Autumn Fruit

Peaches and pears from our orchard:

Picked yesterday and eaten on our field trip. I thought peaches were more of a summer fruit, but ours are just ripening. And very yummy!

April Field Trip

Although we are in April, this was the first field trip for the year. The trips for both February and March had to be cancelled because the scheduled days were severe fire danger days, and declared as total fire bans. The Field Naturalists don't run excursions on Total Fire Ban Days. Even if they did, we would not want to be away from the house on days like that - we need to be home, ready to evacuate if necessary.

Our first stop today was Macarthur Park Wetlands at Miners Rest.

The wetlands are not natural, but were created to deal with the run-off from an adjacent housing development. But they successfully attract many species of wildlife.

We saw lots of birds, but these were new to me:

Chestnut teal ducks (Anas castanea) looking for food amongst the azolla fern which covers a lot of the water.

The next stop on our tour, Mt Hollowback, was completely different.

It had excellent mobile phone reception! It was also incredibly windy. It's a popular spot for hang-gliders and paragliding. There were some guys up there setting up model gliders to fly, but they didn't launch them before we left.

There are great views across the volcanic plains of western Victoria:

Where everything looks very dry:

No green to be seen:

Waubra wind farm on the horizon:

Our next stop was Mullahwalla wetlands, although the wetlands were rather lacking in water:

Look - away in the distance there is still a little bit of water:

And through a telescope it was possible to identify the birds swimming there. No hope with just the camera.

We need some rain.

The last part of the excursion could not be photographed. We went for a walk in the bush after dark, searching for nocturnal birds. Our guide for the walk has done a PhD studying the tawny frogmouth. We walked for an hour or so through bushland, with only a few torches covered in red cellophane to light the way. We didn't see any birds, although we did hear an owlet nightjar at one point. But it was an amazing experience to walk silently through the bush in the dark.

Bloom Nine and Ten

The next two Bloom blocks finished:

This means I'm at the half-way point already!

Linked to Cheryll's Bloomers Party, which is not a social gathering of women in rational dress, but a collection of people in different corners of the world making Lori Holt's Bloom quilt this year.

Not Pumpkins

The seedlings I hoped were banksias are starting to grow their real leaves:

And they look a lot like banksia leaves! Definitely not pumpkins.

First Screens

Actual wire screens added to a couple of the frames. Very hard to see! I couldn't tell at all from inside the house.

Not Blooming

Cheryll had an extra Bloom link-up yesterday, but I had nothing to show as I had done nothing since the last one. Well I've done lots of things, just not any Bloom blocks.

So today I made a start on blocks 9 and 10. Now I have all the pieces prepared, and have sewn down the green parts of block 10:

Both will be finished before the next link-up.

Also not blooming:

The tree dahlia. Will it manage to flower before the frosts arrive? No sign of buds yet, and we had an overnight low of 1 degree last week. I know last year I had the same worry when the flowers started opening in May, and they did get to flower for a while. Hopefully they will manage it again this year.

A few things which are flowering:

Sedum "cherry tart" in a hanging basket.

Tiny flowers on my spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) which has grown a bit since I got it.


And speaking of growth - when I planted the concrete pots at the front door six months ago,  I said I hoped the little plants would fill the pots, but this is beyond what I imagined:

I put one echeveria in this pot. It has grown massively, and multiplied prolifically. It has been flowering for several months, and still has new buds forming. Spinebills visit the flowers, which is lovely to see but hard to photograph.


Stash reduction progress for March:

Thread:
One spool emptied
Four spools came in and then went out again
Year to date: 6 spools emptied.

Dress fabric:
Nothing used, added 1.75m
Year to date: Down 2.25m

Quilt fabric:
Used 2.5m, nothing added
Year to date: Up 2.9m

More Building Progress

It is a while since I showed the progress on the outdoor living construction project.

Since the last post, the builders have added the steel cladding. Now the frames for the insect screening are being made in-house. Once they are complete the builders will come back to add the doors.