So close ...

and yet so far.
I have had a most frustrating time trying to access this, my old blog.

Long ago I began another for my grandchildren and was quite unable to disable the automatic logging in to that one in order to get to this one.
However; the fact that this week I have received the final papers to sign for gaining Heritage Bushland protected status for this block,set me trying again.

In the end I had to delete the other blog before I was able to log in to this one .. so be it.
Now I need to start again .

Easter Tripping

Like so many others I travel to see a different part of Australia when other commitments allow time away   ... to the bush on Eyre Peninsula in my own case.
I made the small rural town of Lock my base for exploring local Conservation Parks

 http://www.seasa.com.au/files/pdf/Eyre%20Peninsula.pdf

I travel in ALF and have the most wonderful times staying in the bush.

For the first time I took the ferry across Spencer Gulf, from Wallaroo to Lucky Bay (near Cowell) which almost halved the total driving time.

On my return I walked my own backyard bush and found this reminder of the annual cycle of life ... one of the terrestrial orchid's spent flowering / fruiting stems.

Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos

Hello there!

These are regular and welcome visitors in the early months of each year, from mid/late Summer through to early Autumn.  Their quiet conversational calls are a delight, nothing at all like the raucous calls of so many other cockatoos, including the Sulphur Cresteds which also visit here.

This year the local YTBC flock numbers somewhere between 22 (confirmed) and possibly as high as 30.

Among their favourite foods around here are the seeds of the (weedy) Pinus radiata, which they get to by tearing the cones apart. The results, dropped to the ground, provide wonderful "firelighters" for the wood stove during winter. Thankfully the Radiata Pines are NOT among the weeds I have to contend with on my patch, though there are many close by.

 The distictively different, still-green seedpods of two Hakeas on this block,  H. carinata and H. vittata provide prized food for a few weeks.

 Hakea vittata seedpod and foliage:

I am told that the Hakeas on this block are all about the same age, fully mature and about 20 years old. A fire all those years ago prompted their germination, but now many have died and more are dying and so I need to continue the replanting which was begun by the previous owners.

*covered in embarrassment*

My mother used to tell me that I was put on this earth to make other people feel better.

I'd leave it to your imagination to think what she meant, but fear you might get the wrong idea, so will offer a clue ...  it was always said after I had done something particularly stupid.

It has taken me a day of working things through, to reset my password ... it is now in a not-so-safe-I-will-lose-it-again place and I am tickled pink to be back here.

I have been out of commission for a while following what some smart alec called "minor surgery"
Never trust that expression, although it is possible I am just a sook.

So ...  now ... here I am, able to both get OUT into this beautiful scrub block and INTO my blog again.

:)

And just to make ME feel better, here is the URL for my flickr set of photos taken here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/justjjoke/sets/72157609773846583/with/6815698649/

A Sun Orchid

I lost my password :(

I found it again :)

Stringybarks

There are two stringybarks in this patch of scrub.

Eucalyptus baxteri is known locally as the Grey Stringybark and occurs on shallow soils.
It is the tall grey stringy barked tree featured in this photo.


Not so evident here (looking out from the kitchen sink window :)) is the Messmate Stringybar, Eucalyptus obliqua, which is low growing and straggly , at least it is here.

As I drive around the area I am seeing many dead Greys, which locals say is a result of the dry conditions of the last few years.





This year is shaping up well for rain at least, so let's hope they hold their own and even make a few gains, for a while.


These tall trees are flowering right now and the canopy is alive with birds that I am hearing clearly, seeing often, but having lots of trouble photographing.
There are small birds ... silvereyes, thornbills, a range of honey eaters and pardalotes.


























The treecreepers spend their time on the trunks, poking around under the bark.
There are larger birds as well; magpies, lorikeets, rosellas, cockatoos, currawongs and kookaburras.

The "hill" really is alive with music and colour
:)