Tulip

 This tulip was a nice surprise today:

 

On Sunday the temperature reached 26 (far too high for this time of year) and my tulips all drooped. They stood up again after I gave them a good drink, but I didn't expect any flowers to survive that treatment. But here is one, and there may be another few to come.

This afternoon we went for a walk down a road we haven't walked for a few years, and saw these kangaroos grazing peacefully in a paddock.

 

Strawberry Parfait

 Today I gave my little greenhouse a spring clean and was delighted by these delicious-looking flowers:

The plant is a "Strawberry Parfait" vireya.

 

Repeats

 I'm still working on my half-square triangles, but they don't make interesting blog posts.

 

I have about 100 to go.

 

I'm not going anywhere much at present because of the cost of petrol. It almost feels like lockdowns did; staying home and only going out for grocery shopping when necessary. It is the one down-side of living in the country. Nothing is within walking distance, and there is no public transport.

  

Last night was a bit warmer, and I put out my moth light again. I was very happy to find this one just as I was about to pack it away again: 

 

 

It's a shame I didn't put anything beside it for scale. It is a Helena Gum Moth, and it is about 150mm, or 6", across. I don't see them often so am always happy when I do.

 

The blossom in the orchard still delights me every morning when I let the chooks out: 

 Anyway, that's life here. Lots to enjoy, but not much variety in the blog posts!

Morning Surprises

This guy hopped across in front of me early this morning when I let the chooks out:

I'm not sure which of was more startled! 

In the orchard this slime mould was an interesting sight:

It is probably Dog Vomit Slime Mould.
 

Little Things

I lost track of recording things to be happy about this week. I was concentrating too much on the bleakness. But there were good things along the way.

Some nice blossom on Tuesday morning:

On Thursday I spotted an echidna beside the road and stopped to photograph it before it disappeared into the vegetation: 

On Friday the evening temperature was high enough (7 degrees, not very high!) for me to put out my moth light and see if any moths turned up. Several did.

I've spent a bit of time this week sorting out my walk-in wardrobe - rearranging the shelves, throwing out stuff, and boxing up stuff to send to the op-shop. At the moment it is still more chaos than organisation, as not everything that I pulled off the shelves has found its new place yet. Give it a few more days...

On Saturday I was glad I have another camera when my main one decided I needed more arty photos: 

That is two baby magpies in a tree. Not quite the result I wanted! The poor camera seems to have had it.
 

So here is some more new blossom this morning, taken with a different camera:

 Hope your week has been full of little drops of happiness.

Planning

 Finished making all the sets of triangles for the the current round of my Rajah Revisited quilt:

And then was very happy to find that me-from-some-years-ago had already printed off the correct number of foundations for the next-round-but-one, which I am not making according to the pattern:

I had thought there was some printing and calculating and cutting ahead of me, but it was already done!
 

Growth

 This part of the garden looked quite bright today: 

Compare with the same bed in May 2018:

The big rusty ball is still in there, but you have to be on the other side of the garden to see it now.