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.

Better than the fox

Apart from a vixen with a den full of hungry cubs,

this time of the year provides a garden full of colour

with exotics

and subtle native flowers - Agonis flexuosa 

and riotous kangaroo paws

and the promise of summer fruit - Paradise pear

Mad dogs and winter flowers

This morning we were working out on the Nullaki Peninsular, slowly freezing in the slushy hail and wind. It is totally exposed to the elements having panaramic views to the ocean and inlet - pretty to look at but just plain cold on days like today. Unfortunately a shed had its back blown off in a previous storm so it needed to be fixed. Miske very wisely stayed in the car - no mad dogs going out, only a mad Englishman and his wife!

Eucalyptus sp

I thought a little colour would be in order to counter the dark skies. I have been meaning to share some more images from the Pilbara, so here are some of the flowers we saw in July. The pale pink Eucalypt was growing in a gully - one pink among a number of creamy ones.

Many of these images show the special adaptations plants have made to the arid environment - silvery, hairy, waxy, reduced, protective and reflective from the heat and drying winds. Sometimes the flowers are tiny like the hairy Ptilotus below.

Ptilotus sp

The flowers themselves are quite happy to be colourful, and the birds and the butterflies love them.

Cassia sp

Solanum sp

Grevillea wickhamii

Acacia sp

Alogyne sp

Lesser Wanderer butterfly

Signs of spring

Earlier this week I saw my first clutch of ducklings down at our dam. For a while now the wood ducks have been here feeding on the lush pasture, splashing and swimming in the dam and disappearing into the bush to check out their nest hollows in the karri and marri trees. Occasionally one gives a rousing strident call from high in a tree and I often wonder if it is a call to the newly hatched babies to 'jump' and freefall to the ground. I continue to be amazed they survive it - but of course they do.

I've no idea where they take their clutch of tiny fluffy ducklings in the evenings. But one often sees the pair of adults leading them uphill away from the water to a safe hidey-hole where the foxes hopefully won't find them.Inexperienced parents often lose their entire clutch, but sometimes they learn quickly enough to save the   last two or three and raise them successfully. At the end of the season old hands will  be seen leading a dozen or so fully grown duck teenagers on the rounds of the dams and paddocks in our little valley.

As I type this, outside I can hear the beautiful trill of the inland thornbill, a tiny bird with a richness of sound that belies it's size. Yesterday one was calling from a potted magnolia in my herb garden beside our verandah. Beautiful.