Sometimes, in mid-summer, when the wind is easterly,
the sea looks like a sheet of blue silk
unfurling over the sand.
The quality of blue (1)
Category: South Australia
(Wordless) gratitude
16 January 2016
1.50 pm
Back in the vineyards
I’ve been slack with my bike-riding over the last few months,
for a number of reasons that I won’t go into here.
But in late October I finally took another ride through the vineyards.
And it was worth every puff and pant up and down those hills.
Yes, I’m hooked once more!
Late spring
In late October, I went for another bushwalk.
In blossom were fan flowers:
muntries:
and those papery, daisy-like flowers, the common everlastings:
I encountered other inhabitants of the area, too —
many of them.
It was mid-morning — grazing time, I think, before the sun gets too hot.
I don’t like disturbing roos:
when threatened, they can be aggressive, especially if they are guarding joeys.
And besides, I’m aware that I’m on their territory, not vice versa.
So I stepped away and left them happily to it …
… Do you think it’s comfortable in that pouch?
It doesn’t look it to me!
(Wordless) gratitude
19 July 2014
3.06 pm
Deception
On one of my favourite bike rides,
I pass an empty field outside a GP clinic.
Most of the year, it’s just a bare field with long, uncut grass.
But in spring, it changes.
Such deceptive beauty!
These flowers, heralding from South Africa,
are considered weeds here.
They’ve spread far and wide, pushing out our own native flowers.
It’s hard not to admire them, though —
their abandoned spread;
their cheerful, bright colours …
… and their faces uplifted to the sun.
Spring joy
I took a walk through the bush again in late September.
Skinks rustled through the undergrowth.
Whistlers burbled; shrike thrushes sang; blue fairy-wrens and fantails darted about.
And there were wild flowers everywhere, including common fringe-myrtles;
Common fringe-myrtle (calytrix tetragona)
paper flowers;
Paper-flower (thomasia petalocalyx)
smooth rice-flowers;
Smooth riceflower (pimelea glauca)
and grevilleas.
Spider-flower (grevillea lavandulacea)
Every month brings a new season in the bush.
Every month brings a new, different kind of joy.
twenty-one words 