen and everlasting bracts near Wiluna

Below are images of the type of country in which the above plants were collected.

Currawong heart

Looking up

Looking up (mostly) into the trees by the inlet and playing with black and white and filters in photoshop.
From the top; Banksia, Allocasuarina (sheoak), Eucalyptus, Melaleuca (paperbark). Each tree has its own distinctive pattern of growth. I am in the process of experimenting with solar plates and creating the necessary 'transparencies' on acetate sheets. All good fun although the dogs get a little fed up with me stopping to take photos ...

White robin

Over late summer and into autumn we were graced with the antics of a pair of white robins flitting and feeding through our garden. Early in April I flushed a fledgling from some shrubs near the chook yard.. It flew straight out in front of me with the parents looking on from near by. After staring at me for a moment it flew into the bush next door. These are the photos I took of it feeding in our garden on subsequent occasions. It looks a little scruffy because it still has some of it's baby fluff.

Unfortunately this story has a sad ending. I found the poor little bird dead one morning at the end of April. Soon after that I found the White robin's nest in my shade house - a well built little cup of woven grasses nestled in the fronds of a large elkhorn. No wonder I saw the adults so frequently. Since then I have found an older nest in another elkhorn. With a bit of luck they will try again and this time with more success.

Silver shimmer

Walking down by the inlet the last few days the water has been a gentle reflection of the pale cloudy sky.

The water birds are making the most of the still shallow waters - easy fishing and feeding on the water weeds in the shallows.

A flotilla sails by.

Spoonbills taking time out from feeding.

An ibis comes in to land.

The lichen covered rocks glow in the late afternoon light.