Wednesday, September 27, 2006

More from the Garden

Wednesday September 27th

A glorious spring day today in the Hills. Far too nice to be working inside, so we took our classes outside and the big Year 6/7s taught the little Reception kids how to skip. Very funny and very cute. Next time I must take the camera out.

It is wonderful to see 12 and 13 year olds showing so much patience and care for 5 year olds. Makes you realise how many wonderful teenagers we have around and that despite the things you hear about adolescents, most of them are going to grow up into very nice adults.

More photos from the garden tonight. You can see how much pleasure it gives me. It's not one of those neat, ordered formal gardens, but a sprawling informal tangle of beautiful places. Of course I'm not showing you all the weeds!!!

Not only is the garden full of growing things, but it is full of birds and bird songs as well. At any time you will see Superb Blue Wrens, New Holland Honeyeaters, Eastern Spinebills, Willie Wagtails, Red Browed finches, Pardelotes, Thornbills, Silvereyes, Sparrows, doves, Crested Pigeons, Adelaide Rosellas, Galahs, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Thrushes, gold finches, zebra finches, Little Wattle Birds, Magpies, Little Ravens, Magpie Larks, Kookaburras and Blackbirds - these are the regular visitors and the ones I recognise. At night we hear the owls and Frogmouth and then we have the occasional or seasonal visitors.

At the moment we have two sets of Wood duck babies that wander through the vegetable garden on their way to the dam and in a fork of a gum tree I found a nest with a blackbird sitting - at about eyeball height. Must try to get a photo when they hatch. I love the blackbirds even though they aren't natives. They are so bold and bouncy, but they do make a terrible mess of the garden mulch!!

It is really no wonder that I avoid the hustle and bustle of Adelaide and spend as much time as I can in this peaceful spot. I really dread the day when it all gets too much for us and we have to sell up and move to a smaller place in a town somewhere. But of course that won't be for ages yet.(says she, confidently).

Liz Needle

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