Week 7 Nature's Joys

Kisses for:





Torn Ear Returns





Galahs coming in to drink






Newly Emerged Orchard Butterfly


• Kangaroos, galahs, butterflies...This week I've had the joy of being able to photograph all three.  But the best was being surprised by a brief visit from Torn Ear.  She is a female kangaroo who, along with several other females and their joeys, called the bull paddock home for several years during the drought. Each year we'd watch the entertaining show of young joeys developing their hopping skills.  As mothers grazed, joeys almost too big to fit in the pouch anymore, would jump in ever increasing circles further and further away from mum.  They'd build up speed and race across the paddock, adrenolin pumping and then back to tumble into the security of mum's pouch with legs and tails still protruding.  Over and over they'd follow this routine until eventually one morning you'd realize the pouch was a no-go area and the joey was weaned. With the abundance of water and grass since the floods Torn Ear and her band no longer need the security of the homestead.

  

  Reflections on an Australian Wood Duck

  

Lunch Break

• the male wood duck that drifted around on the river hinting there was a partner nesting nearby but never giving away their secret.  At lunch time his drifting added to the peace of the setting and made a pleasant break from flood fencing.

 


What's its Story?




• the mystery surrounding a piece of wood clinging to a jet black blutack like clay on the bottom of the posthole digger when we finished digging a post hole.  How long had it been buried?  What was this band of decaying matter three feet underground?  Why was it so moist compared to the sandy loam above?  We have no answers but it has stimulated me to try and find out.  So the internet is getting a work out.



Callistomen Pink Ice



But I wish we had not waited until the bull had ripped three of my beautiful young callistomen to pieces before we fixed the bull paddock fence and had the house yard safe from his excess testosterone.  This is the reason we were digging post holes - to experiment with long stem planting of cuttings taken from the damaged trees.