Spring!

Tuesday saw the last day of Winter, ushering in the beginning of Spring on Wednesday. On Facebook that day, I noticed someone asking people to post photos of their Spring garden. Well there wasn’t much sign of the season change in my garden…even my beloved nasturtiums weren’t doing that well. The bromeliads had had flowers but #1 GD had asked the week before if we could pick them to make a bunch to take home to her mum…which we did! 

Never fear though, our household does have another Spring display but it’s in the dining room. #2 GD helped me last Friday to ‘pack up Winter’ from the hutch. 

Holly very carefully carried the china from the shelves to the table…( my job later was to give the pieces a wash and then put them away) 

She then helped me go through cupboards to get out items that had flowers on them…

Holly was very particular where items should go…

We looked in the box where I keep the mini quilts and Holly chose a lovely one given to me by a friend many years ago.

I was sure I had more floral pieces but waited until Holly had gone home to have a look for them. 

Most of the pieces have been gifts. Occasionally I fall in love with china in shops but resist temptation to buy these days…I have enough! 

This big bowl was a farewell gift/presentation in 2001 from the staff at one of my school postings…very much loved! 

And this vase was presented to me in 1981 when I was going on maternity leave at my first school posting  to have DD1. Another much loved item with lots of good memories. 

So hopefully the garden will catch up soon and put on a spring display as well…

Around the garden...

It's been a bit drier here in SE Queensland this year, but some good rain has fallen this month...it also actually rained in some of the rural areas that have been in drought. Winter hasn't really visited us this year and I'm sure the plants thought that we went straight from Autumn to Spring! I took a few photos a week or so ago...

Nasturtiums always remind me of my childhood...one of the few flowers growing in the garden that my mother would allow me to pick.

 I brought home these as self sown seedlings from my friend's garden and they have finally flowered...

 Since using the sprinkler once a week with tank water, the passionfruit vine has rewarded me by producing fruit that ripened and didn't just wither on the vine ;-(

 My mother's aloe vera plants have grow tall flower spikes in the last month or so...(I 'inherited' my mum's potted garden that she had in her later years)

 Some bromeliads that I 'cadged' from a friend...

 Some self sown Dietes...

A geranium grown from  a cutting...

 The NZ Christmas bush has been flowering all winter...

But I've kept the best thing I found in the garden till last...
Last year I wanted to trim the top of one of my bottle brush trees...but there was a little nest in it, right near the top. So no trimming and eventually a couple of chicks hatched out...squawking for their parents to feed them. In no time at all it seemed, the hatchlings flew and the nest lay empty. And I never did get around to trimming the top of the tree! Well a few weeks ago I noticed that there was a bird sitting in the nest...
Despite taking lots of photos...you can't really see much...

Then, 2 days ago I stood beneath the tree and looked up and I saw 3 open mouths!
DH took some photos with its special lens attached...

It looks like 'Daddy' bird is helping ...

I feel so proud that this little bird family have chosen my tree in which to bring up their chicks...

Magpies...

It's spring here in Australia and that's 'Magpie season'. That means that in nests around the nation there are baby magpies making their little gaspy type  'I'm hungry' screeching noises. Unfortunately 'Magpie season' can also mean that people  run the risk of being 'swooped on' by protective magpie parent birds if it's felt that the humans are too close to the nests. Where I used to live, it was best not to walk in the park during September and at one school where I taught, there was a swooping magpie near one of the demountable blocks at the back of the campus. During breaks, students would have to wear hats and walk quickly to the playground. If they needed to go to the toilet in school time we sent them in pairs with an umbrella raised.

There is a theory as to why only some magpies swoop.  Some magpies do make contact which hurts and in some cases where an eye is involved, people can lose the sight in that eye. It's believed that if a magpie has been ill-treated/teased it remembers and attacks similar looking people in the years to come. Boys on bikes are often attacked. Where I live now I haven't heard any complaints about swooping magpies.

I have been swooped by a magpie but I still love them. They are intelligent, they are good parents and their singing is so joyous. An Australian poet, Judith Wright, wrote a poem dedicated to Magpies. It is no surprise then that it's a favourite of mine. I introduced it to hundreds of my students over the years. (I've put the poem at the end of the post)
We have magpies living around ours and our neighbours' yards and each year we watch them raise the babies. The babies are brown and gradually they become black and white in their second year. When I dig over a garden bed, the magpies come and pick out tasty morsels, especially those wretched curl grubs. The babies in the nest at the moment are being fed grubs from our grass clippings' heap and the parent bird lets me walk past without flying away. I'm looking forward to when the little ones will come down and forage with their parents but that won't be for a while.

The magpies, the scrub turkey and the ibis all like to pick through this heap!

 Magpies by Judith Wright

Along the road the magpies walk
with hands in pockets, left and right.
They tilt their heads, and stroll and talk.
In their well-fitted black and white.

They look like certain gentlemen
who seem most nonchalant and wise
until their meal is served — and then
what clashing beaks, what greedy eyes!

But not one man that I have heard
throws back his head in such a song
of grace and praise — no man nor bird.
Their greed is brief; their joy is long.
For each is born with such a throat
as thanks his God with every note.